The manual that came with my TRP Operator says to "practice operations by dry firing". I thought it was bad to dry fire a 1911?

Nope. It's quite alright actually.

I'm in biiiiiig trouble if it's bad to dry fire a 1911!!!    


It's not gonna hurt anything at all. If you are worried in the least, buy some Snap-Caps and worry about other stuff.  

When I was at the fleet matches one of the Distinguished Marksmen told me that his secret to shooting the 1911 well was to fire 10 rounds of .22 through his conversion kit for every round of .45 he fired.  Also, to dry fire at a small spot on the wall 10 times for every round of .22 he fired.

A hundred dry fires for every round of .45.  His 1911 seemed to work fine

While there may be a less-durable exception I am unaware of, the rule I have lived by is centerfire handguns are dryfire friendly (some say maybe not with revolvers w pins on hammers but I never had issues), and rimfires are a no-no.

The rules for 1911s are never to drop the slide on an empty chamber (use snap caps) and if you have a decent trigger, don't thumb cock the hammer. It doesn't cause as much undue wear as dropping the slide on an empty, but it's not good for a fine trigger job.

1911's are fine to dry fire.  My general rule is similar to pulp's:

Don't dry fire rimfires, ceneterfires are OK. Don't dry fire Comblock (Makarov, CZ-52, TT-33 etc)