Steelworx 22 LR Steel Snap Caps Dummy Rounds (12 Pack)

Greetings Amazon Readers,This is a review of "Steelworx 22 LR Steel Snap Caps" (ASIN B07X1ZS5JG).My name is David and I am a law abiding gun owner living in Southeast Florida. I have a Heritage Mfg. Inc. Rough Rider .22LR/.22WMR (two seperate cylinders) Single Action Only (SAO) six-shot revolver that is essentially a rough clone of the venerable 1872 Colt Single Action Army (SAA) revolver.Once in awhile I will show a friend how to safely handle a SAO revolver with a potentially not-so-safe safety, like the Heritage Rough Rider. So I went looking for some .22LR SNAPS (dummy rounds) to use with the gun for this purpose. After looking at the many options on Amazon I decided to try the all stainless steel Steelworx .22LR SNAPS made in Amherst, NH (ASIN B07X1ZS5JG). A pack of twelve Steelworx SNAPS today costs $13.99 USD ($1.17 each). Who knows what the price will be in a month? (These days I cannot even predict the price of a carton of eggs a month later). The SNAPS were were all well made and worked perfectly in the Heritage revolver.The real reason for needing the SNAPS is to show how to load the SAO revolver with what I call the one-zero-four (five-of-six rounds total) method. So after loading the gun, in the end you are always left with an empty chamber under the hammer. This is necessary because the Heritage Rough Rider has a cam-driven manual safety, which makes it possible for the user to disable the safety entirely, which is a dangerous condition, especially if the gun is being transported. In contrast, the gun can be equipped with a more modern transfer-bar safety; but that costs more money, and is far from the legacy Colt SAA design which is desired by some vintage-style gun users. And and heck - where's the fun in that?At some point I intend to post a YouTube video (or something similar) on loading the SAO revolver using the one-zero-four method. It's actually very simple, just skip loading the second chamber and when you are done rotate the empty chamber once so it is safely under the hammer.Conclusion: These Steelworx .22 SNAPS are a good buy - quality Made-in-America and they won't break the bank. I endorse this product 100%.

Fit is decent and they work great as snap caps, solid purchase

Apparently an issue noted by other lever action owners in reviews. This does not work for lever action, particularly Henry 22.One reviewer noted these are shorter than standard 22s, which I found true, by comparing with another set of snap caps. This could be the reason that these cannot be cycled into my Henry 22 Classic. It gets stuck, and I had to use a screw driver to gently put into a position where I could dump it out. Do not force load these if they feel stuck, as they can scratch your firearm's internals.However, they work fine in my semi auto rifle and pistols.The durability of these are probably near infinite, as the steel can handle perpetual strikes. They are softer than the firing pin, as with one use, I notice a small notch in the back. These are also made in America, so that's a plus.If you're looking for a non lever action to practice with, these will work great for dry firing and ejecting. However, avoid for lever action.

I looked at all of the options to allow safely dropping the firing pin for .22 LR guns, finding that there are various other options that have inherent shortcomings.The likes of the A-Zoom dummy rounds are soft aluminum that are actually dummy rounds totally unsuited to even one or two firing pin strikes because the aluminum will quickly break up into little pieces and get into the works of the gun.The hard plastic ones by Tipton and others, as well as the softer plastic ones by other manufacturers also don't stand up to firing pin strikes, quickly cracking and often getting particles of plastic into the gun.The ideal solution is a true snap cap designed to allow several firing pin strikes and feed through a magazine normally, serving as a function testing dummy round.Contrary to what several reviewers here claim, these Steelworks snap caps are not entirely composed of monolithic hard stainless steel, but are instead composed of stainless for the body of the cap, with the rim composed of a much softer stainless only a bit harder than a brass case for live .22 LR ammo.This allows the firing pin for my 1952-vintage High Standard Sport King to safely drop and leave a tiny dent in the rim of cap each time.I have no damage to my firing pin, so I'm guessing that the guys claiming that these caps damaged theirs either had already done that damage unknowingly by firing on an empty chamber, or their firing pins are of inferior quality and way too soft.Keep in mind that even these snap caps are bound to eventually wear out, but I'll guess that each one will easily stand up to about 100 snaps before the rim gets sufficiently deformed to warrant it being discarded and using a new one in its place.The main reason that I bought these is to allow me to shoot my Sport King, which lacks a bolt hold-open feature once the magazine empties, to prevent the inevitable unintended firing pin drop on an empty chamber after the last round is fired in the magazine.I can confirm that these snap caps are so close to the size and shape of live .22 LR ammo that they do exactly as I intended each time, sliding right into the chamber after the last live round is fired and allowing the firing pin to be safely cushioned each time.I now make it normal loading procedure to load one of these into my magazine first, then fill up the magazine the rest of the way with my live ammo.I intend to keep the elegant little Sport King in excellent shape for a long time to come, and these snap caps are just what I need to keep it that way.