testtest

Hellcat Dry fire

The Hellcat owners manual forbids dry fire without a snap cap in place to prevent striker breakage. I use snap caps on all my striker fired guns. My question, as yet unanswered by SA, is does a laser training cartridge like those sold by LaserLite or the LaserHIT app meet the snap cap requirement, or will using those devices void my hellcat warranty?
 
The Hellcat owners manual forbids dry fire without a snap cap in place to prevent striker breakage. I use snap caps on all my striker fired guns. My question, as yet unanswered by SA, is does a laser training cartridge like those sold by LaserLite or the LaserHIT app meet the snap cap requirement, or will using those devices void my hellcat warranty?
You won’t I don’t think void your warranty, actually in all XD, XDm, XDs pistols, it states that if you do extensive dry fire it will excellerate wear on the
striker parts, occasionally dry fire won’t hurt the gun, but they do recommend the use of snap caps
 
As I understand it, the general consensus with the laser target modules is that their end is basically the same as a normal round, of which you will hopefully go on to fire thousands of through your new pistol, and should not cause any problems. One of the laser modules ( don’t know which one) even has a soft plastic/foam bit where the primer would be. If you check your pistol manual I am fairly sure there will also be a statement about never carry your a weapon with a round in the chamber. It will take you less than 30 seconds to search out what the membership of this fine forum think of that.

Just saying, enjoy dry firing your pistol. If worse comes to worse, a new firing pin is cheap and easy to replace.
 
As I understand it, the general consensus with the laser target modules is that their end is basically the same as a normal round, of which you will hopefully go on to fire thousands of through your new pistol, and should not cause any problems. One of the laser modules ( don’t know which one) even has a soft plastic/foam bit where the primer would be. If you check your pistol manual I am fairly sure there will also be a statement about never carry your a weapon with a round in the chamber. It will take you less than 30 seconds to search out what the membership of this fine forum think of that.

Just saying, enjoy dry firing your pistol. If worse comes to worse, a new firing pin is cheap and easy to replace.
The bad news is I cannot buy a spare striker as a hedge against failure. I buy spare mags, spare strikers and spare ejectors for all my guns, so failures mean only one day of down time. Hopefully Springfield will offer Hellcat spare parts once production catches up a bit. But for now you must ship a gun to Springfield if a part needs replacement.
 
First i wanna say this is not an official answer of Springfield

The purpose of a snap cap is to give your firing pin something to hit against that is not the wall of the slide where the pin comes out. The snap cap primer also has a spring behind it to offer resistance and return of your firing pin. Now most of the training round lasers I've seen do exactly that as well. Just giving you the added benefit of a laser coming from the gun to give you a general idea where your round will land provided it was a live round. So to answer your question i believe you would be fine using one in your Hellcat. Again this is not an official response from Springfield. So i do encourage you to call or email them for an official answer. Springfield Armory’s customer service representatives can answer your questions/concerns Monday through Friday 8:30 to 4:30 CST via phone at 1-800-680-6866, International: +1-309-944-5631 or email at sales@springfield-armory.com.
 
Thanks for all the replies. Still no reply to my email to Springfield. I finally got thru to Springfield on the phone.
1. Laser training cartridges do qualify as snap caps as for as Springfield is concerned, so use them to train with.
2. Spare parts for the Hellcat are currently not available through any source to retail customers. They will EVENTUALLY be available directly from Springfield and thru Brownell's, but not for an unspecified amount of time as production is still back ordered. The only way to replace broken or worn out parts at the present time is thru a warranty return. I did not ask what that means for second hand buyers.
3. I noticed the 20,000 round Hellcat testers replaced the recoil spring guide rod assembly every 2500 rounds. When I asked for a recommended rounds count for guide rod assembly replacement I got a nebulous "when you observe a degradation in performance". Not my preferred choice for a carry gun. I prefer to replace springs BEFORE malfunctions occur.
 
The Hellcat owners manual forbids dry fire without a snap cap in place to prevent striker breakage. I use snap caps on all my striker fired guns. My question, as yet unanswered by SA, is does a laser training cartridge like those sold by LaserLite or the LaserHIT app meet the snap cap requirement, or will using those devices void my hellcat warranty?
It would be nice if SA slipped in a snap cap with every gun they feel shouldn't be dry fired. Jus got my Hellcat yesterday n hitn up the range today.... 😁
 
I just had a striker break on me while using an ELMS laser training cartridge. When I reached out to SA about it, they didn’t offer to replace the striker under warranty, but were willing to send me one if I paid for it. Apparently, they don’t warrant striker failures if you admit to using a laser trainer. I purchased a 17-4 LSPI replacement instead, figuring that would be more durable than the Ni-plated M.I.M. original.
 

Attachments

  • E069E350-BD76-47A2-ADFD-1AAB7C178902.jpeg
    E069E350-BD76-47A2-ADFD-1AAB7C178902.jpeg
    1.9 MB · Views: 213
  • 01D2FD2E-519F-4E7B-9830-AD03AEACB12A.jpeg
    01D2FD2E-519F-4E7B-9830-AD03AEACB12A.jpeg
    1.6 MB · Views: 167
  • 9157AFCC-AAEB-44BD-B467-945BCF089B19.jpeg
    9157AFCC-AAEB-44BD-B467-945BCF089B19.jpeg
    1.2 MB · Views: 195
I just had a striker break on me while using an ELMS laser training cartridge. When I reached out to SA about it, they didn’t offer to replace the striker under warranty, but were willing to send me one if I paid for it. Apparently, they don’t warrant striker failures if you admit to using a laser trainer. I purchased a 17-4 LSPI replacement instead, figuring that would be more durable than the Ni-plated M.I.M. original.
No, the whole gun is warranted, period, did you call them? That’s really no difference then using snap caps if you ask me…..weird….if this is true, makes me wonder about how good there warranty is actually.
 
Last edited:
The Hellcat owners manual forbids dry fire without a snap cap in place to prevent striker breakage. I use snap caps on all my striker fired guns. My question, as yet unanswered by SA, is does a laser training cartridge like those sold by LaserLite or the LaserHIT app meet the snap cap requirement, or will using those devices void my hellcat warranty?
Been a long time since I looked, but doesn't the Owner's manual also say to dry fire to field strip it? I don't remember anything about a 'snap cap' when doing so. Seems to me I've always dry fired it to remove the slide. I'll have to go look now ..... I'm worried I've been doing it wrong.
 
Been a long time since I looked, but doesn't the Owner's manual also say to dry fire to field strip it? I don't remember anything about a 'snap cap' when doing so. Seems to me I've always dry fired it to remove the slide. I'll have to go look now ..... I'm worried I've been doing it wrong.
No, you don’t need snap caps to disassemble the gun and I didn’t say you did, he was using a laser training aid and the striker broke, he stated Springfield wouldn’t warrant it since he used the laser training aid, I said the laser is the same as using a snap cap, and the striker should be warranted, no Joe, you did nothing wrong
 
Been a long time since I looked, but doesn't the Owner's manual also say to dry fire to field strip it? I don't remember anything about a 'snap cap' when doing so. Seems to me I've always dry fired it to remove the slide. I'll have to go look now ..... I'm worried I've been doing it wrong.
When I first got my Mod-2 I asked Springfield about dry firing since I had to dry fire to disassemble.
They said in a CYA typical lawyer statement it is fine to dry fire to disassemble, but not to dry fire excessively.
 
Back
Top