Will this damage my shotgun?

[Maser]

Sorry for not being more specific in the title, but it would of seemed too long. Anyways, here's my question.

About a week or so ago, I had a friend of mine who's a reloader, make me a set of 5 dummy 12 gauge shells weighed with sand to simulate live shells. I am planning on getting back into tactical shotgun shooting when the weather gets better and what I been doing is practicing speed loading the magazine tube. Now what I been doing is instead of just cycling the action to empty the magazine, I instead just press on the shell retainer spring (or whatever the actual name of it is) and that releases the shells one at a time. I do this because if I cycle the shells normally too much, then the extractors are going to damage the brass and I want these dummy shells to last. So what I am wondering is will pressing on the spring damage the gun in anyways?

 

[Rimrod]

Will it hurt the shotgun?

No, that is actually the proper way to unload a shotgun.

 

[Slopemeno]

Just some tips..Yes, learn to clear the gun by emptying the mag tube, then the chamber. And if you want to add some weight to your dummies you can use shot cups in them and load them with shot just like a loaded round, and yeah, the rims will get beat up eventually. Buy your friend a 12 pack and have him just load you up a whole box of dummies, and clearly mark them.

 

[AAshooter]

Make sure the dummies are done with spent primers. As I recall, corn meal makes a pretty good substitute for powder and I would use shot (as previously mentioned) instead of sand. Then you can load as normal.

The problem is they look like normal rounds. You may want to consider purchasing either weighted dummy rounds or action proving rounds to use for this.

 

[Maser]

Thanks for the advice guys. No need to worry about me confusing the dummies with live shells because the hulls I had my friend use were clear and I can clearly see the sand in the hulls. I like the advice about the shot cups, but seeing as the hulls are clear I might mistake them for live shells and that wouldn't be a good situation to put myself or my friends in. Also, yeah, the primers are spent and completely inert.

 

[perazzimx14]

I would put a dab of hot glue on the crimp of the shell so no sand can leak out into the gun. Other than that you should be fine.