Random A-Zoom Azoom 22 LR Dummy Rounds
Every rimfire owner eventually hits the same question: is dry firing about to wreck my firing pin? That's the exact reason the A-Zoom Azoom 22 LR Dummy Rounds 10 Pack 10-Pack keeps showing up in cart searches from Ruger 10/22, Mark IV, and CZ 457 owners. Our editorial team pulled manufacturer documentation from Pachmayr's A-Zoom line, cross-checked SAAMI cartridge dimensions, and analyzed several hundred verified buyer reports to see whether solid aluminum is really the right answer for rimfire.
Short version: worth it if you dry fire a rimfire regularly or teach new shooters trigger control, skip it if you only need magazine-fit checks. Here's the full breakdown.
1. A-Zoom Azoom 22 LR Dummy Rounds
A-Zoom sits at the premium end of a category most shooters treat as an afterthought. We compared its machined aluminum construction against the polymer and rubber-primer designs that dominate the budget tier, then weighed that against what verified .22 owners actually report after months of use.
What it is
A snap cap is an inert dummy cartridge that fills the chamber so the firing pin lands on a cushioned surface instead of empty steel. A-Zoom, made in the USA by Pachmayr under Lyman Products, machines each round from solid aluminum rather than molding it from plastic. That single design choice is the whole pitch.
In .22 LR the job is harder than in centerfire. Rimfire pins strike the case rim, not a central primer, so there's no soft primer pocket to absorb impact. A-Zoom's answer is a hard anodized aluminum rim you rotate between strikes.
Competing options include Tipton Snap Caps, Traditions ALSC dummies, and Carlson's. A-Zoom generally sits above all of them on price and below them on quantity per pack.
Setup and first impressions
There's no setup. You open the reusable plastic case, count ten rounds, and load them. What buyers consistently note in the first few minutes is the weight difference: these feel dense and cold in the hand compared to plastic dummies, but noticeably lighter than a live 40-grain cartridge, which weighs roughly 3.5 g.
Aggregate reviews repeat a few specific observations. Dimensional fit is the strongest praise, with owners of Ruger 10/22 rotary magazines, S&W M&P 15-22 mags, and Henry lever guns reporting the rounds seat and feed without hand-fitting, which tracks with SAAMI's 1.000-inch maximum overall length for .22 LR.
The most common first-hour complaint is color. These are bare machined aluminum, not high-visibility orange or red, so on a cluttered bench they can read as live brass at a glance. Several buyers mention marking them with a paint pen or a strip of tape.
The second recurring note: the plastic storage box is thin. It works, but it isn't the kind of case you'd trust in a range bag bottom for years.
| Caliber | .22 Long Rifle (rimfire) |
| Quantity per pack | 10 rounds |
| Construction | One-piece CNC-machined aluminum, hard anodized |
| Impact surface | Solid aluminum rim (rotate between strikes) |
| Overall length | Matches SAAMI .22 LR spec, 1.000 in / 25.4 mm max |
| Weight vs live round | Lighter than a 40-grain live cartridge (~3.5 g) |
| Rated life (centerfire line) | 3,000+ snaps per cap; rimfire life is shorter |
| Packaging | Reusable hinged plastic case |
| Brand / origin | A-Zoom by Pachmayr, Lyman Products, made in USA |
Daily-use experience
Firing pin protection
The core function works, and that's the headline. A-Zoom's own product documentation from Lyman Products describes the aluminum body as absorbing the pin strike so it never contacts the chamber mouth, which is the exact failure mode that peens or cracks rimfire pins.
That matters more on some guns than others. Older Ruger Mark series pistols, vintage Winchester and Marlin bolt guns, and most pre-1990s rimfires are the classic dry-fire casualties. Modern designs often include a pin stop, but the manual is the only authority worth trusting there.
Buyer feedback on protection is close to unanimous. The complaints in reviews are almost always about cap wear or feeding, essentially never about a damaged firing pin after use.
Feeding and cycling
Here's the honest trade-off. Because these are solid aluminum, they weigh less than live ammunition, and light dummies behave differently in blowback rimfire actions.
Verified buyers report smooth manual cycling in bolt actions like the CZ 457 and Savage Mark II, plus reliable hand-cycling through Ruger 10/22 rotary magazines. Semi-auto users report more mixed results: hand-cycling works, but some rounds nose-dive or fail to fully eject when cycled fast in a Mark IV or Browning Buck Mark.
For ball-and-dummy drills that's fine, since a failure to feed is itself useful training. For pure magazine and extractor testing, expect to hand-feed occasionally.
Durability and rim wear
This is where rimfire snap caps differ from centerfire, and where expectations need adjusting. Centerfire A-Zooms have a replaceable-feel polymer primer face rated by the manufacturer at 3,000-plus snaps. The .22 LR version has no primer pocket, so the pin dents the aluminum rim directly.
A-Zoom's guidance is to rotate the cartridge a small amount after each strike, spreading wear around the full circumference of the rim. Owners who follow that consistently report several hundred strikes per round before the rim looks chewed.
Owners who don't rotate report visible deformation in under 100 snaps. That's the single biggest source of one-star reviews, and it's a usage issue as much as a product one.
Value across the pack
Ten rounds is the practical sweet spot for a single rifle or pistol. It fills a 10/22 magazine, it's enough for a full ball-and-dummy session, and the pack still fits a pocket in a range bag.
Compared with polymer dummies that split or lose their primer inserts in a season, the machined aluminum holds its shape. You're paying a premium tier price for a consumable, but with rotation these last considerably longer than the plastic alternatives.
✓ Pros
- One-piece machined aluminum body won’t split or shed a primer insert like molded polymer dummies do
- Dimensions track SAAMI .22 LR spec, so they chamber and seat in 10/22 rotary mags without fitting
- Rotating the rim spreads pin strikes across the full circumference, stretching usable life into the hundreds
- Ten rounds fills a standard rimfire magazine, which makes ball-and-dummy flinch drills easy to set up
- Made in the USA by Pachmayr under Lyman Products, with consistent machining reported across packs
✗ Cons
- No cushioned primer face, so the aluminum rim deforms if you forget to rotate between strikes
- Bare aluminum finish reads like live brass on a cluttered bench, which is a real safety-habit concern
- Lighter than live ammo, so fast cycling in blowback semi-autos can nose-dive or short-eject
- Premium price per round against Tipton or Traditions packs that give you more dummies for less
Who should buy it
Buy it if you…
You own a rimfire you actually practice with. If your Ruger Mark IV or 10/22 sees weekly dry-fire reps for trigger control, ten aluminum dummies pay for themselves the first time they save a firing pin. Instructors running new-shooter sessions get the most value, because loading one dummy into a magazine of live rounds is still the fastest way to expose a flinch.
Gunsmithing hobbyists also benefit: these let you check extractor tension, feed geometry, and trigger reset after a spring swap without a single live cartridge in the room.
Skip it if you…
You have a rimfire that the manufacturer clears for dry fire, and you only shoot a few times a year. Many current CZ, Savage, and Ruger designs include a firing pin stop, so the risk these solve mostly disappears. Skip them too if you need volume: a class of twelve students burning through drills will chew a 10-pack fast, and cheaper polymer dummies in 24 or 50-count packs make more sense per dollar.
And if bright color coding is a hard safety requirement in your household, the bare aluminum look is a genuine drawback.
Better alternatives
Tipton Snap Caps (.22 LR) give you more rounds per pack with a bright polymer body that's easy to spot on a bench, at the cost of a shorter service life once the plastic starts to mushroom.
Traditions ALSC aluminum dummies offer similar metal construction in larger counts, though buyer reports on dimensional consistency vary more from pack to pack than they do with A-Zoom.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Do you really need snap caps to dry fire a .22?
For most rimfires, yes. In a .22 LR the firing pin strikes the case rim, and with an empty chamber it can slam into the chamber mouth instead, which peens the pin or burrs the barrel over time. Modern designs increasingly include a pin stop, so the correct answer is in your owner's manual.
If the manual is silent or says not to dry fire, a snap cap is cheap insurance.
Will these cycle through a Ruger 10/22 or Mark IV?
They load and hand-cycle fine in both. Buyer reports show reliable seating in 10/22 rotary magazines and Mark IV mags at SAAMI-standard dimensions. Fast cycling is less consistent, because the aluminum dummy weighs less than a live 40-grain round and blowback actions rely on cartridge mass.
If you're running rapid function tests in a semi-auto, expect an occasional nose-dive and plan to hand-feed.
How many snaps will one round survive?
It depends almost entirely on whether you rotate. A-Zoom's guidance is to turn the round slightly between strikes so the pin lands on fresh rim each time. Owners who do that report several hundred strikes per round before the rim looks worn out.
Owners who leave it in one position report visible denting well under 100 snaps. Rotation is not optional advice with rimfire caps.
Are they safe to store alongside live ammunition?
Physically yes, they contain no powder or primer compound, but it's a bad habit. Because the bare aluminum can look like brass under poor light, mixing them in an ammo can invites a mistake. Keep them in the supplied case, or mark the rims with a paint pen.
Standard firearm safety practice, as promoted by the National Shooting Sports Foundation, is to treat every round as live until you've personally verified it.
Do they work in .22 revolvers and lever actions?
Yes, and revolvers are arguably the best use case. A .22 revolver like a Smith & Wesson 617 or Ruger Wrangler lets you load all chambers with dummies, dry fire a full cylinder, then rotate each round before reloading. Lever guns such as the Henry Classic also feed them well through the tube in buyer reports, though tube loading with a lighter dummy sometimes needs a gentle nudge.
Final verdict
4.5 out of 5.
The A-Zoom .22 LR dummy rounds do the one thing they promise: they put solid, machined aluminum between your firing pin and the chamber mouth, and they hold up far longer than the polymer competition when you rotate them the way the manufacturer intends. The clear winners here are frequent dry-fire practitioners and instructors running ball-and-dummy drills, plus anyone with an older rimfire that a manual warns against dry firing.
The trade-offs are real and worth knowing up front. Lighter-than-live weight makes rapid semi-auto cycling inconsistent, the bare aluminum finish doesn't scream "inert" at a glance, and ten rounds at a premium tier price isn't the cheapest way to fill a training bin. Accept those, follow the rotation habit, and this is the rimfire snap cap we'd point a .22 owner toward as of 2026.
Affiliate disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. If you buy through one of these links, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. It never changes my recommendation, I only suggest gear I'd actually buy myself.
