What Are Dry Weight Magazine Inserts?
Dry Weight magazine inserts are training tools designed to replicate the weight and handling of a fully loaded competition magazine—without using live ammunition.
They install inside an empty magazine body and provide consistent, repeatable mass so dry fire practice feels correct, controlled, and safe. The goal is simple: make dry fire feel like match conditions without introducing unnecessary risk or compromises.
Compared to Live Ammunition
Using live ammo for dry fire is inherently dangerous and unnecessary. Even disciplined shooters introduce risk when live rounds are present in a practice environment. Beyond safety, live rounds fall out, migrate under furniture, and create concern and cleanup. Dry Weight inserts eliminate live ammo entirely while preserving realistic magazine weight and balance, allowing focused practice without safety shortcuts.
Compared to Dummy Rounds or Empty Magazines
Dummy rounds solve the safety problem but introduce new ones. They scatter just as easily as live ammo, can be mixed in with live ammo if you're not careful, and often fail to replicate true loaded weight—especially aluminum dummy rounds, which are significantly lighter than real ammunition. Empty magazines are worse: reloads feel wrong, balance is off, and repetitions do not translate cleanly to match performance. Dry Weight inserts stay contained, stay consistent, and deliver realistic mass without loose components.
Compared to Practice Magazines
Dedicated practice magazines can be useful, but they are still a compromise. Plastic bodies crack over time, weight rarely matches a real match magazine, magnetic retention is often weaker, and they are not the exact magazines worn on a shooter’s belt in competition. Dry Weight inserts allow shooters to train with their actual match magazines, maintaining identical fit, feel, retention, and reload mechanics.
Why Dry Weight
Dry fire works best when it closely mirrors live performance. Dry Weight magazine inserts remove risk, reduce clutter, and preserve realism—so every repetition builds skill that transfers directly to match day.
Version 1 "Static" inserts are simple replacements for the guts of your magazine to add weight, but don't act on the slide or feed lips.
Version 2 "Active" inserts have a replica bullet topper to interact with the slide and feed lips under spring pressure. This means you get realistic feel on insertion and ejection as well as 1-to-1 magwell interaction.