I have been taking some training classes. The last one focuses on Jams and malfunctions. I wanted to do some at home training and have been looking into getting some dummy rounds but there are a bunch of different brands. Are they all the same or do some work better then others? Thank you
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I use these. They’ve been holding up quite well.
ST Action Pro 9mm Action Trainer… https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01HQSR6LO?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share
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They are just solid plastic. Most brands are fine. Dummy rounds go beyond jam training, but also expose “flinch”.
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Welcome back @jbuell4186 . I have all kinds of dummy rounds and don’t recall their brand. I’ve started to get the cheapest ones I could find because some of the prices on these were ridiculous IMO.
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I second ST Action Pro 9mm.
I’ve been using them for 3 years, they are still in great shape.
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I’ve got a friend who reloads and casts his own bullets. He made a dozen or so dummy rounds for me with some non-jacketed lead bullets. I filled the primer pockets with silicone and loaded them into a marked dedicated magazine for dry fire.
Obviously I’m always double sure I insert the correct mag (base painted with green nail polish) before commencing my dry fire practice.
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That was my issue…
I used to have ammo without powder and primers and loved it. The same weight and size made drills so realistic.
But I found it too dangerous for me and too easy to make stupid mistakes that I stopped using them.
Perhaps I’m overreacting…but I saw too many failures with realistic looking dummy ammo and my imagination doesn’t allow me put myself in danger.
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I reload and have thought about making dummy rounds. People are powder-coating lead bullets now, instead of using wax based bullet lubricants. Maybe a bright color like red or orange? Blue for inert? One could also cross drill the brass cartridge with four or six holes, so that would also provide quick visual clues it’s a dummy round.
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Unfortunately the mistakes are made wrong way…
It’s easy to recognize dummy ammo… but with polymer projectiles these days you can easily use live round instead of dummy one. 
I’m not posting this to keep people away from these kind of dummy ammo but life is fast and chances of simple mistakes are higher if these fake ammo looks the same as live one.
This is live ammo I was shooting some time ago.
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And that’s why I also suggested drilling four or six holes in the brass to help with identifying the dummy rounds, vs the two holes drilled in the ones shown in the photo I found online.
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Awhile back I tried spray painting a few dummy rounds to see how that worked. Ended up having to clean florescent orange flakes from my gun. Never again.
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I’ve heard there’s a method for turning brass black. I think it’s similar to salt bluing metal. I should try it someday.
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