I believe it's generally considered safe to dry fire centerfire type weapons. Rimfire, however, can/will smash the firing pin on the barrel face and can cause damage.
Centerfire snap caps can be great for verifying action cycling as well as used in failure scenarios. Hide one in the middle of a good magazine and have someone work through the motions of tap and rack (at least for pistols). They can also help with learning to not anticipate and overcompensate for recoil.
I personally never use them in rifles....but I do dryfire to memorize how a certain trigger breaks.
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