Cool Fire Trainers is a handgun training product company that emerged out of training for competitive handgun shooting. They have rifle training system (more geared to LE carbine use), but it belongs to a separate company and isn’t apart from Cool Fire Trainer line of products. The Cool Fire Trainer works by removing the barrel in your handgun, and switching it out with one of theirs. Their barrel is essentially a compact C02 tank in the proper dimensions of a barrel. You use your own magazines with dummy round contoured at an angle that lets the slide operate without the slide catch being engaged. There is a laser within the system that is engaged when the handgun is dry fired so shooters can see the impact of their “round” on a target. At the same time, the C02 is cycling the handgun, replicating the recoil, and also cycling the action. The idea is to have the ability to dry fire with similar recoil impulse to train for competition with your own firearm and your own magazines. A neat point about the laser is that it can be calibrated to the impact of the round, unlike many other dry fire laser barrels that simply have a laser in the center of the barrel and cannot be calibrated.

Currently, the company supports a number of 1911, Beretta, CZ-USA, Glock, S&W M&P, Sig, Taurus, and Tanfoglio models. A Walter PPQ model is coming soon as well. Prices for the barrel kits range from $399 to $499 depending on the mode chosen.

The barrel tanks are filed up from the muzzle from standard C02 tanks. The company makes adaptors that fit standard 20 oz tanks, as well as many popular Paintball tanks as well.

As far as malfunctions go, the system can be made to induce malfunctions such as a double feed, a stovepipe, and a failure to fire. This can be done by putting various objects in the way of the slide.

One point that must be made is that the C02 barrels extend past the muzzle of the firearm. This is usually fine for competition shooters that have open holsters but not for other holsters such as many IWB or OWB setups that don’t have openings for the muzzle at the bottom of the holster. To counteract this the company has made shorter barrel units that allow a better fit with some of these holsters but not all.