CoolFire Training System for the SIG P320 X-Five

Do you like that feeling you have after you shot 50…maybe 100 rounds?  You know the feeling I’m talking about.  “Warmed up.”  “In the zone.”  I’ve always thought how wonderful it would be to be able shoot just a couple hundred rounds per day (I’m not greedy)…to have an ammo sponsor and no pesky job to have to go to every day…I’d never get out of “zone.”  But I do have a job, which is extremely helpful given my lack of an ammo sponsor.  As such I’m lucky to be able to practice once…maybe twice a week in live fire.  I can go anywhere between two and six days between live fire sessions.  I dry fire of course, which helps tremendously.  But without consistent exposure to recoil, I get out of “zone” in just a day or two.  When I do get back to the range it can take me 50 or 100 rounds (sometimes more) before I feel like I’m warmed up and can really get the benefit of the drills I came out to practice.  At a match, the first couple of stages are always a struggle too for the same reason.  And I don’t think I’m alone in this regard.

Many of us supplement our live fire drills with “dry fire” – or manipulating and practicing with your pistol without any ammunition.  I’m a huge proponent of dry fire practice and have been dry fire training almost daily for the past three years.  As much as I’ve benefited from implementing dry fire practice, dry fire is missing a critical and necessary component of live fire training – recoil.  As much as I dry fire, it still takes me at least 50 rounds of live fire before I feel re-acclimated from both a grip and sight picture perspective.  Dry fire simply cannot duplicate or simulate the recoil experienced during live fire…which is CoolFire Training Systems and their products is such a huge innovation practical shooting.

I first got speak with the folks from CoolFire Training Systems and get hands on with their products during the 2017 NRA Annual Meeting.  I instantly recognized the potential of these products to bridge the gap between dry and live fire training.  The CoolFire system is essentially a replacement barrel and recoil spring for a pistol which accepts CO2 much like an Airsoft gun for the purpose of generating recoil.  CoolFire makes their system for many different firearms, but at the time they did not yet make one for the SIG P320 X-Five (which was still fairly new to the market back in 2017).  The benefits of the using the CoolFire system are many:

Improves The Training Experience – by adding the capability of duplicating recoil in dry fire, an entirely new dimension is added.  You can now get more practice getting an acceptable sight picture during recoil, as well as work on your grip and trigger control during recoil.  The systems comes with a laser device which can be added to the end of the barrel that can even help you work on accuracy.

Saves Money – This benefit is huge.  One 90g CO2 canister is good for about 500 “rounds” or trigger pulls with recoil.  The canisters are sold in pairs for about $20.00.  When you compare the cost of 1000 trigger pulls (~$20.00) to the cost of 1000 round case of ammunition, the cost-benefit analysis quickly falls into the category of “no brainer.”  The system literally pays for itself within about 4 canisters of CO2 as compared to the cost of live fire.  Stated differently, I can add Coolfire training three times a week every week, to my dry and live fire weekly training.  That means I’m shooting with recoil 5-6 times a week and only add $40.00 a month to my cost.

Saves Time – The cost of live fire isn’t just ammunition outlay…it also takes time.  Pack up guns and ammo…drive out to the range…drive back…unpack…clean the guns.  I live only 15 minutes from my local range, and I still can’t get to the range more than once or twice a week.  But with CoolFire, I get most of the benefit from live fire by just walking downstairs to my basement, putting on my gunbelt, and getting my gun out of the safe.

More Fun Than Dry Fire – Let’s face it…dry fire can get both tedious and boring.  Many people just don’t have the discipline to regularly dry fire as a result.  CoolFire on the other hand adds a dynamic quality to practice and training that makes it much more interesting and fun as compared to dry fire.  Using the included laser attachment really adds some entertaining options as well.

CoolFire recently released their system for the SIG P320 X-Five and sent me the system for evaluation.

The barrel replacement in the system is bright red in color and marked “CO2” to help distinguish it from the live fire barrel, and can be installed or removed as easily as the factory barrel – no tools are required.  The system also includes an adaptor which screws on to a 90g CO2 cartridge.  The opposite end of the adaptor then interfaces with the end of the barrel when charging the system with CO2.

Once charged, the system can provide anywhere from 10-20 trigger pulls with recoil before needing another charge of CO2, depending on how depleated the CO2 canister is – the gas pressure is greater on a new canister than one that is closer to 500 trigger pulls worth of use.

Another thoughtful inclusion with the system are bright orange magazine inserts which not only help identify a magazine as NOT having live ammunition it, but also prevents slide lock back when installed in a magazine that used with the CoolFire system.  You can use the orange magazine inserts with empty magazines or (as I do) with magazines that have “dummy” training rounds inserted to simulate the weight of a full magazine.

I got to use the CoolFire system for the P320 X-Five for about two weeks prior to competing in the Area 5 Steel Challenge Championship.  I finished in 1st place B Class Carry Optics, beating my score from the year prior by 5 full seconds – training with CoolFire really helped me:

As a competitive shooter, I strongly recommend the CoolFire training system.  It’s helping me achieve a whole new level of shooting performance that I simply would not be able to attain otherwise.  Be sure and use promo code TML19 when ordering your own CoolFire Training system for $10.00 off!

In addition to this written photo review, I recorded a supplemental video review of the CoolFire Training System for the SIG P320 X-Five: