The most advanced training magazine produced by VirTra is available for Glock 19 pistols.

The Advanced Skills Magazine (ASM) is refillable with liquid CO2, providing the officer or warfighter with lifelike recoil when training in a VirTra simulator. It communicates with VirTra simulators using Bluetooth low-energy technology. Instructors may induce a simulated malfunction during a scenario or simulated range session. Trainees, veterans, and everyone in between can practice working through malfunctions or “jams” to prepare if such instances happen in the real world.

Along with the laser-based recoil kit, using this product can make firearms training more realistic and transferrable.

How it Works

The purpose of the Advanced Skills Magazine is to allow users to practice with their duty weapon in a way that is transferrable to the real world. The magazine simulated an end-of-magazine event where one must “reload” by removing the magazine and re-inserting it before being able to fire once more. Instructors can initiate a bolt hold-open malfunction to prepare the user, forcing them to clear a class 1 malfunction. Class 3 malfunctions are possible as well, where the user must strip the magazine, re-insert, then cycle to be able to fire again.

Advanced Skills Magazines replicate the size, shape, and weight of a real Glock 19 magazine for a true-to-life experience. CNC machined aircraft-grade aluminum housing is durable to withstand drops and many uses. It is blue in color to distinguish it from real magazines in the training room. The use of CO2 not only provides realistic recoil, it is also safe and requires no cleanup. The possibility of training scars is eliminated by ensuring physical fidelity.

The Advanced Skills Magazine, as well as other magazines such as the Standard Magazine without Bluetooth capabilities, is available for select pistols and rifles and is designed for use with VirTra’s recoil kits. Recoil kits and CO2 magazines are used in law enforcement agencies around the United States, plus 40 countries worldwide, where they have assisted trainees and officers alike in perfecting their firearm use.

Learn more about VirTra’s recoil kits and CO2 magazines here.

Bringing realism to training is what reality-based simulation training is all about. One of the next steps that VirTra has taken to push this is the Advanced Skills Magazine (ASM). These ASM magazines allow for an instructor to force the slide on a handgun or the bolt on an AR platform to go to lock-back. The trainee may clear this issue if the instructor tells the magazine that a tap rack will work, or the instructor can create a situation where a tap rack will not allow the bolt/slide to go home. The instructor can force this lock-back action on the fly via the remote-controlled ASM functionality. The instructor also can decide if a tap rack will send the slide/bolt home or leave it back.

Adding this additional cognitive load will assist in providing the best training possible. As often discussed in our training methodology, this ability to adjust the cognitive load brings high value to the training. Weapons can go down during training or in the middle of a gunfight. This provides an aspect of training that is critical.

Using this function is another interactive tool that the instructor can use to bring high-quality training to the trainee via the simulator—forcing problems onto the student in a high-fidelity training environment that they must work through is high value. These types of features are what make simulation so effective.

Learn more about our recoil kit and CO2 magazine options here, or contact a product specialist.