Joshua Fry

Joshua Fry is a 14-year federal law enforcement officer and is currently part of his agency's national 3-Gun Team. He is a freelance writer covering competitive shooting sports and their equipment, and consultant/producer/writer for the Television and Film Industry. Joshua Fry may be contacted via Instagram @joshuaonefivefry.

Articles by Joshua Fry

• The first and possibly last major match of the year: 2020 Superstition Mountain Mystery Match

  Wednesday, April 15, 2020

  I've been a competitive shooter for almost eight years now and have participated in a wide variety of major and minor matches around the country across multiple shooting disciplines and organizations. I have shot through rain, snow, mud, blistering heat, and gale-force winds that batted long-range shots around like BBs. None of those compared to the unseen threat the coronavirus had on one of the largest and longest-running major matches in the country: the Superstition Mountain Mystery Match (SMM3G) in Phoenix, Arizona.

• Fighting the red menace: The 2019 Superstition Mountain Mystery 3-Gun

  Thursday, April 18, 2019

  The Superstition Mountain Mystery 3-Gun, or SMM3G: this is my Super Bowl, my World Cup, my World Series. I wait all year for one of the biggest and longest-running 3-Gun competitions in the country right in my backyard of Phoenix. This year, the match’s theme of fighting against the Russians brought some hilarious tongue-in-cheek humor and some soul-crushingly cruel stages that the Kremlin would be proud of.

• Coming full circle: The 2019 Healy Arms Arizona State IDPA Championship

  Thursday, February 21, 2019

  I began competition shooting as an extension of my law enforcement career after the horrific Aurora, Colorado, theater shooting. When I first read the news story, I asked myself if I could make a headshot on a body armor-wearing suspect in a panicked, crowded movie theater. I wasn’t happy with my answer when I was being completely honest with myself. I immediately sought out my local IDPA club after learning that IDPA emphasized defensive and scenario-based shooting that seemed to offer what I was looking for. My first match left me feeling painfully slow while watching the other experienced shooters, and showed me how much I had to learn. The 2019 Healy Arms Arizona State IDPA Championship gave me an opportunity to evaluate my skills all these years later and decide if the journey had improved my original answer to that life-and-death question.

• Going big: The Sig Sauer SHOT Show experience

  Wednesday, February 13, 2019

  "Wait until you see what we have in store for the SHOT Show, our new machine gun is going to change everything," said Tom Taylor, the chief marketing officer and executive vice president for Sig Sauer, when I last saw him at the Sig Sauer Academy in New Hampshire. In seemingly perfect timing, we could hear the new machine gun rattling off in the distance at the off-limits prototype testing range. Tom politely denied our requests to see it in person and promised us it would be worth the wait when it debuted at the 2019 SHOT Show Sig Sauer Industry Day. It turns out Tom actually undersold and overdelivered the experience waiting for us.

• Lessons learned from the Sig Sauer Academy

  Thursday, December 13, 2018

  Being a law enforcement officer, shooting competitions and making television/films are three of my great passions in life. When Eli Crane, my friend of 24 years, former Navy SEAL, and now-owner of Bottle Breacher, presented me with an opportunity to combine all three into one trip, I couldn't say no. Eli is a brand ambassador for Sig Sauer firearms and was invited to film an episode of the internet series "The Real Man Show" at the Sig Sauer Academy in New Hampshire. Sig Sauer makes my agency’s duty weapons and I had long heard about the world-class facility they offer classes at to police, military and private security entities from around the world.

• Duel in the desert: The 2018 USPSA Area 2 Championship

  Thursday, November 29, 2018

  In 1988, the Rio Salado Sportsman's Club in Mesa, Arizona, hosted its inaugural Desert Classic event. 30 years later, it’s become one of the largest shooting events in the country and the current USPSA Area 2 Championship venue. This year, the venue hosted over 400 shooters and some of the top talent in the country/world over the three-day, fifteen stage courses of fire while featuring some of the nicest shooting weather in the country. The 30th anniversary was a grand affair, and if you like plenty of fast-moving swinger and disappearing targets, you were in for a treat.

• Building the ultimate Glock

  Wednesday, November 07, 2018

  Five or so years ago, two of my fellow law enforcement officers and I began our love affair with competitive shooting, specifically 3-gun. Being in law enforcement, we walked a tightrope of trying to keep our "race" equipment as close to our "real-world" equipment as possible while still chasing that last bit of competitive equipment edge. In this pursuit, I built what I would call the "ultimate" Glock to satisfy the best of both worlds and still be competitive in the 3-Gun world.

• Ghosts, goblins and shotguns

  Wednesday, October 31, 2018

  The best advice any new competition shooter can receive is to "be safe, and have fun." While being safe is something that will always be a part of a shooter’s mindset, sometimes along the way of chasing a higher classification, a match win or dwelling on a poor performance, the fun part can begin to slip through your grasp. Events like the 2018 Halloween Shotgun Match at the Phoenix Rod and Gun Club are a great opportunity to recapture that spirit of fun and camaraderie we have all grown to love about the shooting sports and remind us all of why we spend so much time, money and effort doing what we love.

• Going heavy in 3-gun

  Thursday, October 25, 2018

  Heavy metal. Is there a more badass-sounding division in all of competition shooting? I have long been fascinated by this small yet dedicated sect of shooters since I began shooting 3-gun years ago. Every time a heavy metal competitor begins shooting their rifle, you immediately feel the difference between the tame .223 and the booming power of the .308. When a .308 hits steel you just say to yourself, "now that’s a rifle round."

• Beyond a ‘Shadow’ of a doubt

  Wednesday, May 02, 2018

  "The pistol the rest of the world’s police forces use" is the way I most often describe my CZ pistols to those in the U.S. unfamiliar with the CZ 75 platform. For various reasons, the CZ 75 is generally unknown to the average firearms user, and unfortunately, the majority of the U.S. market is missing out on a truly outstanding brand. I fell into that category myself until my exposure to the competition shooting world introduced me to this new and outstanding series of pistols.

• Ringing in the spring with trigger time

  Tuesday, April 17, 2018

  ​How did you spend your Easter weekend? For most of us, the answer probably involves family, friends, church and an Easter egg hunt filled with excited and frantic children. But before all the Sunday festivities began, the annual Spring Steel event at the Rio Salado Sportsman's Club in Mesa, Arizona, offered the chance to squeeze in some trigger time with some of the best shooters in the country and even featured an appearance by the competition shooting Easter Bunny.

• Lessons learned from the 2018 Superstition Mountain Mystery 3-Gun

  Tuesday, April 10, 2018

  ​The Superstition Mystery Mountain 3 Gun or SMM3G is traditionally the first major match of the 3-gun season and is held annually at my home range of the Rio Salado Sportsman's Club in Mesa, Arizona.

• IDPA: New rules, same challenge

  Wednesday, February 07, 2018

  IDPA has changed. Over the course of the last several years, IDPA has made multiple substantial changes to its rulebook to the delight of some and the lamenting of others. Just like our own Constitution, IDPA's rulebook is a "living" document and changes to keep up with the times. Sometimes you get prohibition-type rules that are quickly repealed, and sometimes you get lasting rules that change the sport for the better.

• The MPX is PCC perfection

  Tuesday, January 09, 2018

  ​Over the course of the last year, I have been fortunate enough to do some extensive side-by-side test-firing of a multitude of PCCs. This includes the MP5, Colt SMG, Olympic Arms, New Frontier Armory, JP Enterprises, Saiga, Quarter Circle 10, Gibbz Arms, KE Arms and the Sig Sauer MPX.

• Answering the siren’s call of the 2011

  Thursday, November 09, 2017

  My wife and I started competition shooting as a way to increase our shooting skills for our law enforcement day (and night) jobs. We kept our competition gear as close to our "duty" gear as possible, and for five years I resisted the 2011 siren's call.

• Why are PCC events so popular? They’re just plain fun

  Wednesday, October 11, 2017

  ​Pistol-caliber carbines have taken the competition shooting world by storm in 2017. PCCs offer the fast pace of action pistol shooting in the inherently easier-to-shoot rifle platform. Throw in a sizable ammunition cost savings over their rifle cartridge counterparts, and it's easy to see why competition shooters are adopting PCCs in droves.

• Lessons from the 2017 USPSA Iron Sights Nationals

  Tuesday, October 03, 2017

  ​A cop, a cowboy, a model, a father and son, and a world champion shooter. This isn't the setup to a joke, just an example of the 580 shooters from across the nation who traveled to the Tactical Performance Center in St. George, Utah, to compete in the 2017 USPSA Iron Sights Nationals presented by CZ-USA from Sept. 27 to Oct. 1.

• Lucas Oil PCC World Championship delivers a slick event

  Tuesday, September 12, 2017

  Major match experts such as Mike Sexton and personalities such as Tony Pignato with Shooting USA were brought in to keep the match running smoothly and broadcast the event to the shooting world. Lucas Oil had all the makings of a great event, and I can tell you firsthand that it delivered.

• PRS has a hit with Gas Gun Series

  Thursday, June 08, 2017

  My wife — ​fellow shooting author Amanda Fry — and I made our first foray into the Precision Rifle Series (PRS) at the end of the 2016 season. We learned some hard but valuable lessons at our first PRS match and were eager to begin the 2017 season.

• Speed kills at the PRS

  Thursday, May 11, 2017

  How hard can it be? This was the question I asked myself as I contemplated trying my hand at the Precision Rifle Series (PRS). On a regular basis, I compete in 3-Gun events with shots out to 500 yards all while running and shooting my pistol and shotgun before attempting to regain my breathing and composure to make hits with a 6x scope. If I can make hits under those conditions, then subtracting two guns and adding a 25x scope seemed like child's play.

• All you need is one gun

  Monday, April 10, 2017

  ​"Beware the man with one gun, for he probably knows how to use it." Most of us in the shooting community have heard this quote at one point or another, and I firmly believe in this philosophy. As a law enforcement officer, I'm essentially limited to one gun choice for work. More importantly, I'm cheap.

• Unraveling the ‘mystery’ of Superstition Mountain

  Tuesday, April 04, 2017

  ​Why do they call it the Superstition Mountain Mystery 3-Gun? The first part is easy; the location of the match is in the backdrop of the beautiful Arizona Superstition Mountains. The "mystery" part is what makes this match fun and unique among all other three-gun events in the country.

• Why I’m now a 1911 guy

  Wednesday, December 14, 2016

  "I'm not a 1911 guy." This is a phrase I have uttered at least 100 times whenever someone asks me if I'm a user of the famous John Moses Browning pistol. As a law enforcement officer, I have been carrying a Glock for almost the entire run of my 12-year career with the federal government. I love Glocks for their simplicity and their seemingly imperviousness to the worst abuse law enforcement can throw at them. I don't have to worry about thumbing down a safety or making sure my grip engages the second safety (how many safeties does one gun need actually?).