01/18/2022
Clients and friends! Here is a review I finished on a great new product! Check it out!
As a fi****ms instructor, active assailant tactics trainer and consultant, and former police officer, I was quite pleasantly surprised by the Mantis X10 Elite shooting performance system. The system is a development of Mantis, and has been designed to be the second generation of the Mantis shooting performance system, designed to analyze your shooting through the collection of a vast array of data points, and providing a graphical representation of both your shooting, and areas of possible improvement.
The training system comes well packaged, with the ability to keep the valuable components within a supplied, quality hard case. When you remove the laser unit from the packaging (it looks like, and is the size of a laser attachment for a pistol), it is very easy and quick to plug it into a power socket through a USB. As the unit charges, it has a built in indicator light tells you the unit is charging, and when it is charged. Following charging, you download the Mantis X10 Elite app for the unit. When you finish downloading the app you follow the on screen instructions, collect the unit via Bluetooth, attach the unit to the rail of your firearm, and calibrate the unit to the app. The app will record the data points. Once connected to the app, then you are good to go.
As an instructor, I teach many new gun owners, especially women. For my own students, I found several positive aspects to ordering and using the Mantis X10 Elite shooting performance system. For example, Mantis are fast at answering any questions a client may have. The unit then arrives quickly in the mail. The instructions are easily understood, and the app is easy to download. Once you download the app, it is easy to get started on analyzing your shooting fundamentals. This, especially stressing the online or over the phone help and advice they can provide, as well as backup to a purchase, is critical for women who are new to shooting. It creates confidence in the product, and encourages both the purchase, and the use of the product.
The Mantis X10 shooting performance system works by recording the movement of the firearm, as you squeeze the trigger, or as you draw, aim and squeeze the trigger. The many data points recorded through this movement are logged by the app, and then displayed on easy to read charts, and graphical representations of targets. The app can then suggest videos to watch, or drills to undertake, in order to improve your skills.
To test the system, I, my husband (an instructor), and friends (one instructor, and one new shooter) took the system to our local partner indoor range. We placed the system on several pistols, including a Sig 365, a Sig 2022, a G***k 19, and a G***k 43. We then dry fired and tested the system with each firearm, then live fired the system with two of the fi****ms. Each individual present used the system, firing at least a magazine of live fire, and then dry fired the system with 10 trigger pulls. We then followed the introduction course, through its different stages as a dry firing exercise.
Following our testing of the unit, and connected app, we, as a group, found it extremely useful in tracking the movement of the gun, the trigger pull, and the control of the recoil recovery. The app displays great detail in the analysis of each shot, which is a great tool for training and improvement. On the other hand, for new shooters, it can be a bit complex and confusing learning how to understand the data points. The system also assumes that you are aiming the weapon properly, as it doesn’t record aiming, only movement. If Mantis was to combine the app with their Laser Academy, this would then create one of the most comprehensive dry fire practice systems on the market today and for the foreseeable future. That being said, assuming the user is aiming at an aiming point, then the system is excellent at diagnosing the movement of the firearm as the shooter goes through the process of shooting and recovery.
As experienced instructors, we believe that the Mantis X10 Elite is a quality diagnostic tool for both instructors (working with individual students), and new or intermediate shooters. We will certainly be using the Mantis X10 Elite shooting performance system with individual students, and will be recommending it as a product to our classes and clients.
