By Allan Smith
Every night we are seeing the invasion at our southern boarder along with increased violence in our cities. We are truly facing challenges in our nation like never before and when we look at the recent ammunition shortage and high cost of ammo, these are the things that keep us up at night.
The big question becomes – how do we train regularly and afford it? Do you continue to shoot and reduce your ammo supply or as many have, limit the amount of shooting and training time? I think we may have found a solution.
Mantis is a dry fire training company whose products have been on the market for a few years. They were kind enough to send us their catalog of products to test and write about. (See our previous review on their BlackBeard Auto-resetting trigger system for AR-15’s.) https://epictactical.com/mantis-blackbeard-dry-fire-training-system-1-year-70000-round-how-did-it-stand-up
We have had the Mantis X 10 Elite for over a year testing the hell out of it with my Marine Corps Brothers. So what is the Mantis X10 Elite? It’s an IA sensor that mounts on the picatinny/accessory rail of a handgun and tracks even the slightest movement of the pistol. The sensor then connects to your phone via Bluetooth and collects the data. Its simple and oh so impressive as you attach the sensor, download the app, and connect the devices together and immediately start training.
The app has a huge list of capabilities that are available, we were initially prompted by the app to start the introduction tutorial to learn the ins and outs of what the system was designed to do. We started out with getting our basic benchmark “score”, which was determined by 10 reps of trigger pulls. The system grades you on how clean the press is.
The app lets you know if you’re slapping the trigger, you’ll see your score going down and the movement will be recorded. After completing the benchmark, the app then reviews the results and makes suggested corrections which are extremely helpful.
You can tap on any of the red bars on chart and it will bring up tips for how to improve in the particular area. As you’ll see here it says “Too Little Trigger Finger”.
The second chart states “Heeling Anticipating Recoil” is a representation of the movement before the trigger breaks.
The third chart, however, really shines a light on the intuition built into this little sensor. We didn’t try to be perfect and wanted to test this system to see its recommended corrections and It is amazing how the sensor was able to pick up movement, list corrections and more.
As you go through the MANTIS X 10 Elite, you can choose from several layers of training courses and the app tracks it all. There are several training drills built in from the reload drills, shot timer, timed drills and more.
In addition to handguns, the Mantis X10 Elite can also be used on rifles and shotguns, however we only did this review with a pistol.
The Mantis X10 Elite also includes additional features like the Recoilmeter and the Holster Draw Analysis. The Recoilmeter tracks one’s handgun through the recoil impulse during live fire and It’s interesting to see the recoil pattern.
The Holster Draw Analysis was very cool and tracks the speed and efficiency of your draw-stroke after a shot timer sounds. Without a doubt our IWB draw improved and appreciate this feature.
The Mantis X10 Elite can be used on different pistols as well. We used it on a Glock 19 & Sig P365 and it was easy to swap from one to the other in the settings tab.
The Mantis X10 Elite comes with a rail that can be semi-permanently affixed to a firearm, and a barrel clamp that can fit onto a shotgun barrel and everything fits into a small zip case that you can easily take it with you on vacation and continue your training.
Another cool thing Mantis offers is several adapter plates that can be affixed to the baseplate of a magazine, If you have a Glock 43 like we do, you can purchase this addition.
We all felt that the Mantis X 10 Elite greatly improves our shooting and training. It makes you a better shooter without having to use live ammunition. It’s like having your favorite firearms trainer with you at all time telling you what your doing wrong and how best to correct it.
Is it worth the $249.99 price tag? For the features and capabilities it contains, absolutely. We would add that Mantis X10 Elite delivers on what it promises and then more!
Specifications: Mantis X Elite Training System
Length: 1.3 inches
Width: 1 inch
Height: .75 of an inch
MSRP: $249.99
Check them out @ www.mantisx.com
