Mantis X training system

[Sidecarist]

Thought this might be an interesting item to discuss.

I received this as a gift and have had a few days to use it. 

I was interested in this as a dryfire aid. It scores your shot 0-99.9 based on how steady the weapon is in the last moments before a shot, at the break, and for a few seconds after. It gives you tips based on the relative motion at the break. Too much trigger finger, thumbing, etc.

I've used it dry fire and it is interesting to compare what I thought I did on a shot to what Mantis tells me I did. Note that it does not know what target you are looking at, you can aim at a blank wall and just watch your sights, or use a target. A blank wall is educational for seeing what your movement is and it encourages me to sight focus rather than target focus.

In live fire it was interesting to see what score was equal to my combat accuracy standard of all shots inside 8" at 10 yds as quickly as I can. A Mantis score of 70 equals this level of accuracy for me. This helps me know what my dry practice score minimum score MUST be. It might also would be useful at a range to score yourself without retrieving the target I tnink...

I need to spend more time with it to track any verifiable improvement in my shooting. For now I'm happy with it and l think it will be a useful tool particularly for dry practice. I travel quite a bit and will be using it away from home a lot. Even when I'm home I'll try to use it daily for a 5min lunch time dry practice session.

Interesting experiment I did was use it to test my scores with different back straps on my M&P 2.0. I liked the feel with the medium, but the app says I'm 0.1 seconds faster on target with the meduim/large. Ill have to see if this holds up as true over time.

Set up info. I'm using the Android app and it was easy enough to pair to my phone. The app doesn't work with my tablet. I have it mounted on the rail now, but will be mounting on a magazine floor plate so I can use it with a holster. I have not set up a mantis account, or entered into the app any personal or gun details and it seems to not be needed. So far it has detected every live fire shot, but it does miss dry shots occasionally, maybe 5%. There is a sensitivity adjustment setting, but I haven't used it yet.

There are several training modes some timed, some not. There are a couple of reload training modes as well. These may be useful for malfunction drills too but I haven't tried yet. 

Interesting toy that has exceeded my expectations to become a useful tool for training. 

Edited January 1, 2018 by Sidecarist