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I have a difficult time getting out shooting as often as I'd like, and regular dry fire practice doesn't offer any feedback. I know I have a tendency to shoot low right with my pistols, but none of my attempts to correct that have been consistently effective. I'd seen the Mantis X before, but the price was kind of scary, I figured spending the money on ammo would be a better choice. But I stumbled across another review of the latest version, the X3, started looking at it seriously again, and finally ordered one last week.
For those that have never heard of the Mantis X, it's a sensor that attaches to your pistol or rifle with a picatinny rail. If you don't have a rail, they sell adapters that attach via a strong adhesive tape, I ordered a couple, one for my CZ 75D PCR, the other for my CZ 97 BD, neither of which has a rail. What the sensor does is track movement, in real time, just before, during, and just after breaking a shot, and offers analysis and coaching for possible issues. The sensor itself is quite small and light, I have mine on the bottom of a mag on the PCR, and I don't even notice it when "shooting". I put shooting in quotes because this thing works for both live and dry fire, and will also work on CO2 powered guns (Airsoft). Interface is via Bluetooth and a smart phone app, I'm using my iPhone 6S, so far, it's worked flawlessly. The app is pretty intuitive, and it offers a variety of training courses, as well as all the tracking and analysis already mentioned. It scores each shot in a session, as well as keeping a constant record of all shots fired in all sessions, so you can go back and review, as well as keep track of your (hopefully) progress. Each shot is scored based on movement, perfect is 100, but you'll probably never see that unless you have the gun in a Ransom Rest. That said, I did have several in the high 99's, which was kind of surprising, but more on that later.
Mine showed up yesterday, so I got started with it last night. There's an Introductory program that gets you familiar with the system and it's features, I was happily surprised that my shooting was consistently in the low to mid 90's, and my usual low right wasn't showing up. That tells me that my basic technique is good, but I have either an issue with my sights, or my sight alignment. I'll address that the next time I get to do live fire, and yes, I'll be using the Mantis then, too. And in case anyone was wondering, yes, it will ding you if you really suck. I had a couple of shots I did weak hand only that were in the 60's, and a couple of DA shots that weren't much better. But the Mantis was able to quantify what I did wrong, and offered suggestions on how to fix it.
I could probably ramble on, but for now, I'll close this by saying so far, so good. If you're looking for a training tool that will help you actually see what you're doing as you pull the trigger, this is definitely worth a look. Yeah, at close to $200 it's not cheap, but it makes dry fire practice a fun challenge instead of a chore, with the added advantage of also being able to track just what's going on during that practice. And being able to follow up with live fire can only add to its value. I'll post more later if I think it's warranted.
For those that have never heard of the Mantis X, it's a sensor that attaches to your pistol or rifle with a picatinny rail. If you don't have a rail, they sell adapters that attach via a strong adhesive tape, I ordered a couple, one for my CZ 75D PCR, the other for my CZ 97 BD, neither of which has a rail. What the sensor does is track movement, in real time, just before, during, and just after breaking a shot, and offers analysis and coaching for possible issues. The sensor itself is quite small and light, I have mine on the bottom of a mag on the PCR, and I don't even notice it when "shooting". I put shooting in quotes because this thing works for both live and dry fire, and will also work on CO2 powered guns (Airsoft). Interface is via Bluetooth and a smart phone app, I'm using my iPhone 6S, so far, it's worked flawlessly. The app is pretty intuitive, and it offers a variety of training courses, as well as all the tracking and analysis already mentioned. It scores each shot in a session, as well as keeping a constant record of all shots fired in all sessions, so you can go back and review, as well as keep track of your (hopefully) progress. Each shot is scored based on movement, perfect is 100, but you'll probably never see that unless you have the gun in a Ransom Rest. That said, I did have several in the high 99's, which was kind of surprising, but more on that later.
Mine showed up yesterday, so I got started with it last night. There's an Introductory program that gets you familiar with the system and it's features, I was happily surprised that my shooting was consistently in the low to mid 90's, and my usual low right wasn't showing up. That tells me that my basic technique is good, but I have either an issue with my sights, or my sight alignment. I'll address that the next time I get to do live fire, and yes, I'll be using the Mantis then, too. And in case anyone was wondering, yes, it will ding you if you really suck. I had a couple of shots I did weak hand only that were in the 60's, and a couple of DA shots that weren't much better. But the Mantis was able to quantify what I did wrong, and offered suggestions on how to fix it.
I could probably ramble on, but for now, I'll close this by saying so far, so good. If you're looking for a training tool that will help you actually see what you're doing as you pull the trigger, this is definitely worth a look. Yeah, at close to $200 it's not cheap, but it makes dry fire practice a fun challenge instead of a chore, with the added advantage of also being able to track just what's going on during that practice. And being able to follow up with live fire can only add to its value. I'll post more later if I think it's warranted.