Mantis X10 trainer review journal

[piefairy]

I hadn't seen any posts on this specifically. I had asked about it and got some mixed responses. I figured I would make a post and hopefully be of help to others. This is not an advertisement nor am I associated with Mantis in any way.

This is going to be a bit of an ongoing journal on my experience with the Mantis X10. So far I have had it for about 7 days and overall I have been fairly impressed with it.

The Mantis X10 is a small clip on accelerometer, for lack of a better way to describe it. It detects the movement of the gun in the moments before, during, and after trigger press. It can be used in both live fire and dry fire. It also provides feedback in the terms of a "score" on how each shot was as well as notification and tips on the movement and direction it detected. It has several modes and different "games" you can play, it makes dry practice a lot more interesting. It pairs via bluetooth to you phone and has an app that goes with it, which is free to download. It is feature packed and even has a holster draw mode to measure your time from draw to shot and the score of the shot. I have not played with this yet, so I can't comment to it as of yet.

After getting it in, it clips onto the rail on the front of my Ruger P95. It comes with attachments in case you dont have a rail as well. From what I have experienced it is a very sensitive device. It detects minute movement, almost to the point of being overly sensitive. My first day with it I was averaging in the 60s and 70s for a score per shot (out of 100). Some of the tips and suggestions it gave were clenching my fingers on trigger pull, slapping the trigger, to much or to little trigger finger and other suggestions. Following the advice and suggestions, my sights have become more stable through the trigger pull and afterwards. I'm up into the 80's and 90's now which is a much faster progression that I was getting dry firing on my own. I can visibly see the stability of my sights improve.

Live fire is a bit different with it. While there is some correlation between a good score and a good shot, they are not necessarily the same thing. I've missed the center of the target by and inch or so and scored a 95 for the shot. So, there is some variance there. I do find that the higher the number typically means a more accurate shot but not always. It will audible read out your score after each shot if you set it up to do so. If you are going to use it for live fire, I recommend a bluetooth set of shooting muffs so you're not looking down at your phone after each shot. I have only had one live fire session with it, but my groupings have improved a bit. I like the fact that it is instant feedback. Also, it is pointing out that my live fire movement is different than my dry fire. While my dry fire movement tends to be down a bit or to the left, live fire shows it a little up and left. This is different than what the target shows so I need to look into it more. I need to use the recoil meter on it and see if its picking that up and emphasizing that as my greater movement error. I am scoring lower on live fire than on dry, which is to be expected IMO. You can also pull up each shot individually and see the movement track of the gun throughout the shot which is nice.

A few negatives I have found so far. First is the battery life is annoying as hell. You can fully charge the thing and the app reports a lower percentage than the 100% it should be. Each time you turn it on, it will give a different charge percent. I thought it was an issue with my unit, but a replacement did the same thing, so its something about how they measure the charge. The charge does last a full 6 to 8 hours despite what the charge percent says. Another negative to it does have a habit of reporting a false shot now and then. I've only used this in DA mode, so not sure if it happens in SA. It has occurred both in live fire and dry. I would have to say its 1 out of every 50 to 75 shots, and it has nothing to do with the stability of the gun, its something about how it senses a "shot".

Another thing with its sensitivity is that it will ALWAYS find an issue with your shot. While it is helpful in that it tells you why it marked you down, it is annoying that even on the 99.9 I have gotten once or twice, there is still a negative mark for something.

So far I think its been a worthwhile investment from the dry fire standpoint. It has helped me stabilize the gun and sights through the trigger pull and the moments after. I have a little over 750 dry fire shots with the unit so far and the improvement has been faster than what I was getting on my own. It also sets an alarm, should you choose, to remind you to practice each day and has badge courses that you work on over time.

I'll update this more as I continue to play with it.

[G19Fan]

If you get a chance you should try acexr too.

I find it incredibly helpful

[piefairy]

If you get a chance you should try acexr too.

I find it incredibly helpful

Only if it worked with the Oculus Quest, the first gen vr. I may delve into it down the road.

[TAZ]

I’ve enjoyed mine as it adds something different to a dry fire routine. In live fire, it’s still looking for how level and stable the gun is as you break the shot. I’d doesn’t know you’re stable and level on the next lanes target vs your own. So on that front you have to use some common sense between its scoring you on mechanics vs your hit on target. I’ve not really used it too much in LF though.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[piefairy]

I’ve enjoyed mine as it adds something different to a dry fire routine. In live fire, it’s still looking for how level and stable the gun is as you break the shot. I’d doesn’t know you’re stable and level on the next lanes target vs your own. So on that front you have to use some common sense between its scoring you on mechanics vs your hit on target. I’ve not really used it too much in LF though.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I realize what it is looking for in LF, I just find it curious that I can be on aimed on target, get a 90+ and still miss by over an inch. Guess I was either not aimed as well as I thought or my sights are off. I will be taking it to the range again Friday most likely and update the journal some.

[piefairy]

I'm a little over 1300 rounds fired with the mantis (I wonder if I should include these in my 2000 round challenge, its the same gun). 90% dry fire. Its starting to come together. My sights are visibly more stable from aiming, to pull, and after trigger break. My last round of 50 shots averaged 91.6, that's coming from a 75.8 when I started a little over 10 days ago. These are the "Open Training" mode, which is no timer, no speed element, just trying to get the best shot possible each pull.

I am running the training courses that come built into the app. I finished the "Basic Marksmanship" course which consisted of firing 20 shots 4 days in a row, score a 95 in primary hand only, score a 95 in off hand only, fire 30 shots a day for 3 days, and average 90 in surprise break. Surprise break is a timer on the shot that beeps at random, speed is accounted to score, it averages 10 shots at a time. A cool thing is that after you finish a course they send you a physical badge to put on your range bag or whatever. Its a fabric sew on thing. Nothing special but its free none the less.

I started the "Advanced Marksmanship" course. It started with firing 40 shots 3 days in a row, then score two 95+ on one "Compressed Break" drill. That was not easy. Currently the next step is firing 50 shots 3 days in a row. Not sure what the other steps are, it doesn't tell you ahead of time and I cant find it on their website.

Anyways, still improving. I'm enjoying the feedback. It really emphasizes hand placement and grip, perhaps to a fault. Any shift in how tight or the tension in my wrists drops the score fairly significantly.

I'll be going to the range either Friday or this weekend and will update how it has helped.

[G19Fan]

I'm a little over 1300 rounds fired with the mantis (I wonder if I should include these in my 2000 round challenge, its the same gun). 90% dry fire. Its starting to come together. My sights are visibly more stable from aiming, to pull, and after trigger break. My last round of 50 shots averaged 91.6, that's coming from a 75.8 when I started a little over 10 days ago. These are the "Open Training" mode, which is no timer, no speed element, just trying to get the best shot possible each pull.

I am running the training courses that come built into the app. I finished the "Basic Marksmanship" course which consisted of firing 20 shots 4 days in a row, score a 95 in primary hand only, score a 95 in off hand only, fire 30 shots a day for 3 days, and average 90 in surprise break. Surprise break is a timer on the shot that beeps at random, speed is accounted to score, it averages 10 shots at a time. A cool thing is that after you finish a course they send you a physical badge to put on your range bag or whatever. Its a fabric sew on thing. Nothing special but its free none the less.

I started the "Advanced Marksmanship" course. It started with firing 40 shots 3 days in a row, then score two 95+ on one "Compressed Break" drill. That was not easy. Currently the next step is firing 50 shots 3 days in a row. Not sure what the other steps are, it doesn't tell you ahead of time and I cant find it on their website.

Anyways, still improving. I'm enjoying the feedback. It really emphasizes hand placement and grip, perhaps to a fault. Any shift in how tight or the tension in my wrists drops the score fairly significantly.

I'll be going to the range either Friday or this weekend and will update how it has helped.

The wrist tension part is pretty accurate for distance shooting (small changed in tension lead to bad results)

This group shot the 3 fliers were all me with poor wrist tension at 25. I could feel the wrist tension and offhand grip being off on the two left ones. The bottom right shot I could feel my wrist being slack

[piefairy]

Completed another course, Advanced Marksmanship. It was more difficult than I thought it would be. The hardest drill was compressed break. You had to average a 90 or above with a response time of less than .6 seconds over 5 shots, two times in a row. It was a bitch, especially when the thing would accidently record a shot you didn't take.

Anyways, took it to the range again today. Accuracy is getting much better. I'm holding good groups at 10 yards with the Ruger, and grouping well at 15 with the 1911. I've really decided that their is almost no correlation between the score number from the mantis to how good your shot was. I've had 40's and hit the bullseye. I know its measuring movement of the gun, but I would expect a more stable platform to result in a more accurate shot. It does still provide good feedback as to my movement and what I am doing "wrong" with each shot, and I am starting to notice when I do it now, which I haven't in the past. I'm starting to notice that I am pushing forward prior to shots, and that tends to be my number one issue and the cause of my low shots. The mantis agrees.

So far, I am getting less impressed with the live fire function of the mantis, but I am still getting a lot out of the dry fire function. I'm up to 2042 shots with the unit. So far I still would advise it for the new shooter, or even experienced shooter looking to refine their minute imperfections.

[Clusterfrack]

... I'm starting to notice that I am pushing forward prior to shots, and that tends to be my number one issue and the cause of my low shots. The mantis agrees.

Thanks for posting this. In my experience this is by far the most common and biggest problem in pistol shooting. In terms of importance I'd estimate 95% for pushing down on the gun before or as it fires vs. 5% for trigger or sympathetic movement of the fingers. The push can be very subtle.

[G19Fan]

Completed another course, Advanced Marksmanship. It was more difficult than I thought it would be. The hardest drill was compressed break. You had to average a 90 or above with a response time of less than .6 seconds over 5 shots, two times in a row. It was a bitch, especially when the thing would accidently record a shot you didn't take.

Anyways, took it to the range again today. Accuracy is getting much better. I'm holding good groups at 10 yards with the Ruger, and grouping well at 15 with the 1911. I've really decided that their is almost no correlation between the score number from the mantis to how good your shot was. I've had 40's and hit the bullseye. I know its measuring movement of the gun, but I would expect a more stable platform to result in a more accurate shot. It does still provide good feedback as to my movement and what I am doing "wrong" with each shot, and I am starting to notice when I do it now, which I haven't in the past. I'm starting to notice that I am pushing forward prior to shots, and that tends to be my number one issue and the cause of my low shots. The mantis agrees.

So far, I am getting less impressed with the live fire function of the mantis, but I am still getting a lot out of the dry fire function. I'm up to 2042 shots with the unit. So far I still would advise it for the new shooter, or even experienced shooter looking to refine their minute imperfections.

Pushing forward tends to be recoil anticipation.

Try on a .22lr for a while I bet that issue goes away