New Mantisx Review

My new MantisX firearms training device arrived in the mail today. It is and the electronic sensor which fits either under the barrel or at the base of the magazine and senses and records barrel movement for a brief period before and after the gun is fired either live or dry.

I am a fairly new bull's-eye shooter, currently rated sharpshooter. My recent timed and rapidfire scores are in the low 90s, my slow fire scores suck. When I started attending matches last October I used my wall for GSP expert, but most recently switched  to a Pardini. The matches I attend are usually rimfire and centerfire, which is good since I am terrible with the 45  I shoot a lot, but until very very recently have not really trained. My change of heart is because I'm not improving. I've never liked dry fire, so really don't do it. my theory was that I shot every day with life fire and that was enough

Today, I attached the adapter to the bottom of the magazine on my pardini 32. The MantisX  makes dry fire more interesting, and although my overall scores are reasonably good, when I see immediately is the inconsistency, both in movement during the whole, during the break, and immediately after the hammer falls. The display data (via Bluetooth to my iPhone) is shown in a couple of graphs, quite intriguing

I haven't had a chance to use it yet for life fire, looking forward to seeing if the POI In a rapidfire (particularly with the 45) is consistent with the results of the MantisX

Also, I'm hoping to get a couple of friends of mine who are far better shooters to test it.

 I'll post further as I get results

To those who might be interested in more detail, their website has some reasonably good YouTubes attached

I also be very interested in any comments from others who might have experience with this device

https://mantisx.com/

www.bullseyeforum.net/t6498-new-dry-fire-system-scatt-alternative

Here is more Mantis info.

Thanks for the link, WN. That was actually the thread that caused me to purchase the MantisX, particularly after reading all the comments, including a couple private conversations with Austin from Mantisx.

I've now had a chance to use the MantisX, so far just for dry firing (although it was originally developed for live fire).  I like it.  First, it makes dry firing more interesting, so it I do it more (in my case I wasn't doing much at all previously).

Secondly, it measures and records barrel movement during the trigger pull sequence (as well as before and after). This system lets me see if I am "jerking" the trigger, and records it so I can verify after each dry fire. I realize some, perhaps all of the better shooters can tell if their fry fire was really smooth or not, but for me, it is nice to be able to confirm.

I have the sensors on  both my Pardini and a 45 magazine. The Pardini is, for me, much easier to control the trigger, perhaps not surprisingly.  Now, I can actually see the difference. It is also fun to compare how a shot "feels" to the actual result on the graph, often confirming what felt really good.

Next, I plan to use it with live fire, as a means of comparing it to how the shot "feels". 

The attached link is from MantisX and shows the three types of results for each shot and how they are displayed.

https://mantisx.com/pages/video-tutorials

Greg, what are using to mount MantisX to your Pardini?

Are you happy with your MantisX?  I am getting ready to dump a ton o' money for my daughter with the SCATT MX-W2, but if this is what we need, then I could use the rest of the money to pay for a new Air Rifle.

I like mine. I discovered that it would not work with my older Samsung tablet (outdated Bluetooth) so I had to buy a new Kindle at their suggestion. It works well though with my older iPhone. I bought a 2-piece plastic Pic rail on Amazon, chopped it just in front of the trigger guard, bought a roll of that 3-M super-strong two-sided adhesive tape, and rubber-banded it together for 3 days (cure time). I had to remove a small amount of plastic from the Pic rail because the adapter is made for a 1911 so it was about 0.020" too wide, but that took a few minutes with a file. Here it is on my P210A (still legal as a service pistol). I did the same thing with a 1911.

Greg 

In3D printed a little rail to put on the bottom of the barrel. Double sided 3m tape. That way you can use it during a match etc and not have the sensor on only one magazine

Greg,

Where did you get the 3D file from, or did you design it?

kd5zmg wrote:Greg,

Where did you get the 3D file from, or did you design it?

You mean lablover?  Joe

I designed and printed it myself

I bought a mantis for this whole shutdown thing to keep me entertained. It's ok... I want it to track more like 5-6 seconds before the shot, show a timer when I'm looking at the trace, and I'd like it to show where the shot broke on the target. 8, 9, 10... It's lacking useful data if you are already a decent shooter. For those that lack some fundamentals, it's great.

It's helping me with my trigger control. But... It's not much more helpful than blank wall dry fire. The mantis gives me data that's very easy to read and understand, but so does focusing on your front sight during dry fire. Everytime I have a score below 90 on the mantis, my front sight already told me it wasn't good. What I like about the mantis is it helps confirm that bad trigger press and helps show what the pistol is doing during those bad shots. It's also helped me call shots based on front sight movement.

Do I think the mantis is worth it? Yes. For dry fire, the X10 is way overpriced, so stick with the cheaper versions. 

All that said, for dry fire at home, I want to sell the mantis and buy a scatt for next winter.

Did you get the Mantisx X10 and so is why you are saying it is overpriced?

I wonder if it is lacking data the SCATT system provides...

I had one of the original Mantis units. Loved it. Upgraded to the 10x a few months back. It really helped me with my trigger control, but to be honest I think the most important thing it did was make dryfire a little more fun. Anything that makes you dryfire, in my opinion, is worth it. I would agree that you probably do not need the 10x if you are only going to do bullseye dryfire. But if you plan on using it on anything else it's pretty cool. I love the "save the Hostage" drills for with my carry gun. Probably the best thing about mantis is the company. The customer service has been amazing. If you have any ideas about what could make the software better, contact them. There have been a few times where they pushed an update within a few days of a, "it would be nice if..." email.

I'm pretty skilled when dry firing. Where I get grossly errant it's when it's live fire time with all the slop in my shot process. In a typical string I might average 88%. I think the MantisX3 does a great job with live fire, mounted under the dust cover. In the settings link you can select "Bullseye" which I believe gives you the prolonged shot tracking. The yellow and red (in particular) "tracings" are my nemesis.

I wonder how much work would it be for the software to work as a Bullseye system.  I would love to use the Mantis for Silhouette and precision pistol training.   I'll ask Mantix if anyone has requested this feature.

Thanks for the feedback/responses.

Mark

kd5zmg wrote:Did you get the Mantisx X10 and so is why you are saying it is overpriced?

I wonder if it is lacking data the SCATT system provides...

I did get the X10. I wanted the recoil analysis aspect, so that pushed me to the X10. I need to use it during live fire still, and I'm hoping I'll feel better about my purchase after that.