MantisX Training System: First Impressions

The MantisX training system is a small module that attaches to the Picatinny rail of a firearm and connects via Bluetooth to an app on your smartphone or tablet. It detects and analyzes movement as you pull the trigger. The app then shows if and how the shooter moved the gun for each shot fired, for both dry- and live-fire exercises.

This year at SHOT Show 2018, Mantis X displayed three new improvements to its app.

The biggest news is the addition of social features that allow you to follow your friends and see what they’re doing with their own MantisX. Not only can you follow their individual practice sessions and progress, you can see leaderboards and compare results within groups. MantisX tells us that they’re planning on expanding the capabilities of this feature through the year to allow you to issue challenges to your groups to add a little friendly competition.

Another new feature of the MantisX adds different drills available within the training portion of the app. Instructions are included for each drill, and you can add new ones if you are looking for variety. Over time, you can compare your performance on each drill, as well as filter results so that you can see how you’re doing on similar skills across drills.

The MantisX app now also includes a shot-timer function to measure how long it takes between shots detected by the module. In dry-fire mode, it does require the striker or hammer to fall to detect any shot, so it won’t work for more than one shot on your striker-fired or single action gun unless you rack between each trigger press or use an airsoft or similar tool.

No change to the hardware is expected, but app improvements are planned to be ongoing this year. MSRP is $149.99.