Due to our political climate and the challenges our nation is facing, we find ourselves with another ammunition shortage. Long-time gun owners and shooters are well familiar with ammunition droughts. The question gets asked yet again: how should one train in such an event? Do you continue to shoot and diminish your ammo supply in hopes of it “bouncing back”? What if you are a casual shooter, or new to gun ownership entirely? Mantis is a company whose products answer this question, with their latest iteration, the Mantis X10 Elite, doing the best job thus far.

What is the Mantis X10 Elite? IA sensor that mounts  on the picatinny/accessory rail of a handgun and tracks even the slightest movement of the pistol. This sensor then connects to your phone via Bluetooth and collects the data. All one needs to do is attach the sensor, download the app, and connect the devices. You’re ready to rock.

Want to practice with your own firearm? Does it have a common Rail?The Mantis X10 Elite has you covered.

The first thing we noticed upon firing up the unit and the app is the huge list of capabilities that are available, a near overwhelming amount. However, we were prompted by the app to start the introduction tutorial to learn the ins and outs of what the system was designed to do. This included a basic benchmark of your “score”, which was determined by 10 reps of trigger pulls. The system grades you on how clean the press is. For example if you are slapping the trigger or , your score will go down and the movement will be recorded. After completing the benchmark, the app then reviewed the results and suggested what cost the trainer points.

The first page contains a type of pie chart that might look familiar, as these are often hung up at indoor ranges and used for instruction. The idea is it will “diagnose” why your shot drifted away from the center of the target and what your body might be doing to create this. The tips offered on this page are incredibly helpful to help hone in on that higher score.

Selecting any of the red bars on chart 1 will bring up tips for how to improve in the particular area. For example you might be anticipating the recoil or jerking the trigger.

The second chart is a visual representation of the movement before the trigger breaks in a type of bar graph.

The third chart, however, really shines a light on the intuition built into this little sensor. For every shot, the movement just before the trigger press, during, and just after are tracked separately and represented by a moving line on a target. The blue line shows movement just before you begin trigger travel,  the yellow is trigger take-up to the wall, and red just after the trigger breaks and your follow-through with a small X showing where the trigger broke exactly. It is amazing how the sensor was able to pick up movement, even through our very best trigger presses.

Once the tutorial is complete, one can choose from three levels of training courses with milestones and tasks to complete, like “do at least 20 shots a day for four days in a row,” and the app tracks it all. Beyond the guided training, there are several drills present within the app such as magazine reload drills, a shot timer, cadence drills, and a few timed drills.

In addition to handguns, the Mantis X10 Elite also can be used on rifles and shotguns although in a somewhat lesser capacity. We tried the Mantis on several rifles to see if the dry-fire functions would work, but it seemed like the sensor would not pick up any trigger press information. It is likely that these functions would work live-fire, however considering the focus of this review was dry-fire tools, this was not pursued. We wouldn’t recommend this as a dry-fire tool for AR-15s or shotguns, more of a handgun tool with some long gun functionality as a bonus.

The Mantis X10 Elite also includes an additional two features: the Recoilmeter and the Holster Draw Analysis. The Recoilmeter tracks one’s handgun through the recoil impulse in a live fire string. It’s intriguing to see the recoil pattern, but once you amend whatever grip mistakes that were causing any inconsistency, there’s not much of a reason to use this feature. The Recoilmeter also requires live ammunition, so you won’t be doing this in your living room. The Holster Draw Analysis tracks the speed and efficiency of ones draw-stroke after a shot timer sounds. If you intend to train with a holster, and you’ll be required to use one molded for a weapon light attached or purchase Mantis’ own pancake holster. Most holsters designed to be used with a weapon light, however, focus the retention pressure on the light body itself. You might find the handgun to fit loosely or might not “click” into place anymore if you use the type of holster without a light on your weapon. The X10 Elite also struggled to identify when the handgun was holstered in the “Holster Draw Analysis” mode, and it took several attempts to get it to function properly.

A favorite feature of the Mantis X10 Elite is it has the capability to have . It’s easy to swap from one to the other in the settings tab, which is a must for those who one more than a single firearm.

The Mantis X10 Elite comes with a rail that can be semi-permanently affixed to a , and a barrel clamp that can fit onto a shotgun barrel. It fits into a clean and small zip case.

The Mantis X10 Elite works incredibly well- if you have a firearm that has an accessory rail. Thankfully, Mantis sells several adapter plates that can be affixed to the baseplate of a magazine, so if you have a Glock 43, S&W Shield, or a similar sub-compact firearm, you’re in luck. Unfortunately, if you would like to train with a revolver or a firearm without an accessory rail not supported by Mantis, this tool might not work as intended without semi-permanent modifications to your firearm. Another issue we ran into is a common one faced by non-adjustable picatinny mounts, and that is it would not fit on everything. Some polymer rails for AR-15s and handgun accessory rails were just a hair too big.

Does this combination help one train at home and become a better shooter? We believe so, despite a few quirks. When implementing a dry-fire regiment to  sharpen trigger proficiency and become a better shooter without using live ammunition, the Mantis X10 Elite offers actionable data and feedback to enhance the experience. Is it worth the $249.99 price tag? For the features and capabilities it contains, and in the strange and uncertain times were in, we believe that the answer is a resounding yes. Other than a few specific , such as the holster drill, the Mantis X10 Elite delivers on what it promises and then more.

Mantis X10 Elite Shooting Performance System – For $249.99 on Amazon.

More On Training: Dry-Fire or at the Range

• Not all dry-fire training is for competition shooters. Heres some every-day Practical Pistol Training.
• Tactical, Technical, and Challenging, this is Not Your Average Dry-Fire Practice.

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