Here are some great ideas for the gun owner on your holiday gift-giving list.
It’s $149.99—Usually I put the prices of products at the end of reviews, but MantisX’s price is right up front so you can think about that while reading the rest of this review.
MantisX is a gadget that attaches to your gun, virtually any gun, observes and records every shot (live or dry) and, via your phone or tablet, offers suggestions to improve your shooting.
Here’s how it works. There is a (small, light, 1 oz.) gadget you attach to your gun. There is an app you download to your phone or tablet, and easily pair the gadget via Bluetooth. When you shoot, or even dry fire, it records info about every shot and gives you great feedback.
The gadget fits on the rail of many guns. Your gun doesn’t have a rail? You can get an adapter for $25 that replaces the baseplate of one of your magazines, and attaches with a screwdriver.
When you shoot, it measures and records three things: the movement of the barrel while you are sighting/holding, the movement of the barrel while you are pulling the trigger and the movement of the barrel from shot break through recoil.
It calculates a score for each shot, based on those three measurements; 100 would be perfect, so your scores and mine will be less. The score for every shot is easy to see on your phone or pad.You get instant feedback “Good shot” or “great shot” if your score is over 90 or 95.
The real value starts to be apparent when you see comments like “Tightening Fingers” or “Heeling” on your screen. You can touch those words and get a picture, an explanation of what it means and…wait for it…how to correct that.
There are several ways to see more about your shot, with consistent colors: blue: hold/sighting. yellow: trigger pull. red: shot breaking and recoil pattern. One is a colored bar graph that shows blue how much the muzzle moved during holding, in yellow how much it moved during your trigger pull, and red for recoil. Don’t like the bar graph display? The trace view (colored squiggles and lines, not a graph) shows you the information in a way that might be more intuitive.
It does record keeping extremely well, but I think the best thing is the coaching feedback that tells you what to change about what you are doing to shoot better. “Possible Causes: slapping the trigger. or tightening the grip,” each with a full explanation of not just what that means but exactly what you can change to shoot better.
Even when I was quite dedicated to shooting, I never dry fired as much as I should have. Heck, to be honest, I almost never dry fired. It was boring, and impossible to see the improvement it was supposed to cause between trips to the range. MantisX works with dry fire, and gives you that instant feedback, making dry fire popular and productive again.
The first afternoon I dry fired over 70 shots, possibly more than ever in one session. I didn’t mind its really occasional mistakes, given the vast amount of accurate information it was accumulating.
Do you know anybody who has an Airsoft or CO2 gun that gathers dust because shooting it has gotten boring? MantixX works with it, too.
You have lots of options, just shoot anything you want or take one of the structured lessons for things like timed shooting, one handed shooting, or reloading magazines.
It is like having a knowledgeable, experienced shooting coach in your pocket offering great advice whenever you want. Not just for shooters, this is a phenomenal tool for anyone who trains or coaches. Who could not use and love that?
Now, remember the price $149.99 plus $25 if you need an adapter. Maybe get one for every shooter you know, and yourself, too?
