Putting the Mantis Blackbeard and Laser Academy Kits to the Test
Intro
With the current ammo shortages and outlandish prices, many of us have been doing a more dry fire practice to keep our shooting skills honed. Even for those that reload, finding primers at a reasonable price (or just finding them) has also been a challenge. I was recently given the opportunity to evaluate the Mantis Laser Academy laser dry firing system for pistols in addition to their Blackbeard system for the AR-15. I jumped at the chance to take my dry firing practice a bit further, or at the very least make it more enjoyable.
Background
The Blackbeard kit allows you do dry fire practice with your AR-15 without having to rack the charging handle after each shot as the device resets your hammer automatically using electromechanical means in the drop-in bolt carrier group. The battery that powers it is shaped like a magazine and inserts the same way a normal magazine does. The system works with your existing trigger and maintains the same weight, break, and reset that it has with a regular bolt carrier. The kit comes in it’s a nice protective carrying case.
The Laser Academy kit includes a laser bullet that has a switch where the primer is located. The firing pin hitting this switch turns on the laser momentarily and shines the laser on your target for a split second. This is picked up by the Mantis phone app using the phone’s camera and the location of the laser shot on the target is captured. With the pistol, the user is required to rack the slide after each shot in order to reset the trigger. It isn’t as nice as the auto-reset in the Blackbeard, but still allows some useful practice.
Blackbeard and Laser Academy Kits
Laser Academy kit gives you everything needed to run your pistol with the phone app. It contains:
- Full Access code to Mantis Laser Academy
- Pink Rhino laser in 9x19 (or whatever cartridge you choose)
- Set of 5"x7" Smart Targets
- Set of 8"x11 Smart Targets
- Mini tripod and phone holder
- Large tripod and phone holder
- Laser cartridge extraction stick
- Poster tack
- A set of target stand holders (not shown)
- Carrying cases (not shown)
Phone app auto-detecting multiple smart targets
The application calls out the score after each shot in a normal human voice, so the user isn’t required to continuously look at the phone to know if they’re making good hits. This is nice when practicing from across the room or down a long hallway as the phone needs to be relatively close to the target(s), so you can’t always see it from your firing point.
Sound effects include both gun shots and brass hitting the ground. I found this made training sessions a lot more fun and engaging. I think this feature would be especially beneficial with younger shooters that would normally find any kind of dry fire practice boring after a few minutes. This makes practicing more like a video game.
Other targets can also be used and the app has the functionality to assign shapes to if for scoring zones. However, unlike the included targets with the patterns in the corners, these scoring zones do not automatically get assigned to the target. You have to move them around on the image of manually. This means that if the target or phone gets moved, the scoring zone is off. Since the applications clearly has the ability to detect shapes, it would be a beneficial feature if the application could auto detect scoring zones on targets and if the user could save the values for the various scoring zones. This is functionality Mantis should really add.
My other beef was that currently the smart targets are only available in 8.5”x11” and 5”x7” sizes. I think full size targets are more beneficial for practicing a lot of different drills where using the small targets isn’t practical for what is being practiced. Larger targets also allow more realistic engagements from longer distances and work better for practicing some of the more dynamic drills. Mantis should consider offering some full size targets with the smart target features. Even just having the target center of an IDPA or IPSC target as a smart target on an 8.5”x11” page would be useful. I ended up scanning the IDPA smart targets and blowing them up to half size (11”x17”) so that the application could auto-detect them when they were moved around.
Untapped Potential
After using both the pistol system and the Blackbeard system for several weeks doing stationary dry fire drills, I felt like the system had a lot of potential that wasn’t being taken advantage of. The advertising and many of the reviews I’d seen seemed focus solely on stationary shooting drills, developing the fundamentals and holster draws. I could see a lot of uses for the system for practicing more advanced things.
The system has many benefits beyond being able to save money on ammunition doing basic practice during the current ammunition shortage. I found that it allowed me to practice things that I couldn’t practice easily on a typical public shooting range (which is all that is available locally). Even when ammunition is inexpensive and plentiful, many ranges don’t allow any kind of dynamic shooting outside of a sanctioned IDPA or IPSC match (for liability reasons). And even when they allow those matches, some will disallow shots to be fires while on the move. Finding a place to practice more advanced drill (in a way that provides hit feedback) is not always easy for many of us.
In order to further evaluate some of my training use ideas, I performed several training sessions with different groups of friends, with wide variety of shooting skills and experience. In one session, we placed one of my blown-up half size IDPA smart target on an interior door at the end of a long hallway that had several doorways on each side. We then proceeded to practices firing on the move while advancing down the hallway. This was done with both the pistol laser and the Blackbeard system. The Blackbeard’s resetting trigger was better suited for this, but there was still value in practicing with the pistol. It didn’t take long for a buddy with no experience firing on the move to develop the skill. He went from only being able to hit the target 50 percent of the time while moving at a slow walking pace to being able to hold keep his bullets on it while advancing quite rapidly. Holding the half-sized IPSC target was roughly equivalent to holding the C zone in a full sized target. I feel like this application was a much better use of the Blackbeard paired with the Laser Academy application as the hit feedback was really beneficial.
Targets on an interior door at the end of a long hallway
We also practiced advancing while using the doorways as cover, taking snap shots from them and firing as we transitioned between them. Some of the participants had never practiced shooting weak side with a rifle. However, this was the only way to engage the target from some of the shooting positions without completely exposing one’s self. It’s a skill that many people neglect to practice. Hit feedback is important when developing this skill as eye position can affect the point of impact, particularly when some of the less expensive optics are used.
Another interesting use of the system was room clearing. We took turns setting up the half size IDPA smart target(s) and phone in different rooms and having the others do blind room clearing drills with the pistol and the Blackbeard equipped AR. The app’s ability to automatically calibrate for one or more smart targets in a matter of seconds made repositioning the targets in different rooms and varying the number of targets a snap.
Many other training scenarios could be devised and practiced in the comfort of one’s own home. However, I do feel like full sized targets are better suited for a lot of applications and hope Mantis will offer these in the future.
Conclusion
These are definitely products that I’m going to make good training use of. I love the Blackbeard’s ability to fire multiple shots without having to cycle the action after each shot. This is a feature that would be really beneficial in the pistol as well.
My next step is going to be to have the smart targets printed full size using a plotter I have access to. I’m looking forward to seeing what other scenarios I can run with them.
