Opinions on Mantis-X?

[Near miss]

Has anybody here opinions on Mantis-X.

Based on the search I did it has not been discussed about except mentioned few times.

Please answer any way you like, but these are some questions I am seeking answer to:
Does it work reliably, are you training with pistol or rifle?

Can you see it in use to teach people to shoot slinged 22LR?

How accurate/sensitive it is? Can you dry fire with a bipod also and still get results of the trigger pull?

 

[bigpeddler]

My opinion comes basically from their customer service. It sucks a$$.

I have tried it on my rifle while dry firing and it picks up the trigger break... but not much for motion. Which I suppose is a good thing.

I mostly use it on my pistols, which I find it helpful. Probably won't buy another one if this one dies.

 

[Rover31]

My daughter and I use it. She competes in Biathlon and dry fires quite a bit. She uses the MantisX about 50% of the time.
It does take some use to understand it. Once you learn what it and you are doing I feel like.
It gives good feedback.
When we first got it it did not seem to work correctly. And to contrast the above post, the customer service I received was very fast and helped to get the system working. Several emails were sent and some software updates were done given by our feedback, or so I am told happened.
It does sometimes need some tweaks in the settings depending on the firearm and method of use.
So for the price compared to say a Scatt system it is a bargain.
Several Biathlon racers I know use them weekly if not daily during dry fire training.

 

[Near miss]

My daughter and I use it. She competes in Biathlon and dry fires quite a bit. She uses the MantisX about 50% of the time.
It does take some use to understand it. Once you learn what it and you are doing I feel like.
It gives good feedback.
When we first got it it did not seem to work correctly. And to contrast the above post, the customer service I received was very fast and helped to get the system working. Several emails were sent and some software updates were done given by our feedback, or so I am told happened.
It does sometimes need some tweaks in the settings depending on the firearm and method of use.
So for the price compared to say a Scatt system it is a bargain.
Several Biathlon racers I know use them weekly if not daily during dry fire training.

Thanks for comparing it to scatt systems, we have few models and primarily we are scaling mantis against one.

So it gives feedback:
Does the motion capture tell you anything?
How about the tips it offers?
Any other outputs?

You also made changes to it:
What kind of tweaks did it require?
Did you make the adapterby yourself for the device to mount it onto Biathlon rifle?

And to confirm, it picks off the dry fire every time on the 22LR?

 

[Near miss]

So - I had one. It was okay, but would not recommend it for pistol rapid fire work.

I think you are probably right about that.

But I do keep my pistol marksman training apart from draws / quick fires. I try to get accurate and hope that good groups move from there to rapid firing. It seems to be working.

 

[acudaowner]

Bought one two years ago for the pistols after seeing someone else using it for the money its kind of nice being able to see if I am holding and squeezing the trigger just right liked it a little more for dry firing in the house . I did not expect a lot from it and It showed a lot of twitching that I did not realize I made when shooting understanding what i was seeing in the results was a little strange to me at first later it got a little easier . to me it was nice for the money don't use it as much as I would like to but that's me and my problems not the device . I miss having older good shooters hanging over my shoulder whispering or yelling , no , not like that like this or try it this way , or are your eyes even open on that last shot ? can a machine help make you a better shooter you never know till you try .

 

[Rover31]

@Near miss
Yes it does give feedback for each shot, it colors each part of the shot also. Take up break and follow through.
Most of the tips are helpful some of them I wonder about. Like when it is telling you what you are doing with your hand. Not sure how it picks up which hand it is?
MantisX made some software changes from what I understand.
In the setting you can change the sensitivity that helped a bunch.
The attachments are all from Mantis.
And it now
Picks up 90% of the shots and about 3-5% of the time it detects something that is not the shot but says it is. However that is very easy to see in the feedback. The pattern will not match anything else so you just delete it. We use an iPad for the app work.
Hope that helps. I can get a pic later today to show how it is set up if ya want.

 

[TimK]

Huh, I'm surprised at the lukewarm reviews. I like mine a LOT. I probably like it more for pistol than rifle, but I do use it some for rifle training. Fully supported on a rifle, every break is a 99.X. I suppose the sensitivity isn't high enough to detect the tiny movement in that position. I find it works better off the tripod or on various non-prone positions where there is more movement. Off hand, of course, it works best since there is so much movement.

I put rails for it on all my competition rifles, and I think it's going to do some good.

As a pistol training tool, I think it's excellent. I took a pistol class a couple weeks ago, and it was the instructor who turned me on to the MantisX. I try to dry fire with every few days, and I nearly always have it on in live fire. I've learned quite a lot in a few weeks and my pistol shooting is showing improvement.

 

[Near miss]

Huh, I'm surprised at the lukewarm reviews. I like mine a LOT. I probably like it more for pistol than rifle, but I do use it some for rifle training. Fully supported on a rifle, every break is a 99.X. I suppose the sensitivity isn't high enough to detect the tiny movement in that position. I find it works better off the tripod or on various non-prone positions where there is more movement. Off hand, of course, it works best since there is so much movement.

I put rails for it on all my competition rifles, and I think it's going to do some good.

As a pistol training tool, I think it's excellent. I took a pistol class a couple weeks ago, and it was the instructor who turned me on to the MantisX. I try to dry fire with every few days, and I nearly always have it on in live fire. I've learned quite a lot in a few weeks and my pistol shooting is showing improvement.

Thanks!

How easy is it to set the sensitivity for different guns?

Can you use it to identify common errors?
Like, are you able to identify from the movement record the specific error that occurred from another?
Like, was it too quick pull or was it bad arm support etc.?

Being able to self monitor would help also, at least with new shooters who do not recognize their errors so easily.

 

[TimK]

Sensitivity does not seem to be adjustable. You just tell it what gun you’re using, the position and orientation of the sensor, things like that.

Based of what it sees, it suggests possible faults and suggests corrections.

considering the low cost, I think they’re a steal.

 

[Rover31]

In the app at the bottom go to settings
Then scroll down to advanced settings (see below)
At the top you will see “shot detection sensitivity. Default is normal try high and see if that makes a difference if you are having pickup problems.
It could also be how or where it is mounted on the rifle. I attach directly to the barrel with the adaptor from Mantis.

 

[Near miss]

Thank you very much, hopefully this will help other members looking at buying Mantis.

Sounds like the barrel attachment is probably the best option then? The striker vibrations run straight through the barrel to the device.

 

[Rover31]

Yep I think the “barrel” mount is good. It works well for us. Here is a pic of the attachment. It is a solid piece that the Mantis attaches to that is held tight against the barrel with the strap shown.

 

[Near miss]

Yep I think the “barrel” mount is good. It works well for us. Here is a pic of the attachment. It is a solid piece that the Mantis attaches to that is held tight against the barrel with the strap shown.

I see. Kind of unique way, I would have expected to see a torqued ring around the barrel. I would think that any fabric tends to mute those vibrations a bit, and makes it harder for the device to pick the firing pin strike.

What I was thinking is to get a picatinny mount to the barrel and attach it to that, it does come with the picatinny lock by default? That way it will be easily attached to guns of all kind with bull barrels.

 

[Rover31]

Yeah I thought that at first also. But I found that it does have good contact I do not wrap the strap around the barrel on ours like they show on the website. The rigid mount is direct to the barrel.
The website does have mounts like you show.