Mantis X10 & the Smart Firearms Training Device: A Winning Combination
Lots of negligent discharges occur with an “unloaded gun.” They’re never fun to have happen, can be humiliating, costly, and tragic.
Avoid the opportunity for the negligent discharge to occur in the first place and do your dry fire practice with a tool called the Smart Firearms Training Device (SFTD) and pair it with the proven to be effective Mantis X10 Elite.
The SFTD is feature rich and worth it’s weight in gold just by itself. Pair it with the Mantis X10 and you take your training to a whole new level when conducting dry fire training.
For more information on the SFTD, read our article HERE.
For our previous article on the Mantis X10 and an introduction to what it does, read our article HERE.
The MantisX and Mantis X10 Elite can be mounted to the Picatinny Rail on the SFTD just like your standard pistols and rifles that are Picatinny Rail equipped. When using the Mantis App, make sure you select that you’re doing dry fire training, sync your device to the app, and get to work!
I find it beneficial to use the app screen as my point of aim when using the SFTD training pistol and work through my different drills that I’m focusing on.
The feedback is instantaneous and can be more in depth when you holster up and take a closer look. The instant feedback keeps you from doing the wrong behavior over and over which creates more problems!
Holster Draw Analysis
When using the Mantis X10 Elite in holster draw analysis mode you’re able to accurately and reliably receive data to help you improve your draw stroke.
If your holster doesn’t allow for anything to be mounted to the Picatinny Rail, Mantis has a solution to that as well, just take a spare pistol magazine and install the accessory Picatinny Rail section to the floor plate, make sure your app settings have the device set for the right location, and get to work.
The Holster Draw Analysis mode breaks down the holster draw into five steps and helps you recognize the inconsistent or s l o w phases of your draw.
A Five-Phase Draw Stroke
The five phases or steps that the Holster Draw Analysis focuses on are Grip, Pull, Horizontal, Target, & Shot. These phases are very similar to what I’ve taught for years on holster draw which are Grip, Clear, Rock and Lock, Look, and Guard.
Grip is the time from the start beep to when your hand grips the gun. Yes, the Mantis X10 Elite knows when you grip the gun.
Pull is how long it takes you to pull the firearm out of the holster.
Horizontal is the time from the pull to when the gun is drawn and rotated to a horizontal alignment (what I’ve referred to as Rock and Lock.)
Target is how long it takes you to get on target after getting the gun horizontal.
Shot is the time from being on-target to when the shot breaks.
With all these five phases or steps pulled apart for you, it is easy for you to see where you’re losing time during your presentation of the pistol. Go to the second screen on the Mantis App and MantisX displays overlaid traces of your draw stroke in that training session.
The overlaid traces of your draw stroke provide you valuable information about your consistencies or inconsistencies for that matter as well as little nuances about your draw stroke that you maybe didn’t realize. Again, where are you loosing time and are you having to work around gear placement that maybe needs changed?
After doing some dry fire work we validated the work using a real firearm and ammunition on the range, still using the app with a Mantis X10 Elite installed. Big improvements were made in a small amount of time and the improvement was observable, documentable, and provided accurate feedback of how to make it better.
When I finished working on draw stroke using the Holster Draw Analysis, I was sure to go back to open training and spend some time doing some precision fire just like I would if I was doing live fire.
If you’re stuck at home or don’t have regular access to a range even when there isn’t a global pandemic going on, you should invest in a Smart Firearms Training Device and couple it with a Mantis X10 Elite. You’ll be ready for whatever comes your way that needs a firearm response.
