TFB Review: Mantis Laser Academy
I carry a concealed firearm most days. Luckily, I’ve never had to draw it and use it, although there were a few times I thought I might have to. In a self-defense scenario, your draw time matters greatly. The Mantis Laser Academy helps you practice your draw and track your shots through dry fire at home. There are a few other benefits that I’ll cover in this review as well.
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I got a demo of the Mantis Laser Academy from a Mantis Rep at an event held by Big Tex Ordinance. I was pretty impressed by it, and later in the week, I bought a Mantis Laser Academy kit.
Packaging and Contents
The Laser Academy kit that I bought came with a travel case, two tripods, a bunch of small and large targets, metal target holders, camera lens covers, what we call “Sticky Tack” but is labeled as “blue adhesive putty,” a travel case, one laser cartridge, and a stick to push the laser cartridge out of the chamber because the laser cartridge doesn’t have a rim.
Mantis sells the Laser Academy as a full kit and a travel kit. The full kit includes the travel kit, large targets, metal target holders, camera lens shades, and a large tripod. My only complaint about the Mantis Laser Academy is that it seems expensive. If you already have a good tripod at home, a printer, and tape, you’d probably do just fine with the travel kit if you didn’t want to spend the money on the full kit.
The metal target holders, large targets, large tripod, and camera lens shades can all be bought à la carte on the MantisX website if you want to start with the travel kit, although you’ll probably end up spending a little bit more if you want to buy all the pieces separately. I’ve been happy with the full kit, and have used all the pieces.
Mantis is nice enough to allow you to print your targets. The targets have special squares on each of the four corners. The Mantis software picks up these squares and uses them to identify the squares as a target. You can’t use anything as a target, it’s proprietary.
When I got the kit, I noticed there were a few drills in the Mantis app that the kit didn’t include targets for. I thought they were going to try to squeeze a few more dollars out of me for the targets. I think that’s what we’re all used to in today’s market. I went to their website just to price them for this article, and I was very happily surprised to see that you can download them for free. It looks like they had a Die Hard, Konami, and Jingle Bells expansion, and you can download them and print them all for free. You can also download and print their regular targets for free from their website, which is really cool if you ask me.
There is still a benefit in buying the full-size targets from Mantis. They’re printed on thick card stock. This allows them to stay standing in the target holders. The print looks really good on them as well.
Included in both kits is a full access code to their app. After you punch in the code, you’re able to access the full app. It’s not subscription-based, you punch in the code and you’re done, which is awesome.
The App
The app is simple enough that it’s easy to navigate but has all the features I would want. The app is divided up into drills, courses, and videos. The app is intuitive and has been bug-free in my experience.
There is a pistol marksmanship course, and test in the app. I haven’t taken the course, but it looks like it covers things like grip, stance, sight focus, etc.
There is a video section in the app that shows you how to use the Mantis Laser Academy. The videos are pretty good quality, and concise.
The drills section is the big selling point of the app for me. There are about 31 different drills you can do in the app. When you complete a drill, the app saves the record in the history section.
My favorite drill is the holster draw drill. You start with your firearm in the holster. You hear a beep and have to draw and shoot a target. There are 5 reps, and the app gives you time to rack and re-holster the pistol between start signals. At the end, each shot is placed, scored, and timed. It’s a great drill because it really does help you practice drawing and shooting at home. Before I got the Mantis, I would dry fire like most do with just a holster and an empty pistol. With the Mantis, I’m now able to track my draw stroke times and see where I hit the target. The app saves the info, so I can try to beat my personal record.
My wife’s favorite drill is the Bullseye 5-Shot. The Mantis kit gives you bullseye targets. You have as much time as you want to shoot 5 shots, with the intention of getting the hits closest to the center of the bullseye. The drill helps you work on those pistol fundamentals like grip and trigger pull.
How It Works
You put the cartridge in an empty firearm. The cartridge is like a little boresighter that is only activated for a split second when the firing pin of your firearm hits the button on the laser cartridge. The cartridge emits a little red flash onto the target. You have to have a phone or tablet with the Mantis software downloaded. You point the camera of the device at the Mantis target, and the app/ software picks up and tracks the flash of light.
You can also calibrate the Mantis software to your specific pistol. If the Mantis is showing you’re consistently shooting low, but you know your sights are dialed in correctly for live ammo, you can calibrate the tracking in the app to record the hits correctly. You don’t have to adjust the sights on your firearm.
You have to manually re-rack the slide of a striker-fired pistol each time so that you can reset the trigger. If you have a hammer-fired gun like the Beretta 92, you can practice all day without touching the slide. The laser cartridge doesn’t have a rim, so it doesn’t eject when you rack the slide. You have to use the stick to push the cartridge out when you’re done using it.
My Experience
I was honestly very skeptical of the Mantis Laser Academy, and probably wouldn’t have bought it if I didn’t try it out in person. I didn’t expect to like the Mantis so much, but I’ve had a great experience with it so far.
It helps my draw speed. Before the Mantis, I would dry fire in a safe direction at a wall, or maybe at a TV with the YouTube channel “Dryfire King” on. I was helping to build muscle memory, but I didn’t have the data to determine if my reps had the best performance. With the Mantis Laser Academy, I can tie a good feeling to a physical time and hit.
It convinced my wife to shoot more. I try to drag my wife to the range as much as I can, but some people just aren’t as interested in shooting as others. She saw me doing drills in the kitchen, and it turned into a friendly competition. She was a little out of practice and the Laser Academy gave her a chance to get more familiar with some pistols at home. I think she might’ve remembered herself shooting like Annie Oakley. In reality, she was shooting like a stormtrooper. We both had a good time dry firing and honestly, I think that alone was worth the price of admission.
It helps me compare equipment and firearm setups. I was curious how much faster I would be carrying appendix vs carrying at 4 o’clock, and got the answer with the Mantis. I was also curious how much slower a double action trigger would be from a low-ready, versus a striker-fired firearm, and it allowed me to test it out.
It acts as a rough boresighter as well. I recently removed and swapped some optics around on pistols. I was able to use the laser cartridge to roughly re-zero the optics, although I still had to adjust the zeros a little at the range.
Lastly, it’s just fun. If I could, I would go to the gun range and shoot 200 rounds a day and I honestly mean that. I love shooting pistols and I’m like an addict who can never get enough. Unfortunately, my pockets aren’t deep enough to hit the range every day. I leave the Mantis set up in my home office and use it for dry fire when I get the itch. They have a lot of fun targets, and even though you’re not shooting real bullets at a real target, you’re still building skills and getting more familiar with your firearm.
I don’t think the Mantis Laser Academy could replace the experience I get from going to the range or shooting in a competition. Regular live-fire practice is still an essential component to being a competent pistol shooter, but the Mantis Laser Academy helps you get those reps in when you can’t make it to the range. It’s a nice supplement to my dry fire training.
So what are your thoughts? Are you trying out the Mantis, or sticking to old-school dry firing? Are you skipping dry firing altogether? Let me know in the comments below.
The full Mantis Laser Academy Training Kit shown in this article can be found here: Laser Academy Standard Training Kit | Mantis
The portable Laser Academy Training Kit can be found here: Laser Academy Training Kit – Portable | Mantis
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