The Mantis BlackbeardX
If you know me, then you know I haven’t ever really been a proponent of dry fire. Simply due to the artificiality of it. For me, the “reps” were negated by always having a dead trigger after each string of fire. It’s also mind numbingly boring. I much preferred practicing with a .22 or just limiting my round count at the range to conserve ammo and money. The BlackbeardX has changed that though.
At the time of writing this, I’ve put close to 6,000 rounds through the system, with a friend putting another 3,000 through it. Altogether, in today’s market, that would equate to over $3,500 in ammo, and lots of cleaning through a standard AR15. The BlackbeardX retails for $375, so it’s already paying for itself.
The easiest way to write this is to just list the Pros and Cons of the system…so…here we go.
Pros: The system is without a doubt fun. It puts every other form of dry fire to shame because the possibilities with it are endless. It allows you practice offsets and works with any type of optic you have mounted on your rifle. It fits your exact rifle set up without any modification. Pull the functioning bolt and charging handle out, check to VERIFY its unloaded, insert the BlackbeardX BCG, and lastly insert the BlackbeardX mag and you’re ready to go. You get instantaneous feedback from the app and not just split times and accuracy. You can watch in real time your actual movements with the gun, because the app tracks EVERYTHING! Didn’t drive the gun enough during a transition? It shows you. Overcompensate for bringing the gun up? It shows you. Slap the trigger? It shows you. The system is worth the money alone simply for all the feedback it provides. Allowing you to track each individual time you made an error. The unit is good for 100,000 trigger pulls. That’s A LOT of practice! As I’m writing this the battery is still almost fully charged after close to 5000 rounds run through it. The courses and drills available through the app are great skill builders and really give you zero excuse as to why you can’t become more proficient with a rifle. It comes with 10 pre-loaded drills along with the “open training” set up to run whichever drills you want. Talk about keeping you engaged! It makes it hard to put the system down knowing how many different challenges there are out there. If doing the drills simply for the fun and experience of it wasn’t enough; Mantis rewards you for completing certain challenges. Which is cool as hell and hopefully pushes you to keep up with the system. There have been zero connectivity issues with the system, which is a big plus for me. I want to spend less time tinkering with tech issues and more time shooting.
Cons: Initial buy in will be a little pricey for some. But, once you realize the cost savings on ammo, it should help you get over the price tag. Even at current market price, the system costs less than a case of 5.56 ammo. Another small issue I had was calibration/sensitivity. It took some fine tuning to get the laser where it needed to be, which was fine, just a little frustrating at first. Next, sometimes I was able to outrun the laser, but I must assume the system is based upon a standard milspec trigger, and probably not a competition trigger. Which is fine considering the system auto-resets the trigger. Lastly, and not really a negative, but I’m hoping it’s something Mantis can come up with for the future, The ability to do mag changes and reload drills. I understand the magazine is the “battery”, houses the connection to the app, and should not be dropped. But if there was a way to add a bumper maybe, so we could purchase additional mags to do reload drills, it would really take the system to the next level. (Live edit here…Mantis DOES offer base pads so you CAN in fact drop the mags free for regular reload drills…which is AWESOME!!)
So, aside from a few tech issues, the BlackbeardX really is a home run. I honestly think that anyone that gets one, and puts the work in, will see their proficiency and confidence with their rifle increase. Especially since the app records all previous drills and attempts for you to look back on. I’d highly recommend it for the gun owner that “has everything”, a way to get new shooters more comfortable with a rifle without spending a ton on ammo, or the shooter that wants to increase their skill level but doesn’t have the time/ability to hit the range weekly.
If you’re reading this in time for any Black Friday/Pre Christmas sales, I’d head on over to http://www.foundingfathersguns.com and snag one of these for the shooting enthusiast in your life that has everything! you literally can’t go wrong with this as a gift for a shooter of any level/competency.
Black Dirt Diaries 