With ammo costs being what they are, I figured a good dryfire setup was required. 95% of my dryfire training is based on drawing from a holster and an accurate first shot (USPSA). The X10 and Laser Academy sounded good and seemed to work well. Being a nerd with too much time on my hands, I decided I'd go as far as I could to optimize this to my needs. My 'training' magazine has the spring removed, the follower glued in place (a mm or two lower as I don't want it to lock the slide back), lead shot of the same weight as a full load of 9mm glued in place and the X10 semi-permanently in place. The target I'm using was downloaded from the Mantis website (pretty cool they offer that), the resolution upscaled, the canvas size increased and printed on thick matt stock on some website I found that prints multi-page posters (9 pages for this). The target is pretty much the same size as an official USPSA target. I recommissioned an older tablet to run the app and is used exclusively now for this purpose and lives on this tripod. It took me a little time to get lighting, app settings, tablet camera etc. working the way I want, but it now works flawlessly. With no extra effort required to set this up, it is very motivating to me to get home from work and spend the next 30 minutes or so training daily. A couple of months ago my draw and first shot was ~1.6 to 1.8 seconds, last week I shot my first sub-minute time (albeit 0.99 seconds), A-zone too. I'm definitely a believer and have recommended this to others

@ mantis, where's my free t-shirt :)

Just got the X3, good little device and on my Steyr ATC5 it is an easy fit.

However, I also want to mount it on my Ruger Mk IV Target. This pistol has a smooth barrel, however, Mantis does offer a special adapter that replaces the magazine floor plate on the original mag, offering a tiny piece of picatinny to mount the X3 on.

My main question would be that I'd think a mag in a pistol is fairly 'sloppy' compared to the frame on the gun itself... Would this influence the performance of the X3?

Another option would be to print a 'bolt on' picatinny rail onto the barrel, printed in ASA or PA6. It would look like an eyesore, though...

I have completed both the Basic (about 2 months ago) and Advanced Marksmanship courses. My understanding was that upon completion the app would ask about where to send the course patches, but I was not asked after either course.

Am I missing where to enter this information, or am I mistaken on how to receive the patches?

I appreciate any and all help!

First two were my first shots with MantisX. Last time were latest and now typical.

The stuff is kinda expensive. The MantisX attachment was like $99 but is a brilliant but to create that muscle memory for shooting. The laser is like $35 but I found the $5-$10 ones on Temu were just as good. In fact, I got a black one that supplied an extra switch for that price. The rubber switch that gets hammered wears out after a thousand or two hits.

I got a phone stand on Temu for $5 too. Mantis supplies targets.

My only regret is not getting x3 for live fire.

Any rumors, updates, best guess on the date of new models of the Titan X? I have one already and love it but I am not Glock shooter and want one with an Sig or 1911 grip angle.

Anyone know if it’s possible to get the Blackbeard to run with a FRT/SS?

I have a MCX with the AS Design Arc v2 . Pictured below for attention

Has anyone designed or sells a stand for both your phone and the target?

Using a tripod was always a hassle to me, especially if I wanted to do something in the app or on my phone, so threw this thing together with some scrap plywood.

I'm a newbie shooter (started in january 2026). The TitanX has been great for dryfiring practice at home! That being said, I'm left eye dominant but righthanded. Apparently my options are: 1) shoot completely lefthanded (less practical in a righthanded world), 2) aim left but shoot right, and 3) aim and shoot rightside and train your right eye for aiming dominance.

The advice I've gotten is to shoot righthanded and train my right eye for aiming, so that's what I'm going with. Again, being able to do this every day at home has made this so much easier and achievable. So far, my left has been pretty stubborn about retaining its dominance but it probably needs a lot more time.

However, the "Strong hand only" drill in the Advanced Markmanship course (score every hit above 80% for 10 shots) has me wondering about left/right. I consistently score a lot better shooting left (support hand) than right (strong hand). My support hand also seems a lot more stable than my strong hand.

This has once again questioning me whether I should switch over to shooting left. I don't have a lot of skin in the game yet, so I could still make the switch. Or is this normal and expected behaviour, and I'm overthinking it?

Happy for any insights or feedback from the more experienced shooters.

Like everyone here, got the Mantis X to work on my dry fire.

On a live range, I shoot low left, typical for a right handed shooter who’s dipping anticipating the recoil.

However, after a few sessions with the Mantis X, I’m consistently shoot high right. I’ve never shot high right on a live range before. Am I setting this up wrong?

Firearm: Glock 34 Gen 5 9mm
Dominance: Right Hand
Distance: 10-15 yards

I got into a discussion with a respected peer about dry-fire practice. He maintains that dry-fire aids are just toys and unneeded gimmicks, and that all the benefits can be achieved for free in isolation. He’s also highly disciplined and has very few distractions, no kids, no wife pulling at his attention. Must be nice. Some of us are out here trying to squeeze in ten minutes between a broken water heater and a three-year-old who just discovered the word “why.”

I used to think the pure, unaided approach was the only honest way to train. I’ve since changed my mind. Dry-fire aids matter to me less for the specific skills they teach (though they do help) and more for what they make me do: pick up a gun and actually dry fire when I have a free ten minutes. Yes, these tools cost money. To me, a thousand dollars spread over two to five years is chump change compared to a hundred thousand quality trigger presses. They gamify dry fire and make me want to train. You can call it a gimmick if you want. I’d rather call it the difference between practicing and just thinking about practicing.

Dry fire builds real skills. The range is the test; dry fire is the practice. Trigger control, grip, presentation, sight picture, you can grind all of that without burning a single round. The problem, at least for me, is simple: plain dry fire feels like work. It’s not fun. No bang, no holes in paper, just staring at a small target on the wall and hoping I did it right. Whispering “good press” to myself in an empty room is a special kind of lonely. It’s like giving yourself a high-five with no one around, technically possible, but not exactly inspiring. I think that’s why so many people, myself included at times, start strong and then quietly quit.

Some aids help isolate specific skills or reinforce core competencies. What the better ones really do, though, is make the practice feel meaningful and engaging enough that I keep showing up.

People are more likely to stick with an activity when three basic psychological needs are met: autonomy (some sense of choice and control), competence (feeling that the work is effective and that you’re improving), and relatedness (feeling connected to a score, a personal best, or even an online community). Gamification targets these needs directly. A laser hit or a Mantis score gives instant proof of competence. Challenge modes and selectable drills support autonomy and let me establish a baseline. Tracking streaks or competing against my previous self creates a mild form of relatedness. When those needs are satisfied, motivation shifts from the extrinsic “I should practice” toward the more intrinsic “this is engaging.”

Immediate feedback is especially powerful. In traditional dry fire I perform the action and then try to judge it myself. That judgment is slow and often inaccurate. I’ve over and under estimated my own performance more times than I care to admit. That uncertainty is discouraging. A clear external signal, a laser flash on an IPSC target or a sensor score on a phone, closes the loop. The brain registers success or failure right away. Successful outcomes act as reinforcers, increasing the chance the same motor pattern will be repeated. It’s basic operant conditioning applied to skill practice.

Gamification also reduces the perceived cost of effort. The same physical repetitions feel easier when they’re embedded in a system with goals and progress markers. This is why people will perform thousands of button presses inside a video game but resist doing the identical actions in isolation. Dig out an old NES controller and try the Konami code, or fire up Contra. Many of us, myself included, need to turn dry-fire practice into something closer to a game just to stay engaged. The human brain would rather chase a digital high score than stand in the living room pretending the couch or Ron Jeremy is a threat.

I still don’t fully understand the resistance to this idea in the shooting community. Research in education and physical training consistently shows higher engagement, greater enjoyment, and improved adherence when game elements are added. In physical education settings, gamified approaches have been linked to increases in intrinsic motivation and decreases in amotivation.

That’s where lasers, Mantis sensors, and CoolFire-style recoil simulators change the experience for me. They stop treating dry fire like pure discipline and turn it into something closer to a video game. Every press has a clear result. The laser hits or it doesn’t. The sensor scores the movement. The simulator gives a little kick. I get instant feedback instead of guessing.

That feedback does two useful things. First, it makes the session more interesting. Hitting the laser or beating my last score feels good. Missing feels like something I can fix right away. Second, it lowers the mental cost of practicing. I don’t have to spend half my attention deciding whether the press was clean. The system tells me. My focus can go toward grip, timing, or the full draw stroke instead. The video game comparison still fits. Standing there pressing up, down, A, and B in isolation is boring. Doing those same actions inside a game with goals, scores, and progress is engaging enough that people to keep going. Dry-fire aids work the same way. They take the same physical reps and wrap them in clear outcomes, tracking, and small challenges. Practice stops feeling like a chore I force myself to do and starts feeling like a short session I actually want to run.

The real win is consistency. Skill comes from volume done with attention. When the practice is more engaging, I simply do more of it. Short sessions become regular instead of rare. Over weeks that extra practice adds up. These tools aren’t magic, and they shouldn’t replace live fire or honest self-checks. Used right, though, they flip the psychology. Dry fire stops being purely about my willpower and starts feeling like a game I can improve at. That shift is what keeps me coming back. If a little CO2 and some electronic feedback is what it takes to get the gun in my hand more often, I’m not too proud to take the help.

Has anyone tried using these with Laser Academy? Does it pick up the laser?

I have been to a range twice in my life and I’ve been using MantisX and laser academy for a little over a week. Am I being unreasonable to expect high accuracy for the Die Hard target from 10 yds with a handgun and reflex sight? I know the headshot target is only maybe 1/2” but I am not hitting dead center of it at all from 10 yds. I am having a hard time keeping that steady. I can hit that zone on maybe 80% of my shots but not dead center.

I have the mantisx10 and blackbeard for the AR15 rifle - but I'm struggeling at bit on how to get a good setup at home for dryfire with the pistol and AR15 with the App.

Does anyone has links to guides or videos for a real new shooter that wants to get the most of the dryfire training :)

After roughly one month and about 3,500 cycles, here’s an honest, data-backed look at running CoolFire with MantisX and Laser Academy on a 2011 platform.

What Actually Works

This system finally kills the biggest annoyance of traditional dry fire: constantly racking the slide. You run your pistol with it trigger and optics, and get a visible laser plus enough recoil impulse to move the gun and reset the trigger. It sits in a useful middle ground between pure dry fire and live fire. For pure practice volume and realism, it beats every pure dry-fire option I’ve used. Being able to fire 50 rounds before work and another 50 when I get home, consistently, for a month is hard to argue with.

Practical advantages

The real value shows in the training advantages it unlocks:

·         Volume —reduced cost reps with no range trip required

·         Access — easy to run daily in short 10–15-minute sessions at home safely

·         Diagnostics — with simulated recoil, grip and trigger errors become far easier to identify, isolate, and train than they are in a completely recoil-free environment

·         Safety — you can rehearse gun handling without live-round consequences while still using mechanics as close to live fire as dry fire practice can get.

 Hardware Reality Check

What works well

·         Uses your actual gun grip weight and set up to include trigger and sights

·         Laser feedback is immediate and useful

·         Quick-fill adapter is excellent (a shot-extender thay roughly beings it to magazine duration)

·         SodaStream CO₂ canisters are convenient.

o   Cold first canister delivered ~750 cycles;

o   Subsequent warm canisters ran 1,200–1,400

 Recommendations to the Companies

To CoolFire

• Customer service replaced a dead laser quickly and without drama- big bonus with a caveat I did just spend almost 1K and filed in under 100 rounds out of the box. I will say I am notorious for breaking things and solving problems… I am the only person I know that can break 3 vang comp 870s in a shot gun course and those things are bullet proof and break Glocks on the regular… at some point this is a superpower.
• Spend the extra $5–10 per kit and deliver meaningfully more durable parts. This system should comfortably run 20,000–35,000 cycles with only routine tip replacement and lube for maintenance.
• Recoil guide rod/spring assembly failed at roughly 1,500 cycles. The rod is a cheap alloy, tapped the weaker way, and uses a non-standard spring size so a normal 1911/2011 recoil spring will not drop in. Replacement assemblies run ~$30 each plus shipping.
• System tips fail regularly. First one around 250 cycles, then two more by 500. Expect a tip every 150–250 cycles. Kit came with five; they should ship far more. At the price they charge for tips, this feels excessive. Including enough extra tips for a year of normal use 100 would be a good start (or price them far more reasonably).
• Use HNBR 90-durometer O-rings for better CO₂ service life, especially in colder conditions. This is the gas industry standard for CO2, why did you select a non-HNBR,  non-siliconized rubber. If  you all get any cheaper you will start squeaking.
  • Lubrication is mandatory because of the rubber seals. Over-greasing creates a mess; light lube every other or every third fill works better.
• For the 1911/2011 kit, use a standard-size interior diameter recoil spring and remove the cheap guide rod the increased price of the spring would be offset by the removal of that cheap guide POS rod. Or stronger guide-rod design so users can source normal replacement parts.
• Laser pulse length is too long (~100 ms) for clean tracking with Laser Academy. Shorten the laser pulse to ~30 ms so it plays cleanly with Laser Academy and similar camera-based systems.
• Stop shipping CO₂ bottles with the kit ship a bottle/coffee warmer instead.
• Git rid of the laser-ammo IMMITS targets they die too quickly and suck. Double down on the Mantis ecosystem instead of forcing compatibility with a functionally weaker alternative.

Overall hardware verdict after 3,500 cycles: it still works and is meaningfully better than pure dry fire, but the wear items and non-standard parts make it feel more consumable-driven than a system at this price should.

To Mantis

• Add a variable laser-duration setting (or camera-side processing) in Laser Academy. When CO₂ mode is selected, assume CoolFire and handle the longer pulse cleanly.
• Improve the dummy-magazine / sensor options so the system plays better with CoolFire. The pic rail on the bottom of the mag sucks. Take note of your titan system that’s a move in the right direction, make slide lock optional for kits like cook fire that need have a non-actuated mag catch to functions
• Raise the quality of the tripod and phone-holder accessories; they currently feel chintzy. Amazon has better alternatives at the same price most people need a 4-foot tripod bet one rebrand it. The kit feels cheap

Integration Notes

MantisX Initial setup treated the safety depression as a trigger pull; adjusting the settings fixed it this issue. The app does not love the CoolFire laser pulse length. And the Mantis Courses lean heavily toward challenge/game modes rather than pure fundamentals work just my 2 cents . Useful for tracking movement, consistency, and trigger press once dialed in, but not a 1:1 predictor of live-fire scores.

Example Live-fire B-8 at 25 yards (same gun, same shooter 10 shot groups ):

• 92 (modified Weaver two handed)
• 88 (strong-hand modified Weaver)
• 90 (support-hand X-dominant-eye bulls eye target stance)

Mantis scores on comparable drills sat consistently in the high 70s to mid-80s. The gap is noticeable, and mainly attributed to prolonged follow through on the app.

Laser Academy This is the weakest link. CoolFire’s ~100 ms pulse is longer than the sub-30 ms flash the software prefers, so registration is inconsistent and distance-sensitive. Roughly 5 yards from the muzzle is the sweet spot. Closer overloads the camera, farther loses reliability. The official phone mount/tripod is mediocre at best,  a basic Amazon tripod + phone holder works better and costs less. Shot placement only captures the last laser spot, and the long pulse often produces a streak of 2-3 shots instead of a clean dot. It works well enough when everything is dialed, but it is clearly not optimized for CoolFire.

Real Cost of Ownership (3,500 Cycles)

Actual money spent to keep the system running:

• Shipping for required extras: $88 (hoping this supports ~10,000 cycles) → ~$0.0088/cycle
• Recoil spring assemblies: $30 (failed ~1,500 cycles) → $0.02/cycle
• Tips: $75 → ~$0.01/cycle
• O-rings + maintenance kit: $14 (estimating one set every 2,500 cycles) → $0.0056/cycle
• CO₂ (after deposit): $25 → ~$0.025/cycle

Running total: roughly $0.066–$0.0694 per cycle.

Live 9 mm currently runs $295–$325 per 1,000 rounds ($0.295–$0.325). Midpoint $0.310:

• Operating cost of CoolFire system: $0.0694
• Savings: $0.2406 per trigger pull

Original system cost ~$460 → break-even around 1,912 cycles (roughly two cases of ammo). Adding the Mantis upgrade purchased through CoolFire (marked up ~$30) + Laser Academy + extras brought total investment to approximately $1,147.

 Updated break-even: ~$4,767 cycles.

Bottom Line

CoolFire is light-years better than traditional dry fire for volume and realism. I will keep using it. The ability to train at home on real mechanics without a 40-minute drive to the range is genuinely valuable.

That said, durability and maintenance requirements of the recoil system (tips + guide rod) is the biggest disappointment. At this price the wear parts should last longer or cost less, and the non-standard spring design is an unnecessary hassle that should have been caught in development. Laser Academy remains finicky and secondary rather than seamless, the fault is up in the air,  MantisX is useful once settings are corrected, but the laser pulse length and limit functionality pure analytical work.

Would I buy it again? Yes, with eyes open on consumables and the understanding that Laser Academy is a secondary extra tool that is fully compatible expect to experiment with lighting and distance. For pure dry-fire volume it still beats the alternatives I’ve tried. Just budget for spare tips, an eventual guide-rod solution, and

I declined to buy one for my father and father-in-law. The ongoing maintenance, and hassle factor is simply too for the average user. They received Mantis Titans and 6 Pink Rhino lasers rounds instead of a cool fire. Now they can practice with a G19 analogy and wheel guns like the fuds they are. ( I know you are reading this). Side bar mantis make a pink rhino in 45LC, 44 Mag and 41 Mag, just saying I would purchase the first 18 in each.                                                                                                                  

If both companies tightened these details and actually coordinated on the laser signature, this combination could move from a good-but-frustrating 80% solution to a genuine 95%  of live fire. Right now, it is still the best home training tool I’ve used for volume and realism, it just requires more ongoing attention and spare parts than it should

I'm a little frustrated with the app. I can't seem to access most of the courses. The website only allows a couple of free targets to download. Is there a secret link to all the targets or do I have to buy them? How do you get into the locked courses?

I haven't dry fired in a while and it showed in some of my recent range time. I decided to pull out the Mantis and get back to working on trigger control with different platforms.

My average score isn't great but it is affecting my range work positively.

Did a circuit today, with a benchmark between each set. First benchmark, last benchmark, and HR.

That dot moves so damn much at 170bpm.

I like several features of this system. The one thing that keeps me from using it is the starting beep. IMO it's not anywhere near the start beep of an actual timer. The tone is lower than a start timer. I find myself way delayed in action because that is not the beep I am listening for. I have even connected my BT headset and had the tone played that way. Is there a way to change that in the app or is Mantis looking to create a spy mode so I can use a real timer and then the data from mantis?

Edit: I really appreciate the downvotes. Makes things more difficult to communicate. Bunch of asses.

I'm a pretty inexperienced shooter. Been to the range twice in my life shooting handgun and rifles, and shot .22 a few times when I was younger. My wife bought me the 9mm laser academy for Christmas and I finally opened it up on Tuesday. Holy friggin' awesome. Ton of fun. We were all (wife, myself, 3 sons) taking turns doing it.

I ordered the 45 acp laser and the 5.56 laser too, and last night also ordered the Mantis X. Anybody have any words of wisdom for using laser academy and Mantis X at the same time? Any gotchas? TIA

Folks,

First of all, I'm brand new to this reddit page, so if this problem has been discussed in the past, I apologize.

When I use either my MantisX or Laser Academy app with EITHER my TitanX laser pistol OR my Glock 47 fitted with a laser insert, I often get what I'm calling false trigger pulls which can be identified by the short trigger times (0.03sec) as shown in the picture (Please no comments about my bad trigger scores! :) ). The problem doesn't appear to be a function of the distance between my iPhone 14 and the targets, but of the distance between me and the target. At very short ranges (3 feet or so), shots are recorded correctly with no short shot times. I've played around with the lighting in the room, and different angles between the camera and the targets, but nothing seems to work.

I've tried to play around with the Shot Detection Delay, but first of all, those sliders only seem to be available when I'm in the "Dry" shot detection mode. If my TitanX is connected, the option to change the shot detection delay goes away (as far as I can tell). However, even when in the "Dry" mode, the default detection delay is 0.15 seconds except for "SIRT/DFM/TTrigger" which is set to 0.70 seconds. So, if nothing else, I wouldn't expect those short shot times to be reported.

Any ideas what's going on?

Thanks!

-Dave

I genuinely don't know