A lot of us are pretty tight on cash. This year has not been kind to those of us with an expensive passion. Whether you celebrate any of the upcoming holidays or not, these companies keep putting on deals that can tempt even the most frugal among us. So, what if you grabbed a scratcher, won a few bills, and decided to treat yourself? What would you get? With ammunition availability and the limits thrust upon us due to the pandemic, I would buy the Mantis X3 – Shooting Performance System.

Why the Mantis X3 – Shooting Performance System?

If you don’t know what the Mantis X series is all about, it’s a training tool that allows you to get feedback from your dry fire practice. Some models of the Mantis also give you data from your live-fire training, but I’m not trying to spend 60 cents per round for 9mm. Like going to the gym, I tend to “forget” to dry fire, but make my progress trackable? That’s a borderline obsessive person’s dream, and I’m dreaming.

I’m a husband, a father, have a full-time job, and I’m in the middle of moving to another state. A tool like this would be a perfect way to save money, have fun, and keep up on both my and my wife’s training. The app includes drills and training courses for all skill levels. For holster work, they also offer adaptors to attach the Mantis to your magazine baseplate. You can get the basic dry fire-only Mantis X2 and a base plate adaptor for a little more than $100.

need something to aim at?

Mantis also offers their Laser Academy – Smart Targets specifically made to work with their Laser Academy app. Personally, I’d prefer that Laser Academy was a lightsaber school, but my wife doesn’t allow me to swing things around in the house anymore. The targets are available in a Standard (8.5″ x 11″) and a Portable (5″x7″) size, and are printed on 14pt card stock. You can order a pack of 15 targets (12 different designs) for $19.99 or $14.99 respectively. Or, if you’d rather spend all your money on printer ink instead, all of the targets are available as free downloads. Post them on your wall, put on your chosen firearm, and you have yourself the closest thing you can to a shooting range in your house for under $200.

Tracking progress is important. It doesn’t matter if your first holster draw ever was sub one second. We should always be training and aiming to improve. Like a gym journal, these metrics not only highlight where you’re growing but can help steer your training in a direction that will hopefully whither away your deficiencies.

If this interests you, make sure you take a look at their website and compare the different versions. Mantis is also on Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram, so go give them a look. If you have experience with the Mantis X3, let us know if you think it’s worth it. Happy Holidays, you bunch of troublemakers. I’d buy you all a scratcher if I could.

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