Mantis has officially released an AR-10 version of their very popular Blackbeard X Product.  Mantis has packed all the same great quality features we have come to love in the Blackbeard and Mantis-X into a system for your favorite AR-10 to allow us to perform advanced dryfire practice.     

Mantis has developed a system that replaces the bolt carrier group and magazine to allow you to dryfire your AR.  The system automatically resets your trigger to allow for the next follow up shot.  This combined with the connection to the Mantis-X App provides for an incredible set of analysis tools takes your dryfire practice to a whole other level.

The system as it arrives to you comes in a very nice case that contains the magazine, the bolt carrier, charging cord, and laser alignment Allen wrench.  It also has a sticker and instructions.

The system is easy to use.  First thing to do is to charge the magazine.  Unlike the older Mantis-X systems, this uses the newer USB-C charging interface.  A full charge is expected to be good for 50,000 shots!  The only thing that requires charging is the magazine.  The Bolt carrier replacement gets it power from the magazine.

After charging place, remove the bolt carrier group from your AR-10, press the hammer in to the lock position and insert the Mantis X bolt carrier into position and re-assemble the rifle.  At that point the magazine is inserted and you will need to power up the system with a button on the magazine.  This will also allow you to sync with your Mantis App.

It should be noted that the buttons are flush and don’t stick out.   This is a nice feature to ensure that the nothing hits them accidently as you are handling the rifle.

The bolt carrier group has a button on it to toggle the laser to off/trigger/on.  The trigger setting allows the laser to come on only when the trigger is pulled.  The carrier group also has laser alignment screws that are easily accessible while in the gun through the ejection port.

When you sync the magazine with the App, it automatically recognizes which system it is synced to and provides drills and settings that are available to the Blackbeard X system.  You will see some of your standard drills like benchmark, compressed break etc, but you also will get Kneeling and more that are specific to the rifle.

What I really enjoy is the Courses.  Mantis has 3 levels of courses, Basic, Advanced and Elite courses that will test your ability as a rifleman.  While the drills are essentially the same, the required performance increases.  Completing these courses will provide a marked improvement on the range.  Mantis will also send you a very cool Velcro patch for free when you complete each level.

The system is sold for $299 with no laser, $319 with a red laser and $349 with a green or infrared laser. They have specific versions for AR-15, SIG MCX, AR-10,  FN-SCAR Light, and FN-SCAR-Heavy (Both FN variants are going to be released soon in 1 quarter of 2025). 

To find out more or purchase your own Blackbeard X, visit them today at:

https://mantisx.com/pages/blackbeardx