New chrono

[dmshozer1]

Garmin Xero ci pro.

Hard to find a bad review on it.

It would keep me from shooting another one.

[jwhittin]

Its still early.  But it does look good.  Seems pretty versatile. I like the fact that it works indoors and outdoors.  My chrono wont work indoors without adding lights. Kinda pricey.  

[dtsdave]

I have one.  Tested so far at an indoor range.  Worked like a charm.  Did 7 10 shot stings of different loads.   Never had a Chrono before and it seemed to support my thoughts on my ammo.  They are very hard to find in stock right now but seem to be available for backorder.  

[Modoc]

I’m looking at replacing/supplementing my Ohler 33 with one.  Size and not having to close the range to set up/adjust/pick up from the ground (wind) are BIG reasons along with not shooting the screens. 
 

Members of The Sniper’s Hide have been very happy with the ones received, although there have been some teething issues.  It has been tested against other chronographs by members and has given consistent readings when compared to other options.

 

I also like the 100 fps to 5000 fps range of the unit.

 

Now to recover from the rear main seal and transmission rebuilds and I will be getting one.

[RangerTrace]

I've been using a cheap Prochrono for 10+ years, but I'd like to get one to use indoors as well.  Hows this one compare to Lab Radar?

[dtsdave]

The Labrador is huge compared to the Garmin.  It is also, according to things I have read, finicky about aim and trigger event.  The Garmin is so small and was very easy to use.  There seem to be a lot of Labradar units for sale right now.  eBay has like 10 on there now.  

Edited October 27, 2023 by dtsdave

[shred]

Soon as the Garmin was announced a couple LabRadars came up for sale around here for a couple hundred under Garmin $.  It is objectively better than the LR just on size alone, even more so if you want to bolt it onto a rifle.

 

That said my LR does great for what I do (which is 99% pistol).  The 3 annoyances are-- bluetooth drops (newer phone mostly fixed that), needs a laptop bag to haul around and a $15 USB battery pack to run it.   With that you can run constant-on and not worry about triggers.

 

Aiming is part of the physics of radar (Cosine-theta and all that) and not hard.  A chrono-less pistol shooter could do OK picking up a used LR.  I'd guess major matches are going to use them for a while yet.

 

[Farmer]

Watching the video made me wonder how wide the pickup range was on the Garmin.  Don’t know if it could happen but if at a range with other shooters next to you could it pick up their shots too? 

[Jim Watson]

The Garmin is so handy and convenient, it almost makes me want to buy one and redevelop my loads.  Almost.

[slavex]

On 10/27/2023 at 10:01 AM, Farmer said:

Watching the video made me wonder how wide the pickup range was on the Garmin.  Don’t know if it could happen but if at a range with other shooters next to you could it pick up their shots too? 

lots of videos out now with people trying the Garmin on a busy firing line, while it is possible for it to pick up a shot if the rifle is close enough, there seems to be some sort of magic where it knows it's not your gun being fired and doesn't add the shot to the list. I don't know if it can tell the shot came from a different location and thus ignores the data or what, but it seems very consistent in only adding your own shots to the list. 

 

[Farmer]

42 minutes ago, slavex said:

lots of videos out now with people trying the Garmin on a busy firing line, while it is possible for it to pick up a shot if the rifle is close enough, there seems to be some sort of magic where it knows it's not your gun being fired and doesn't add the shot to the list. I don't know if it can tell the shot came from a different location and thus ignores the data or what, but it seems very consistent in only adding your own shots to the list. 

 

That’s interesting, maybe it has to be straight away and not at an angle, or possibly it has a report microphone in it that triggers it from your firearm. Pretty cool little unit either way. Garmin should be able to figure it out being’s they make guidance and radar systems. 

[RangerTrace]

I don't know much about chronograph radars, but there was a time when I was handy with one in a patrol car.  The closer to 90 degrees to the unit the better and more accurate the measurement is.  If someone is a lane or two away, it's going to being in the wide spot of the beam and less likely to be detected........I guess.

[ChuckS]

5 hours ago, RangerTrace said:

I don't know much about chronograph radars, but there was a time when I was handy with one in a patrol car.  The closer to 90 degrees to the unit the better and more accurate the measurement is.  If someone is a lane or two away, it's going to being in the wide spot of the beam and less likely to be detected........I guess.

The error is the true velocity times the cosine of the angle off boresight.

 

(Actually, the error is = Tv(1-Cos A) )  

[Boomstick303]

On 10/27/2023 at 5:36 AM, RangerTrace said:

Hows this one compare to Lab Radar?

 

Based on a couple of reviews on the YouTubes I trust seems more consistent that the Lab Radar.  For the most part I do like the Lab Radar, but as mentioned above it is HUGE and it is not the most user friendly.  I intend to downsize to the new Garmin once they are available on a regular basis.  

 

[RangerTrace]

5 hours ago, ChuckS said:

The error is the true velocity times the cosine of the angle off boresight.

 

(Actually, the error is = Tv(1-Cos A) )  

There was a time, maybe 32 years ago, I probably could have quoted something to that effect!!

[slavex]

I think it might have to do with the initial shot taken and it's relationship to the chrono. Once the chrono knows where to expect a bullet to come from, it will ignore other shots. Like if you moved your gun to the other side of the chrono it might not add that shot to the string either? Something I hope someone tests soon. 

[shred]

I expect the beam "cone" is quite narrow at the start and so they could ignore anything that comes into the beam too far downrange.  Depending on the antenna design it could have side lobes and whatnot as well that would be useful for rejecting other shots.  

 

[sharko]

I'll be getting the Garmin when I see one in stock. I have a LabRadar and it works fine but is big an clunky.

I wondered why LagRadar is on sale all over.

Edited November 15, 2023 by sharko

[sharko]

I tried the Garmin a couple days ago next toe the Labrader. Garmin was almost always 10-20fps slower. Like where the Labradar is when it gets to 17yds. I wrote to them and they said it computes back to the muzzle, so I don't know who to believe. 

[Nolan]

That's less than 2% error/difference at pistol velocities and less than 1% at rifle velocities.  Close enough for Gubment work.

 

Nolan

[shred]

2 to 4 PF for pistol loads.  That might upset some people.

 

[jrb06]

There is a lot of people that are doing the side by side comparison of the Garmin to brand XYZ on many forums and then saying this one is off by this much. The questions is how do you know which unit is correct? Is Lab Radar the benchmark? How about Magneto Speed, or Shooting Chrony, or pick your make and model. The most important thing is are you getting consistent results each and every time you use it. We all have done load workup at home and tested then go to the match and have their unit read something way different than what you thought you had.   

[rishii]

One thing to remember is when doing load development is, you might make PF on your chrono at home but will it make on whatever chrono the match use's

I’ve seen guys not make major or go subminor at the chrono station, one of my buddies chronoed at 125.something at the national

[shred]

Once I setup two chronos-- an Oehler 35 and a CED with the screens intermingled, so both would pick up the bullet in the same 2 feet of flight.  They didn't agree and they weren't consistently different.  The Nationals chrono box is two CEDs in a row and they usually don't agree, and usually it's not one being off by X compared to the other. 

 

Oehler is in town and we used to have them calibrate the chrono every now and then, but haven't in decades because it just doesn't matter if the match chrono disagrees, you can wave all the calibration certificates you want and nobody will care.

 

About all you can do is load a bit over PF, then compare what you saw at majors to what you see at home, and use the same chronos they do if you can.  

[Farmer]

Did the same as shred, we had a Pact, Shooting Chrony and a CED. The Pact and the Chrony were the closest to each other while the CED was consistently a bit slower. I had sent my CED in for repairs once and when I got it back all my previous loads were about 50 fps slower. So who do you believe? I do know my latest one matches much closer to what the loading manual’s show.