Garmin Xero C1 Pro Chronograph

[dbc603]

I've had one for a few weeks now, and though I haven't been able to shoot over it a whole lot, I already feel comfortable recommending it. I wrote up a short review for my website (link here), but the bottom line is that it does work as advertised. It is absolutely stupid simple to set up and use, is incredibly lightweight and portable, and I have had zero issues with it. Its single drawback is the cost, but in my opinion it is worth every penny. The term "game changer" gets thrown around a lot, but in this case I think it is deserved. I could really see it being a boon to match directors who want to take a lot of the headaches out of setting up a chrono stage.

[Nathanb]

I’ve got one that I’ve not gotten out yet. I’m stoked about it though

[Haywizzle]

Good write up! I agree it's a game changer. I was considering lab radar but once I learned about the Garmin I had to have it. 

 

I even got lucky and caught it in stock online at Bass Pro shop while they were running a 10% off ship to store deal. I got it shipped to a New Hampshire Bass Pro so there was no sales tax. And to top it off I bought a bunch of gift cards at discount to use. $503 all in! I got to pick it up after I shot a PCSL match at Sig Sauer the weekend after Thanksgiving. I got super lucky.

 

I ended up buying a cheap ARCA to camera mount off Amazon so I could mount it directly to a couple of my rifles. Works great on the tripod too. I've already been a bad influence to a few of my friends that have also picked it up after seeing it in action.

 

[Nathanb]

I’d be curious how it holds up to recoil. 

[Haywizzle]

9 minutes ago, Nathanb said:

I’d be curious how it holds up to recoil. 

The week I bought it, I read this 40+ page thread on Sniper's Hide and that very question was debated. One user brought up that Garmin's own media people were using the Area419 mount during the unveiling so it can't be all that bad. Time will tell of course. I think the majority of my shooting I will use the tripod, but it's a neat setup for engaging different targets at different angles without repositioning the chrono. I don't think the Gucci mounts are worth it for most. If it did go tits up, I'd hope a huge company like Garmin would make it right.

[Boomstick303]

1 hour ago, Haywizzle said:

I ended up buying a cheap ARCA to camera mount off Amazon so I could mount it directly to a couple of my rifles. Works great on the tripod too. I've already been a bad influence to a few of my friends that have also picked it up after seeing it in action.

 

Does it work in that configuration?   It looks like it is mounted too far back from the muzzle according the the diagram in the Garmin, when you create a session.  

 

There has been a bunch of video's to which people are using a similar mount.  It is my understanding that the mount was made in collaboration with Area 419 specifically for that Garmin, so I would think Garmin would have mentioned if it would not hold up to recoil, but as someone mentioned I guess time will tell.  

 

 

[Haywizzle]

3 minutes ago, Boomstick303 said:

 

Does it work in that configuration?   It looks like it is mounted too far back from the muzzle according the the diagram in the Garmin, when you create a session.  

 

There has been a bunch of video's to which people are using a similar mount.  It is my understanding that the mount was made in collaboration with Area 419 specifically for that Garmin, so I would think Garmin would have mentioned if it would not hold up to recoil, but as someone mentioned I guess time will tell.  

 

 

I'm not sure as I've been the range twice with it and have only used the tripod so far.

 

It might be mounted too far back in that picture. The instructions say 5-15 inches behind the muzzle and that my barrel is 24 inches. I will play around with it soon. Worst case, I will have to move the m- lok to ARCA adapter a few slots forward.

[MoNsTeR]

I just used mine for the first time. IT'S SO GOOD!

 

Works great indoors. It will pick up shots from the next lane over. When there was a shooter to my right, if I set the Garmin on the left edge of my booth, it stopped picking them up (and vice-versa). For my shots, it worked equally well regardless of where I set it.

 

If I'm nitpicking, I wish it was a tiny bit faster in "analyzing the shot", but it's really no slower than waiting for the beep from my Pact Mk4. Also it would be great if the app showed power factor so I didn't have to flip over to a calculator.

[sharko]

Found something else irritating about this thing. Sure you can export strings with email or bluetooth or whatever but you have to do them one at a time as far as I can tell. Also I liked the feature that you can name/label your sessions, just that the export doesn't contain that part. 

[RangerTrace]

Love mine so far.  Zero complaints.

[MoNsTeR]

17 hours ago, sharko said:

Found something else irritating about this thing. Sure you can export strings with email or bluetooth or whatever but you have to do them one at a time as far as I can tell. Also I liked the feature that you can name/label your sessions, just that the export doesn't contain that part. 

I exported some data the other day, using the Android app -> Google Drive, and the files do contain the session names, just not in a convenient way.

 

Here's a sample "CSV" file in its entirety. It's not remotely a standards-compliant CSV file. The first row has the session name, second row has headers (there's a weird unicode character right before "#" that may not appear), then data, then extra stuff at the bottom.

 

What it definitely doesn't do is put the session name in the file name which is what I'd prefer. By default it names every file "Exported CSV" or something useless like that. Tedious.

 

Quote

32H&R, 3.0gr Red Dot, 100.0 gr
#,Speed (FPS),Δ AVG (FPS),KE (FT-LBS),Power Factor (kgr⋅ft/s),Time,Clean Bore,Cold Bore,Shot Notes
1,781.8,-136.9,135.7,78.2,19:23:01,,,
2,822.0,-96.7,150.0,82.2,19:23:07,,,
3,847.6,-71.1,159.5,84.8,19:23:12,,,
4,928.4,9.7,191.4,92.8,19:23:18,,,
5,912.7,-6.0,185.0,91.3,19:23:24,,,
6,956.3,37.6,203.0,95.6,19:23:33,,,
7,957.3,38.6,203.5,95.7,19:23:40,,,
8,924.2,5.5,189.6,92.4,19:23:46,,,
9,961.9,43.2,205.4,96.2,19:23:51,,,
10,966.5,47.8,207.4,96.7,19:24:41,,,
11,962.5,43.8,205.7,96.3,19:24:49,,,
12,946.2,27.5,198.8,94.6,19:24:56,,,
13,937.9,19.2,195.3,93.8,19:25:01,,,
14,943.2,24.5,197.5,94.3,19:25:06,,,
15,939.1,20.4,195.8,93.9,19:25:12,,,
16,816.0,-102.7,147.8,81.6,19:25:49,,,
17,827.8,-90.9,152.1,82.8,19:26:01,,,
18,815.8,-102.9,147.8,81.6,19:26:07,,,
19,800.6,-118.1,142.3,80.1,19:26:12,,,
20,947.6,28.9,199.4,94.8,19:26:39,,,
21,917.4,-1.3,186.8,91.7,19:26:47,,,
22,939.9,21.2,196.1,94.0,19:26:54,,,
23,964.0,45.3,206.3,96.4,19:27:01,,,
24,974.9,56.2,211.0,97.5,19:27:09,,,
25,932.2,13.5,192.9,93.2,19:27:16,,,
26,946.1,27.4,198.7,94.6,19:28:22,,,
27,952.7,34.0,201.5,95.3,19:28:28,,,
28,977.5,58.8,212.1,97.8,19:28:34,,,
29,941.6,22.9,196.8,94.2,19:28:40,,,
30,970.9,52.2,209.3,97.1,19:28:45,,,
31,966.8,48.1,207.5,96.7,19:29:05,,,
-,,,,,,
AVERAGE SPEED,918.7,,,,,
AVERAGE POWER FACTOR,91.9,,,,,
STD DEV,58.3,,,,,
SPREAD,195.7,,,,,
Projectile Weight (GRAINS),"100.0",,,,,
Session Note,"32H&R, 3.0gr Red Dot, Missouri 100gr, Ruger Bisley ",,,,,
-,,,,,,
Date,"FEBRUARY 29, 2024 19:22",,,,,
All shots included in the calculations,,,,,,

 

[sharko]

1 hour ago, MoNsTeR said:

I exported some data the other day, using the Android app -> Google Drive, and the files do contain the session names, just not in a convenient way.

 

Here's a sample "CSV" file in its entirety. It's not remotely a standards-compliant CSV file. The first row has the session name, second row has headers (there's a weird unicode character right before "#" that may not appear), then data, then extra stuff at the bottom.

 

What it definitely doesn't do is put the session name in the file name which is what I'd prefer. By default it names every file "Exported CSV" or something useless like that. Tedious.

 

 

That is really weird, I opened the files with notepad and didn't see the session name, then I wondered it Excel screwed them up. So I transferred one again and not only did it have the name it was titled with the name plus date time info.

 

Like 1st_xc_43_n340_2024-03-20_12-02-10.csv   Well it left off the dot in 4.3 but that's a file naming convention.

[Boomstick303]

For anyone on the fence on buying the Garmin Xero C1 you should run out and buy it.  I was using it yesterday for a quick chrono range session, and thought to myself I would have paid a lot more for this little unit.  The thing is truly amazing.  

 

It is too easy to use.  

[shred]

I compared one side by side with a Labradar that I've compared with same lot ammo vs the chronos at Nationals and it was within +/- 5 FPS on every shot (mostly +/- 1 or 2).   

 

The only thing I don't like about it is it only displays "a velocity".  Which is probably muzzle velocity since that's what they matched best from the LR, but they don't actually say that and the Labradar will give you velocity every few yards all the way downrange which is cool for 'how much PF does my ammo have at 25 yards?" kinds of questions.   Supposedly there's a new small Labradar "on the way", but no sign of it yet.

 

 

[Joe4d]

does the Garmin work by itself without internet , bluetooth, wifi , phone app etc ?

[sharko]

1 hour ago, shred said:

I compared one side by side with a Labradar that I've compared with same lot ammo vs the chronos at Nationals and it was within +/- 5 FPS on every shot (mostly +/- 1 or 2).   

 

The only thing I don't like about it is it only displays "a velocity".  Which is probably muzzle velocity since that's what they matched best from the LR, but they don't actually say that and the Labradar will give you velocity every few yards all the way downrange which is cool for 'how much PF does my ammo have at 25 yards?" kinds of questions.   Supposedly there's a new small Labradar "on the way", but no sign of it yet.

 

 

I asked them about the velocity and they said it was calculated back the the muzzle.

When I ran mine next to each other the Garmin read pretty much at what the Labradar had for 17yds. 

[shred]

1 hour ago, Joe4d said:

does the Garmin work by itself without internet , bluetooth, wifi , phone app etc ?

it will, but I think you need BT and a phone to do firmware updates and life is a lot easier with their app (which requires an account... which is annoying to keep separate from any other Garmin accounts, should you so desire)

 

[Boomstick303]

3 hours ago, shred said:

Which is probably muzzle velocity since that's what they matched best from the LR, but they don't actually say that and the Labradar will give you velocity every few yards all the way downrange which is cool for 'how much PF does my ammo have at 25 yards?" kinds of questions.

 

Yea, it was a cool function for the LabRadar for sure, but I have never really needed that information for anything.  I really only use the Chrono to make sure the ammo is legal or to tweak a load/load development.  For those reasons the Garmin is just too easy.  Seemed like I was always fighting something with the LabRadar.  Forget a setting, etc.  

 

 

[shred]

I had the Labradar down to plop it onto the base, plug in the battery pack, turn on, arm and shoot, but it would add shots on the end of the current string unless you started a new one which involved button-poking or faffing with the app.  For 'does this batch make the same PF? checks', not a big deal, but annoying if you're comparing pistols or loads.  The Garmin pretty much makes you start a new string every time you pull it out of the bag.

 

[Joe4d]

Thanks,,, yeh no thanks will stick with my CE ProChrono a pen and a notepad...

 

[shred]

On 6/13/2024 at 1:56 PM, Boomstick303 said:

 

Yea, it was a cool function for the LabRadar for sure, but I have never really needed that information for anything.  I really only use the Chrono to make sure the ammo is legal or to tweak a load/load development. 

 

Mostly for curiosity or to make sure your velocity at 3 yards also makes PF in case you run into an optical chrono setup with borderline loads.  

 

 

[Boomstick303]

On 6/15/2024 at 6:47 PM, shred said:

Mostly for curiosity or to make sure your velocity at 3 yards also makes PF in case you run into an optical chrono setup with borderline loads.  

 

That makes sense.  

[Jim Watson]

The pipeline must be full, Big Tex Ordnance sold out at $510.

[Darqusoull13]

1 hour ago, Jim Watson said:

The pipeline must be full, Big Tex Ordnance sold out at $510.

I wouldn't wait too long. Once archery hunting pre-season starts these will be gone again. 

Xero is still by far the easiest, most accurate chrono we have used. Holding it over competitors to get velocities mid match at a PRS match was kind of funny. 

[r4ptor]

Got mine today, these things were rarer than a unicorn here in Europe, at least that was my impression.

 

But this thing is awesome.

Set it up at a bench in the IPSC cellar, pew pew every shot detected.

 

Currently printing a box[1] for it, cause I know my luck, just flying around in the rangebag the display will crack in two weeks

 

[1] https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6399976/files

 

If one does not have a 3D printer, jlcPCB/3d has a good and cheap printing service. Printing will set one back around 50 bucks. But just ask around, chances are high you know someone with a printer and PLA/PETG is probably fine for the case.