Chronograph Recommendations

[DrewN]

I was a doubter, but then I too drank the Kool Aid. LabRadar. Measurement costs money, this has been universally true forever.

[golfish]

Mine worked great, right up until I blasted them.

lol, I can see myself doing this on my first shot..

[splithoof]

One of the reasons that Lab Radar is superior (IMO) is that you can get it all set up and working without having to go down range. If you are shooting at a place where others are shooting also, doing cease-fires to set up screens, etc. is a PITA. It also holds a lot of data, of which you can simply extract from the card at a later time and create spreadsheets however you want.
I bought my first chronograph in the 1980's, and boy have we come a long way since then.

[mike.h]

yup... LabRadar

[ocabj]

I have both the Labradar and Magnetospeed V3. Bought the Labradar first. Bought the Magnetospeed only after Tubb was in a video with a Magnetospeed mounted on the chassis as opposed to rifle. People started copying that idea and that's when I got one.

Magnetospeed is easier to use with rimfire than the Labradar.

I favor the Labradar if you're centerfire only. If you are rimfire and suppressed, the Magnetospeed. Get both if you shoot both. If you shoot long range prone matches (e.g. F-Class), I would highly recommend the Magnetospeed on a stock/chass mount. It's really convenient to just shoot with the chrono directly attached. You can come off the line and go back to the line between relays and already be setup for chrono.

[sigstroker]

One of the reasons that Lab Radar is superior (IMO) is that you can get it all set up and working without having to go down range. If you are shooting at a place where others are shooting also, doing cease-fires to set up screens, etc. is a PITA. It also holds a lot of data, of which you can simply extract from the card at a later time and create spreadsheets however you want.
I bought my first chronograph in the 1980's, and boy have we come a long way since then.

What about picking up shots from the people around you? Say the Beevis next to you is only 4 feet away and doing mag dumps with his SKS (going huh, huh, huh the whole time). Is that going to screw up your data?

[sigstroker]

I have both the Labradar and Magnetospeed V3. Bought the Labradar first. Bought the Magnetospeed only after Tubb was in a video with a Magnetospeed mounted on the chassis as opposed to rifle. People started copying that idea and that's when I got one.

Magnetospeed is easier to use with rimfire than the Labradar.

I favor the Labradar if you're centerfire only. If you are rimfire and suppressed, the Magnetospeed. Get both if you shoot both. If you shoot long range prone matches (e.g. F-Class), I would highly recommend the Magnetospeed on a stock/chass mount. It's really convenient to just shoot with the chrono directly attached. You can come off the line and go back to the line between relays and already be setup for chrono.

Not so great with handguns though. Or arrows.

[the_tunaman]

What about picking up shots from the people around you? Say the Beevis next to you is only 4 feet away and doing mag dumps with his SKS (going huh, huh, huh the whole time). Is that going to screw up your data?

[anyracoon]

LabRadar here

[splithoof]

What about picking up shots from the people around you? Say the Beevis next to you is only 4 feet away and doing mag dumps with his SKS (going huh, huh, huh the whole time). Is that going to screw up your data?

I wouldn't think so, but at that close I've never tried it. At school we had rifle positions set up prone with eight foot spacing for seven shooters, and using four Lab Radar units never had any issues. I don't shoot with or near folks like Beevis, so that's not a consideration.

[bubbapug1]

I have a cheap foldable Chrony. Not a huge window but it works and it's accurate. It cost $89.00. I've placed in in series with more expensive units and the readings are generally the same, within 0.02%.

I'd like a Doppler unit - they're safer. Yiu can't shoot them but I'm a retired businessman on a pension, not a calpers one either.

[sigstroker]

I wouldn't think so, but at that close I've never tried it. At school we had rifle positions set up prone with eight foot spacing for seven shooters, and using four Lab Radar units never had any issues. I don't shoot with or near folks like Beevis, so that's not a consideration.

You're fortunate. I use a public range, and while they let me choose any open lane, they don't let me choose who uses the other lanes. And there's no No-Beevis rule on the range.

[brassburnz]

I have a Competition Electronics chrono for firearms and Paintball Radar for BB's, airsoft, and paintballs. I also have a Shooting Chrony we used for paintball. The Paintball Radar and Shooting Chrony are calibrated for slower speeds, something in the range of 200 to 600 feet per second. Paintball Radar also works with arrows according to the literature.

I've used the Competition Electronics chrono with paintballs and it seems accurate but I never cross-checked it with the Paintball Radar.

[BrassCase]

Looking for my first (and hopefully last) chrono as well. I wish you guys didn't say the LR was the best but all of the shooters that I've asked at our range that have one, love it, just not the price. And there seems to be no genuine competition for it either. I wish that the majority had another true "Best" solution under $200.00.

[Hinnerk]

The thing about the Labradar is that it doesn't just give you one point of data but a whole trace of points from when it first acquires the bullet until the time that it is lost in the background noise. This allows you to make ballistic coefficient calculations as well as simply compare loads for velocity.