Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters MID-MAY column: Velocity of Factory Ammo

After first getting my LabRadar I set it up along with my old Shooting Chrony Beta Master. Using a semi-auto .22 I clocked the velocity from both at the same time. I was quite surprised that they agreed incredibly closely. The readings were withing 3 fps consistently for nearly every shot. In some cases the Shooting Chrony picked up a shot or two the the LR missed (I was just figuring out how to set the LR up). It gave me more confidence in the numbers I'd attained over the years with the Shooting Chrony, although I do know that changing light conditions affected the old SC in many cases. You could plainly see it on a day going from bright to overcast or vice-versa in a single shooting session.

However, I've found the LR to be sensitive to cold weather (at least low 20's F and below). Whether this is due to the unit itself not working well in the cold or due to the external USB battery pack being affected I'm not sure. I have a pic of my LR from late last December showing a velocity reading of 5,575 fps...and I was shooting a 7mm Remington Magnum with a 154g Hornady SP. So it was reading about 2,500 fps high. And that wasn't the first time it had given me a spuriously high reading in cold weather (but the first time I thought to snap a pic of it) although it didn't give a false reading on every shot and only did it during two shooting sessions that I recall. Next winter I'll have to remember to bring a hand warmer to lay over the battery pack to see if that alleviates the issue.