Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Entering the 21st century Labradar or Magnetospeed

I have a Chrony that I bought about 20 years ago for something south of $100. It usually works well with anything I put over it. I get readings about where I think they should be most of the time. I'd been reloading without any problems for around 25 years before I got it , just "guestimating" my speeds by what was published in the manuals. When I started actually clocking them there were no surprises or blinding epiphanies. I still clock new loads when I am trying them out...it's fun. It gives me a measure of security, too, like checking out my various micrometers and slide calipers with gage blocks, even though I know they're accurate. I have no idea why on earth I would want (for my purposes) anything other than my humble Chrony. I'm not smart enough to zero my rifle at one or two hundred yards and then, knowing bullet speed and ballistic coefficient and all that, calculate where to dial my scope to whack a deer way out across a bean or alfalfa field. I just have to actually shoot my rifles at those distances to get a good idea how the bullet flies at various distances under various wind conditions. That practice really drives home, too, whether or not taking a particular shot is really a good idea or not. Then again, maybe I could save a lot on powder, primers and bullets if I just got a real high end chronograph or two and bought bullets with high ballistic coefficients (whatever that is) and learned to read charts and turn knobs.

I've used an Oehler 35P a lot for more than twenty-five years; an excellent chronograph, and I've had a few over the years. I recently bought a Labradar and used it for three hours this morning. It works very well once you figure it out how to use it. The instruction manual is not well written.

I had a Oehler 35 P that was appropriated by a thief.I still have two Pact Professionals and a Chrony.I am tired of setting them up and waiting for the right weather to get good readings.Every one I have and had was particular if it was too sunny or too cloudy.I have some Insurance money coming and want to buy something that is less of a pain in the ass.Huntz

I started with:

Oehler 35. It began missing shots too often.

Oehler 35P. It worked fine until the muzzle blast blew the sun shields off with every shot. Tied them down with rubber bands. Then it blew the entire rig to the ground. Setup time on both Oehlers became too vexing.

Chrony Beta Master was good while it lasted. Had I been alone at the range I would have executed it in a most entertaining fashion.

Pro Chrony was the best sky screen I had. It recorded over 800 shots and only missed two.

Magneto Speed was purchased with no intent of strapping it to the barrel. I had them modify the bayonet to be mounted remotely on a stand of my creation. The whole purpose was to get away from setup beyond the firing line. It now sits on the shooting bench and the bayonet cantilevers forward, adjustable. It can be set from atop the bench without encroaching the firing line, thus, no need for a cease fire to reset.

The Mag Speed has been my favorite of all of them. DirtFarmer has a similar setup. The way we have done it, NOTHING touches the barrel. So, like Mule Deer mentioned, you can record every shot without accuracy being affected.

How close did you have the 35P set up in front of the muzzle?

To my recollection I tried everything. I moved it away. I moved it closer thinking I could get the muzzle blast thru the screens in a tighter pattern. Every time I pulled out the 300 Wby, it seemed nothing could “stand” in its path. I would have figured it out if I were not relegated to a multi-member range. Unlike you fortunate folks, I cant shoot in my back yard.

The vexation caused me to move on. Other than that I cast no shadows on the 35P. It was a great tool.

So far, I'm impressed enough with my Labradar, that I'm seriously considering selling my 35P. I've had no issues with .223, including boatails. That said, I have not tried it yet with my .204 Ruger, and I don't own a .17. To date, I find it to be a damn solid performing chronograph.

Jeff

Jeff,

Will be very interested in hearing how it works with the .204.

Could you post some pics of your setup??It sounds like what I was thinking about doing.Thanks,Huntz

The reason I have not moved to a Labradar is due to it not being compatible with projectiles smaller than .223 cal. Has this changed?

https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbt.../re-magneto-speed-questions#Post12569396

You’ll find it on this post. Mine is on page 1. DirtFarmer quoted my post and showed his on page 3 so you can see both there.

Yep, I'll post an update when I do. Until then, the 35P will stay on standby, just in case.

Jeff

Looks good,Midway has the Magnetospeed on sale so I am going to order one. I shoot a lot of 17 and 20 calibers and to get a chrono that will not read them is useless to me.

I had used a Shooting Chrony Beta Master for 10 years and it worked quite well during that time. Changing light conditions affecting readings, having to setup down range, having to get it down when inclement weather showed up, etc. all made it less than ideal. I wanted something that sat behind the firing line. I like to shoot for groups while recording velocity so the Magnetospeed as it came from the factory was a non-starter. If the Magnetospeed came factory equipped with a benchmount such as Dirtfarmer and Reloder28 have posted, I may have purchased one a few years back. Instead, last fall I went to a Labradar.

I don't currently shoot anything smaller than 22 caliber and nothing that exceeds 3,900 fps so those limitations didn't apply to me. I have had no issues with anything in .223 Remington and I shoot more boat-tailed bullets than flat-based in that cartridge. As far as the Labradar losing the 3,900 fps limitation that may not ever happen. IIRC, I read that it was due to the wavelengths their radar operated at that was the cause of that limitation. And the company is likely limited in which wavelengths the FCC allows for a product sold for public use. That 3,900 fps limit might be a permanent one...

That being said I'm coming to really like my Labradar. It's true it doesn't have a remote and so is a little bit of a pain to switch shot strings, arm/disarm the radar, etc. One other thing I don't care for about the LabRadar is once you end a shot string you cannot go back to it. Not a big deal, but if you want to test loads in round-robin fashion you either have to keep them on the same string or each shot on it's own string. I did test it in-line with the Beta Master the first time I used it. The readings were withing 3 fps consistently for nearly every shot. That gave me a bit more confidence in my old Beta Master.

The Labradar definitely isn't cheap, but if you can live with it's limitations it's certainly a good unit. I would say that it has reduced the time spent at the range by 30 minutes on average, and that was time being wasted with setup and take down and not time spent shooting.

Oh, and for those that like the 35P for the two readings it gives you, the Labradar takes 5 at user-programmable ranges (up to 100 yards). I have mine set to take readings at 5, 20, 35, 50, 65 (I think...)

Last year i purchased a Caldwell precision G2 chronograph

I liked the revised screen arrangement which has proved to be a good design. The design also helps in low light.

This chronograph syncs to my phone via Bluetooth. The Caldwell app allows my to make files and label the files with detailed descriptions of each group of shot plus I'm able to add a photo of the group shot to the file. I can delete problem shots from the file. The file has data for each individual shot, the SD for the group, extreme spread, average velocity and more information. Because my phone retains the files, I can go to my phone to review all of my shooting files. I really like this feature.

Plus each shot is immediately displayed on my phone. No need to go look at the chronograph

LabRadar has probably knocked 20% off of my rifle testing time at the range. Yes, it can miss shots, but once you get the hang of where to place it that becomes rare. I rarely, if ever, fire projectiles under .22 caliber or over 4,000 fps so those limitations are not relevant to my needs. I will say that I have not had success using it for archery, which I have to do from time-to-time when evaluating a crossbow.

I like my lab radar a lot and it proved my Pro chrony was a pretty good unit too. If I ever need to shoot the supersonic 3900 plus bullets or the small ones I can always break out my prochrono!

Actually, the Labradar "tracks" the projectile. The user has the ability to closely examine each shot and see "time", "Velocity", "Distance" and "Signal to Noise Ratio".

The distances reported don't always match up with what you ask it to report but it is fully capable of calculating from available data. For example, a trace I just looked up shows 1932.34 fps at 24.54 yards and 1929.31 fps at 25.18 yards. I'm perfectly happy accepting a mathematical average to get the 25 yard reading so I'm not saying it doesn't give you good multiple readings. Edited to add that this "track" had 87 velocity readings for this shot.

Some who examine individual shot tracks get very frustrated when they sometimes show the bullet getting faster on a step or two. Data is rarely perfect.

I've run two LabRadar machines at the same time on a couple of occasions. We had some shots with large discrepancies. When they agreed, they agreed well. Trouble was there was no way to determine which machine was in error. The tracks also disagreed down range. It was that pesky "Muzzle" velocity that was off, causing all the rest to be off. Something was amiss, I just couldn't pinpoint it. I moved things around or changed rifles and data got back into agreement.

I've also had times when my Oehler "Barked" at me. It was light issues or a screen bumped out of place. Without the proof channel, I'd have had no way of knowing the machine was askew.

I'm happy there are many options out there. I encourage folks to read Bryan Litz's chapter on chronographs. I believe it to be the best explanation of chronographs I've read. I think it was written before he had a chance to review the LabRadar. I know Bryan and his AB crew make use of LabRadar. Take a look at ELR Central's photo gallery, about the 8th photo down:

https://elrcentral.com/gallery/

Bryan likes to use two labradars...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rsFgdd3ssY