Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Tell me about Labradar

I know they are on the expensive side but are they good? Easy to use, accurate? Seems to me like they would be a get what you pay for deal if they work as advertised.

I like mine. Works indoors, outdoors, day, night. Sits on the bench, so no possibility of shooting it. Possibly more accurate than photosensor based systems, since there is no chance of mis-aiming photocells.

Have posted about the Labradar I had for a while before, but before repeating them will say that in general my experience was similar to Denton's.

My only problems with it's limits on bullet-size and velocity. They tell you up front that the Labradar doesn't do well with bullets under .22 caliber, because it works by bouncing the signal off bullet bases. I found they weren't lying, because mine would not record .17 or .20 caliber bullets--but I also couldn't get it to "read" the very small base on Hornady's 6mm 110-grain A-Tip, which has a very tapered boattail.

Also found that their statement about not recording velocities over 3900 fps was also true. I don't shoot much ammo that's that fast, but sometimes do, partly because it's my job.

As a result, it didn't work for my purposes as an all-around chronograph, so after starting out really liking it, I sold it after about six months. If those issues are ever resolved I'd definitely buy another--along with the rechargeable battery pack. It goes through even today's excellent batteries pretty fast.

Mine arrived DOA upon purchasing new. I sent it back to LabRadar and they let me know that the sensor that triggers velocity readings were bad. They corrected the issue and sent back to me within a week. It hasn't missed a beat since that day. For me, it was well-worth the money to use at a range with others whereby I didn't have to hold up the line to setup a chrono.

It does have its limits....Won't read over 4K fps and has trouble with smaller calibers (< .22).

I have had a Labradar now for about 2+ years. There are days when i want to throw it down range and shoot it and then there are days it never misses a shot. There is no apparent reason when it misses shots and i cannot explain it. No matter what the device i want consistent performance day in and day out. I do know mine is very fussy about where you place the radar in relation to the barrel. If i am not running a brake the barrel's muzzle is usually placed even with the edge of the device and about 1" away, usually this gives the best readings. If i am running a brake then the unit is placed ahead of the muzzle but still about 1" off the line of the barrel. I used mine this morning and it recorded every shot, i used it last week and it almost refused to read any shot. I changed its location in relation to the barrel several times and it still would not record.
Thats my experience with the Labradar. The one thing i do like about it versus the shoot through units is it gives true muzzle velocity.
Bill

I absolutely love mine! Had it 2 years. I have it mounted behind a sliding door on the wall of my shooting shack. It gave me fits at first, but I purchased the optional air gun mic and clip it to the window near the muzzle of whatever I'm shooting. That eliminated the triggering problems I was having. Also bought a mount online to install an inexpensive red dot sight on top for more precise aiming alignment. So far, it's tracked every bullet from my 17 Hornet. I have a lot more load development work to do with the 17 Hornet and will post with my results. I like the ability to export the data in Excel format for storage on my laptop. Make sure you get a USB power pack (~$10) to operate it with as it's a battery hog. Use batteries for emergencies only.

I would mostly use it for .24 caliber and up and maybe .223 now and then. Just wasn’t sure if they were worth the extra money over a conventional chronograph. I dislike messing with conventional ones.

i am on the fence yet if i should one ? ?

I just didn't wanna spend that much money after the range got tired of replacing shot club chrony's and I then had to bring my own. Went a different direction and I'm a Happy Camper.

I bought a Oehler 35P somewhere in the late 1980’s. No Pun intended but it has been “Bullet Proof”, except for a buddy shooting the sky screens. The range/club by my home now has limited ranges allowing the set up of sky screens. I have a Labradar with the battery pack and JKL Precision Labradar trigger. It’s way more user friendly than the 35, not needing to carry around and set up the sky screens. The quality seems good. I always seem to live where the wind blows, the Oehler sky screen set up in the wind was challenging at times. I’ll give it another six months and see, but so far pretty happy.
NWT

I've had a LabRadar for a year now. At first, I had all kinds of issues with it. Missed too many shots and was just a pain. I bought an inertia trigger to help with the issues.

Now that I've been using it for a year and am much more familiar with what works and what doesn't, it works great. I rarely ever miss a shot and I never use the inertia trigger, it was a waste of money. I'm very glad that I traded up from my Oehler 35P which I used for over 10 years and got the LabRadar which is faster and easier to set up.

The only thing it doesn't do is read over 3,900 ft/sec. I wanted to work up a load for my 22-243AI with a 30gr Berger bullet and try to exceed the 5,000 ft/sec threshold but dropped the whole idea when I remembered the unit's limitations.

yep i got the Oehler 35P it sure does work well but it is also a pain in the butt to set-up. i just want the Labradar too make a few improvements before i purchase this unit with a guarantee that it will read 17 caliber and 20 caliber cartridges that go up to 4,500 fps also and i don`t see that is asking to much.

I don't have any loads that go over 4K fps. I don't own any rifles w/bore diameter under .224. Somewhere along the line a buddy bought me a 3-D printed scope mount for mine and I mounted a Remington 3-9x40 off of some Remington package I bought along the way. That greatly eases alignment and I rarely miss a shot. The most difficult/most often missed projectile I use are .224 75gn A-max's @ 2900-3400 from 223AI up to 22-250. I almost never miss them anymore either.

I really like not having to fret lighting conditions. I also like running tallys on shot-strings and ES/SD calculations @ the touch of a button, not that they're hard to do on my own but the machine just spits them out for me. For any given load I can jot down which series I'm on in the chrono and refer back to it at any time until I erase it.

I don't use any of the SD Card/Excel functions but I can certainly see the appeal for those who like that sort of thing. I'm all for less data-entry as less data entry also = less chance for error via number transposition, skipping shots, adding shots in more than once, etc, etc, etc.

If you buy a labradar, usb battery, jkl trigger and a apache 3900 case.... it all fits together perfectly and works very well.

https://www.harborfreight.com/3800-weatherproof-protective-case-large-black-63927.html

Sounds like a lot of missed readings for an expensive unit?

No complaints about mine. There is a learning curve, but with a little experience they give reliable readings. As was suggested before, an aftermarket sighting device is an improvement over the crude notch for aligning the unit. I saw a user once who hot glued a short section of a plastic straw on his, and it seemed to work well. I would recommend the external battery pack, also installing and using the app on a smart phone as it is more intuitive than manipulating the buttons on the unit.

When shooting at a public or supervised range, there is never a need to adjust sky screens in front of a shooting position, nor is lighting a problem when shooting from under cover.

Customer service gets a big thumbs up too.

That's been my experience.

Tony

I love mine. Never miss any shots.

Don't understand what all the problems are.

Keep the muzzle even with the thing, oil get a recoil trigger device.

I just keep the muzzle even with it.

Easy peasy.

hicountry

My Labradar has the original plate not the tripod. Will the plate fit in the 3800?

Deans

I had two Pacts over the years and when the second one started giving velocities ~ 200 fps higher than I expected I was looking for a replacement. The Labradar had been out for a little while so I did some reading on it and decided to bite the bullet and buy one.

I think I’ve had mine since some time in ‘16 and I love it. I set mine about 12” to the right of the rifle’s receiver so I can reach the buttons. It may use batteries faster but I’ve had best results using the “doppler” trigger mode and I figure batteries are just the cost of doing business. I haven’t had any problems aiming it; I simply point the little aiming groove on top at a point about 1/2 - 2/3 of the way between the muzzle and the target and watch that the first shots register.

I usually take several rifles and/or handguns to test and I try to remember to turn the unit off when I’m swapping rifles. I’m usually shooting for 4-5 hours and I usually go about a session and a half before it needs new batteries. That said, I’m about to order one of their battery packs.

Usually if it misses a shot it’s user error on my part because I forgot to switch to the correct velocity range (rifle or handgun).