Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Garmin Xero and Boat Tails

Had my new Garmin Xero out yesterday. The thing was picking up every shot until I shot some 75 grain ELD’s from my 22-250. It tried to pick up a couple of them, but it just wouldn’t do it. It seems like I remember MD having this same problem with a LabRadar and .224 boat tail bullets. Is there a fix?

I had that same problem with 75gr ELDMs and the LabRadar, and have not had my new Garmin loose one single shot, not one.

Battery? Relative positioning to the muzzle?

It sounds like the unit may not have been properly positioned. I haven't heard anyone say that they had their Garmin misread or not read at all. It might happen, but I think that it will be a rare event.

I had mine out this weekend as well and shot 4 different pistols over the Garmin and it never missed a shot. I also ran a couple of AR's by it and it never missed one of those either. I have said this before but, to say I am impressed with this little thing would be an understatement.

One of the first rounds I shot with my Garmin was the 204 Ruger 39 grain Blitzking. Even with the boat tail, it never missed a shot.

Actually it was some boattail 6mm bullet, maybe a Hornady ELD, which had a tiny rear end--and the Labradar has been reading other bullets perfectly before that, so was correctly positioned. I liked the Labradar in general, but it had too many limits (including velocity) to be of general use to me.

Had to take another chronograph along just in case that happened, which was generally a $130 ProChrono--which "read" the same bullet perfectly. And that was the incident that caused me to sell my Labradar....

Haven't tried a Garmin (or the new Labradar) and probably won't--due to being about 90% retired, and not having to shoot at a public range, so setting up a chronograph in front of the bench isn't a problem....

Velocity was why I couldn’t buy a Labradar. My 17s would not be read. I have a Garmin to try.

I bought a Magneto Speed after witnessing issues with the LR, including ones where the owner still had to call a ceasefire because he set his up on a tripod just in front of the bench and then again to adjust the position. When the Garmin appeared, it checked all the boxes and I jumped right on it. Very pleased so far, no regrets.

No need to set up the LR that way, he was doing it wrong.

No need to be an inconsiderate old fuque either, but he was anyway…

My Garmin missed a couple of shots on Friday. I was shooting 30gr VMax loads from a Single Six and the velocity was hovering just above and below the 1700fps threshold. Missed two IIRC. Didn’t pay much attention while setting it up so there might be a little user error involved, but it didn’t miss any subsequent shots with other ammo, so I’m going with the first reason.

That Hornady ammo is pretty hot stuff BTW, and shoots really well from my AR. Sportsmans Guide has it on sale now so I just picked up another brick.

The only shots my Garmin has missed was because I didn't select the right velocity window.

I haven't seen a missed shot with Garmin providing it was properly set up. I've shot everything from little .17s to .204s up to big cartridges--boat tails, flat base, target bullets, hunting bullets, etc. The only time I've seen one not pick up shots was poor positioning. A gentleman took his out of the box at a match for the first time and ended up positioning it on his SEB rest next to the joystick about 25" from his muzzle. I don't know if it was being obstructed from the rest or too far back. I walked over and moved it when I heard him groaning and it picked up every shot after that. He was happy.