Garmin Chronograph Initial Thoughts

[bchannell]

After many years of using nearly every chrono made, I had settled on a CE ProChrono years ago and happily used it for airguns for a long time. BUT, it got to be drudgery to setup and put away every time I wanted a quick check on a rifle, soooo, I went searching.

My search led me to the Labradar LX, the new tiny chrono much improved from the original LR, but it had a problem. It is triggered by sound and then switches to radar and requires a minimal amount of noise to trigger. After talking to LR and some users, and reading all I could find, it didn't sound like a good bet for airguns. I'll keep searching.

Then came the new Velociradar from Caldwell. Well, pretty much the same boat as the LR, the trigger. You can use a magnetic "recoil" trigger, but who knows, airguns don't recoil a whole lot. Doesn't sound like an airgun chrono, and Caldwell doesn't mention airguns in their advertising at all, not are they mentioned in any manuals I could find. So, it's a no go.

Then the Garmin came on my radar, (pun intended), and from the reviews, and literature, it is THE radar chrono for airguns. Says so right in the manual and literature. The online reviews, the few there is, and posts on the forums, are overwhelmingly positive. So, I ordered one.

First, the size: It's tiny, about the sized of a pack of cigarettes, (do they still make those?). It weighs almost nothing but has a solid feel anyway. It has a camera mount on the bottom for tripod or such mounting.

Then the interface: Pretty cool, four buttons on tops, on/off/OK, back, up and down. To seup the chrono takes about 10 seconds. Turn it on, start a session, pick a weapon ie airgun, and if you like, enter a projectile weight, then start, and you're ready to go. That takes another 10 seconds or so. In less than a minute, you are ready to shoot with time to spare.

The process: point the radar in the general direction of the target, and within 15" behind the muzzle, and it never misses a shot. The literature says 5-15" to the side and 5-15" back from the muzzle, but from my testing, that is fairly conservative, as I recorded shots within almost 3 feet of the muzzle. From the first setup and many subsequent sessions, it has NEVER missed a shot. It is pretty amazing. It spits out all the info, avg, stdev, min, max and fpe.

One thing to note, is that the phone app does not control the radar, but as soon as you end a session, it is on the app instantly. Even if you phone app is not running, when you start it, the session is there instantly. You can edit and do whatever you like with the data on the app and then export it to your computer as a csv file. No worries no hiccups.

I shot it with my ProChrono at the same time more than once, and analysed the statistics. The Garmin registers a pretty consistent 4 fps higher reading than the ProChrono. The average error between the two chronos is 0.6%. I view an error of just over a half a percent to be insignificant. That means a rifle shooting 800fps, would have an error rate, of 0.48 fps, or a plus or minus error of 0.24fps. Not too shabby. Now that's just the error disagreement with the ProChrono, and who really knows the accuracy of that unit, other than what's printed in their literature, so we can extrapolate that even on a bad day, the Garmin is first, VERY consistent, and more than likely super accurate. Anyway, I'm satisfied.

No matter the weapon, even a silenced airgun, that only "clicks", the Garmin never misses a shot, not once. I moved it around and tried to get it to miss shots and you would have to point it pretty far off to the left or right or pretty far away from the muzzle to miss a shot. It is pretty forgiving.

The Garmin stores strings until you delete them, and of course, the app stores them also. I look at it like the unit has the raw data and the app is more categorized, as I don't try to rename sessions on the unit, but I think you can if you like. I just end the session, look at the app and rename it and move on, easy peasy.

Are there any cons to the Garmin? Well, not really....er...well one minor one. The display is hard to see in low light. In almost any light outside, it's very easy to see. But in a dimly light garage, it needs a light on it, but it's not a huge issue.

Garmin knocked it out of park with this radar chrono. There might be a niggle or two, about the app or the unit software, but really nothing is left out. It is far and away the best chrono I've ever used. The app easily equals other chrono apps like the ProChrono etc. The interface on the unit is super easy to use. I didn't, and haven't even read the manual yet, so it must be pretty easy to use.

The Garmin doesn't do downrange velocity like some others "claim" to, but with small projectiles like .177 pellets, I would imagine it would be very, very difficult to track the pellet for more than 25 yards or so. I'm not all that interested in that data anyway, and if I want to know it, I don't mind just shooting the ranges and using the drops to figure it out.

This is THE chrono to have for airguns, no question. One other quibble is the price. $600 clams is a pretty hefty price to pay for knowing the speed. I shoot a lot, so it's worth it to me, but if it's out of your comfort zone, it's nice there are cheaper options.

[Rick67]

Wonderful review 🍻

Yes, $600 would somehow result to a mutation in my sleep pattern 😂

I don’t own a chrono, but I am looking at the LMBR, which is so much more w/in my sanctum.

The Garmin is such a wonderful design though and definitely isn’t prone to getting hit by a “stray” round 👍

[bchannell]

I seemed to miss a zero there in my math. That .48% error would equate to 3.84 fps error avg, or 1.92 fps plus or minus. Still a pretty good consistency with the ProChrono.

[ranchibi]

Wonderful write up on the Garmin, thank you! Definitely the best chrono for airgunners.

[Old_School]

Great writeup on the Garmin!  It definitely has my interest. I originally looked at the full-size LabRadar, but I know a number of folks who have had problems with theirs. I have one of the original Shooting Chronys, but what a pain to set up and try to get consistent results! However, it was purchased about 25 years ago when chronographs were not so easy to come by at an affordable price. And it still works, so there's that.

A couple of years ago, I picked up an FX Chrony and it's been a joy to use with my airguns. However, I can only use it with a few of my PBs because of its velocity limitations.  If I get back into actively reloading and shooting PBs again, I'll have to consider this Garmin!

[WobblyHand]

Seems like the Garmin is getting it right, at least from the performance and ease of use part.  The price, hmm, well it's a bit pricey for me right now, but I'll keep it in mind.  I cobbled together my own doppler radar to measure pellet velocity.  It works, but it's nowhere nice as the Garmin.  But, it's fine for an occasional indoor shot or three.  Mine is powered off a 6V lead acid (alarm) battery, as I was just trying to get it to work.  Unfortunately, just as I was finally getting it to work, (it took me about 6 months) the FX radar chronograph came out.  So I effectively gave up trying to make it into a commercial product.

My radar doesn't need a microphone to trigger either - it does it from the detected target.  But the radar doesn't do the shot string stuff, which I do miss.  That would improve it a lot.  (Just too lazy of a programmer!  The fun was in getting the radar to work.)  I think that the price of the Garmin will come down, especially if there are more entries to the market.