Garmin chronograph

[W.R.Buchanan]

I sure don't miss the set up, skyscreens, tripods, stiff cables in cold weather and don't miss the ERR message! I like it.

Probably the smae reasons I never used my Chrony as much as I could have. Complete PITB to set up and if there are other people at the Range you have to work around them, which is another reason I didn't use it.

Nothing wrong with the Chrony, but time has eclipsed them, and the Pact Chronos and others as well.

Randy

[dtknowles]

I know it ain't no Garmin but has anyone seen one of these.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/22588404260...726ebf2eecc486

I says it only goes up to 2600 fps and might not have all the bells and such but for a tenth the price, peaked my interest.

Tim

[elmacgyver0]

Looks like kind of a tiny hole to shoot through.
The whole idea of the doppler radar is you don't shoot at your unit.

[dtknowles]

Looks like kind of a tiny hole to shoot through.
The whole idea of the doppler radar is you don't shoot at your unit.

I don't believe you shoot thru the hole, really? the blast would knock it over. I thought it was to get it pointed toward your target. The thing is advertised without clues.

Tim

[Guncrank]

So after 3 months of use, these are my impressions and observations so far, after putting a few hundreds of rounds into the berm with the Garmin tracking them. To date, that little plastic box has for me been 100% reliable and clocked every shot both pistol and rifle in bullet sizes from 22 caliber up to 45 cal diameters and a bunch in between!

As to ease of use and setup, it's been nothing that a simpleton like me couldn't Smurf my way through and without needing to relearn a lot of new jargon, acronyms, as well as a veritable jungle of multi-stepped one button mashing sequences that has made this modern life nothing short of a misery. Nope, the Garmin sure got all that right!

However, the one trick Garmin failed most miserably at was the ability to offload all the collected data to a universally used format rather than their propriety .fit application. While there are some conversion applications out there that profess to convert the Garmin .fit to something universally useful like an excel .csv spreadsheet one must be a modestly well versed and educated computer-geek or reasonable facsimile there upon in order to make it work. Which of course leaves me wondering which buttons and keys I-gott'a mash next???

All said and done, was the Garmin worth the $600 plus the .gov's $48 confiscatory taking (for their doing exactly nothing to enhance this transaction) well, I'd have to say given the choices of pressing on with the 25+ year old obsolescent Shooting Chrony, or spending $$$ to replace the parts needed to get the MagnetoSpeed going again, the Garmin was the only real choice available.

Now, as one that may never come to grip's with why it is so many folks love everything in their seriously sorted life's to be readily available and loaded up to their cellular phones for any/all to access is as mysterious to me as is the question why woke democrats exist?!?! I am hoping that there will be, very shortly, some manner of much simplified way to squeeze the data out from the Garmin and squirt it into a more user friendly format that'll play nicely with the sort of searchable databases now in common use.

The other evening I saw one other oddity about the Garmin regarding the way in which it calculates Standard Deviation (SD) of a shot string. It has consistently posted a number several points lower than every other SD calculator that I've compared it's numbers against.
Not a deal breaker by any means, but something all Garmin owners need to be aware of.

As mentioned above there are only two aspects of the Garmin that I'm not all that happy with, the standard deviation miscalculation is nothing all that much of a concern as it's corrected when the data is entered into Gordons Reloading Tool. The proprietary .fit data format is however, very much a pisser and makes the Garmin a lot more cumbersome in order to track/keep track of one's data!

AOBTW: The Garmin as of this writing, has still been 100% reliable tracking everything I've tested.

A few additional thoughts regarding the Garmin...

As mentioned, I've taken to "Gordons Reloading Tool" [GRT] over the past several months with all my reloading data now being recorded and stored within that excellent bit of software! One small time saver as regards entering the Garmin's data into GRT is that only the actual shot string velocities need be recorded/entered via a .csv document, the average, minimum, maximum and standard deviation calculations will be magically completed by GRT!

Regarding the setting up and use of the Garmin... Wow! Simple, fast, easy intuitive are absolutely understatements! I find I'm now even setting up the Garmin for one shot, this in order to verify the initial load recommendations being generated by GRT.

Battery life: After more range sessions than I can count and hours spent at the computer recording all the shot velocity's, I've finally had to recharge the battery for the 1st time!

Now that I've acquired some fair amount of time and experience with the Garmin, would I once again fork over those even today more worthless Biden-bucks if I had to make the choice over again. Well, without knowing what the new LabRadar may bring to the table at the very same price point, yes absolutely I would! This if for no other reason than the ease of use as well as the reliability of the Garmin to record my shot velocity's.
It were a rather spendy investment for a reloading tool, but in my opinion, a very fine bit of kit in order to keep one safe and knowing what my handloads are capable of.

One other feature to the Garmin is that should the onboard battery get too low during a range session you can plug into a portable "5 volt USB power-bank" and keep on shooting!


GC

[M-Tecs]

Nice write up. I am waiting to see what upgrades Gen 2 will have. Same for LabRadar.