New Garmin Zero chronograph

[Walt]

My son bought one of these chronographs a month or so ago and he was so impressed with it that I looked into them as well. These units were not generally available but he had managed to find one; I got an email from Dillon Precision saying they had a few of them on hand so I ordered one.

I'm impressed as well after just one use. It's tiny and waaay more portable than a conventional chronograph. It utilizes the same technology as the LabRadar but it is much smaller. The LabRadar's base price is fairly similar to the Garmin but the number of accessories required for practical use brings their price up. It's accurate too. A shooter set up a Garmin, a LabRadar and a MagnetoSpeed chronograph and shot one round through all three; the velocity variance was in the single digits. A Bluetooth connection to your phone allows all data to be viewed or sent elswhere.

The Garmin has a standard thread on the bottom which permits attaching to a tripod when shooting from a standing position and it comes with a small tripod which can be placed on a shooting bench when shooting rifles.As compared to the LabRadar, aiming the unit is much less critical. The muzzle of the firearm should be up to 15" away from and in front of the chronograph and that's all there is to it.

The shot data on my phone was from a 7 1/2" Ruger Redhawk shooting a cast 429421 bullet over 20.5 gr of 2400.

[TedH]

I love my Garmin! I've used it with everything from 17 HMR to 375 H&H. It's never failed to pick up a shot, extremely easy to set up and use, and the app to get all the data to your phone is very simple too.
Not an inexpensive unit, but worth every penny for me.

[Bill in Oregon]

I'm envious. I wish the price would come down. Making do with a ProChrono currently.

[Walt]

I have an old screen-type Competition Electronics chronograph which is such an aggravation to use that it only comes along on special occasions. I also have a MagnetoSpeed but its practical use is only for rifles so those both have very limited applications.

The Garmin's best features in my opinion are its portability and the Bluetooth connection with my phone which eliminates the need to write down the results of each shooting session. It's a very handy device.

[Rimfire McNutjob]

I've been holding off on the Garmin. Though the LabRadar was first, it has some issues with shot sensitivity and the battery that are hard for me to overcome. Then the FX came along but never seemed to be available in the retail channel, only in reviews where it did well.

The Garmin has a great form factor, excellent battery life, great shot sensitivity, and a great app with connectivity. I've read that the sensitivity can be too high for an indoor range where you've got people shooting next to you but that's not a problem for me. I don't think I've ever chrono'd at an indoor range.

The only thing giving me hesitation is the lack of down range readings of an appreciable distance to allow for BC calculation that the LabRadar and FX would do. There has been speculation that the size / form factor of the Garmin prevents it from having the antenna gain to sense too far down range. The LabRadar is obviously larger and the FX was sort of between the two in size. One wonders if there's enough there in the Garmin to allow for better down range and add the BC calculation with just a firmware update. More down range readings would probably affect battery life. Maybe it could be an option one sets before recording shot strings.

But now there are apparently two more choices coming soon ... the Caldwell VelociRadar and the LabRadar LX. The Caldwell unit looks slightly larger than the Garmin and it DOES note that it has down range capability with BC calculation. I'm sure the LabRadar LX is a smaller and improved version meant to compete with the Garmin but I've not seen any specs on it yet.

So I'm still hesitant. Do I really NEED the BC measurement? The Garmin seems top notch and has a great form factor and is only missing the down range stuff. But will the newer offerings cover that feature at the cost of a slightly larger package / antenna? I'm still on the fence and will probably wait to see how the newer units compare. I've not been to the range in some time so I'm not in a hurry.

If you've got the Garmin, it's surely the best thing available at the moment and the new units may still fall short of it as an overall package. It's going to be hard to beat.