Athlon Rangecraft Compact Chrono Tested

[Big_Daddy]

UPDATE.......

Met Krogen out at our range this morning.
Fun times to say the least.
Here is the set-up we used for this task.

From left to right on the table....Garmin, Oehler, Athlon, Garmin.
There was absolutely ZERO issues with any Garmin and Athlon issues reading the shots.
Obviously the Oehler never missed a shot either.

We shot the following calibers: 22 LR, ,223 and 7.62x39
It was a mix of ammo as we were not interested in ammo consistency but more over the chronograph readings.

Krogen is "crunching" the numbers and I will let him present our particular results.

 

[Krogen]

Here's the data promised by @Big_Daddy As expected, ammo variations far outshadowed chronograph variations. All four chronographs performed well. You'll note missing shots in the data set. Not the fault of the chonographs, the responsibility lands squarely on human shoulders. Forget to set the right velocity range and they will happily ignore the shot.

In my opinion, a decision between Garmin and Athlon should focus on the chronograph's usability, anticipated product support and one's budget. There's little difference in performance based on this test.

 

[Big_Daddy]

In my opinion, a decision between Garmin and Athlon should focus on the chronograph's usability, anticipated product support and one's budget. There's little difference in performance based on this test.

I 100% agree with this assessment!

 

[precision1]

Sweet thanks.
Looks like the cheaper athlon is ever so slightly better than the others.woohoo

 

[precision1]

Athlon continues to make great products at the decent price.

 

[CJ6]

Thanks for your time and effort in doing this testing. Very helpful.

 

[Big_Daddy]

Sweet thanks.
Looks like the cheaper athlon is ever so slightly better than the others.woohoo

I am in no way agreeing nor disagreeing with your statement.
I am curious, as I am sure others may be, what did you see to come to your conclusion.

We conducted this test out of curiosity and to further discussion.

 

[CJ6]

My take....
The Garmins were pretty consistent with each other.
The Athlon and Ohler were for the most part fairly close, although the Athlon did have some higher extreme spreads but not enough to really make that much difference (to me).

 

[urbanrifleman]

The most disturbing thing about the Athlon product is that Garmin, this huge multi billion dollar company, is allowing them to continue producing it without a crap storm of cease and desist actions. In any previous world of "fair play", this would be an obvious infringement into what I would assume is a patented product.

What a strange world we live in now.

 

[Longtrain]

Here is the latest comparisons between my Athlon and MagnetoSpeed. This one test, 20 rounds, didn’t show a big difference between the two devices. Here are the numbers respectively between the Athlon and the MS.

Average 2871, 2866 fps
SD 8.1, 7.9 fps
ES 27, 28 fps

 

[Kracken McGraw]

I wonder if Father Time will reveal any difference between the two?

 

[Turkeytider]

Here's the data promised by @Big_Daddy As expected, ammo variations far outshadowed chronograph variations. All four chronographs performed well. You'll note missing shots in the data set. Not the fault of the chonographs, the responsibility lands squarely on human shoulders. Forget to set the right velocity range and they will happily ignore the shot.

In my opinion, a decision between Garmin and Athlon should focus on the chronograph's usability, anticipated product support and one's budget. There's little difference in performance based on this test.

I think one would be fine with either the Garmin or Athlon chronograph. My Athlon has taught me a great deal about the variability of factory ammo and its impact on performance down range. I have a better understanding as to the difficulty of stringing multiple hits in a row on a 3 or 4” gong at 500 yards!

 

[dusterdave173]

My Garmin has been one of, if not The best piece of shooting equipment I have purchased ever
No regrets like watching all the Lab Radar guys sell out for a fraction--that was brutal
These things probably should not cost over $99 anyway

 

[urbanrifleman]

These things probably should not cost over $99 anyway

Nike admitted Air Jordans cost them about 4 bucks. Haha

 

[FNSafari]

A Chinese knock off of a Chinese product. What could go wrong??

Chichips that didn't pass Garmin's QC protocols?

 

[urbanrifleman]

Chichips that didn't pass Garmin's QC protocols?

Shoot man, they could be coming out of the same factory. The Chicoms have no concept of patents. The factory could be offering the products to anyone that will take delivery.

 

[FNSafari]

Shoot man, they could be coming out of the same factory. The Chicoms have no concept of patents. The factory could be offering the products to anyone that will take delivery.

Years ago a friend bought a high dollar plasma cutter from a state side maker. Long story short, it wouldn't cut a circular pattern or even a straight line. After nearly a month of a rep of the seller trying to figure out what was wrong, it finally was traced to a defective, outlaw Chicom copy of a stateside designed control chip. WTF!

 

[Krogen]

There's an unknown that can't be easily accounted for when comparing the data in our tests. We don't know the actual measurement distance for the RADAR chronographs. Obviously, with an optical chronograph, it's easy enough if you disregard velocity loss between sky screens. Splitting hairs? I don't think so.

Running Quicktarget for the tested cartridges with approximate muzzle velocities and appropriate ballistic coefficients was interesting. Velocity declines enough between the muzzle and 15 yards to account for the observed "muzzle velocity" variances reported in our tests.

Certainly the Oehler doesn't correct it's measured velocity back to the muzzle. It's not that smart. But do the Garmin or Athon calculate apparent muzzle velocity? Or do they simply report the measured velocity at some unknown distance? We don't know.

In a nutshell, this is just a wrench in the works when comparing data. There are no glaring anomalies with any of our tested devices. Should anybody want to send @Big_Daddy a Caldwell or Labradar LX, I betcha he'll test them!

 

[WSnyder]

Lots of people testing and the athlon is not quite there yet

Huh??? What isn’t there? Mine works great and compares right along with the old tried and true LabRadar in a tiny portable package that doesn’t need an external trigger to get consistent operation.

There's little difference in performance based on this test.

Well there’s also this that suggests they're okay

 

[Longtrain]

At the range today the Athlon worked fine, except the app on my iPhone prompted me to update the firmware. I did, the devices connect via Bluetooth, but the data between the devices will not sync. Tried all the normal fixes, restart, reinstall, etc. no success. Emailed Athlon we’ll see if Customer Service exists…?
Firmware is now at 1.40.69.1