LABRADAR PROS AND CONS

[Snozzberries]

I have been seriously considering buying a chronograph. I was very seriously considering the Labradar. Amazing news, my range bought a Labradar. So now I just get to borrow theirs.

Since nobody has mentioned, let me add in something. You can insert a SD Memory Card into the unit, and it will write detailed information to the card. I'm attaching the 2 types of files that it writes.

The first is a Series of shots. You can create multiple Series, so when doing testing of different grains of powder, you can group them into a single Series. This file contains all the info about 15 shots I did, including the average, standard deviation, fastest, slowest.

The second is a single shot. You can see how many times the labradar gets a reading on the bullet, and it reports back the velocity at every distance. This data allows you to calculate the exact Ballistic Coefficient of the bullet. (If you want to)

FYI, these are .308 Lapua 167gr Scenar rounds, factory fresh. 24" barrel.

 

[Ned Ludd]

For the muzzle blast of an adjacent shooter to activate the acoustic trigger, they need to be pretty close, like right next to you on the firing line or one spot over. That how my unit behaves with the sensitivity set on "2". You can certainly turn the sensitivity down to 3, 4, or 5, whatever the minimum that works with your setup is, if adjacent shooters are triggering the unit. However, you don't want to to set it so low that the acoustic trigger starts missing your own shots. You just have to play with the setting to find the proper balance.

 

[Bill Norris]

Appreciate all the contributional post here. This really did turn out fantastic and I'm sure more will come later. I have made a note pad and placed on my desktop so I can refer to all these great facts once I start using my LR. Thanks guys for a super job. Best place on the net to find accurate info no doubt.

 

[mike a]

I bought one from mkmachining.com. Works great and Lr will still fit in the carry case with an arkcomachine.com base.
Couldn't help it. My base and their sight work. Great combination.

I got a MK sight also. Works great. Mike

 

[XrayDoc88]

Have Labradars ever gone on sale? I am considering purchasing one in the US and noticed that they are currently $60 off. Woopie! Then I started wondering. Does a sale hint that maybe Labradar v2 is on the horizon? Does anyone have a suspicion or inside information? I'd hate to buy one on sale if a new version will be out next year.

 

[Bill Norris]

Have Labradars ever gone on sale? I am considering purchasing one in the US and noticed that they are currently $60 off. Woopie! Then I started wondering. Does a sale hint that maybe Labradar v2 is on the horizon? Does anyone have a suspicion or inside information? I'd hate to buy one on sale if a new version will be out next year.

Have not heard of anything like that happening so far.

 

[KenOath]

Have Labradars ever gone on sale? I am considering purchasing one in the US and noticed that they are currently $60 off. Woopie! Then I started wondering. Does a sale hint that maybe Labradar v2 is on the horizon? Does anyone have a suspicion or inside information? I'd hate to buy one on sale if a new version will be out next year.

They have had atleast a few sales that I’m aware of over the last couple years.

 

[Dusty Stevens]

Call amy at brunos for a good deal.

 

[Bill Norris]

Call amy at brunos for a good deal.

Agree Dusty

 

[SGK]

Regardless of the precision/accuracy of any chronograph made, the small sample numbers (n) we use for typical load development usually mean that there is not a whole lot of statistical weight behind the findings.

Agreed on this part. And not many understand confidence intervals and just how they're affected by N, and hence how little (statistical) confidence they can have in 3-5 shot strings.

It would be good if Labradar added confidence interval data to their output statistics. It would be an easy improvement requiring only a few lines of software. It's kind of eye opening to realise you can only be, say, 95% confident that your great 5 shot group velocity average or SD is between two numbers as wide as a barn door. A smart man once provided me with wise advice: "a 3 or 5 shot group can only tell you that the load is bad; never that it is good."

Most of the chronographs I've ever used listed the accuracy of measurement to a percent value. Whether correct or not, I believe most of them simply mean "MV =/- some percent of MV when they use that terminology, because an SD or SE value would not normally be expressed as a percentage.

An SD/ES/SE has to be a % because it is wrapping around a variable mean.

Still no reply from LabRadar.

 

[MikeT124]

Have Labradars ever gone on sale? I am considering purchasing one in the US and noticed that they are currently $60 off. Woopie! Then I started wondering. Does a sale hint that maybe Labradar v2 is on the horizon? Does anyone have a suspicion or inside information? I'd hate to buy one on sale if a new version will be out next year.

Bought mine about a year ago. They were on sale then for the same price as they are now. This is the first sale they have had this year. I suspect you will probably see them on sale again next year.
But why wait?

Mike

 

[D.Stone]

Does anyone make an ARCA Swiss mount for the Labradar? I want to mount it on my RRS tripod.

 

[Dusty Stevens]

Does anyone make an ARCA Swiss mount for the Labradar? I want to mount it on my RRS tripod.

Use the 1/4-20 stud like for spotting scopes. Itll go right on there

 

[Bill Norris]

According to L R customer service these are the latest updates

When you power up the Labradar check bottom right side of the screen for most recent firm ware update FWA 1.2.4 and FWB 1.0.0 are latest updates.

 

[group therapy]

@Falfan2017

 

[D.Stone]

Mine should be here Thursday.

When people are complaining about battery life, how long are they running it for? Is it because the battery doesn't last a full F-Class Match? Or because the battery doesn't last a full hour?

 

[ridgeway]

I use rechargeable AA batteries and have enough to change to fresh ones as needed. I don't think Batt life is that bad

 

[Falfan2017]

Mine should be here Thursday.

When people are complaining about battery life, how long are they running it for? Is it because the battery doesn't last a full F-Class Match? Or because the battery doesn't last a full hour?

You probably get 3-4 hours on a fresh set of batteries. If you remember to turn off the radar setting it lasts a lot longer. Also I don’t think f class rules allow the use of a chrono.

 

[Dusty Stevens]

Mine has sat for over a day and the battery pack still said it was full

 

[powderbrake]

Does anyone make an ARCA Swiss mount for the Labradar? I want to mount it on my RRS tripod.

I have the clamp portion on my tripod, so I just screwed a plate to the bottom of the Labradar in the 1/4-20 hole.