Justice1327
Well-Known Member
I see what you did there… XERO regrets
Buying a used Labradar, what do I need to know before I buy
- Thread starter DartonJager
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Did not read all the previous posts but since I have direct experience thought I would add my 2 cents. Had a Labradar for about 6 months and sold it. I found it large and I found the after sales service to be very poor. I never needed the external trigger, but I did have a few issues with it working, that required the manufacturers intervention on more than one occaission. They finally got it working right but it was not a smooth process. When it finally worked right it worked well.
I actually went back to my $100 Shooting Chrony because I did not feel the Lab was worth the money for what little it did better. Also, the 4000 fps speed limit affected me because I was building loads for 17 and 20 Calibre cartridges. I have used the Garmin, I really like it and will buy one in the next few months, but they are expensive.
Shooting Chrony is no longer an option unless you can find a used one as they have gone out of business. The Magneto speeds are a pain to use and don't work well for gathering large amounts of data over many rounds. All that said, if the Labradar had been $300 instead of $800, I would probably have kept it.
I actually went back to my $100 Shooting Chrony because I did not feel the Lab was worth the money for what little it did better. Also, the 4000 fps speed limit affected me because I was building loads for 17 and 20 Calibre cartridges. I have used the Garmin, I really like it and will buy one in the next few months, but they are expensive.
Shooting Chrony is no longer an option unless you can find a used one as they have gone out of business. The Magneto speeds are a pain to use and don't work well for gathering large amounts of data over many rounds. All that said, if the Labradar had been $300 instead of $800, I would probably have kept it.
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I still have my LabRadar but I use my Garmin. It's easy. Once I added a trigger the LR only missed shots when I forgot to arm it. I was powering it from the USB port but that finally gave up. That was what triggered (pun intended) the move to Garmin.
The Garmin has the same arming issue. If you don't arm it, it doesn't record the shot. Go figure. Garmin uses the correct SD calc. Lab Radar does not.
The Garmin has the same arming issue. If you don't arm it, it doesn't record the shot. Go figure. Garmin uses the correct SD calc. Lab Radar does not.
M1A1ABRAMS
Well-Known Member
I would be willing to guess the LR with the plate would withstand more wind than the Garmin. Just due to its weight. As Lance mentioned he has seen a few Garmin get blown off the bench just from the concussion. Until I start having some real issues with my LR. I will not upgrade to the Garmin. I like the Garmin little package. But being small also comes with some negativity. The only shots I have missed so far is from operator error. Not arming for the shot. It does seem like either you get a good LR or a not so good one. I for one feel I got a good deal on my LR. Almost half the cost of a new Garmin.
I agree 100% with your statement, I have experienced the exact same thing with my lab.
I also agree with everyone on this form that the Garmin is the best of the best.
I use it with my Bow to get my FPS.
Buy once cry once!
But I still like to sell my boat anchor, oh it's not even heavy enough to use it for that!!!
Serendipitous
New Member
It depends on what you need. If you want, at any time, to calculate BC from your chrony, then the LabRadar original is the only game in town. It can be accurately done by hand, or more easily with https://bc.geladen.ch/labrabaco/labrabaco.html
You'll find that any radar chrony has huge advantages to optical ones: you can't shoot / destroy it; zero dependency on lighting conditions; no need to shut the line down to setup and teardown your chrony; muzzle blast won't affect readings; etc.
I have an original, early-adopter version of the Labradar. Responding to your points:
1) my ports are fine. But I almost never connect a USB cable to it, as I find the AA's to be sufficient.
2) never needed repairs. Don't know how they could tell you aren't the first owner (there's no registration)
3) Software updates are done through an SD Card. Always been easy.
As long as you have recent firmware and phone app versions, the connection to the app (which is a bonus, but not necessary for use) is perfectly reliable. As long as you aim it carefully, in my experience the shot pickup is also perfectly reliable. I have a "RAT" (recoil activated trigger) but do not use it.
The main advantage of the Garmin, Labradar LX, and Andiscan A3 is compact size and easy aiming. But they cost more and will not do BC (edit: it looks like the Labradar LX will soon do BC: https://www.facebook.com/InfinitionQC/).
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