Whats the real truth about Chronographs?

[DartonJager]

I own a Caldwell G2 Chronograph for 5-6 years now and it has served me quite well over 90% of the time.
I have thought very seriously of upgrading to a V3 but read to many negative reviews of its affect on accuracy and the Lab Radar is iut if my price range.
So other than those three are there really any viable alternatives?

 

[BillLarson]

The Ohler 35p used to be the accuracy standard.Today i own 4 chronographs. Ohler,magnetospeed,chronographs and precison tech.Alot of guys have gone to labradar.i have shot over and beside all.On any given day everyone will give erroneous readings or miss shots...
Not an opinion but fact...
bill

 

[coyotewillie]

Obviously, when you hang something from a bbl, like the Magnetospeed, it's going to affect the POI. But you normally get the same groups with/without it. Once you find your load, have your velocities, then you can zero your scope where you want and you're good to go. For years I fought with 2 different Chronys. What a pain! Went with the Magnetospeed Sporter a couple years ago and have never looked back. I might upgrade someday to the V3 but don't have any plans to right now. There's also a good thread on chronographs going on in this forum too.

 

[Trm82]

I've had chrony brand and it was junk , put a deposit on labradar and buy it when you can afford it !! Once you use labradar you can never go back.
yes they cost more but buy once cry once is my moto !!
you get what you pay for.

 

[NRLArt]

I use a Magnetto speed and compared it to my friends Lab Radar. The Magnetto speed and the Lab Radar were very close when it came to centerfire. IMO, not enough difference to justify the price. The interesting thing is when it came to our .22LR PRS rifles, the Lab Radar had a hard time picking up the 22. We had to make several adjustments so it would. BUT at times with a person about 12' from us shooting centerfire it would pick up their shots.... So I'd suggest the Magnetto Speed. Well worth it IMO.

 

[FEENIX]

I use a Magnetto speed and compared it to my friends Lab Radar. The Magnetto speed and the Lab Radar were very close when it came to centerfire. IMO, not enough difference to justify the price. The interesting thing is when it came to our .22LR PRS rifles, the Lab Radar had a hard time picking up the 22. We had to make several adjustments so it would. BUT at times with a person about 12' from us shooting centerfire it would pick up their shots.... So I'd suggest the Magnetto Speed. Well worth it IMO.

A $35 JKL trigger or similar resolves that issue.

 

[FEENIX]

I've had chrony brand and it was junk , put a deposit on labradar and buy it when you can afford it !! Once you use labradar you can never go back.
yes they cost more but buy once cry once is my moto !!
you get what you pay for.

Yep!

 

[Varmint Hunter]

My Oehler 35P took a few minutes to set up but was very reliable. I'm now working with a new LabRadar and have carefully set all the parameters. I get missed shots, erroneous readings, and double readings for a single shot????? The second reading is about 1,000 ft/sec too low. Sometimes the LR works great and other times it throws fits. Maybe it's me but the LR isn't that easy to get reliable readouts from.

I also bought the JKL inertia trigger and the magnetic mount for it. That does seem to help.

Another problem that I noticed was when shooting a 500 S&W mag with 400gr bullets. When you have velocities around 1,600 ft/sec you may need to switch back and forth between "handgun" range and "rifle" range in the settings. It took me quite awhile to figure that one out. lol

 

[QuietTexan]

Two quick things: first, there are ways of mounting a Magnetospeed that do not touch the barrel, if that's the primary concern. Secondly, the LabRadar is capped at ~3900fps (per it's own manual) and I've been told will struggle catching a reflection from small caliber bullets.

Have a LabRadar, love it, it catches .264-.338 perfectly for me so far, but I haven't pushed it to find out if the limitations are real or not. I passed on a 204 Ruger because I didn't want to invest in loading and shooting a whole new caliber during this shortage just to end up fighting my LR. When components are back again I'd like to see if the .20 cal issues are real or not.