Broke the LabRadar AGAIN !

[Lowlight]

So, I was out this week on the range teaching a private class. Broke out the Labtradar, used the same Ewing tripod you see in the videos.

Front Range Spring Wind, Average 12 to 15 MPH, yesterday, gusts to 20+MPH.

Labradar falls over, like 1ft off the ground if that. Rattle, light blinks, so it needs to go back again.

It's definitely not durable. This is the second minor fall for this unit and both times it broke parts loose.

At least i have my MagnetoSpeed, it's the energizer bunny.

 

[James Abram]

I have a buddy that I shoot with, buys the best of everything, including a LabRadar. It seems like every time we go out something is up with his LR, battery, to much interference, not steady enough. We just put it up and use my MagnetoSpeed and continue on. I'm not bashing LabRadar at all, just saying how we roll.


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[Fursniper]

WHAATTT, you don't have 3 of these...?

 

[Lowlight]

It's more trouble than it is worth

 

[Fursniper]

The bloom is off the rose I guess.........

 

[Bull Arms]

Are they decent about repairs or do they charge to fix?

 

[Bull Arms]

I made a large flat base for mine to hopefully prevent the tip overs, so far so good..

 

[djarecke]

How sad...

 

[pizfiz]

There's a lot going on in that orange box! I could see how it would be fragile. It is a shame because I was very interested in getting one.

 

[Kingair001]

It's more trouble than it is worth

Was thinking to get a LabRadar

Pulled the trigger . . . and went for a MagnetoSpeed V3 !

 

[Mr.Tacticool]

Didn't even need to drop mine external jack for battery pack is slowly but surely coming loose and soon it will need to go back for repairs, And we are not talking years of use , barely a dozen range sessions before things started faling apart. Did i mention is the second unit as the first one was not triggering or it was quite picky and we shot only .284win with a muzzle brake so not some silent stuff.

Magnetospeed is far more reliable. Labradar is a halfway finshed product ,with all sorts of details wrong.

 

[Holliday]

Sorry to hear this Frank. I WAS hoping to purchase one. The posts on your link on FB surprise me, in that so many seem to feel that expecting a piece of field grade equipment to actually be field grade, is unreasonable.

 

[TripleBull]

I guess I'm lucky. We've used it every time out over the last year, haven't babied it and it keeps spitting out the data.

 

[Lowlight]

The FB trolls just like to contrarian, will debate everything without thinking.

If you cannot use it in the field what is the point. I have a lot of time behind it, this is twice now it broke. I am not dropping it on concrete its dirt. The wind is always a factor on the front range, the next charge will you have to use THEIR big base plate to prevent it from tipping.

The Ewing is not a great tripod, but it is low enough to use. The wind is... in the field you get that.

 

[_Windrider_]

This kind of stuff is why you never buy the first generation of anything.

 

[jfields]

Been using mine weekly for 9 months. It has never fallen and I am almost always the only shooter, but it has been great. Suppressed, unsuppressed with all kinds of bullets. It does go through batteries though. I hope they come out with the blue tooth connectivity at some point.

 

[TheGerman]

1 ft from the ground?

Stop holding the damn thing over your head when its so windy outside!

I've pretty much stuck with my MS as well.

 

[Thud]

Low,
Maybe you can't have nice things

 

[dttheliman]

I guess I'm lucky. We've used it every time out over the last year, haven't babied it and it keeps spitting out the data.

this is my experience other than internal battery consumption - no complaints , just wish they would hurry up and fix the bluetooth connection / and a hook into AB would be kinda neat as well.

 

[Petrov]

My friend has one. Never dropped it but it refuses to work in the cold.

 

[Lowlight]

I use the unit at least 2 days a week, so it's been used a lot. An the numbers are solid, there is no debating that point.

But the fact is, it's too fragile for the field.

I have had this unit for longer than anyone, as I received mine in the first batch. I like a lot of things about it, but when the wind can knock it over and it's set up for use in the prone and it still breaks, please ... spare the me. This is the second time. The fall the first time was higher, about 3ft, but this was one the ground, barely a foot off, fell on dirt.

I have one of those new acoustic chronographs on the way... will replace the LabRadar.

The MagnetoSpeed is the best bang for your buck.

 

[MarkLeupold]

Sorry to hear about the LabRadar, but I'll be very interested to see how the acoustic chrono pans out.

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[Holliday]

Which acoustic are you trying Frank?

 

[alexander66]

And I was thinking of getting one, I drop things all the time, and one foot of the ground, I think I will pass. I dropped my AT rifle some time ago off of my work bench, my Nightforce took the blunt of the hit. It did not hurt the rifle or the scope.

 

[MarkCO]

I really like my MagnetoSpeed.

 

[northern50]

Open it up.. See what broke, take pictures and post back. The rest of us that have ours that are out of warranty can open them up and silicone around the "would be" broken parts and move on with life.

 

[Clearlight]

My unit gets used 3 to 5 days a week , outdoors . Yesterday it got rained on to the degree that the external
battery pack shit itself . Got a spare battery pack from the car , wiped off the rain and it kept working .
Its been knocked off benches / tripods several times , and lives in my car in a pelican case : would have
driven ar least 30 000 k with it bouncing around in tha boot .

To to be honest I'm surprised my unit is still going , it's covered in powder residue on one side from
thousands of shots from braked rifles . Sound like you may have got a Friday afternoon unit LL ,
or maybe being an early production unit , it doesn't have the assembly upgrades of later units .
Manufacturers tend to upgrade assembly techniques as problems arise , without telling the
public about every boring detail ....

 

[Johnson184]

D'oh!!! I was planning on buying a Labradar next month. Sold my Magnetospeed and all its accessories for a loss just the other month since I got so damn fed up trying to use it unsuccessfully on a bunch of different rifles that didn't have a long enough continuous barrel profile to attach it.

 

[FALex]

Which acoustic are you trying Frank?

It's likely the Steinert SuperChrono. I was just checking it out last week. I'd feel better letting Frank be the guinea pig with the Steinert. I've read good things about it, but I don't know anyone, personally, who owns one. I do like the Magneto, it's a great product for under 200.00.

 

[Holliday]

The FB trolls just like to contrarian, will debate everything without thinking.

If you cannot use it in the field what is the point. I have a lot of time behind it, this is twice now it broke. I am not dropping it on concrete its dirt. The wind is always a factor on the front range, the next charge will you have to use THEIR big base plate to prevent it from tipping.

The Ewing is not a great tripod, but it is low enough to use. The wind is... in the field you get that.

Well it's strange, in that if you have an issue with a product or brand, others will somehow take that very personally. I saw this for years with Harley motorcycles. It actually came to hurt Harley as competition grew.

I was looking very hard at getting one of these, until this report. The product has such a "cult following", I found that in-and-of-itself made me hesitant. I just wanted to make sure it was not going to be another headache in the field. I owe you a debt for saving me the money and hassle. Wind is an ever-present issue here n Wyoming.

I've been critical of certain aspects of the magnetospeed but it is realible and field grade. I'm feeling much better about it now. My biggest complaint has been it's attachment mechanism.

Thanks again for saving me 500 - 600 dollars worth of hair pulling......I'd like to keep what hair I have left.

 

[Holliday]

It's likely the Steinert SuperChrono. I was just checking it out last week. I'd feel better letting Frank be the guinea pig with the Steinert. I've read good things about it, but I don't know anyone, personally, who owns one. I do like the Magneto, it's a great product for under 200.00.

Thanks I'll check it it out. Hopefully Frank gives stellar reports.....

 

[deersniper]

Yeah I don't know what the big deal about these was. Magnetospeed just works.

 

[Wiley Coyyote]

Despite trying all sorts of manipulations in locating the labradar from the muzzle and changing settings of the unit, cannot get my neighbor's labradar to work with my supressed 308 or 300wm. Magnetospeed works fine by upping the sensitivity.

 

[Holliday]

Yeah I don't know what the big deal about these was. Magnetospeed just works.

The big draw for me was being able to fire for effect while chrono-ing. With significant changes in poi and groups I have to chrono separate from checking zero or checking grouping.

 

[Lowlight]

It's likely the Steinert SuperChrono. I was just checking it out last week. I'd feel better letting Frank be the guinea pig with the Steinert. I've read good things about it, but I don't know anyone, personally, who owns one. I do like the Magneto, it's a great product for under 200.00.

Not it is a new one..> i have the Steinert Super Chrono and it sucks ...

The is is acoustic chrony from the Auto trickler guy... cost $350 or so, has a longer distance between mics and supposed to be more accurate

 

[poison123]

Anyone figured out how to take it apart yet? There's something on the bottom maybe the tripod/stand mount screw that is preventing me from getting it apart without breaking it. I can see the part that detached/broke off the board pretty sure its fixable if I can figure out how to get it apart without destroying the case.

 

[Outlander71]

You can add me to the list of people that were on the verge of buying a LabRadar. Going to wait and see how this plays out.

 

[Mike402]

I've had a mag V3 for a couple years & its been dead reliable. I did however pick up a lab radar solely for the purpose of being able to Chrono and do load development at the same time.
Took a lot of fiddling around to get it to work properly, and also had to use different positions for different rifles (braked vs non-braked). The number one pet peeve of mine was having to get up and break position to reset it if it didn't register a shot. That drove me crazy trying to keep consistency doing OCWs. Also didnt like the bulk and size of the unit. In the end, I returned it and went back to using the magspeed.

 

[poison123]

Alright so I pulled mine apart enough to get this part out. Whole fucking thing just popped off from my limited view....these things really aren't put together well at all. I think with this thing being out of place and rattling around inside the case is what caused it to get complete bullshit readings or none at all. I'll try to get out to the range with known ammo to see what it gives me for readings. From what I can tell in my garage...the only thing this battery does is allow it to keep your date/time information current......thats it.

[

 

[FALex]

Not it is a new one..> i have the Steinert Super Chrono and it sucks ...

The is is acoustic chrony from the Auto trickler guy... cost $350 or so, has a longer distance between mics and supposed to be more accurate

Well there we have it! Glad I threw that out there. So what we have learned thus far, is that the Magneto Speed is the way to go (unless the new one you're going to check out ends up working well). I was kind of wondering why we never heard anything on that Steinert deal. I remember when they had first come out, they had some marketing that said it could be buried several inches under snow and it would still read very accurately.

Is that why the Steinert sucks? Think the mics are too close together for an accurate measurement?

 

[tnichols]

Ya, they are kites. We were out in wind strong enough to knock my buddies unattended gun over off his Atlas 2x!. I had to use a full size tripod (slammed to the ground) with the RRS QR to keep the LR in place.

Always interesting when you have >6mils of wind..

On a side note we were not using my V3 because we were trying the FL 6.5 and really weren't getting the grouping that I've seen on the 38s and 30s...


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This made me smile. We've shot on days that when you're not on the gun, you have 2 choices, either point it into the wind, or, lay it on its side.

 

[vh20]

This made me smile. We've shot on days that when you're not on the gun, you have 2 choices, either point it into the wind, or, lay it on its side.

Makes your day job interesting, too huh?

 

[tnichols]

Makes your day job interesting, too huh?

It can...

 

[JCCinOhio]

It IS called LabRadar.. Sounds like they need to make a FieldRadar...

 

[Lowlight]

Looking at the Canadian "Two box" Chrono and not the Steinert, I have the SuperChrono and retired it a long time ago ...
http://www.autotrickler.com/twoboxchrono.html

 

[diverdon]

Frank, perhaps I have missed something, was there a reason you became dissatisfied with the Magnetospeed V3?

 

[lash]

Frank, perhaps I have missed something, was there a reason you became dissatisfied with the Magnetospeed V3?

He didn't say that he was dissatisfied with the V3. In fact I believe that he said that he likes it because it just works. He just likes to try the greatest products out there and in the process, we the readers gather information on these products through his use and write-ups. That's my take on this.

 

[Lowlight]

The MagnetoSpeed is my go to chronograph

However, when testing and doing various projects, it's worth it to run the chronograph the entire time I am shooting, especially out to distance. With a lot of my barrels, the POI shift is pretty small, but some do shift. This does not help with gathering data at distance. I would have to rezero the MagnetoSpeed to fix the offset. Instead, I like to run the Labradar and get a 40+ Shot average as it can make a difference. I have seen 20+fps changes in your average when going from a 5 shot average to a 45 shot average.

As well for some classes, it's a bit time consuming to put the magnetospeed on and off several rifles. I would rather people just drop down and shoot.

The MagnetoSpeed is the best chronograph on the market if you ask me... but I do have everything from an Oehler 35P to a CED, PVM, MagnetoSpeed, Labradar, Steinert, etc...

 

[EXTREMEPREJUDICE]

That new acoustic offering might work well on something like the extended Photoeye two tripod set up of the 35p. But then again, the only problem with the 35P is the set up time and that it's limited to one POA. I retired my 35 because of the size and setup.

Echos my experience, and if nothing else with the LabRadar I've learned from Lowlight's travails is to be extra careful the thing doesn't fall or tip over. I love the functionality of the unit but to add insult the way it is built is deceiving............................looks like it would be tough! I guess a "Caution, LabRadar is fragile as eggs" sticker is in order.

 

[Fursniper]

I hope somebody from LR is reading this thread. I'd really like to own one but unless they toughen up the internals I guess I'll just stick with my V3.