First post here, have been reading Hide articles and posts for months. My experiences with my LabRadar:
- Aim the device carefully at your target per instructions. Otherwise, you'll get no reading.
- Alkaline batteries won't last for beans. There are plenty of battery packs available at good prices.
- Pay attention to the velocity ranges. Although rifle/pistol overlap significantly, you can get bizarre readings. Examples: My 9mm PCC gave 2700+/- fps readings when I left the LabRadar in Rifle range mode (actual velocity from Pistol range mode was ~1450fps). An FN 5.7 pistol, with its little warp-speed bullet, would not read in Pistol velocity mode; in rifle mode I got good readings.
- Forget using it with a .22 without the additional pickup. Now, a friend of mine has a LabRadar and he says his air gun pickup is so finicky as to be nearly useless with a .22 and he wishes he had not bought the thing. He recommended that I continue to use my Caldwell optical chrono with .22s.
- Subjectively speaking, my unit seems more finicky on a 50-yard pistol bay than it does on a more wide-open 100-500 yard rifle range. I've read many reports online, and the instructions say, that close-quarters indoor (or outdoor) ranges may present issues. I'd say, plan on problems if your range is too confined.
- The documentation is so poorly worded (grammar and typos) that it must have been written offshore or by engineers ;-) (I'm a retired computer geek).
- Bottom line: There is a learning curve to the device. Start your first session with cheap (centerfire) pistol ammo, not dollar-a-shot rifle ammo, until you figure it out. Once you do, you'll be very happy with it, if you understand and accommodate its limitations.
I'd be happy to hear from users who have had more positive experiences with the air gun trigger.
- dfh
