Chronographs

[Bullseye69]

30 min set up looks like!

 

[TheCZKid]

What a difference!

 

[Tiratore]

And a photo showing the contrast - you can barely see the Garmin in the F-Open setup. It's not legal to have it on line during a match, but for practice, if you get a funny shot, you can look to see if it was velocity or operator error.

 

[Rick in Oregon]

I've been using my old Shooting Chrony for longer than I care to admit. It's time for a reboot.
Question for those that have the Athlon and/or the Garmin.....

Considering the experience here, which one deserves my money?
Is the Athlon as good as the Garmin?
I read good things about both units, but is the Garmin worth the extra $100+~ compared to the Athlon?

 

[Bullseye69]

So i gave it a quick try today between rain drops.
Just used quick set up and ran 5 rounds of 17hmr out of my savage 93R17.
No missed readings and was easy to review.
Now if you download the app and sink with your phone, it's got a lot of info you can input. Way more than imo you really need but what do I know. Lol
I'm pretty sure I should start boxing up the old ones to send them down the road.

 

[Bullseye69]

So a plus is it fits my camera tripod.
That way you can stand with a pistol or rifle not needing to use a bench.
Also can check my bow and crossbow.
Should make it harder to knock over. Lol

 

[MTPaul]

I've been using my old Shooting Chrony for longer than I care to admit. It's time for a reboot.
Question for those that have the Athlon and/or the Garmin.....

Considering the experience here, which one deserves my money?
Is the Athlon as good as the Garmin?
I read good things about both units, but is the Garmin worth the extra $100+~ compared to the Athlon?

Hi Rick,

My actual range experience comparing both units head-to-head is admittedly limited (like none!) as I only recently purchased the Garmin. Prior to that I used the LabRadar and like many others, I too longed for something better. When the Garmin Xero was first released, I thought this might just be the answer to my prayers as it was so compact compared to the LabRadar and it seemed better suited to my purposes. Rather than jump right in, I waited until the Garmin had been on the market for several months and had been reviewed by many people. I am of the mind set "Be not the first by whom the new is tried nor yet the last to set the old aside."

About the time I was finally convinced the Garmin was worth the price, I began to hear rumblings about the Athlon unit and the initial target pricing, so I held off. After the Athlon was made available and it had been on the market for several months and I made the decision to go with the Garmin. Yes, today there is roughly a $100 pricing difference and both units accomplish what I was looking for in a chronograph. My decision ultimately boiled down to my experience with two other Garmin devices I own (Instinct watch and inReach Mini2), the customer service I have received, the reliability of both devices and the fact Garmin was the first company to provide the VAST IMPROVEMENT over the LabRadar. I support the R&D effort it took Garmin to develop and bring to market the first compact radar-based chronograph.

Being the first to the market did expose Garmin to other companies who also developed their offerings and who bought them to the marketplace. From my perspective I don't think a person could go wrong with either unit as they are both very similar in function and design, and both seem to provide the accuracy and precision I was looking for.

 

[rickiesrevenge]

Agree. I bought the Garmin fairly early on. Its been amazing the whole time. So simple to use thst there isn't much excuse to not chrono every shot at the range.

 

[Bullseye69]

Agree. I bought the Garmin fairly early on. Its been amazing the whole time. So simple to use thst there isn't much excuse to not chrono every shot at the range.

Or out in the field shooting prairie dogs. Will sit really nice on my shooting bench. Will be neat to see what kind of info you get reading 100 shoots or more for the day.
Might even be able to tell if its shooters error or reloaders error when I miss. LOL

 

[17VLD]

I love the convenience of these new small chronographs, so much better than setting up my old Oehler and holding up people at the range. I bought the Garmin before the Athlon was available. It's so useful I'd buy another if needed, didn't miss a beat when I was testing the Swift at 4000fps.
Matt

 

[Bullseye69]

Got to use it today.
Easy peasy!
Ran outside, brushed snow off shooting bench, turned it on and shoot.
Only missed one shot out of 9.