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Do I want a LabRadar? (Page 2 of 2)
| Another thing I learned. If setting up to measure some test loads. For example 5 test rounds. Make your first shot or two with a non test round to confirm aim and setup. I've been off aim, or too far from the unit and missed a trigger. Once you are measuring, usually one or two shots, then load your actual test rounds and collect data. |
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Originally Posted By GLShooter:
I bought one of the mounts and put a $30.00 4X scope on mine to get the beam focused. Haven't missed a single round since and I use the crap out of mine. Greg |
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Originally Posted By towerofpower94: To which mount are you referring? I've got an old junker 4x Tasco from a gifted rifle which is gathering dust and while the speed square has pretty good, a truly slaved aiming device would be great. Greg |
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Wish there was a way to have all of the series of log files in just one file, like Magnetospeed. Emailed them asking if they could have it as an option in their next firmware release, reply back was no. What are the distances you all use for the 5 velocity measurements? They have to be under 100 yards correct? I have the default setup but I'm thinking of changing them to: 0 - Muzzle Velocity 30 - 7 yards 75 - 25 yards 150 - 50 yards 225 - 75 yards 300 - 100 yards |
Our fish is pinging on -2. Somebody's fish is pinging on -1, and one of the Russian fish is pinging at zero-three-five--sir, I have an explosion at bearing three-three-nine.
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The five distance summary for tracking velocity are kinda meaningless. It tracks out as far as it can, and will log between 20 and 50 readings, out from 30 to 90 ish yards, depending. For determining muzzle velocity, it doesn't really make much difference. If the user requested distance falls into what it actually tracked and recorded. It will report that in the 5-distance summary, but the 5-distance summary is pointless anyway. If you intend to examine or process the downrange velocity data, you are going to be doing the 20-50 data point file, not the 5 distance summary. |
Here you go with some pics of mine. I bought it off the Cast Boolits Forum. Price was $35.00
Out in the desert for it's first application. 
This is the guy: Smoke4320 E-mail:[email protected] Greg |
Global Warming Hoax Skeptic before it was cool
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Originally Posted By 7:
Wish there was a way to have all of the series of log files in just one file, like Magnetospeed. Emailed them asking if they could have it as an option in their next firmware release, reply back was no. What are the distances you all use for the 5 velocity measurements? They have to be under 100 yards correct? I have the default setup but I'm thinking of changing them to: 0 - Muzzle Velocity 30 - 7 yards 75 - 25 yards 150 - 50 yards 225 - 75 yards 300 - 100 yards Greg |
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Originally Posted By GLShooter:
Here you go with some pics of mine. I bought it off the Cast Boolits Forum. Price was $35.00 https://i.imgur.com/jsfoXJb.jpg Out in the desert for it's first application. https://i.imgur.com/1ay0EcW.jpg?1 This is the guy: Smoke4320 E-mail:[email protected] Greg |
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Originally Posted By towerofpower94: Looks nice. Easy to work with as far as getting a solid pitch set up with it? Any issues with it pointing too high or low by way of the orange piece tilting back or forward on the LR? 
Greg |
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Is proper alignment that important? First time I used it, I forgot to aim it. I just placed it pointed down range and it worked fine. (Only 100 yards)
picked up all of the 5 distances. |
Our fish is pinging on -2. Somebody's fish is pinging on -1, and one of the Russian fish is pinging at zero-three-five--sir, I have an explosion at bearing three-three-nine.
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Originally Posted By 7:
Is proper alignment that important? First time I used it, I forgot to aim it. I just placed it pointed down range and it worked fine. (Only 100 yards) picked up all of the 5 distances. Putting 200 rounds down range a day is not unusual and anything that makes my life easier is a plus for me. My first trip to the desert just looking through the notch went great. The next trip I couldn't buy a reading. That no longer happens. Greg |
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Originally Posted By GLShooter:
I have had issues with alignment on hilly ground but with the stuff I'm loading in these wildcats I want every bit of data I can get out of it. For all the money I put through these guns that base wouldn't even pay for a box of Berger match bullets. Putting 200 rounds down range a day is not unusual and anything that makes my life easier is a plus for me. My first trip to the desert just looking through the notch went great. The next trip I couldn't buy a reading. That no longer happens. Greg Originally Posted By GLShooter:
Originally Posted By 7:
Is proper alignment that important? First time I used it, I forgot to aim it. I just placed it pointed down range and it worked fine. (Only 100 yards) picked up all of the 5 distances. Putting 200 rounds down range a day is not unusual and anything that makes my life easier is a plus for me. My first trip to the desert just looking through the notch went great. The next trip I couldn't buy a reading. That no longer happens. Greg As far as being difficult to align, I had issues with the pitch the first time out as I had it pointed too far upwards and it was failing to catch rounds fired into a berm 15yds away. The speed square did help with the close range SNAFU, but I bring a couple extra rounds now to ensure I'm good to go when shooting at distance as there are some minor terrain features between me and my 500yd target when prone and I want to make sure I get a good series of rounds where I can get 10/10 at all collected distances downrange as well. |
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Originally Posted By Hamiltbl2:
Popnfresh touched on this a little but I will expand. If you shoot at ranges with other people you may get some false triggers. The only times I’ve had it happen is when the other shooter has a muzzle break. It’s only happened at covered shooting bays. That’s really the only complaint I’ve had out of mine. There should be a special place in hell for people that shoot muzzle breaks in covered shooting bays with a person 3-4ft away from them. |
NYSRPA Life Member, NRA Life Member
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Originally Posted By lazyengineer:
...-If anyone has figured out how to force this app to work on a Kindle Fire, that would be cool to know. Same thing for Windows - this would be great coupled with something like a Surface Pro. Plug your Kindle Fire into your desktop, and move that file into the Downloads directory. Then, in the Fire, go to Settings and Security, and check "Install Apps from unknown Sources" (or something like that). Then navigate to that APK file using your file browser (I use FK File) on your Kindle fire, click on it, and tadaa, it installs. Then go turn off that Unknown source thing again. This way you can use a cheap Kindle Fire as a dedicated device for running the LabRadar, rather than your phone. While at it, do the same thing for Rangebuddy, and you can do digital analysis of your targets. I'm also running PS Timer Lite, as a shot timer. Obviously beware, this is installing stuff NOT going through the App store... |
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I bought one and I'll never go back to optical chronograph again. The setup can be a little demanding but not too bad. I taped a section of soda straw to the aiming notch to get the alignment right when pointing down range. I also got myself the bench mounting plate so I can shoot from the bench and keep the barrel close to center-line on bags/or bipod. I always carry a few cheap rounds to use to check and verify my setup before I start shooting expensive stuff I care about. Once it's setup, it's good. Clouds roll in, morning, evening, shade, noon, whatever. Once it's getting good readings it's going to keep getting them. The only place I have a bit of trouble is public ranges. Sometimes to get enough sensitivity to trigger when I shoot, it will also trigger when the .50, .338, or 300WM next to me shoots as well. That's a bit frustrating at times but not a show stopper. When I'm out on my own the trigger seems to be pretty much perfect. |
Who is John Galt?
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Originally Posted By 7:
Wish there was a way to have all of the series of log files in just one file, like Magnetospeed. Emailed them asking if they could have it as an option in their next firmware release, reply back was no. What are the distances you all use for the 5 velocity measurements? They have to be under 100 yards correct? I have the default setup but I'm thinking of changing them to: 0 - Muzzle Velocity 30 - 7 yards 75 - 25 yards 150 - 50 yards 225 - 75 yards 300 - 100 yards edit.. Seems the arfcom search won't let you go back far enough.. If you go to sniper hide reloading and search 'labradar macro' the two macros come up. One puts all the average data from however many series' you want onto one page, the other puts all the shot data from one series into one workbook. |
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Originally Posted By Gareth96:
I'll never go back... but I use mine in my back yard, so setup is easy and there are no other shooters around. I'd say it takes me no longer than 20 seconds to set it up. Used it for pistols (.380 and .45), .22s, .223, .308, .444, .458, and others. I use the microphone when shooting 308/223 suppressed. Subsonic suppressed are a little more tricky, but once you get it in the right spot it's golden. I also use a battery pack and it lasts multiple sessions between charge. There is a bluetooth app out now, but I haven't loaded it yet as I don't really need it. If you are at the mercy of a public range, I have read it can be a little more challenging not picking up other shots (especially if the guy next to you is shooting his 300 win mag). My only experience was using the club Chrony which never worked right then I bought a CED chronograph. While the CED works quite well, it does eat 9v batteries and it takes time to set up on a tripod downrange. It is near impossible if the club is busy because I have to fiddle with the tripod to line up. A good gust of wind and you will wish you sand bagged the tripod as the screens are huge sails. If Labrador was around a decade ago for that price I would have certainly gone that route. I paid nearly that iirc for the CED. |
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Splitting this post up, to few posts and limited to number of characters I can put in one post. I have had mine since July of this year, when my optical chrono started being flaky/unreliable. I had read all I could on the net, then sent a question to the manufacturer about its suitability where I would use it(off my front deck, one direction 110 yards, almost 90 degrees to right 55 yards to target). I knew I had challenging terrain, trees, metal, etc.. and only wanted accurate muzzle velocity. They had me send pictures with all distances to terrain, trees, etc.. labeled. They replied it would do what I wanted, which is not tracking longer distances, just accurate muzzle velocities. For instance, my 55 yard target is only 35 yards to heavy forest, target is inside forest hanging between two 100+ year old trees on the edge of a steep drop off to a drainage, shooting down hill about 7.5 degrees, and at 17 or so yards, bullet path is only 1 to 1.5 feet above ground level before the ground starts dropping off. Pretty challenging for low powered doppler radar, essentially pointed at the ground with heavy forest only 35 yards away. It does exactly what they told me it would do and I’m happy with it. On 30 caliber’s, it sometimes gives some tracking out to where the bullet hits the ground on the other side of the drainage about 50 feet in elevation below my shooting position, but the numbers are just plain wrong. In that direction, I only pay attention to the csv tracking file out to 14 yards, anything past and SNR and velocity start jumping all over the place, to be expected given the environment. Always get a lithium ion power bank if you don’t already have one, I’ve never used batteries in mine even out of curiosity. Continued in next post. |
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Continuation. Many people have trouble with triggering, even people that reach out for help with the manufacturer. The one solution that seems to always work for anyone that tries it is a recoil trigger, I ordered the parts I needed to make my own the same day I ordered the labradar. The only shots I have ever missed are my fault, didn’t arm it, did arm it but took too long to shoot and the setting I have on arm time expired before I shot, and once I didn’t even turn it on. I attach it with two strips of Velcro, a long one I can put around scope or rail, and a short one that goes behind the long one and wraps around holding the recoil trigger. Haven’t done much with handguns and the labradar, but I just attach recoil trigger to a finger on my off hand and it works even on a .22. The only “issue” with a recoil trigger is you can trigger the labradar if you don’t operate a bolt very gently, don’t have your AR chambered before you arm the labradar, or don’t have rifle already on a rest. No big deal, you just delete that “shot” if it registers one, or clear the error message if you get the tracking error, if you don’t clear the error message and keep shooting it will not pick the shots up. Continued in next post. |
When you are using the labradar in a challenging environment like I do, aiming is a b&&%tch, if you don’t have a rock solid method AND you took the time to find where your specific labradar beam is actually pointing, especially when using it in a challenging environment like I do. The notch on the labradar is not straight between the two halves of the clamshell case, not horizontally and not vertically. Using a pen you quickly find out it aims differently depending on where the balance point of the pen is, if it shifts towards the front, the pen points down and shifts left or right, same if it balances to back it points up and shifts. No matter how careful you are if using a pen in the slot method, you will not aim it exactly the same each time you use it. Tuning my pellet rifles on my 55 yard target really showed a big difference in SNR in the track files each time I set it up. So I did an experiment. Moving down my deck I set up the labradar as best I could pointing at the tip of a tree 114 lasered yards away where the pellet path never gets closer than 7 feet to the ground until it gets near the aimpoint, it is an unsafe spot for firearms. I then shot my 22 pellet rifle at the tip of the tree, and in a grid around the tip of the tree. Took out the sd card and checked the tracks. Went back outside, put the sd card back in and shot a smaller grid zeroing in on where the radar beam really was centered. I was extremely carefull to not move the unit at all when taking out the sd card and putting it back in, left the labradar on the whole time so I didn't have to push any buttons. Look at the difference in signal quality just a few feet in aiming made on a 22 pellet.
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| last item. Bluetooth phone app. I don't put apps on my phone, I don't do anything on my phone that requires a password, location, or any permissions. It's a privacy thing for me. So due to T-mobile buying out sprint I had to replace my phone since my phone would be a brick come January, otherwise I'd still be using that phone years from now. It is a galaxy S5 running android 6.1. So I downloaded the labradar app from APKPure and using ADB sideloaded it on my now dead galaxy S5, and while I was in ADB I enabled gps location on the phone, I had disabled it years ago and knew at least for first time gps location would have to be available. No google account for play store, never will have one. I've read about all the problems people have with the app. I put my Labradar in a room over 40 feet away, 4 interior walls in the way, and 3 interior doors opened to be in the way inside 2 bedrooms and bathroom. I turned the Labradar on and came back to the living room and started the app. It had no problem connecting. I changed settings with the app, armed and disarmed, each time going to check the labradar to make sure it was doing what I told it to. Left the labradar on over 3 hours, periodically picking up phone and changing something. I plugged my recoil trigger in and triggered the labradar many times during that time. Never disconnected, never had any issues. Guess I'm lucky, or a 7 year old Sprint branded galaxy s5 that is no longer activated and not connected to anything but the labradar is the secret to making the bluetooth app work perfectly. Maybe next time I use it I'll have problems, who knows. |
Global Warming Hoax Skeptic before it was cool
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Originally Posted By Karl_H: last item. Bluetooth phone app. I don't put apps on my phone, I don't do anything on my phone that requires a password, location, or any permissions. It's a privacy thing for me. So due to T-mobile buying out sprint I had to replace my phone since my phone would be a brick come January, otherwise I'd still be using that phone years from now. It is a galaxy S5 running android 6.1. So I downloaded the labradar app from APKPure and using ADB sideloaded it on my now dead galaxy S5, and while I was in ADB I enabled gps location on the phone, I had disabled it years ago and knew at least for first time gps location would have to be available. No google account for play store, never will have one. I've read about all the problems people have with the app. I put my Labradar in a room over 40 feet away, 4 interior walls in the way, and 3 interior doors opened to be in the way inside 2 bedrooms and bathroom. I turned the Labradar on and came back to the living room and started the app. It had no problem connecting. I changed settings with the app, armed and disarmed, each time going to check the labradar to make sure it was doing what I told it to. Left the labradar on over 3 hours, periodically picking up phone and changing something. I plugged my recoil trigger in and triggered the labradar many times during that time. Never disconnected, never had any issues. Guess I'm lucky, or a 7 year old Sprint branded galaxy s5 that is no longer activated and not connected to anything but the labradar is the secret to making the bluetooth app work perfectly. Maybe next time I use it I'll have problems, who knows. |
Selling agent for Algores carbon credit scam.
Shooting and Reloading, one hobby feeds the other.
Shooting and Reloading, one hobby feeds the other.
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Quick question for the folks with a labradar... If no SD card is inserted when velocity data is being gathered, there is there a way to transfer the data from the internal memory to the SD card or am I stuck transcribing the data by hand? I pulled the SD card out and didn't realize it until I was at the range.  |
Do I want a LabRadar? (Page 2 of 2)
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