I got some very preliminary results from the labradar today.
There will be more extensive reporting to follow, for now I'd like to focus on accuracy and precision.
To test the accuracy of an unknown chronograph, I place it inline with my Oehler mounted indoors on a 12' spacing with artificial lighting. My 4' Oehler, which I put downrange for BC measurements sits inside the 12' box on center, so it can be verified that the two are reading the same. These two chronos were fired over and the difference was between 0 and -2 fps. The Labradar was compared to these readings.
A couple concerns I had about this testing configuration was that my Oehlers and light boxes might obscure the view of the labradar, since it's placed off to the side of the line of sight. I'm also shooting through a portion of indoor bay before the bullet goes outside, so I'm also concerned about possible interference with things in the building being close to the line of sight. Nevertheless, I set it up and started shooting.
Another major caveat to todays testing is that there was a light rain coming and going. That couldn't have helped anything, and I'm planning more extensive testing in better conditions. Here's what I got today under these conditions.
Once I found the correct combinations of settings, the unit started reading the 215 grain Hybrids pretty reliably (308 Win FTR Competition rifle). The Labradar corrects the MV to be actual MV at the muzzle. When I accounted for velocity decay from muzzle to the center of the Oehlers, here's what I found:
For a 10-shot string, every velocity returned from the Labradar was within +/- 2 fps from the corrected 12' Oehler measurement. The average velocity from the Labradar was -0.6 fps compared to the corrected 12' Oehler which is incredible accuracy and precision.
The SD of the Oehler data is 9.2, and the SD from the Labradar on the same 10 shots was 10.0. ES on the Oehler was 28, and it was 30 fps on the Labradar.
This is a very good result in terms of both accuracy and precision.
To further test the unit, I set up a .223 Remington to shoot 55 grain bullets. More challenging as the bullet is smaller and faster.
Results were not as good in this case. About 1/3 shots didn't read, and 1/3 produced wildly inaccurate numbers (like 2000 fps when actual is closer to 3500). 1/3 of the shots resulted in realistic numbers, but they weren't quite as good as the .308 data. For the 5 shots of 223 that I got 'good' data for, they read on average 15 fps slow compared to the corrected Oehler data, and there was more scatter in the error.
I won't dwell too much on the 223 scenario, as I believe it's a result of interference from the rain, or possibly equipment near the line of sight, or both (my guess is it's mostly rain related). So all you can take from these .223 results is that the unit isn't reliably accurate in the rain which is not a big surprise or mark against the product.
At the end of about 4 hours continuous testing, the batteries were more than 1/2 drained (according to the on-screen battery indicator). The unit is always going into screen-saver mode to save battery, but still they drain pretty quick. It's a good thing it has a battery indicator. I would advise storing a fresh set of six AA batteries with the unit in case they go dead on the range.
The SD card saved a lot of the track data, which I couldn't resist playing with to determine BC from the range/velocity data. Reverse engineering the slope of a linear fit to the range/vel data from muzzle to 40-80 yards resulted in a very close match to the bullets known BC, but I wouldn't advise using the unit for the purpose of measuring BC. The data file also stores a bunch of other data including signal to noise ratio for each shot.
Based on this first look, I would say the Labradar definitely shows promise and I'm eager to test it under better conditions. The data on the 308 was spot on but I'm a bit concerned about the high velocity small caliber scenario having a 15 fps average error but I'll try it again in clear conditions before worrying too much about it because it was most likely the rain that caused this result.
There's more info on the LabRadar testing in this Snipers Hide article: http://snipershide.scout.com/story/1535699-labradar-my-personal-radar?s=541 It talks a lot more about the use-ability of the device rather than focusing on the accuracy and precision. All good info with pics, video, etc.
-Bryan
There will be more extensive reporting to follow, for now I'd like to focus on accuracy and precision.
To test the accuracy of an unknown chronograph, I place it inline with my Oehler mounted indoors on a 12' spacing with artificial lighting. My 4' Oehler, which I put downrange for BC measurements sits inside the 12' box on center, so it can be verified that the two are reading the same. These two chronos were fired over and the difference was between 0 and -2 fps. The Labradar was compared to these readings.
A couple concerns I had about this testing configuration was that my Oehlers and light boxes might obscure the view of the labradar, since it's placed off to the side of the line of sight. I'm also shooting through a portion of indoor bay before the bullet goes outside, so I'm also concerned about possible interference with things in the building being close to the line of sight. Nevertheless, I set it up and started shooting.
Another major caveat to todays testing is that there was a light rain coming and going. That couldn't have helped anything, and I'm planning more extensive testing in better conditions. Here's what I got today under these conditions.
Once I found the correct combinations of settings, the unit started reading the 215 grain Hybrids pretty reliably (308 Win FTR Competition rifle). The Labradar corrects the MV to be actual MV at the muzzle. When I accounted for velocity decay from muzzle to the center of the Oehlers, here's what I found:
For a 10-shot string, every velocity returned from the Labradar was within +/- 2 fps from the corrected 12' Oehler measurement. The average velocity from the Labradar was -0.6 fps compared to the corrected 12' Oehler which is incredible accuracy and precision.
The SD of the Oehler data is 9.2, and the SD from the Labradar on the same 10 shots was 10.0. ES on the Oehler was 28, and it was 30 fps on the Labradar.
This is a very good result in terms of both accuracy and precision.
To further test the unit, I set up a .223 Remington to shoot 55 grain bullets. More challenging as the bullet is smaller and faster.
Results were not as good in this case. About 1/3 shots didn't read, and 1/3 produced wildly inaccurate numbers (like 2000 fps when actual is closer to 3500). 1/3 of the shots resulted in realistic numbers, but they weren't quite as good as the .308 data. For the 5 shots of 223 that I got 'good' data for, they read on average 15 fps slow compared to the corrected Oehler data, and there was more scatter in the error.
I won't dwell too much on the 223 scenario, as I believe it's a result of interference from the rain, or possibly equipment near the line of sight, or both (my guess is it's mostly rain related). So all you can take from these .223 results is that the unit isn't reliably accurate in the rain which is not a big surprise or mark against the product.
At the end of about 4 hours continuous testing, the batteries were more than 1/2 drained (according to the on-screen battery indicator). The unit is always going into screen-saver mode to save battery, but still they drain pretty quick. It's a good thing it has a battery indicator. I would advise storing a fresh set of six AA batteries with the unit in case they go dead on the range.
The SD card saved a lot of the track data, which I couldn't resist playing with to determine BC from the range/velocity data. Reverse engineering the slope of a linear fit to the range/vel data from muzzle to 40-80 yards resulted in a very close match to the bullets known BC, but I wouldn't advise using the unit for the purpose of measuring BC. The data file also stores a bunch of other data including signal to noise ratio for each shot.
Based on this first look, I would say the Labradar definitely shows promise and I'm eager to test it under better conditions. The data on the 308 was spot on but I'm a bit concerned about the high velocity small caliber scenario having a 15 fps average error but I'll try it again in clear conditions before worrying too much about it because it was most likely the rain that caused this result.
There's more info on the LabRadar testing in this Snipers Hide article: http://snipershide.scout.com/story/1535699-labradar-my-personal-radar?s=541 It talks a lot more about the use-ability of the device rather than focusing on the accuracy and precision. All good info with pics, video, etc.
-Bryan
Last edited:
