New Garmin Chrono released

I will be anxious to see how this does, not a horrible price point if it is accurate.

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I see I am a day late, Carter Childs posted a great video reviewing the product yesterday - #Cchilds

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Nah, that was just half an hour or so ago!

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Looks like a great option and people are clearly excited about it. It’s sold out or back ordered nearly everywhere from what I could tell. Area 419 was sold out before I woke up to even see the announcement.

Labradar clearly has had issues with the collection, the app, and Bluetooth functionality never quite working consistently.

I think FX Outdoors priced their chronograph a bit out of reach for the majority of people… I’m curious if this Garmin will for them to cut their price down to aa level it should be in given the build quality ($500-750 range) from most reviewers.

Magnetospeed seems to still be the value leader but obviously it’s more limited to firearms versus the Doppler options that allow use for air guns and archery as well.

In any case I still think there’s some things that LabRadar and FX does that the Garmin doesn’t yet like provide multiple velocity readings down range and provide ballistic coefficient truing since there’s really not a standard in how companies market what’s on the package. I have little doubt that Garmin will not add these via firmware over time. I come to this conclusion since Garmin already has a partnership with Applied Ballistics, Bryan Litz already uploaded a review and eluded to/disclosed that he consulted on some level with the development.

If anyone has owned any of their products they typically do this and add features that are sometimes featured in other products to others via (paid or free) firmware updates. At least this how it was with my Fenix 3 watch I purchased about 8 years ago or so.

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I’m definitely interested. LabRadar is so unreliable that I hate it. FX Outdoors is too expensive and the build quality feels cheap even though it’s VERY reliable and easy to use.

Is there a gold standard for chronographs? Something for a new piece of equipment to be tested against.

Got to thinking, as finicky as LabRadar is in terms of actually getting any kind of measurement at all, I have to wonder when it does give me a reading how accurate is it really?

Yeah my timing is great. Got pissed off that my magnetospeed wasn’t working anymore for some reason and pulled the trigger 3 days ago on the FX for $800.

It showed up yesterday afternoon and was super excited until I opened my phone 5 minutes later to see the videos on the garmin drop :joy: and that it was $200 less.

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I am in the market for my first chrono, so this is very timely. I too will be curious to see how the Garmin performs. I have ruled out the Magentospeed and LabRadar for all the issues others have mentioned. I wasn’t really crazy about the FX pricepoint, but was going to bite the bullet. So, if the Garmin delivers I just freed up some of my gun budget for something else
:laughing:

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I bit the bullet and bought the Garmin unit this morning online from Cabela’s since there’s one about 4 minutes up the street from me. I haven’t gotten the shipping notice yet but my order said 4-10 days from time of purchase so presumably I should have it next week some time.

They’re selling out everywhere so I do believe that it’ll be well tested. There are still things, as mentioned above, that the LabRadar and FX unit can do that this one doesn’t yet for sure. Also as mentioned above I have confidence that those features will likely be added in time. I downloaded the ShotView app and it instantly pulled my profile information over from my other Garmin app so I’m guessing the user experience will be spot on from the app. This is a huge thing for me as it’s important that electronics don’t get in my way when I use them. As mentioned I already have products from them (smart fitness watch and scale) so the whole ecosystem just seems to work in a way that few companies make them just work so far.

Did you purchase your FX Chrono from Utah Airguns? I contacted them last week because I was curious about what sort of deal they could do for veterans. I was pretty close to ordering a unit from them this week but something told me to just hold off on the purchase and I actually listened to my inner voice this time.

I really like the FX Chrono but I just think they priced it a bit excessively to remain competitive. It does what they said it would do and I see that they update their firmware based on user requests which is excellent. I think that $500-750 range is going to be the sweet spot for competition against the LabRadar. $1000 wasn’t gonna get people to sell their unit for an unknown product and in reality most people couldn’t afford that without being a super serious shooter with deeper pockets. It’s not a problem for many but unless you’re doing lots of load development it’s a pricy tool for the average hobbyist. The same can be said for the LabRadar or Garmin but they’re more reasonably priced. $750 gets you a LabRadar setup with all the accessories and $600 gets you the Garmin without any needed accessories besides a battery bank perhaps if you don’t already own one.

I got to play with one a bit today. So far looks phenomenal. This is probably going to be the one to get:

I think it’s fate…I’ve got close to $600 in Bass Pro points saved. Now I just need these to get back in stock!

Maybe call your local store. They may be in stock there.

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I’m just amazed at this day and age that they were able to keep it this quiet! Usually there is the pre, pre-release notice, the pre-release notice, followed by the official product release.

This thing seems to have formed out of thin air.

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I’d imagine a company like Garmin is used to working with professionals in their respective industry that regularly do T&E and they likely have airtight NDA’s that people respect. So I’m guessing that’s why there was only limited chatter on the unit. Seemed like not many YouTube folks got early samples except X-Ring and industry partners that sell Garmin product or produce accessories.

I was able to get one this morning from Bass Pro. Say’s expected delivery is Oct 26-28. Anyone want a practically new MagnetoSpeed V3? :slight_smile:

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Can you explain? I just got one!

Yeah I think Cabela’s/Bass Pro and Scheels are a few of the places that seem to have larger stocks of these available.

Just picked mine up so if I have time this week I’ll try it out.

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