Tracking cast bullets with Labradar?

[cda4570]

Any Labradar owners tracking lead bullets?
Tried to see what 68gns of Swiss 1-1/2 behind a 500gn Govt would do.
30 rounds expanded not one tracked. Re adjusted unit a few times but no change.
Never a problem with 223-338 jacketed rounds.
Is the 20-1 lead bullet absorbing the beam and not reflecting back to the unit?
May have to dig out the 35P.

[38-72]

It works for me. But I have to set it up for pistol speed bullets. And, I set it off to the side a bit more because of the smoke.

[Aviator]

I have been using Labradar for about a year. The range I belong to is not very friendly for "shoot-thru" style of chronographs.

I did have some issues getting it to trigger reliably when I first got it. I followed the directions in the manual, but was not pleased at all. It would trigger sometimes with my 45-70, but almost never with 40-65. I was very discouraged for awhile, as it is not a cheap unit.

But, I finally figured out that if I set the unit farther forward, about 8 to 12 inches in front of the muzzle, that it never misses a shot! Since then I have been very satisfied. It has tracked well over 1000 540 gr lead bullets fired with black powder.

I mount it on a tripod with the right edge of the Labradar about 12 to 18 inches left of the muzzle, so it is safely out of the line of fire, and so that I can see past it with my spotting scope.

I have it set for the speed range for pistol bullets, and the offset set at 12 to 18 inches.

[Trigger1212]

I do not have one YET, but I plan to pick one up. In doing my research on the Labradar I found some users complaining of shots not being picked up by the unit. My understanding is that there are two ways to pick up the shot, one is by Doppler, and in that mode it's fairly important to make sure your unit is pointed in the right direction relative to the bullets path/trajectory. The second one is by having the unit "triggered" by sound (muzzle blast). This is the method used by most people as the aiming is not quite so critical. But it can give you issues as the built in mic in the Labradar can be a bit fussy on where it's placed relative to the muzzle to pick up enough blast to properly trigger the unit. This is why the previous poster started having better performance when the unit was moved slightly ahead of the muzzle, more noise.

To combat this issue you can purchase an external mic that you can move closer to your firearm which will eliminate a lot of the problems but it can also cause some false triggering depending on other gunfire very close by or in windy conditions. Regardless it's still a lot better than the mic built into the unit.

During my on-line research I found what I THINK will be a very good and practical solution. A guy has engineered and is building an inertia trigger that you can easily mount to your rifle that plugs into the external mic jack. No more false triggers from other shooters or the wind! It's about the size of the old small wooden match boxes. Like I said, I don't have a Labradar yet but when I saw this trigger I purchased it anyway, just to make sure I had it. Cost is $50.

I have no affiliation with the item, just passing the information along. The guy making it is Greg Piet, his website is www.pietrecoiltrigger.com. He fully explains it on there and there are 4-5 youtube videos that do a good job of showing how it works and how you can mount it on your firearm. He is a Precision Long Range Shooter so it's a practical application, not theoretical.

If anyone gets it for their unit I would love to hear how well it works!

Cheers!

Wade

[labop]

I have had my Labradar about 3 years and put 2900 rounds past it in mostly 38, 40 and some 45 BPCR. I set the side of the unit 2" to the right and 2" to the rear of the muzzle. Using the trigger internal microphone set on sensitivity 1, the velocity range pistol, offset 6" I get very good tracking. Maybe I loose 1 in 50 shots.
labop

[ian45662]

I just got one. My first outing started off very bad. First 10 shots wouldn’t track. Then I changed the setting from rifle to pistol and now it has tracked every shot since.

[Pink Panther]

I don’t have one but wondered if anyone has used the MagnetoSpeed? Just looking for additional options vs the traditional chronograph, which others have mentioned are not always easy to set up at some ranges.

[mdeland]

So it will read velocity decay as well? Won't be long before technology will be able to read rotational velocity decay as well............. if we still can have guns to use it on.

[gunlaker]

I don’t have one but wondered if anyone has used the MagnetoSpeed? Just looking for additional options vs the traditional chronograph, which others have mentioned are not always easy to set up at some ranges.

I have a Magnetospeed and it works very well for BPCR. The only downside is that I use it a lot. I actually gas cut the "bayonet" part to the extent that it wore through to the wiring. It did take a lot of rounds to do that though.

Chris.

[Raven]

I have had my Labradar about 3 years and put 2900 rounds past it in mostly 38, 40 and some 45 BPCR. I set the side of the unit 2" to the right and 2" to the rear of the muzzle. Using the trigger internal microphone set on sensitivity 1, the velocity range pistol, offset 6" I get very good tracking. Maybe I loose 1 in 50 shots.
labop

Exactly how I discovered it works.

[Raven]

I have had my Labradar about 3 years and put 2900 rounds past it in mostly 38, 40 and some 45 BPCR. I set the side of the unit 2" to the right and 2" to the rear of the muzzle. Using the trigger internal microphone set on sensitivity 1, the velocity range pistol, offset 6" I get very good tracking. Maybe I loose 1 in 50 shots.
labop

Exactly how I discovered it works.