Labradar

R Stiner

Member
Lt-30 thread got hijacked I thought it would be best to start a new thread!

Here's the setup for my labradar It seems to be working well. I've found that a 6" projectile offset with a trigger level 1
and no more than 6" behind muzzle works the best. I use a dollar bill {6" long} to measure from side of barrel to side of labradar. I think the closer you are to the bore give's better readings. I also use a straw in the sight groove on top of labradar to aim at target 100yds.

The distance settings I use are 0,5,20,40,60,80yds. I've picked up .224 50 gr V-max up to 60 yds with 3904 muzzle vel from a .220 Swift.

Russ

DSCN0496.JPGDSCN0497.JPG
 
I glued a piece of 1/8" tube into the sighting channel of my Labradar. That, an SD card, and the larger battery make it everything you could want. I generally set mine on a tripod, but like you, go for about 6" from the barrel and only a touch behind the muzzle. The exception is with airgun. My airgun (Talon SS) is 'silenced' - so I put the airgun adapter (microphone) just a little ahead of the muzzle and barely offline from the projectile path, so that it gets a good blast of air upon shooting - otherwise it doesn't trigger.

You get so much more information if you have an SD card inserted than you do using the 'native' memory, that I also added a label saying "SD Card in?" - otherwise a lot of detail is lost.

Great tool, but there's a learning curve. Initially I was a bit disappointed, but I'm good with it now that I've figured out most of its quirks.

GsT
 
I got the SD card when I bought it. guess I never used it without the SD card in it.

When I started using the straw for aiming and the 6" offset with the labradar I now get 99% of my 30BR bullets to register out to 80yds my farthest setting. when I get a head or tail wind and the labradar wiggles back and forth anything past 60yds is about 50-50 readings.

I got some 6mm Ack Imp 75gr V-max loaded ready to test when I get around to it this month.

so far I've tried .224,.284,.308,.338,.357,.45's!

Russ
 
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If you use the SD card in the labradar. the ballistic information from your shots fired are saved for further reviewing.

The following attachment can be reviewed with Microsoft excel.
 

Attachments

  • SR0007 Report.xls
    18.5 KB · Views: 345
the 's' on the end of xls means it is not "exel" but a newer version,
and straight exel will not open it.
been there done that....
stuck in the past with old software.

If you use the SD card in the labradar. the ballistic information from your shots fired are saved for further reviewing.

The following attachment can be reviewed with Microsoft excel.
 
Velocity Variation

If you use the SD card in the labradar. the ballistic information from your shots fired are saved for further reviewing.

The following attachment can be reviewed with Microsoft excel.

It would appear that the following load was a 30BR 112gr load. I noticed about 31 fps extreme spread. Is this thrown charges? I have been seeing extreme spreads as low as 3 fps and as high as 12 fps with weighed charges.

Michael
 
Yes that series of shots were thrown charges.

I used the PACT powder dispenser 10 or 15 year old model It finally wore out! never realized how slow it was....

I used a harrells br measure for a few months until the RCBS Chargemaster arrived. It throws more consistant charges than I'm able to throw out of the my harrells BR measure.

CMaier

I'm using 2007 Excel program with windows 10

There is a setting that lets the old version talk to new version and vise versa.
 
ahhh windows 10..i have not bitten that apple yet
thanks
Yes that series of shots were thrown charges.

I used the PACT powder dispenser 10 or 15 year old model It finally wore out! never realized how slow it was....

I used a harrells br measure for a few months until the RCBS Chargemaster arrived. It throws more consistant charges than I'm able to throw out of the my harrells BR measure.

CMaier

I'm using 2007 Excel program with windows 10

There is a setting that lets the old version talk to new version and vise versa.
 
Weighed Charge Report

Yes that series of shots were thrown charges.

I used the PACT powder dispenser 10 or 15 year old model It finally wore out! never realized how slow it was....

I used a harrells br measure for a few months until the RCBS Chargemaster arrived. It throws more consistant charges than I'm able to throw out of the my harrells BR measure.

CMaier

I'm using 2007 Excel program with windows 10

There is a setting that lets the old version talk to new version and vise versa.

I thought those were thrown charges. Below is a report from my 30-30 using 39.2gr of N133 behind a 118gr bullet. All charges were weighed to about .01gr. I have had lower ES before, but this is pretty good.

Michael

30-30 Report.jpg
 
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That's a great low ES!

The labradar has made me aware of how poorly I use a powder dispenser.

When I go to the range I usually have several different loads and several different rifles. My advise to all labradar users is take a note pad with you and wright down what your shooting! Load, equipment, etc for each series of shots fired. then when you review it you can label the information on your computer for later reference.

The Labradar get's my vote as a good information tool!

When it comes down to it a good barrel and the guy that reads the wind flags the best will win the most.

Russ
 
You can open any of the .xl .xls or xlsx files with LibreOffice or OpenOffice, both of which are free MS Office alternatives. I run both (on two different machines) and they are very compatible for simple files like the Labradar produces and mostly compatible on everything else (problems with complex XL files using VBA).

GsT
 
Lt-30 thread got hijacked I thought it would be best to start a new thread!

Here's the setup for my labradar It seems to be working well. I've found that a 6" projectile offset with a trigger level 1
and no more than 6" behind muzzle works the best. I use a dollar bill {6" long} to measure from side of barrel to side of labradar. I think the closer you are to the bore give's better readings. I also use a straw in the sight groove on top of labradar to aim at target 100yds.

The distance settings I use are 0,5,20,40,60,80yds. I've picked up .224 50 gr V-max up to 60 yds with 3904 muzzle vel from a .220 Swift.

Russ

View attachment 18327View attachment 18328

I see that you moved the mounting hole to the edge of the plate. What caused you to do this? I have had issues with the plate moving during a shot and causing acquisition errors until I weighted the plate down with a 25 lb bag of shot. I later reduced the weight to a 5 lb bullet alloy ingot. This was shooting off concrete bench tops on concrete posts. I'm still not satisfied with the rigidity of of the provided design and am still working on a design to cage the unit and provide a better fine alignment system.

Over the years that I worked in system design I learned that if you let the programmer determine the user interface, you get the non-intuitive interface present in this device. It works but has a steep learning curve. I understand the frustrations of those who have problems getting this device to work for them, myself included. That said, I'm still glad I bought it. The data can be imported into Shooting Laboratory from the SD card and I'm working on ways to consolidate and view the data. Lotsa fun for the winter months.
 
Jerry

Since you have a Labradar, just remember that they do have a minimum distance of front exposure when they are armed. They exceed the safe radiation level at very close distance (maybe 8"). Just thought I'd mention this because of your pacemaker.

Michael
 
Since you have a Labradar, just remember that they do have a minimum distance of front exposure when they are armed. They exceed the safe radiation level at very close distance (maybe 8"). Just thought I'd mention this because of your pacemaker.

Michael

Mike, thanks for the heads up, I appreciate it. I had a phone conversation with them a few weeks ago about the system sequence of events and seem to recall that they said that the system was transmitting when armed. When you're dealing in milliseconds, I guess there's no way to wait for the trigger event to start transmitting. I had let that fact slip by in reference to my pacemaker. Also, the setting for armed time is closely related to battery life. It's always something.
 
Mike, thanks for the heads up, I appreciate it. I had a phone conversation with them a few weeks ago about the system sequence of events and seem to recall that they said that the system was transmitting when armed. When you're dealing in milliseconds, I guess there's no way to wait for the trigger event to start transmitting. I had let that fact slip by in reference to my pacemaker. Also, the setting for armed time is closely related to battery life. It's always something.

Jerry,

The beam has to be quite focused. They say it is safe at a distance, but can be a little intense a few inches in front of the radar. May not affect a pacemaker at all, but you don't need to find out the hard way.

Michael
 
Mike, thanks for the heads up, I appreciate it. I had a phone conversation with them a few weeks ago about the system sequence of events and seem to recall that they said that the system was transmitting when armed. When you're dealing in milliseconds, I guess there's no way to wait for the trigger event to start transmitting. I had let that fact slip by in reference to my pacemaker. Also, the setting for armed time is closely related to battery life. It's always something.

The circuit to generate the radar frequency needs to be running and stable.
They often take at least a few seconds to minutes to stabilize from a 'cold' start.
 
The circuit to generate the radar frequency needs to be running and stable.
They often take at least a few seconds to minutes to stabilize from a 'cold' start.


There may be ways to mitigate this, but not in a device that sells for $600.00. Back when I was in B-52's in the 70's we had frequency agile devices. I'm sure 46 years of technology advancement has improved that considerably.
 
That's a great low ES!

The labradar has made me aware of how poorly I use a powder dispenser.

When I go to the range I usually have several different loads and several different rifles. My advise to all labradar users is take a note pad with you and wright down what your shooting! Load, equipment, etc for each series of shots fired. then when you review it you can label the information on your computer for later reference.

The Labradar get's my vote as a good information tool!

When it comes down to it a good barrel and the guy that reads the wind flags the best will win the most.

Russ

As one who's measured velocities from a home range setting for many years (I currently own 4 Chrony's, an Oehler 43 and the Labradar) I will state as repeatable provable fact that the only way you'll ever get truly low ES numbers is with weighed charges. Weighed on a scale capable of resolving single kernels of powder.

I can actually show you in real time how much velocity a SINGLE KERNEL of various powders is worth :)
 
Single Kernal Speeds

As one who's measured velocities from a home range setting for many years (I currently own 4 Chrony's, an Oehler 43 and the Labradar) I will state as repeatable provable fact that the only way you'll ever get truly low ES numbers is with weighed charges. Weighed on a scale capable of resolving single kernels of powder.

I can actually show you in real time how much velocity a SINGLE KERNEL of various powders is worth :)

I would really like to see that.......... on H4831SC.... if you have data.......

bill
 
Single kernal velocity changes

" I can actually show you in real time how much velocity a SINGLE KERNEL of various powders is worth "

Al........were you going to post some data about this ..................????

bill
 
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