[nontypnito]

Better than the Garmin Xero?

 

[MarkCO]

Better than the Garmin Xero?

What I have heard is that it is a knock off. Might be as good, or not. But no-one has been able to find them for sale yet. They are having some import issues it the scuttlebutt. I've shot over several Garmin's, and they are all consistent, the Athlon looks to be off a bit.

It's about $150 less.

 

[jmorris]

They are out there.

Athlon Rangecraft Velocity Pro Chronograph

Forgive me for doing a bit of a drive by, but I’m planting this thread as a placeholder as I spend more time with the unit, and for others to post their experiences or even questions. The Big Brown Truck just dropped off my Velocity Pro, I’ll follow up this evening with more unboxing and first...

www.thehighroad.org

 

[MarkCO]

They are out there.

Athlon Rangecraft Velocity Pro Chronograph

Forgive me for doing a bit of a drive by, but I’m planting this thread as a placeholder as I spend more time with the unit, and for others to post their experiences or even questions. The Big Brown Truck just dropped off my Velocity Pro, I’ll follow up this evening with more unboxing and first...

www.thehighroad.org

Demos to influencers. But very few of the first batch made it to retailers.

 

[Markm87]

The extra price of the Garmin is negligible once you get it and realize that you run it all the time.

The only time we're not using it is when we can't stand any more data to digest.

 

[jmorris]

They are very easy to use, I even made a mount that went between the clamp screw and bipod so it just goes with the rifle, nothing to "set up".

 

[dla]

I used the Athlon yesterday to check some reloads - ran it against the Garmin.

A couple of thoughts:

(1) The Athlon app needs some work to be easier for chronograph work. The Garmin app is darn near perfect.

(2) The Athlon will stop when it it misses a shot and you must manually intervene to continue the session. The Garmin just drops the shot without indication.

(3) The Athlon is much faster shot to shot.

(4) The Garmin remembers whether you were pistol/rifle/etc. and automatically defaults to the previous mode when you start a new session. The Athlon requires you to cycle through the setup when starting another session.

(5) Both will record shots from a much longer distance than indicated by the instructions - no idea how it impacts accuracy. Point is that you can place the chronos 5 feet to the side and they'll work. But I used them on a pretty spacious outdoor range - maybe different results with other shooters near by.

I'll be using the Athlon from now on, so I suppose I'll love it But honestly, the Garmin and Athlon are functionally the same. I can't speak to accuracy beyond a few YT videos - certainly plenty good for my needs.

I like the case Athlon includes.

 

[Markm87]

Interesting. I could see #2 pissing me off. I often load only 5-10 test loads. Sometimes I forget to watch the chrono between shots. Often, I'm waiting on that data to crank out some ammo during the upcoming week. If I have to wait another week, I'm going to be annoyed.

 

[dla]

Interesting. I could see #2 pissing me off. I often load only 5-10 test loads. Sometimes I forget to watch the chrono between shots. Often, I'm waiting on that data to crank out some ammo during the upcoming week. If I have to wait another week, I'm going to be annoyed.

The Athlon doesn't flash "ERR1" like my old Crony, so it is pretty hard to cause it to get stuck. If you count "1001,1002,1003,etc" to time your shots 1 per second, the Athlon will capture them just fine. It isn't that easy to overrun the chronograph. I did deliberately overrun it just to see what would happen.

Unlike my old optical Crony, the setup is so forgiving of placement that I doubt there could be problems unless you were on a crowded range with another shooter 5' to your side.

I use a chronograph like you 95% of the time and the Athlon and Garmin make it sooo easy.