Garmin Xero C1 Pro Chronograph

Jim Watson said:
So set it up downrange and shoot past it at 100 yards.
Use your old chronograph for near reading.

I did that once with regular skyscreens to figure BC for a cast bullet.
Click to expand...

I have set chronographs down range before, last time I did was to see how close the chronograph feature of the Shotmarker system was to my optical chronos.

Within .08%

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The little one is for me shooting.

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Built a larger one for more margin for error.

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I just ordered one yesterday. Looks like I may not get it until January'ish, but that's okay. This thing looks perfect.

I shot an arrow through my last chronograph so I was in the market for a new one, and this design is less likely I'll ever do that again. 'Threading a needle' through those old chronographs is not easy with a crossbow. This looks like it'll work great for that, and regular guns, air guns, and everything.
 
Mines on back order with Eurooptic. Can't use it much when winter sets in anyhow. I have lots of Garmin stuff and its all been reliable. Taking the GPS with me to Germany. Heck have maps for half the world. Comes in handy when the phone doesn't have service. It will arrive, when it arrives. Certainly will save a lot of space for things I need at the range.
 
Got the Garmin a few weeks ago from Cabelas when they had a 10% off sale. Very sweet unit. First use was in an indoor range where it recorded CCI Standard Velocity perfectly from a handgun. Transfer to the app on my iPhone was flawless as well. Garmin have really hit it out of the park with this one.
 
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I have had my Garmin Xero C1 for about a month, so I have had limited use across it - maybe 500 rounds of rifle, handgun, and rimfire ammo, and a few dozen "odd projectiles." I still can't draw my bow after separating my collar bone this summer, so I haven't tested it much, but I did have my son shoot his itty bitty fiberglass bow across it. No issues with triggering on suppressed vs. non-suppressed, no issues with multiple shooters side by side, no issues with alignment - even in one instance where I had reset the series and set it on the table while I changed rifles, then forgot to re-aim the unit when I set the new rifle down... it was aiming about 15yrds to the side of the target at 100yrds, visibly mis-aligned, but it still picked up all of the shots.

Comparatively - I currently own 4 Chronographs, a Garmin Xero C1, a LabRadar, a MagnetoSpeed V3, and a ProChrono Digital (I've also used the Caldwell a lot through a friend in recent years as I helped him get into shooting and reloading, and lump it in with the ProChrono Digital I have).

TLDR version: The Garmin is fantastic, stupid simple, and reliable. LabRadar is dead until they come out with some new model which competes with the Garmin. Magnetospeed V3 and sky-screen chronographs like the ProChrono Digital are less expensive and less capable, commensurate to their price.

LabRadar: My LabRadar often misses readings, even though I aim it with a 3D printed reticle mounted to the body. Naturally, the smaller size of the Garmin also does not get influenced by wind as much as the ship-sail that is the LabRadar, and I have had multiple instances where a stiff gust has blown my LR out of alignment and caused missed shots (which occasionally has been a major frustration on windier days when I repeatedly need to re-aim the unit). I bought my LabRadar before Covid, and bought it used, but for current market price, obviously the Garmin is much more affordable - and we're seeing LabRadar prices plummet, especially used prices, to the commensurate pricing dictated by the Garmin entry to market. I do have an inertial trigger for my LR to use with suppressed rifles, and to eliminate the opportunity to pick up shots from other shooters when I'm on a shared firing line, but it's not great - and the Garmin doesn't need this, I'm not sure how it avoids picking up other shooters, but it does. The Garmin's small size also allows it to be mounted to the rifle - I saw several guys at the PRS Finale earlier this month shooting the entire match with the Garmin mounted on arca rails attached to their rifles (I WILL say, mounting the Garmin is a guarantee that the match RO's are going to judge your reloading skills, since we could see the display from behind the shooter during their strings). I have a mount for mine, but have used it on the tripod more. I bought my Garmin specifically to be mounted to my ELR rifle - I was planning to buy a BulletSeeker/SpeedTracker about 6 months ago when a buddy warned me "just wait a month..." So then he got permission to let me see it, loved it, and put my Garmin on pre-order when it finally opened... Can't mount a LabRadar to a rifle. The LR also doesn't do a great job picking up really small bullets (I don't tend to have issues, but some do), and it doesn't pick up super fast bullets (again, I don't shoot enough rounds near or over 4000fps for it to matter to me). LabRadar dropped their pricing by $125 to compete with the Garmin, but I can say with certainty, I have shot more than $100 in ammo cost which my LabRadar has missed picking up in the 4yrs I have owned it - and the SIZE difference which allows me to mount the Garmin to my ELR match rifle during stages is well worth the extra $125 to me. The Garmin battery is integral, non-replaceable, but it can run while charging from an external battery pack. Comparatively, LabRadars eat batteries, so most of us use rechargable external battery packs to run them anyway - I have a big solar charging power bank velcro'd to the back of mine. Having both side by side, I could absolutely sell my LabRadar with a smile on my face, knowing I get easier and more reliable use from my Garmin, with a smaller and less expensive package. I'm going to do a more proper write up and side by side comparison after deer season - as many folks are already doing - just to make some comparison posts for our state PRS group and the competition group I manage on FB, but then I'm going to give my LR to a new reloader to use indefinitely.

SPECIFICALLY TO ADDRESS THE BC COMPUTATION ASPECT OF THE LABRADAR: The LR measures velocity at multiple distances and then correlates that velocity change to factor a BC. This is a pretty cool feature, but it's just cool, not critical for any particular type of LR shooting I've ever seen. It's a neat trick, but not a necessary feature. The LR does it, the Garmin doesn't. No other chronograph does it either. I shoot PRS and I'm venturing into ELR competition, and nobody I've spoken with REALLY makes use of that feature. We all measure velocity, confirm trajectory downrange with live fire, then use that info to true our ballistic coefficient in our solver. The ONLY modification I'd make to that is the Applied Ballistics Portable Doppler Lab, where many of us do shoot across their system (not a LabRadar) to get custom BC curves (PDM's), but that's NOT what guys are doing with the LabRadar.

MagnetoSpeed V3: Compared to my Magnetospeed V3, the Garmin cost twice as much - just like the old pricing difference compared to the LR. The Magnetospeed kinda didn't have the headaches for aiming and missed or incorrect shots of the LR, so I actually used my V3 more than my LR. Starting where I left off with the LR, the Magnetospeed DOES mount to the rifle, but it has wires and its hugely long in front of the muzzle - really infeasible to have it mounted during matches (although I HAVE shot practice stages with mine mounted). It also has the inconvenience of POI shift, so either you were stuck zeroing separately from your velocity check, or you had to spend money for a non-contact spigot mount for the bayonet, which made it even MORE ungainly. The Magnetospeed computer is about the same size as the entire Garmin C1, and I use the same cheap import arca rail for my Garmin as I was using for my V3 computer to mount it to the rifle - but the entire Garmin fits there, while the Magnetospeed still had the cable and bayonet mounted forward... The V3 does have limitations for mounting and for what it can measure - I originally owned a Magnetospeed Sporter several years ago now, but upgraded to the V3 because of the mounting options for suppressed rifles and nested suppressors on AR's, but even still it didn't work for most pistols and revolvers, or for my bows. I LOVED my V3, it did everything I needed for precision rifle competition, and I liked it better than my LR for that use, but the Garmin does what the Magnetospeed did with a smaller unit, less set up, a better interface, and more versatility. I DID use the wrong shims once with my V3 and I skipped several bullets off of the rail of my bayonet before I realized what I was doing - because it STILL does have part of the device downrange... Can't accidentally shoot a Garmin, because NONE of it is downrange. The Magnetospeed does run on replaceable batteries, and honestly, I think I've replaced my battery maybe once in 6-7yrs - I keep a spare battery in the case with it, but I really don't remember changing it more than once. A V3 works really well for guys chronographing conventional rifles with exposed barrels near the muzzle for mounting, but for guys needing more versatility, or who don't mind spending more to get less set up and easier use, the Garmin is worth the extra expense. I COULD sell my V3 today and be happy doing everything with my Garmin that I used to do with my V3. Two is one and one is none, so I might keep my V3 around.

Sky Screen Chronographs/ProChrono Digital: I'll be honest, this thing really isn't in the running with these others. It's a basic chronograph - it gives velocities, and that's fine, but that's it. It has to be set up downrange, which means it doesn't work for many ranges, doesn't work at all for many competition types since we can't go downrange to set our chronographs. A guy can get super detailed and persnickety about the precision of these units vs. the ones above, but in reality, the difference really doesn't matter for any of us. All of us shooting long range will true our velocity anyway, so that difference in precision doesn't matter. But the portability and deployability matters - as does the cost. Someone looking at a $125 ProChrono or the Caldwell skyscreen chrony aren't customers for any of the 3 models above - they just want a cheap chronograph. I can't use my ProChrono for my match rifles because I can't use it at matches, it's bigger and takes more set up than the others... The only reason I had kept it all of these years (other than the fact I don't NEED to sell it) is that it worked better for my bows than the LabRadar or the V3, so I kept this. Today, that's no longer true - The Garmin is easier to set up and more portable than my ProChrony, and it interfaces with my phone via app to do data analysis, which MY version of the Digital doesn't do - and it has ZERO risk (or is it "Xero risk?) of eating an arrow... So I could also sell my ProChrono Digital and be happy too. And frankly, I might give this away now too.

My experience with the Garmin Xero C1:

On my first day with the unit, I was at the range with a buddy who is new to LR shooting. I unpacked it, screwed it to the tripod, pushed the on button, tried to open a string, and sat it on the bench while I unpacked other things. My buddy sat down and started shooting, and it picked up his shots - so the first shots mine ever measured were technically unintentional. I had not aimed the unit, just casually set it on the bench kinda oriented downrange. He was shooting a 6.5 creed, suppressed. The user interface is easy and intuitive, very simple to pick your display panels, very easy to change strings/series', very simple to pick a velocity range... This was the day that I also noticed I had aimed the unit TERRIBLY, and it was pointing about 15 yards to the side of the targets at 100yrds, which would be about 8 degrees deflected from true. Pairing to my phone app was exceptionally simple, scan the QR code on the screen download the app, pair, done. Easy. It automatically transfers series' to the phone when the series is closed. My buddy also had his 22-250 along for the trip, so I read 3493.7fps average for his 6 shot string with it, with a max speed of 3537.8fps. A couple weeks later, hanging out at home with my son, shooting eachother with Nerf guns, I had him grab the Garmin and we tested to see if it would pick up his darts and balls - it didn't pick up EVERY type of Nerf blaster or dart/ball, but the slowest speed I have read has been 121.8fps with a small Nerf Hyper series gun. It triggers on all of them as it is able to see the shot, but it doesn't register speed on some of his toy blasters - I assume because they are too slow. I measured these standing with the chronograph in my hand, pointing the blasters with the other hand, or holding it beside the muzzle when my son shot... Pretty easy aiming, no fuss, no muss. It's small, it comes with a small folding tripod, and it has a 1/4-20 ferrule in the bottom, so it mounts easily to the Arca Rail I was already using for my Magnetospeed V3 computer to mount to my rifle, or it can mount on any tripod with common photography adapter gear. It fits in a coat pocket, about the size of a GoPro. I bought a waterproof case on Amazon for storage, which fits the arca rail, the folding tripod, and the C1 unit in a box about 8" long, 5" wide, 2" deep. It also fits comfortably within the waterproof box which comes as the factory packaging for Burris XTR Signature rings, although the tripod doesn't fit with it - I did make a small Arca mount to fit this box using an Area419 clamp and a piece of plate steel stock from a home improvement store which would let me use this small box to transport the Garmin to matches with just the rifle mount option (or mounting to my larger spotting tripod with an arca base plate).

I won't tell anyone that they need a $600 chronograph, and I don't tell anyone that they need a chronograph at all - but owning these 4 (and others before them), using them all, I can say that the Garmin is the best unit I have, and I will easily recommend it over the LabRadar or the MagnetoSpeed V3. Yes, the V3 is awesome for $300, and I highly recommend it, but yes, it's highly limited in what it can do - and if someone doesn't need it to do anything more than exposed barrel rifle velocities, then it's the best option for their budget. But the LabRadar is absolutely dead at its old price point, and frankly, with their new price point, discounting to $500, it's still worth the extra $100 to get the Garmin.
 
I couldn't find a discount so I ordered it from Garmin directly. It's about 2 months away from shipping, apparently, so while I wait, does anyone have a recommendation on a soft case that holds everything, including the tripod? Something with a little protection?
 
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Sorry, I was offering that I've found that a flat plate mount is the most convenient/stable
platform for those kind of doppler chronographs
 
Would a flat plate about the size of the unit be stable enough for you?
Maybe aluminum or plastic to keep the weight down and keep the portability advantage.
 
Range Report:
The new Garmin worked as advertised so far.
I was at an indoor range and the fellows in the booth to my right were shooting.
Their shots were registering on my Xero C1. I moved a couple booths down from them and problem was solved.
I shot .22 punch and 357 magnum loads. All good. Battery indicator moved slightly off 100% after 3 hours of use.

Nice read outs on the cell phone App. There is an export function that I need to figure out to make hard copy.

I missed the paper printout of my old chronograph, but I haven't completely learned the cell phone app yet.

Garmin said it needs to see the bullet travel what, 70 feet? And it does need that.
The older chronograph only needs to see the distance between screens, so targets can be much closer.
Sometimes I want that, like seeing on paper accuracy same time as bullet speed.
Way happy so far.

I intend to put a tether on it to secure it. It survived one bounce so far.

Yes, it IS a game changer.
 
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DustyRusty said:
Range Report:
The new Garmin worked as advertised so far.
I was at an indoor range and the fellows in the booth to my right were shooting.
Their shots were registering on my Xero C1. I moved a couple booths down and problem was solved.
I shot .22 punch and 357 magnum loads. All good. Battery indicator moved slightly off 100% after 3 hours of use.\

Nice read outs on the cell phone App. There is an export function that I need to figure out to make hard copy.

I missed the paper printout of my old chronograph, but I haven't used the cell phone app yet.

Garmin said it needs to see the bullet travel what, 70 feet? And it does need that. Way happy so far.
Click to expand...

We live in good times, technology-wise. I'm very much looking forward to mine. Thanks for the report.
 
HARD COPY Chronograph record. If this kind of stuff trips your trigger, read on...
I asked a fellow reloader at Garmin about exporting data from the Xero C1 Shotview app on a cell phone, to a PC for making hard copy.
He told me that from the screen showing the "Edit Shots" box, press the *** icon in the upper right.
Then export the file you're looking at to your e-mail address as a "CVS file. "

The file shows up in your email as a Microsoft EXCEL file. If you don't have EXCEL in your computer, you can download a free reader version of it.
From here on you can go as crazy as you wish with the EXCEL spreadsheet software. I only went this far today.
I resaved the EXCEL file as a .xlsm format file as recommended.
Sample.jpg
 
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