• Top Shot Throwback Contest - Only a Few Hours Left To Enter!

    Tell us about your best shot or proudest moment on the range this past year! Winner gets new limited edition Hide merch. Remember, subscribers have a better chance of winning!

    Join contest Subscribe

Filter

Poll: Single-Stage or Two-Stage Trigger for NRL/PRS Rimfire?

Never liked two stage triggers. That first stage feels like slop. When I press the trigger I want it to go off. I don’t want take up. All my rifles both centerfire and rimfire have single stage triggers set at about 1.25 pounds. No worries about NDs.
Interesting take, I'm a 2 stage guy for kind of the same reason. I have the take up in the first stage, when I hit the second (wall). I know any additional pressure the rifle fires. It just gives me a little extra insurance (in my mind).

The only rifle I own that are not 2 stage are my R8s. They are hunting rifles, would prefer them as a 2 stage. Just not an option.

Maggie’s Funny & awesome pics, vids and memes thread (work safe, no nudity)

I scored a free bandsaw ❤️ a little work and she’ll be back in the fight.

View attachment 8696571
That little Chinee band saw will last you your lifetime!
I bought one new maybe 30 years ago when that was the best I could afford.
I've done a little to it, like new motor and stiffened up the frame and new wheels on back but damn it's been a good little saw.
It's cut tons of iron and still cuts true and square.
Thing I like about it is you can set, say a 3x3x1/4 square tube in it and flip the switch and walk away. It will be cutting whily I am working on something else.
Like having your own little helper monkey in the shop!
Good score!
band saw.jpg

Precision Rifle Gear New Athlon Rangecraft Chronograph-Garmin Xero Killer?

Apple or Android?

I use iOS.

I'm running the app on my macbook and it "syncs" between the chronograph and the app on the laptop if that's what you mean. All the sessions are visible in the app and I can rename them and mess with them to the limits of what the app allows. The new names haven't yet been synced back to the chrono that I have noticed.

When opening the "manage tab" of each Athlon Velocity Pro in the app - on iOS - the units generally automatically sync sessions into the phone. When this doesn't happen automatically, typically there is a "sync sessions" button at the bottom of the app interface page. One of my Athlons will readily do that transfer, or will accept the instruction to sync. My second unit cannot be made to sync - it spins the wheel of death for hours without syncing. I'm going to do another hard reboot and reinstall the updated firmware and hope it clears, now that I have extracted the data manually, but I have not had luck so far.

Downloading the sessions to my laptop for use by something else like a spreadsheet app is not accomplished with "sync". Each file has to be saved to the device individually renaming each one in the process.

I can't speak to the mac based App, but once sessions are synced from the unit to the phone, they can be exported as .csv, at which point the iOS interface allows the destination of the export to be an email (or any of a dozen other options, such as opening with specific spreadsheet apps or saving as pdf, or opening with other apps), so I simply export to email and then open the .csv's in Excel. Other than the fact they all export as individual files without descriptive filenames, this works quickly and easily.

Yes. The video of the interview with Dustin Harding of Athlon linked by someone in a previous post addressed this but Dustin dodged the question. Basically, by not directly answering the question, Dustin confirmed the Rangecraft is not as good as other devices at filtering out competing signals from other radars. Maybe it will be addressed in a future update, maybe not.

I'm not terribly certain at this point if the Athlon is actually worse than "other devices" or not. The "other devices" I have tested include 3 brand/models which are acoustic or recoil trigger only, which means they would only exhibit bad behavior AFTER a shot has been fired. The Athlons, alternatively, are radar triggered, so comparatively, their triggers are always open. So when I have known interfering units operating (such as my LabRadar V1 and my first Athlon, or the Caldwell VelociRadar I have and my second Athlon), the Athlon will trigger repeatedly, non-stop, as if it were constantly receiving shots, even if there is no gun on the firing line. However, the VelociRadar will SEEM as if it is not experiencing interference, but ONLY because it has not been actively triggered. However, once it "hears" a shot with the acoustic trigger, it will experience the same co-channel interference and remains at risk of reading a false echo (the echo from the OTHER co-channel unit rather than their own) and displaying a false velocity. Both LabRadar V1 and LabRadar LX work this same way - acoustic or recoil trigger only, so they too would also SEEM to be operating normally until the shot is fired, but then once triggered, they'd accept the false echo and report a false velocity.

I've seen false echo receipt a few times with Garmins - sometimes we'll see shots reporting over 4,000fps, which indicates they received a false echo from another unit, but I have NEVER seen the Garmins be triggered by Radar, AND it has been very rare to see Garmins interfering. We end up with a bunch of Garmins on the same firing line at PRS match zero boards, and it is exceedingly rare to see interference indicators, whereas 3 out of 3 of the Athlons I have used have fallen into constant feedback loops where they are being triggered and displaying "analyzing" and even reporting velocities for shots which did not happen.

So I'm suspicious but have not yet confirmed that Athlons are accepting NEAR-channel interference rather than simply accepting co-channel interference (which cannot be avoided by ANY of the radar units on the market).

BUT I WILL OFFER A WARNING TO VIEWERS - I believe it will be common for people to see video of folks using LabRadars or VelociRadars to show a lopsided and false representation that the Athlons are unilaterally accepting co-channel interference because we can make them spaz out by turning on the co-channel units. The Athlon will go into a continuous loop, whereas the LabRadar and VelociRadar will APPEAR to be fine... but ONLY because they have not yet been triggered to read, whereas the Athlon IS getting triggered by radar. The LabRadars and VelociRadar will still experience the false velocity output once they are triggered - but it's easy to make a video which seems very, very one sided. I have this kind of video myself, but I'm not yet sharing them until I can properly demonstrate the bi-directional interference instead of making the Athlon look like it is failing.

[Varminterror: "Eliminating the co-channel units, the Athlons operate perfectly fine and offer more consistent readings with the rest of the units.] Interesting you got this result. It seems to differ from some other results.

Not sure what to tell you, other than to describe that by the end of that preliminary interference test pictured above (a test conducted to evaluate the validity experimental design for future tests), I fired a 100 round string with 6 units operating, removing the LabRadar V1 and the Caldwell VelociRadar, which demonstrated to interfere with the 2 Athlons. I'm compiling that information to share in threads like this around the internet and in a forthcoming video (series of videos maybe), but here's an example of the alignment of results when the interferences are eliminated - all 6 units, 2 Athlons, 2 Garmins, and 2 LabRadar LX's agree within 3 fps 1165fps to 1168fps (left side LX was not updated for firmware and was displaying only whole integer velocities, rather than the updated LX on the right side which displays decimal value velocities.

This has been my consistent experience when interference is not happening - observationally, the units are reading within a few fps of each other overall, and within each brand, typically the variance is less than 1fps. As the rain subsides in the next days and weeks, I will share more data to confirm or correct this observation, knowing now which units can and cannot be operated concurrently.

IMG_2174.jpeg


I'm having a hard time spotting the Magneto Speed. Is it wearing grass camo?

The test pictured was a preliminary operability test to determine interferences for the Radar units to let me determine the volume of sampling I will have to do in order to capture the necessary dataset for this comparison. I want to be able to display data from concurrent operation, but I knew the opportunity for co-channel interference existed, so the test above was the opportunity to test which units can be concurrently operated and which units would interfere. I have to trade out the interfering units one at a time to enable the future testing. Not pictured there, as they were not included in the preliminary radar interference test, are my Magnetospeed V3, MacDonald 2 Box, and CE ProChrono Digital. Since these 3 units aren't radars, I did not include them in the radar interference test.

6Mm GT load. Any help appreciated.

Virgin Alpha brass is going to shoot very tight ES/SDs as long as your powder charges are consistent. Virgin Alpha brass really only needs a chamfer and maybe a debur before it gets loaded. I do go the extra step to mandrel to .002 under, but it really isn't necessary and just gives me a warm fuzzy before I prime, charge, and seat.

With those kind of extreme spreads, finding the "node" is anything but... especially with single shot samples. Sorry, it just is a waste of components. I know that the trend a few years ago by everybody who wanted to be anybody was to shoot single-shot velocity ladders and "find the flat spots", but truth is that you need to shoot quite a few rounds to get reliable data. It's like relying on the data after shooting a one-shot group. If you have an ES of 30, you're going to potentially cover several tenths of a grain (or more) in normal distribution... and fool yourself into thinking you found a flat spot or a spike.

First, I'd be double-checking that RCBS Chargemaster against a quality scale. Second, quite often the velocity spreads will tighten up as you increase charge weights and fill the case more (that is not gospel and can't be counted on). You shouldn't have a problem getting up around 34.0gr in the GT and the 105 Hybrid in Alpha brass though. I think that it is possible once you get to 33gr and up with Varget that your velocity spreads will tighten a bit, and you can fine tune your accuracy with seating depth.

New Burris XTR PS

Optically, it is pretty close to the first gen PMR. Maybe a little better away from center. Definitely a better mil reticle than the PMR. I tested the Revic, but do not have them side by side to compare. Gen2 Revic promises to be very good and a notable improvement, but it is not here yet, I think. In terms of features and the way it does things, Revic is competing with the Steienr IFS, rather than Burris XTR PS.

Revic has a build in ballistic solver. XTR PS does not. The app does the solving and then uploads a very large data table into the scope. Then, the scope pulls out the right number based on your DA and elevation turret setting.

I like the level and the timer. Burris app works quite well. I like the SCR2 mil reticle, but I think they should offer a simpler reticle option (without the tree) for this scope as well. It is really at its best for people who dial, so you do not need an extensive tree. It is still better than the mrad reticle in 1st Gen Revic. That one was a little odd. In the Gen2 Revic, the MOA reticles are very good. Let's hope they do something similar with mrad reticles.

ILya
  • Like
Reactions: D_TROS and taseal

X - Vectronix Shooting Solutions

We have the 12X DMR's in stock at the old price and we cover the Sales Tax, also we have this promotion starting
-Richard


image-1-.png

Australian Army Sniper Rifle Trials (1990's Parker Hale replacement) - The AT1-M24

The LOP adjustment on the M24 stock was kinda shit and came loose all the time. Most resigned themselves to taping the locking wheel after getting it in a good position so it was more or less fixed at that point. The M24 stock didn’t have an adjustable comb, we just built it up with sleeping pads and 100 mph tape or eventually used the Eagle stock pack from the ASAK. The HS stock was good enough for the time, I can see them using the fixed version to simplify things. Stuff like robust, fully adjustable stocks still weren’t that common in the 90’s.