Athlon Rangecraft Chronograph at S&S Archery

[HighUintas]

There's definitely some difference between Garmin and athlong units. The archery issue and the fact that I could never get my athlon to read more than 10-20% of my patched round ball shots. I have not read a case of this happening with the Garmin but have seen plenty of people use the Garmin for such shooting

 

[Kbhillhunter]

Have the athlon units improved with archery since the recent updates?

 

[lelliott8]

Have the athlon units improved with archery since the recent updates?

Mine worked fine at an indoor range for trad bow speeds

 

[TheCougar]

lots of people asking, and I only have a partial answer…. The Athlon seemed to be reading my bow speeds correctly. I have an old Caldwell chrono that was the other set of data. I am trying to get my hands on a Garmin unit to compare the two directly. I expect my bow should be around 285, but could be as fast as 290. This was the set up, data is below:




Caldwell / Athlon:
1. 288 / 283
2. 285 / 285
3. 293 / 285
4. 295 / 284
5. 318 / 285
6. 294 / 284
7. 290 / 285
8: 291 / 284


If you throw out the 318 Caldwell score, the average would be 291. The athlon was remarkably consistent and never varied more than 284+-1. I’m not honestly sure which one is correct. Hopefully I can borrow a Garmin unit and find out. I’ll report back when I do.

 

[TheCougar]

I should add, this is firmware 1.40.81.

 

[S&S Archery (Rob)]

awesome.. just downloaded the firmware and going to compare to the garmin now.. crossing my fingers!

 

[HighUintas]

I should add, this is firmware 1.40.81.

Would you be able to shoot using a tape for one speed and see if you can determine that way which is more correct?

 

[6.5Express]

I did use the athlon this last winter to set a scale for my target bow. Seemed to be pretty darn accurate and consistent, but I have not shot over it side by side with a garmin.

 

[TheCougar]

Would you be able to shoot using a tape for one speed and see if you can determine that way which is more correct?

Maybe… I’m not sure how much 6 fps will show up, however. I can shoot out to 70, so that might show the difference. I wish I knew someone here with a Garmin, but @Billy Goat is a bum only has a Labradar.

 

[Billy Goat]

Maybe… I’m not sure how much 6 fps will show up, however. I can shoot out to 70, so that might show the difference. I wish I knew someone here with a Garmin, but @Billy Goat is a bum only has a Labradar.

I can get ahold of one.

I have a buddy with one.

I'm a caveman who still prefers the Labrador because I can track drag on arrows with it. Its about 300% harder to setup and use tho. If I hadn't gotten Labrador what seems like right before Garmin, I probably would have gone that route.

Then picked up a deeply discounted Labrador as well

 

[Bandit16]

Maybe… I’m not sure how much 6 fps will show up, however. I can shoot out to 70, so that might show the difference. I wish I knew someone here with a Garmin, but @Billy Goat is a bum only has a Labradar.

Where are you? I’m in Virginia and have a Garmin.

 

[TheCougar]

Where are you? I’m in Virginia and have a Garmin.

Winchester

 

[TheCougar]

I’ll post data later, but the bottom line is that I ran an Athlon and Garmin right next to each other for over a dozen shots, and they matched within 1fps. This is good news for the archery side of things. The Athlon actually read about .5fps slower on average than the Garmin did, so the “10fps fast” readings aren’t an issue with the newest firmware. I will also note that the Athlon processes the shot way faster than the Garmin.

 

[TheCougar]

That picture is pretty indicative of the total result.

Athlon/Garmin:
1: 283.8 / 284.6
2: 285.1 / 285.2
3: 283.5 / 284.2
4: 282.8 / 285.9
5: 284.4 / 285.4
6: 285.1 / 285.5
7: 286.1 / 285.3
8: 284.8 / 285.6
9: 285.4 / 285.1
10: 285.4 / 285.7
11: 285.8 / 285.2
12: 285.8 / 285.9

 

[Macintosh]

@TheCougar how does it do with 22lr? 22lr suppressed? Suppressed centerfire?

 

[TheCougar]

@TheCougar how does it do with 22lr? 22lr suppressed? Suppressed centerfire?

I’ve used it extensively with suppressed center fire and been very pleased. I don’t think it’s ever missed a shot or kicked back a bad number. I’ve not tried it with 22lr, but I can do that easily.