HuntingNet.com Forums - Athlon Rangecraft Velocity Pro Chronograph

As I mentioned a couple of months ago on this site, I've prepared a comparison matrix for several common chronograph units on the market available to reloaders. After I had largely established the parameters for comparison, Athlon announced their entry into the Doppler Radar Chronograph market - the Athlon Rangecraft Velocity Pro. I am not sponsored by or otherwise affiliated with Athlon in any way - I paid for my Velocity Pro out of pocket, and I'm not being compensated for this review.

Interested to include the Athlon Velocity Pro into my comparison, I waited to begin this formal testing until I was able to acquire the Athlon for inclusion into the matrix. I will go into extreme detail during the comparative matrix, but having a little time on my hands this Friday evening, I thought I would begin filing my Athlon specific experiences here, and I'm happy to try to answer any questions users might have about the new Velocity Pro.

I placed a pre-order and set a couple of inventory notification alerts, and MidwayUSA happened to have the unit come into stock faster than anyone else. The Pre-order price, and even Midway's price prior to inventory date was $349, but upon inventory arrival, the price had increased to $399 - which remains $150 cheaper than the Garmin Xero C1 or LabRadar LX in this performance class.

Mine delivered a week ago today, in perfect timing for me to take it with me to demo during an Extreme Long Range class I helped put on last weekend, put on by Manners Composite Stocks and instructed by Shane & Jaclyn Bryan, some of the pre-eminent competitive Extreme Long Range shooters in the world right now.

Unboxing last Friday Night - the Athlon comes with a softshell, protective carry case, mini-tripod, and charging cable. Start up was nearly identical to the Garmin, very user-friendly, very intuitive, and VERY quick start up. I chose to not use the bullet weight and rifle detail profiles, and rather used the "Quick Start" session option. The Athlon Velocity Pro does have additional buttons over the Garmin Xero C1, which makes controlling the unit a little more intuitive. It's a little wider but a little flatter than the Garmin (I'll provide specific details on weight and size to come), but very similar in size. My poorly calibrated hands would suggest the Athlon unit is just a bit lighter than the Garmin, otherwise, very similar in weight. The softshell carry case does not have quite enough room to enclose an ARCA rail for mounting the Velocity Pro on a rifle, but it's still a very nice addition for the price point!

So I took it with me while I was assisting with that ELR class, and had opportunity to compare it against my Garmin Xero C1, which I use extensively for the last ~1.5yrs and my LabRadar LX, which I have had for about 6months, but haven't used nearly as much as my Garmin. I may regret the perspective of this photo a little bit, as pushing the LabRadar slightly farther away disguises how much taller is its tripod, and a little of the size of the unit. Garmin Xero C1 at our left (in a silicone bump cover), LabRadar LX at middle, and Athlon Rangecraft Velocity Pro at our right, all on their respective mini-tripods which come with each unit.

Using the units throughout the day, I did make a few operator errors with the LabRadar and missed a lot of shots - start up is much easier with the Garmin and Athlon, just turn them on, start a string, and they stay on. The LabRadar would time out repeatedly between student shots, and I lost a lot of data because it had automatically disarmed. Aiming was incredibly simple with all 3 units - point them generally downrange and they picked up shots (I have extensive testing planned to compare the beam divergence for these and sensitivities in my larger matrix, stay tuned). The Athlon and Garmin are both Radar triggered, while the LabRadar is audio triggered, so the Garmin and Athlon were a little more reliable in picking up shots, but also, they were both a little more apt to pick up shots from a big 50BMG or 416 Stroker shooting on the line next to them - at least triggering, even if they did recognize that the shot wasn't the correct shooter. This was the first deviation where I preferred the Garmin programming better than the Athlon, and I noticed later when I moved the units by hand during a string, the same thing happens with the "motion detected, stop moving to record shots" message - Alert messages on the Garmin unit automatically dismiss, whereas the shooter has to acknowledge/dismiss the messages on the Athlon - this means if I'm not looking at the unit for each shot, or say, I mount the unit to my rifle and move between props on a PRS stage, I would have to re-activate the Athlon, whereas the Garmin would simply go right back to work once I was stable, or reset to be ready after reading inadvertently a neighbor's shot. I spoke with Athlon this week, this is something they can update in firmware, and will likely be included in (near) future updates.

One fun aspect I have done quite a bit with my Garmin over the last year and a half during LR/ELR classes like the one last weekend is to hold my Garmin like a GoPro and walk behind a prone firing line, registering shots from different shooters laying in front of me. Yes, this puts the muzzle too far forward of the radar and yes, this would mean I pick up 4-8fps higher extrapolated muzzle velocity since I'm too far behind the rifle compared to the 5-15" recommendation of the unit instructions. BUT.... I tested this with the Athlon Velocity Pro, and it ALSO picks up shots just fine, even while standing with the unit held about chest high, behind the feet of a prone shooter.

I did have ONE small snafu - and Athlon assures me that a hard, factory reset of the unit to recalibrate the firmware will fix this. My Velocity Pro was reading higher than the other 2 units, higher than my known velocity for my 375 Cheytac load (which I've used to hit targets past 2 miles). The Athlon was reading about 20fps higher than expected, higher than the other two units. Athlon had put another unit on the prize table for the students, and on the second day, we got that unit out and had it along side mine, my LX, and two Xero's (that is, when the brake blast hadn't knocked my Xero over). The Garmins were reading within 1-2fps of each other, typically less than 1fps apart on the same shot. My LX was 3-4fps slower than the Garmins, repeatedly so, which is well within the +/-0.1% velocity precision expectation for any of these units. However, the Athlons - both Athlons - read higher than the other 3 units. Speaking with Athlon engineers about this and other things this week, they assured me that a firmware reset will fix this issue - I'm planning to do this reset while shooting LIVE on the line so I can see the step change correction happen. This MAY have been happening also due to interference between 2 units - Athlon uses many channels (I'm not at liberty to divulge), but there is a SLIM chance that two units can be on the same channel, so it can pick up pings or interference from the other unit - OR from one of my other 2-4 chronographs I had on the line beside it. This low chance interference was highly likely for us, completely at random, because there was one shot where the Athlon picked up a 4160fps shot for a 3050fps load... Meaning it caught signal interference from some other radar. I have seen that happen at PRS matches also, where several of us are on the 100yrd zero board line with Garmins and we end up picking up interference from each other. Rare and manageable, but COULD explain why I saw 20fps faster from the Athlons. Athlon was frustrated enough by the unlikely issue I experienced that they sent me another Velocity Pro this week to be able to have 2 units running side by side and compare if the offset is a problem with MY unit, interference, or a firmware hiccup.

I WILL REPORT BACK AFTER ATTEMPTING A RESET THIS WEEKEND/EARLY NEXT WEEK.

However, I am VERY happy to report, that with the 2 Athlon Velocity Pro's running side by side, the units were reporting within 1-2fps of each other, typically less than 1fps, just like the Garmin unit.

Our left to right: Athlon Velocity Pro, Athlon Velocity Pro, Rifle, LabRadar LX, Garmin Xero C1, and another Garmin Xero C1 - laying on its side after brake blast threw it off of the line (dude's shooting a 375 Cheytac, and that angle was RIGHT in the brake blast).

Much, much more information to come on this radar chronograph and all of the other 7 brand/models I currently have, but I wanted to share this info for anyone who might be considering one of these units. Operationally, the Athlon is a strong contender in the market. If this firmware reset does what they claim, I'm very impressed that Athlon will be able to put this unit out for so much less than the Garmin Xero and LabRadar LX - and it absolutely KILLS the market for the LabRadar V1, Caldwell VelociRadar, and MagnetoSpeed V3 at the $350-400 price point.

If anyone has questions or wants to know anything specific about any of these units, please don't hesitate to ask.