Now that I have some accurate data from my own testing, I feel confident that the Garmin folks have hit one out of the park! We all spend a ton of money on shooting ... I don't care what you tell your wife! In grand scheme of things $1000 is not all that much money if it makes a significant and measurable improvement in your game. Getting 5 guys to cough up $250 each should not be too hard. A gun club could offer to rent it for $20 for an hour or two of shooting. Youth coaches could get parents to chip in to buy one for the team. 35 years ago when I was a whole lot younger...I would have done most anything to have this kind of tool. It's that good.
You can even practice sporting targets with it if you set in in Field mode. Crossers and crazy angles are not a problem if you take a minute to set up the machine. Of course the main purpose is trap shooting. Coaches can set up games with the unit and the Xero-S1 actually grades the breaks from 0 - 5. Miss, Chip, Weak break, Strong break and Smoker! Try to get 25 points...its a bugger to do! Really makes you bear down and point the targets well.
We have them in stock at Target Shotguns. If you want to discuss the unit, call me at 828-693-3833. You can order on our website
GARMIN Electronics Xero-X1 Trap shooting trainer and other great products | Target Shotguns, Inc.
Thanks for reading! Bob Schultz
Bob,
After working with the Garmin Xero unit for the first time yesterday evening, I totally agree! While skeptical at first, my youth coaching counterpart and I both agree that this will streamline the way we help kids and will be a great tool for anyone wanting to improve their game.
The guns we tested the Garmin with yesterday had all be on the pattern board and showed to be shooting approximately 70-30 patterns at 30 yards. I believe the patterning board is a good place to start with any gun to attain the needed stock/rib adjustments needed for a shooter, but I feel that given the stationary position of the target as opposed to a moving target, there is room for "tweaking" these adjustments for achieving optimal breaks. Myself and the other coach felt we were competent reading the break of a target in determining shot placement, but after yesterdays session we see where this device could help in many ways.
After initial setup of the Garmin, we started with the unit on post 3 with the trap set on straight aways. We shot the first 10 rounds and though the breaks looked centered, the unit was showing our core pattern to be 6 inches left and 10 inches low on average for one of our All American youth shooters. His timing showed to be consistently between .32 and .35 seconds with the bird being broke bewtween 27 and 28 yards each time per Garmin. Following these 10 rounds we made adjustments to his comb to center the string and lowered his unsingle rib to raise the shot core. Following these adjustments, we proceeded to have the young man finish the box (15 shots) with the same setup as before, after which the unit showed that his patterned had moved closer to center (+/- 2" from center) on average and his shot core was now 6-8 inches low in the breaks. We made one more minor adjustment to the unsingle rib, set the trap to oscillate, and had the young man shoot an entire round, moving the Garmin post to post. The results were phenomenal! While this young man typically broke targets with force, he was absolutely crushing targets (when he did his part) of which most were just hanging clouds of smoke. Following this young man's time on the machine, us coaches go a chance to see what Garmin thought of our performances. He and I both were hitting targets hard but surprisingly, or not, the Garmin showed our cores to be low of target mass on most shots. We both made adjustments and had similar results as with our youth shooter...harder breaks with several hanging clouds of smoke!
While I understand the hardships faced with managing/coaching a youth shooting team, it is my belief that the more enjoyable we can make shooting sports for our kids, and ourselves, the more likely we are to grow in numbers and achievements. While the Garmin is a bit pricey, when I consider the amount of time this unit is capable of saving and the cost of targets and shells which can be reduced in order to help optimize a shooters equipment, I can't help but believe that we can improve the efficiency by which we help these kids achieve their goals of becoming more competitive shooters thereby improving their overall experience in the sport.
In Best Regards,
Jason
