The fellow with excellent timing, Brownells Gun Tech™ Caleb Savant, tells us about the Kestrel KST1000 Shot Timer, which will help you develop excellent speed and timing of your own on the shooting range. It costs a bit more than other shot timers but has a bunch of useful features, is built to take a beating, and it's made in the U.S.A. Some shot timers have trouble working with suppressed guns, but the KST1000's sensitivity is easy to adjust to what you're shooting. There's a bunch of built-in sensitivity settings, and you can modify them to create your own custom settings. There is even a "dry fire" sensitivity setting. How well does it work? Caleb demos it for us.
Of course, you can adjust the start delay and buzzer volume. You can also choose first, second, and third par times, so you can have up to three additional beeps. The big LCD front panel screen makes it easy to review recent times and keep track of where you are as you navigate the very logical menus. There's even a SECOND screen on top of the housing, so when you have the KST1000 clipped to your belt, you can look down at the top screen rather than have to remove the timer from your belt. Glance down at the timer to check your settings, take your shots, and then look down at the results.
The KST1000 is Bluetooth-compatible so you can load the Kestrel LiNK Ballistics app to your smartphone and crunch data from the timer. It is also compatible with the PracticeScore scoring app used by many shooting competitions.
A shot timer is a piece of gear that gets schlepped around the range a lot, and let's face it, accidents sometimes happen. The KST1000 is drop-tested to MIL-STD 810G standards, so if you do have an "oops" where it impacts the ground, it will survive. It's also sealed against dust and moisture. It runs on one standard CR-123A lithium battery used in gun lights and small hand-held flashlights.
Caleb Savant
