KST1000 Shot Timer by Kestrel Ballistics

Built like a tank, five year warranty and upgrades, made in the USA, can't beat any of that. More functions than anyone will ever need. Customization complete. Use with cell phone app excellent. Dry fire: remember this - set the sensitivity at approximately 300. This will probably not trigger the device with the hammer falling on the firing pin. Reduce the sensitivity by small decrements,10 points at a time, until you find the noise of the hammer or striker being sufficient to trigger the kestrel. If you set it any lower than that, eventually you'll start picking up room noise and even movement as a shot. Go slowly in those small increments to find the sweet spot for dry fire. Worth every penny.

Great shot timer. People look at how many good reviews to judge a product I do the opposite. I look at the negative reviews and so far it's mostly incoherent subjective nonsense or the dime a dozen who have the inability to understand to review the product not the third party seller who clearly tried to flip a used return unit. The NRL22 review guy? Steal your grandma's baking timer, use your phone or pick up a $2 stopwatch, the primary purpose of this shot timer is not to see when your brownies are done. When I see folks at PRS matches use shot timers as basically a kitchen timer ROFL, it is like seeing a chef use a miter saw to cut the carrots. To say PRS folks have a decent (not all) amount of primadonnas is like saying ketchup is a shade of red.

Works well, rugged.

Haven’t had the opportunity to use this yet. Other than just checking it out. Looks to be well made and should last.

TL;DR: I really like the Kestrel. Con: Jt’s very expensive. Critique: I’d like to see an update that delivers greater smartphone integration, features and functionality. I’d resigned myself to making a considerable investment, relatively speaking, in the interest of having something that I considered the best of the best. I read reviews, talked to folks and watched videos, and all of that led me to the Shooters Global shot timer products. First, I went with the Shooters Global Go, a small timer with reduced functionality, relative to the larger, original Shooters Global shot timer. I thought I would be okay with the reduced functionality, and I liked that it had a louder beep than the original and that it still integrated with the app in basically the same way, although it’s onboard features were limited. I also liked the fact that the folks at Shooters Global assured me that a belt clip (as opposed to the Velcro loop or lanyard that it came with) was soon forthcoming. I worked with this one long enough to know I didn’t care for its limited onboard functionality. So I sent it back to Amazon and bite the bullet and went with the original Shooters Global unit, which was one hundred and fifty beans more, but ostensibly worth it. I liked it more, it was more useable, more useful and easier work with on the range. It wasn’t loud enough for my liking though, (I could hear it through my ear pro, if it was quiet around me, but if there was a lot of live fire going on or if I wasn’t listening carefully, I found it too quiet and I actually missed hearing the par on a couple of occasions. I might have considered it sufficient if I wasn’t ever working with other folks at the range, but these days I am, and I didn’t want a timer that was hard to hear if folks needed to hear it from any kind of distance. I also didn’t care for the magnetic clasp. In theory it was great. But in actuality I found that I had accidentally knocked it off my belt twice just within my first hour of using it. My previous go-to timer (a PACT) never once fell off my belt in all of its years of service. I had also gotten a silicone protective case for it, and I didn’t care for that either, for nitpicky reasons I won’t go into at the moment. So I sent that one back to Amazon as well. Thank you Amazon for the easy return/satisfaction guarantee policies. So this is what I got instead. The Kestrel 1000. Same price as the Shooters Global. I like it. A lot. It’s a keeper. Heavy-duty, rugged build, very loud buzzer, two displays, one on top so it can be viewed while attached to the belt, and the other larger display features a tonight of available info. While this one doesn’t have much in the way of integration with the smartphone app, it will be upgraded and while I don’t know for sure, I won’t be surprised if future firmware updates will make it so that the integration between the timer and the phone will become more akin to the Shooters Global timers and the Shpoters Global phone app. But don’t quote me on that last part. And I love the belt clip. It’s not going anywhere once it’s attached to your belt or pocket. Basically, the Kestrel is everything I loved about the Shooters Global timer, and none of the things I didn’t care for. These are my initial thoughts as a new Kestrel shot timer owner…

You get what you pay for, this is hands down the best timer on the market. Can be adjusted to pick up dry firing even. Holds a number of customizable presets, useful when switching from a pistol to rifle, or dry fire. Can even vary the preset with multiple par times so training that is repetitive doesn't need a new button press each time. The large front window stores all the data from previous strings so it's easy to compare and see where you need work, or where you are improving.

Best shot timer on the market.

Yes, it is double the price of all the other ones. It has WAY more than double the features and is build like a tank. My only complain would be slight QC issues on the bonding of the screen (bubbles in corners) but whatever, I won't ding a star for that. This shot timer was actually the ONLY way I could effectively practice for the NRA PPIH Instructor qualification due to its auto-recycle mode I could just keep banging away. If this doesn't do what you are looking for, then what you are looking for does not exist.