I am looking to buy a chronograph any suggestions

[home sick]

I want to spend about a $150.00 on one does any one have any advice.

[testuser]

I had a shooting chrony at one point and it was accidentally shot! I switched to the Competition Electronics ProChrono Digital Chronograph. It has a much larger measurement area, onboard statistics and remembers multiple shot strings. Best yet, it made in the USA. That's rare for electronics nowadays. Midway sells them for $120.

[flyguy958]

Best suggestion, don't shoot it.

I have a Beta Master, haven't used it enough to know if I like it or not.

[billnourse]

I have a Beta Master. It seems to work just fine. they are around 125 or so from most places.

Bill

[Unclenick]

HS,

See if you can come up with an additional $50 to get a CED M2. I have both the M1 (now replaced by the M2) and an Oehler 35P. They always read within just a few feet per second of one another. Bryan Litz reports the same experience with the Oehler and CED in his book. Others I've messed with have disagreed with them by as much as 200 fps (25-50 fps is more common) at .308 velocities, and the amount of the disagreement has changed with lighting conditions.

One feature I look for is the chronograph computer being a separate box that plugs into the screens by cables long enough to keep the computer out of danger, and replacement sensors have to be available separately. This way, if I damage one I don't have to replace the whole chronograph. I believe all makers of units with remote computers make the sensors available separately. That is a lot cheaper to do. You see a number of folks getting steel plates to armor the integrated computer chronographs. One fellow I saw used a pair of mirrors set up like an upside down periscope to read the display from behind the plate. Much bother.

I also look for a unit that allows you to select multiple screen spacings. That offers you a path to self-calibration. By shooting, say, 25 rounds of match .22 Rim Fire ammo over the unit with 2 foot spacing and the other 25 in the box with 4 foot spacing, any offset error due to slow response by one sensor or some other issue becomes apparent by comparing the resulting averages. Both the CED and the Oehler will let you do that (the Oehler's check screen makes this even easier).

The Oehler is made in the US except for the printer mechanism, but at over $600 is outside of your price range. The CED is made overseas, but is closer to your price range. The CED is a good design. It has the only sensors I am aware of that self-adjust their sensitivity to lighting condition changes. It also has accessory solid state IR illumination screens available to use indoors or to eliminate exterior light altogether if you power them by battery outdoors and us an opaque cover over them. They also make available accessory screen spacing booms for 4 and 8 feet (it comes with 2 a foot folding boom).

[Dodge DeBoulet]

I'm with Unclenick; very happy with my CED M2. And with the included software and built-in USB interface, it allows you to download your shot strings and statistics painlessly to your computer.

[TheotherMikeG]

+1 on the Pro Chrono. It's inexpensive and simple to use. Perfect for a 1st chronograph. I've had mine for almost 3 years and it has been flawless.

[Chinny33]

if you are looking to use a chrono in an indoor range, probably a bad idea because the use of fluorescent lighting. they make it an expensive target in front of your guns.

I have a pro chrono digital. very happy with it other than the uselessness of it in my indoor range.

[Bogie]

Get the cheapest Chrony. Because, sooner or later, you will shoot it. Chronographs rarely die of old age.

[GP100man]

I have the F 1 & like it , compact & all the peices stay together .

If I do it again I`ll get the 1 with seperate sensors so the read out will be closer . I also like the idea of just having an accident with just sensors down range !!

On the F1 I put it in a trash can with the bottom cut out & use sckewer sticks to mark the sensors instead of the diffusers that came with it .

I started with a pellet rifle then a 22 then on to bigger bores to get comfortable using it .

At first I was concentrating so hard on not shooting it that it affected my groups !!!

I loaded for many yrs. with out 1 but now that I have 1 I wish it was 1 of the first peices of equipment that I purchased !!

A real eye opener to some of my pet loads !!! some were slower & some were faster than "published" data !!

It`s a tool to help you load for "YOUR" firearm !!!!

[4runnerman]

Chrony F-1 here too.Very happy with it.

[semi_problomatic]

I got a CED M2 as well. When I first started looking for a chrony I researched every one I could. The CED seemed like the best compromise between price and performance. And if (for some strange reason you forget how to aim your gun) you shoot your chrony, you can either buy a whole new one, or just a replacement arm for the CED. Plus, if you're using a public range, or are just lazy/have bad eye sight, the CED's screen is right by you, instead of being out in the middle of the range.

[dlb435]

Walmart!
http://www.walmart.com/ip/F1-Chronograph/4382668
No charge for shipping to the nearest Walmart. You just pick it up.

[home sick]

Your feed back is very helpful, I was not aware Wally World sold chorongraphs

[jimbob86]

Wally-worldwill sell anything they think there is a profitable market for.

I have a Chrony ..... the one with the remote read-out...... I shot the body with the electric eyes and a replacement was only 30$ ...... the spendy part is the LED read-out with the chip in it, apparently.

It works. The velocities it tells me I am getting are consistant with the trajectories my ballistic tables tell me I should be getting at a given velocity.

[Crusty Deary Ol'Coot]

Well, I have heard that some do not give good reading, the Chrony being one.

HOWEVER, I am on my second Chrony, and even if it is not perfect, it is soooo much better then the guessing game I and most others worked with for years that I'd hate to be without it.

I like to shot my test loads over the Chrony at the same time I am checking groups. The combined info is waaaaaay ahead of guessing, IMHO

Keep em coming!

Crusty Deary Ol'Coot

[PawPaw]

Any suggestions? Yeah, pull the pin and buy a chronograph. I have a Alpha Master Chrony and it takes all the guesswork out of your handloads. You know exactly what your bullet is doing coming off you load out of your barrel. Very good information to have and the only way to get that information is with a chronograph.

Oh, and be advised, there are only two types of chronograph owners. Those who have shot their chronograph, and those who will shoot it.

I'm unfortunately in the first bunch, and may yet be in the second bunch.

[LarryFlew]

+1 for the wally world F1, they work fine. Suggestion: do not let anyone besides yourself shoot over your crony unless they put the money in your hands up front

[Crusty Deary Ol'Coot]

Well, I must be in the second group, as I have yet to "shoot my Chrony".

The first one I had, had the pasteboard/cardboard things with the little oval cut out window to guide where to place the bullet/boolit over the sky screens.

After some years of use, the cardboard was gett'in more then a bit tattered, so I contacted Chrony to buy some new ones.

Sorry, no longer available, BUT if I'd return my "old" Chrony along with a bit of cash, they'd send me a new one.

The model of the new one, depending on the amount of cash I would send.

SOOOOOOOOOOOO, I did the exchange and away I went with a Chrony that is a lot smarter them I am!!!!!!!

Did need to order a new set of the plastic defusers as some of the plastic gave up. Didn't help that a gas check from the 45/70 caught one of them.

I think it is a very good idea to order a set of the plexiglas protectors which go over the sky screens, especially for those of us who shoot cast, lubed and possibly gas checked Boolits..

Anyway, as has already been stated, a chronograph adds a great bit of info to load development.

For example, working up a load, we some times see a series of test groups decrease in size as loads/pressures increase, only to see the groups suddenly begin to increase in size.

With a chronograph, you may also see velocities begining to show wild, ups and downs, while there are still none of the normally expected signs of high pressure. TIME TO BACK OFF MY FRIEND!!!!.

Not making a cent from the sale of chronographs, but this Ol'Coot thinks their great!

Keep em coming!

Crusty Deary Ol'Coot

[1SOW]

I've had good luck with CE Pro dig. It's more forgiving of early morning/late afternoon lighting than the Chrony I was using.

Always shoot at a target aligned with your chrony, and if it's a scoped gun, be sure to allow for parallax.

Chrono the 22lr ammo you shoot and use these rds (& the same gun) to check your Chrono is working properly.

Wooden dowels can replace the aluminum rods if you insist on shooting them.

You may be surprised how far off your "estimate' was for your reloads.

My BB gun shoots at 475'/sec.

[Crusty Deary Ol'Coot]

Yep 1SOW,

As I just posted on another thread, it is fun to watch a reloader put his favorite load over the sky screens for the first time, thinking he is getting the published velocity of XXXX only find he is 150fps slow.

I have also found since owning a Chronograph that rifles when compared to published data, come in slow, close to on and fast versions, with most being slower then the published data, some being close to equal and a FEW coming up fast.

It is an eye opener to get the facts.

Keep em coming!

Crusty Deary Ol'Coot

[A_Gamehog]

One thing nobody spoke about,

when you get reloads that display single digit ES for 5-10 shots you have

accomplished quite a bit. My favorite reading from my shooting chrony is

"Dupe" when you get a few of those in your string you have done things right.

It's a measurement only a few can attain. Only a chronograph gives this

verification of your reloading skills. As far as hitting the 10X that's a whole

different game. Benchrest shooters take it up a higher notch.

[Kevin Rohrer]

/Can anyone make recommendations for chronos w/ printers?

[Volucris]

Notepad and a pen.

I just saved you $100 for a printer.


I use this one:
http://www.grafs.com/retail/catalog/...productId/2452

Works perfectly well. Uses one 9v battery. Average, ES, st dev, etc functions all in one package and it's not flimsy like the shooting chrony fold up things

[semi_problomatic]

Some chronys save all the info so you can hook it up to your computer and it does everything for you, and then you can print all this info out. My CED M2 does.....