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View Poll Results: Your evaluation of the Chrony Ballistic II Software
Bought it and it was a big waste of money. 0 0%
Bought it and it was well worth the cost. 0 0%
Don't have it but interested in learning more. 3 100.00%
Don't have it and don't care (which begs the question, Why am I participating in this poll?). 0 0%
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Old July 1, 2015, 06:28 PM   #1
Frankly
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Join Date: February 6, 2015
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Does anyone have experience with Shooting Chrony Ballistic II Software?

I was looking into this software, but the product descriptions do not answer a fundamental question: If I buy this software and the adapter that interfaces my Chrony to a computer, will I be able to take a laptop computer to the range and use it as a real-time display for the Chrony? If not, I would not buy so no further discussion is necessary. If so, please tell me more about the product...
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Old July 3, 2015, 03:07 PM   #2
Unclenick
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I don't own it, but doing a quick read, I believe, like much other chronograph software out there, it simply allows you to download the chronograph's memory to your computer for convenience, then couples it to the ballistics software directly. So you can drag the laptop to the range, if you like, or, if the memory is large enough for all the shooting you will do, just wait and take it home and do the download there. I am frequently guilty of lugging a laptop to the range, but it is more stuff to carry. Just saying. You can figure out what makes your work more comfortable after you have it.

Note that Chrony Ballistics II Software is for earlier versions of Windows than Vista, and Chrony Ballistics III Software is for Windows Vista and later.

That said, I have to point out you can always copy the chronograph data onto paper and use it with free JMB online software or any other if you have some you like better. Indeed, you may want to organize your data in some other format, like Excel.

Since I own several ballistics programs I have wrung out pretty thoroughly, I find just reading the list of features for this software leaves me with unanswered questions. It would be nice if the owner's manual were available to download or if a trial version were available. I would call Chrony and see if they will send you a pdf file of the owner's manual before buying. I didn't spot a link for it.

Other questions I have:

Can you export the downloaded data into a .csv file or other Excel compatible format? I use the Excel export feature in QuickTARGET Unlimited rather frequently to work out my own graph plots and error plots.

From the features listed on line:
Quote:
For the hand loader the Program has a list of Powders as well as recipe files and will compute Ballistic Coefficients for Custom Ammo.
How do they they do the BC computation? There are a few methods of estimation that are pretty fair, but actual computation usually requires velocities at two different measured distances from the muzzle. You can find your mean velocity for ten shots at, say, 5 yards (15 feet), and find it for a second ten shots 55 or 75 or 100 yards away if your rifle is shooting well enough not to kill the Chrony and get an estimate from that. Or, you can buy two instruments, make sure they track (or know what the difference they give is), and measure just one round at two positions or several rounds at both to get an average difference. I've actually done that by firing five rounds with unit A at 5 yards (15 feet) and unit B at 55 yards, then swapping the chronograph positions and doing another five, then taking the average velocity loss for both sets of data. This averages out offset error, assuming lighting conditions are uniform throughout the testing.

Once you have two velocities a known distance apart, once again the JBM software will figure BC's from it for all the standard BRL drag models for you. You just have to get the data home to use that, where the Chrony software likely does it for you for at least the G1 drag function.

That brings up the next question: Does the software work with more than one ballistic coefficient type? The old G1 BC is frequently being displaced by the G7 BC for pointy boattail shapes these days because the G7 lets you use a single number that gets you very close at all normal ranges, where the G1's need tables of different values over different velocity ranges to be as accurate. To be frank, the difference is nothing a deer hunter would notice even to 400 yard, but it for long range shooting at scoring rings, it can be useful to know. It is also occasionally handy to have a BC like the RA4 BC for standard shape .22 Long Rifle bullets.

Anyway, like I said, a pile of questions. Its a little funny that the Shooting Chrony is low cost champion until you add the software and adapter. They add nearly the cost of a second Chrony. For the combined price you could have got a CED M2 which comes with a USB port and data download software at no additional expense to be able to download. You would then still need ballistics software to do something with the numbers, but, like I said, that part's free on line or you make a separate choice, like getting a copy of Bryan Litz's book, Applied Ballistics for Long Range Shooting which comes with his point mass solver ballistics program on disc.
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