What's a good entry-level chronograph?

[Bimmer]

Is that to say it shit the bed on you?

Or he shot the basic chrono?

Lots of guys murder their chronos... Knock wood, I've only hit the sky-screen supports.

[mark5pt56]

Is that to say it shit the bed on you?

The MS? well-kind of! It was actually a friends. I was doing great, had it on, checked with the alignment rod and registering good shots. Apparently the dang strap loosened enough to allow a bullet to skip off the bayonet. I had to buy him a new one of course. They wanted 179, hmmm, strange number isn't it to repair it? That 4000 fps it registered was a screamer!

[markm]

Or he shot the basic chrono?

Lots of guys murder their chronos... Knock wood, I've only hit the sky-screen supports.

I used to be puzzled at shooting the chrono. Then another buddy got in my head and said you need to get the bullet really low to the sensors. I ended up hitting the top of the housing.

[enchantor]

You can buy a whole package of those cheap, wood skewers (to grill with) to use instead of the metal rods. They fit great. And if you break or lose them, it won't matter.

brilliant

[ubet]

I hate my chrony pro. It tried telling me a 77gr hpbt was doing 9000fps.


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[Bimmer]

I hate my chrony pro...

Love my ProChrono... I had it out yesterday, and it never missed a shot.

[hotrodder636]

Like my LabRadar. Easy to setup, don’t have to worry about shooting it. Lots of data.

[fedupflyer]

Skip those optical chorons.
They are a pain to get accurate readings.

Next step up would be a Magnetospeed.
Mostly easy setup but you have a small weight hanging off the end of your barrel.

A step up from that would be a LabRadar.
I haven't used one but I hear the setup is easy .
Plus you can shoot for groups and get velocity data at the same time.
Wished they had been out when I bought my Magnetospeed.

[lordmorgul]

I hate my chrony pro. It tried telling me a 77gr hpbt was doing 9000fps.


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Yep all optical chronographs can give errant readings, seems like low batteries tend to increase it, shadows, clouds, etc. I had our Caldwell tell me a factory target load 9x19mm was going over 1700fps consistently, the entire magazine. Then moved it a little and was reading expected 1050fps.

I’ve replaced the Caldwell with ProChrono Bluetooth and love that feature, it connects and reconnects well to multiple iPhones at the range and doesn’t lose as much readings as the Caldwell did thru the cable / converter to lightning cable.


Andrew - Lancaster, CA
NRA Life Member, CRPA member, Calguns.net contributor, CGF / SAF / FPC / CCRKBA / GOA / NAGR / NRA-ILA contributor, USCCA member - Support your defenders!

[lordmorgul]

I bought the Caldwell Pro Premium Kit. Any Tips for using the advanced features, watch outs etc. Very excited to use with my iPhone, how well does that work?

Any advice appreciated.

PB

I used the Caldwell premium kit with wire to phone for a few years, as commented above have now moved on. Still have the Caldwell but it’s readings got questionable, I haven’t been able to spend the time at the range to work that out and it could just be dirty sensors. It is my brothers, so I just wanted my own anyway, we will still plan to work out issues with the Caldwell.

This system worked better when my phone had an actual headphone jack, and less reliable when moved to lightning only... I have an old phone I started taking to the range to run the chrono!

I would recommend keeping batteries fresh, it’s worth tossing a new one every time even if you disconnected it before... ammo costs a lot more. Bad readings multiple shots in a row can ruin your measurement of a string. If you load a small set of trials, or ladder loads, you lost data you can’t get that trip out to the range.

Always bring a few extra rounds to expect to miss some readings.

Avoid keeping it in the sun too long, best to bring into shade for a little before you try readings you really want to get. Missed readings increased with hot.

The app was reliable and did well at holding data sets except for the occasional missed reading at that’s usually not the app, the Caldwell readout will stay blank or show err code when that happens so it is the sensors fault.

I usually texted myself the textual data from the app or emailed to save it in case the app crashed later or lost data.


Andrew - Lancaster, CA
NRA Life Member, CRPA member, Calguns.net contributor, CGF / SAF / FPC / CCRKBA / GOA / NAGR / NRA-ILA contributor, USCCA member - Support your defenders!