As we had company this afternoon I ended up having only an hour to try it out before loosing the light.
So having some 6mm Musgrave ammunition to try out I went about setting the chrono up.
I have CED millenium chrono and PACT both of which use sky screen and all the attendant electric string and are real pains to set up. The Steinert is a complete free standing unit that works by recording the time it takes for the sonic shock way to cross it sensors to work out the velocity so there are no clumsy sky screens to set up.
The reading appears on the unit itself and all the gubbins is forward of the firing point like my first ever chronographs with was sent tumbling down the range with a 303 round through it many years ago now, so I have always been chary of such types of chronos since then. Sky screens are easy to mend or cheap to replace. However the recording area of the Steinert is generous and it can be positioned well out of the danger area, as will be seen.
My zero range is is a touch over 100 yards shooting from a fixed bench across a tattie field in to a drumlin back stop with a target area scooped out by a JCB. The shooting bench is 12 ft above ground level on a slope and with my sky screen chronos I can't use them when shooting from the bench because of the height so I have to shoot for groups separate from checking velocity if I want to use the full 100 yards for group testing.
However with the Steinert being so compact and self contained I thought I could easily rig something up to use it from the bench.
For best results from chronographs the sensors need to be aligned parallel with the line of the boolit/bullets flight. Steinert's simple and comprehensive instructions make this clear along with best siting distances for expected velocities. Any way the distance in front of the muzzle has to greater than the units distance below the muzzle, so that is what I set out to do when setting up the chrono.
To get the chrono into position in front of and under the muzzle I cable tied the unit onto the end of an 8ft length of 2"x2" timber, pushed this out through fence and G clamped it into place once aligned.
Here is the set up in place, you can see the chrono in middle far right of this picture:
Here the set up from the front of the firing point:
To get the unit aligned parallel with the bullets flight I measured from the top of the rest to where the 2"x2" was going out through the fence which was exactly 2'. I then pinned two 100 yrd targets to the target board 24" apart, I then sighted the chrono using its notch rear and post fore sight on the unit to align the timber and clamped it into place with nail on its side under the wood to give the correct angle.
Here is a photograph of the unit aligned with the target:
With the chrono sticking out 5' in front of the muzzle and 2' below it the readings were clearly seen.
I had no other chrono to check the readings against but they were all in the region of what I was expecting for those loads.
The weather was fine it being a lovely day with a bit of nip in the air, however the wind was gusting 15-20mph east to west across the range that is left to right. It did make the chrono dance a bit on the end of the wood but that didn't seem to effect the readings an during the 50 shots fired this afternoon over the chrono I didn't have one error message.
Overall I was impressed with the unit on its first outing, its compactness and lack of skyscreens and electric string make it very flexible, I was able to use it today in conditions that I couldn't have used skyscreen type chrono's.
I am confident in the readings but will do further accuracy checks with some know loads.
On the down side I had some issues with the operating buttons they were difficult to get to work, especially the off on button which takes some fiddling to get it to operate. It took me that long to get it to turn the unit on that at first I thought it was broken, need to try it some more but if it doesn't improve then it will be returned.
Having all the operating buttons on the unit in front of the firing point means that its use will be limited on ranges with other shooters as you will need to wait for the detail to finish before you can reset, I'd like to see a remote wireless unit that you could operate and get the readings of that you could have beside you on the point, I'd be happy to pay extra for this. Also if you are like me and shoot groups on multiple aiming points on the one target then it will need realigning with each aiming point for maximum accuracy.
The main reason for me buying this unit is so that I can mount it in front of the target so that when used in conjunction another chrono at the firing point I will be able to work out boolit BC's, its compactness and large sensing area will make it very good in this role. Finally I will state the obvious this is an acoustic unit so will only work with rounds going over the speed of sound.
So long as I can get the on/off button functioning this handy robust unit will be a keeper. :goodjob:
