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Chronograph : What to acquire / buy

Posted: Thu Oct 27, 2011 8:18 am
by EagerNoSkill
In the land of the blind the man with a chrono knows something! :0037:

I am looking at buying a chrono ... the cost in time, effort and components is too high to make a WAG about bullet speed for 1000 yard shooting. :o

Besides .. buy a chrono and get 10 new friends :wave: ... and Ovenpaa I dont expect a deposit prior to you shooting over my chrono (well I hope lighting does not strike twice :P )

OK so what can I get that is decent and accurate
PACT / CED / CHRONY / OEHLER

Throw advise my way!!!

Chronograph : Research

Posted: Thu Oct 27, 2011 8:22 am
by EagerNoSkill
ONE SOURCE Reckons

http://www.frfrogspad.com/loaddev.htm
Anyone who handloads really needs to have a chronograph, especially if they are serious about developing good loads. The best chronograph on the market is the CED Millennium Chronograph. It is extremely accurate and stable, interfaces with RSI's Shooting lab software, and can be fitted with infra-red sensors which will "see" bullets under conditions (including total darkness) that would fail on other chronographs. While the CED is available from several sources, if you order it from RSI you will always get the latest model along with the serial computer cable and some extras. By the way RSI will provide full support for CED units purchased from other sources, including support for the serial computer interface port. To order a CED chronograph from from RSI go to http://www.shootingsoftware.com and tell him that Fr. Frog sent you.

Re: Chronograph : What to acquire / buy

Posted: Thu Oct 27, 2011 8:30 am
by 20series
EagerNoSkill wrote:In the land of the blind the man with a chrono knows something! :0037:

I am looking at buying a chrono ... the cost in time, effort and components is too high to make a WAG about bullet speed for 1000 yard shooting. :o

Besides .. buy a chrono and get 10 new friends :wave: ... and Ovenpaa I dont expect a deposit prior to you shooting over my chrono (well I hope lighting does not strike twice :P )OK so what can I get that is decent and accurate
PACT / CED / CHRONY / OEHLER

Throw advise my way!!!

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

Alan

Re: Chronograph : What to acquire / buy

Posted: Thu Oct 27, 2011 8:32 am
by Christel
IMO you most definitely need access to one. Maybe your local club has one you can borrow?

A chrono is essential however once you have the load then it will mostly gather dust apart from once in a blue moon where you decide to try a new load out.

Re: Chronograph : What to acquire / buy

Posted: Thu Oct 27, 2011 8:35 am
by ovenpaa
I use a CED you can upload the data to a PC and it seems quite consistent, apparently the IR light source is a worthwhile upgrade. You can pay a lot more for chrono's so it is down to how much you want to spend and how often you will use it.

Re: Chronograph : What to acquire / buy

Posted: Thu Oct 27, 2011 8:36 am
by 20series
I have just picked up a CED millenium, I'm hopefully trying it for the first time this weekend.

The F1 Chrono I had (until it met a glorious death :twisted: ) was ok but very finiky about set up and lighting conditions also because of the readout being on the unit it was sometime difficult to read. I would advise one that has a remote readout that you have near you to make reading easier,

HTH
Alan

Re: Chronograph : What to acquire / buy

Posted: Thu Oct 27, 2011 8:39 am
by rox
EagerNoSkill wrote:OK so what can I get that is decent and accurate
PACT / CED / CHRONY / OEHLER
I use an Oehler Model 35P (borrowed). Apparently the gold standard, it was recently re-launched, but at $575.00 it's pricey.

..

Re: Chronograph : What to acquire / buy

Posted: Thu Oct 27, 2011 8:52 am
by John25
In the old pistol days I had a chrono which someone shot!

I spent money on one three years ago when I took up 'F' class.

I spent a very busy couple of weeks chronoing all my loads.

Once I had done that the chrono went back into it's original box.

Unless I change calibres/loads etc I have no use for it.

My advice would be to borrow one and spend the money on a good bottle of wine to be shared with the lender!

Group testing is more important than chrono work, consistent reloading techniques will pay more dividend

:cheers:

Re: Chronograph : What to acquire / buy

Posted: Thu Oct 27, 2011 9:27 am
by 1066
I use an F1 Chrony - It is cheap and cheerful but seems as accurate as any other. The down side to the F1 is it only gives a readout of the current shot and has no remote readout.

However, with a remote button you can then access all the other information stored in the chrony's memory. It will give all the usual stuff like Average, ES, SD, High, low, etc.

You can read about the remote button here:
http://www.shootingchrony.com/manual_F1M1.htm#rc_cp

I found the cheapest place to buy one was from an archery supply shop - same item but £20 cheaper that a shooting shop ;)
http://www.merlinarcherycentre.co.uk/ac ... h_F-1.html


I can make up a remote button with 5 yds of cable like this if any one is interested.
Image

Re: Chronograph : What to acquire / buy

Posted: Thu Oct 27, 2011 10:02 am
by EagerNoSkill
Wow - some sage advice here!!
Thanks guys and gals
I acknowledge that once speeds are established the chrono may be boxed .....

The problem is .. the day I want to go chrono - is the day that everyone with one is not availbale :cool2:

Will ponder ...... and probably buy one anyway :lol: