Chronograph: Why? When? How?

[yobuck]

I disagree yobuck. Ive been using a chronograph for the past 30 yrs to give me correct speeds. No guess work. if my speeds that were derrived from my chronograph were to be inaccurate, then my hits from 100 out to 1200 would be inaccurate as well.
If my speeds are in question, then i proceed to use alternative chronos from all my shooting partners. 9/10 times, my chrono agrees with theres. (10 shot average)
As I mentioned earlier, shooting/reloading is so subjective. What works for one may not work for another. I can absolutely respect that. Always have..always will.
One of my addictions (that I confess to LOLOL) is that once Ive found my accurate/consistant load, I then proceed to do my diligence on ballistic calculations. (knowing my bullets speed thru "my" chronograph) A little math here and there, measuring temp/altitude/barometric pressure etc..... then go out and smack a 6"x8" plate @ 1K 1st shot. It may sound like Im totting my horn abit and if I am?.. I apologize... Im just trying to be honest and most importantly....factual.

Toot all you like it dosent affect me at all. Ill just say this, over many years ive known personaly at least 1/3 of the members of the hall of fame club at williamsport.
Ive spent considerable time hunting with some of them also including 2 of the record group holders. I made a special trip to that range years back to wittness a
special event for a very good friend and his young son. The friends name is lowel Amond and he is the only shooter there to ever win the agregate award twice.
This time however his then 18 year old son was tied going into the last match with the world 10 shot record holder Earl Chronister. I knew Earl very well also and
had hunted with him. Young Greg went on to beat Earl that day and win the agregate award for the year. Meaning, he had the best group in at least 6 of the 10
scheduled matches. Earls group that day was over 20 inches. Another of my good friends and every day deer hunting companion is an old camp perry prone shooter
and first member ever inducted into the hall of fame group. He is one of 2 people i know who has killed an elk beyond 2000 yds. My oldest son was with him and
spotting for him in colorado when he did it. Point im making with all this is there are lots of very good shooters out there. Ive been fortunate in knowing and learning
from quite a few of them. None of them would ever make the claim you did about your ability with first round hits. Simple reason being, they know they cant back it up.
Im affraid id have to wittness it, and i wouldnt hesitate to bring cash. Hey with your earnings you could even buy a good chronagraph. lol

[SERE VG]

You don't need a chrono to do anything mentioned here and IMO it can be a pain. Where you really need it is if you don't have access to a range long enough to get the needed data before you need to shoot at longer distance.

Measuring your actual drop will give you accurate velocity info.

Vertical stringing at distance (+300m), very likely a big ES if you and your rifle don't exhibit that with other loads.

Ladders; ideally shot at +300m 1 shot at a time and individually marked all at the same target. You should end up with two groups out of your ladder. Your high and low accuracy nodes.

Chronos are another tool in the box, not magic.

[1983Weatherby]

Good point serve. If you can shoot long enough, accurate enough and measure your drops then you can get just as good info. All of those have to be on par though

[Cat 64]

One of the benefits of living in the great southwestern part of Texas.
This is my shooting range. Theres steel targets measuring from 3"x5" up to 16"x16" out to 1200yds. theres permanet steel targets all over the place that we,ve ( shooting buds) placed all over the canyon.
When you have a range like this?.......a chronograph becomes my best friend.
the smaller the target, the longer the range, the more of an addiction. No guess work. the chrono doesnt need to be out all the time. Only when youve established your accurate load. Once thats done, you put it away untill the next venture. (IMHO)
http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x88/eddies880/limoncalender010_zpsc6526320.jpg

Where is this fabulous 'Texas shooting range' located?

[thermaler]

Toot all you like it dosent affect me at all. Ill just say this, over many years ive known personaly at least 1/3 of the members of the hall of fame club at williamsport.
Ive spent considerable time hunting with some of them also including 2 of the record group holders. I made a special trip to that range years back to wittness a
special event for a very good friend and his young son. The friends name is lowel Amond and he is the only shooter there to ever win the agregate award twice.
This time however his then 18 year old son was tied going into the last match with the world 10 shot record holder Earl Chronister. I knew Earl very well also and
had hunted with him. Young Greg went on to beat Earl that day and win the agregate award for the year. Meaning, he had the best group in at least 6 of the 10
scheduled matches. Earls group that day was over 20 inches. Another of my good friends and every day deer hunting companion is an old camp perry prone shooter
and first member ever inducted into the hall of fame group. He is one of 2 people i know who has killed an elk beyond 2000 yds. My oldest son was with him and
spotting for him in colorado when he did it. Point im making with all this is there are lots of very good shooters out there. Ive been fortunate in knowing and learning
from quite a few of them. None of them would ever make the claim you did about your ability with first round hits. Simple reason being, they know they cant back it up.
Im affraid id have to wittness it, and i wouldnt hesitate to bring cash. Hey with your earnings you could even buy a good chronagraph. lol

I don't shoot long range (mostly cause I have no place to do it) but still use a chrono once I get near my final load. First, I like to see what I'm getting relative to "common knowledge" and second when I get a little on the warm side of things a chrono is handy to show when velocity spikes.

As for the 1k clang on first shot, well, without taking a side either way; I've learned in life that just because I can't do something or nobody I know can do it--doesn't mean it can't be done. : )

[CharlieNC]

Got my first chrono recently, just after rebarreling the 223 with a primo barrel. Several ladder/OCW workups at 200 yards showed 4064 was better than the old standby Varget that worked so well with the old barrel; the nodes for each were in line with the optimum barrel time (OBT) using Quick Load. But I just wasn't happy that the groups were as good as they should have been, running a little over 1/2MOA at 200yd. So I shot the optimum loads using 69SMK and 75Horn Match with 4064 and crap, the extreme spread (ES) was 75-100fps! Well lets look at the good old Varget, eventhough the OCW and groups were not as good; even worse ES. Since this is a new barrel, tried new Lapua brass vs fire-formed LC; nada for ES. Now enter RL15 and the ES drops to 25! Moral of the story is you can use actual drops to calculate velocity, OCW/ladder tests, etc to find the load that gives you the most uniform bullet launch from the muzzle, but if the velocity is variable you will suffer the consequences at longer range. After using this 6 weeks I feel like the load optimization process has started over again with much more knowledge and insight.

[scope eye]

Why do you need a chrono, because certain forum members think your full of it, that's why.LOL this is done on a regular basis I might add. amateurs

http://i1290.photobucket.com/albums/b536/jazzygirl44/Image004_zps3ac49161.jpg (http://s1290.photobucket.com/user/jazzygirl44/media/Image004_zps3ac49161.jpg.html)


Spanky

[foxx]

Just because you're full of it doesn't mean you aren't fast! LOL

[scope eye]

You know this all started in my yooth when I discovered that, squirting WD40 into a break barrel pellet gun nearly doubled the FPS, and made the difference between the squirrel running away and expiring on the spot, plus it sounds like a rimfire going off.

Dean

[LoneWolf]

You know this all started in my yooth when I discovered that, squirting WD40 into a break barrel pellet gun nearly doubled the FPS, and made the difference between the squirrel running away and dieing and expiring on the spot, plus it sounds like a rimfire going off.

Dean

I'm surprised you haven't made it a goal in life to max out a chrono machine!

[missed]

I'm surprised you haven't made it a goal in life to max out a chrono machine!

He going for the chronograph to say holy......

[fgw_in_fla]

I'm surprised you haven't made it a goal in life to max out a chrono machine!

I heard he's looking for a chrono that registers in warp factor because FPS is off the scale...

[foxx]

Thanks, guys, I think I "get it". I see everyone's points, and you're all obviously correct. Because I have limited access to anything other than 100 yards, I guess I better start using the dang thing before I get false hopes of being able to expect any kind of long range accuracy with loads that produce / exhibit high ES.

Sorry, Eddie and Weatherby, but I will keep you in mind. :)

[missed]

I heard he's looking for a chrono that registers in warp factor because FPS is off the scale...

Haha! He is waiting for the fast scanning radar to be available to the general public

[scope eye]

You have all got it wrong, I am just waiting for the 5 digit display model to come out.LOL

Dean

[foxx]

You have all got it wrong, I am just waiting for the 5 digit display model to come out.LOL

Dean

Try squirting some WD-40 on it and see what happens!

[thermaler]

You have all got it wrong, I am just waiting for the 5 digit display model to come out.LOL

DeanRumor has it you're not satisfied with surpassing the speed of light and are now pushing the edges of time/space continuum. I was wondering how you managed to look younger after each range session.

[scope eye]

Try squirting some WD-40 on it and see what happens!

I did, my wife said she did not see any difference.

Dean

[fgw_in_fla]

Hmmmm...
I wonder if that WD40 thing will work in my 30.06...

Now, if only I had a chrono.

[Savage6x284]

As stated the chronograph is just one tool in the range bag. It can be useful, illuminating, frustrating (the Shooting Chrony), confusing, and pleasing all in one range session!
Speed data is fun to collect, useful for bragging rights and for bagging on your slow tubed friends. Great for shutting up the guy claiming his newest whizbang travels just below escape velocity and is utterly flat to the horizon.
As mentioned, one of the most important things we can do with a chronograph is pay attention to it. When the numbers show we've reached the max expected velocity then you're pretty likely to also be at max pressure.
The chronograph becomes a much more powerful development tool when we add actual realized chamber pressures to the mix.
With the addition of the Pressure Trace System to your data collection arsenal, each range session now gathers enough information to fully exploit the unique characteristics of each gun equipped with a strain gage.
The Pressure Trace can be maddening at times.
Even scary.
BUT, adding the actual chamber pressure measurements to the speed data from the chronograph and grouping data from the target gives the reloader a much more powerful data set. Loads can be optimized with regard to speed and pressure for each individual firearm.

As far as suggestions I'll unhesitatingly endorse the Competition Dynamics Pro Chrono Digital in the inexpensive category. SO much better than anything else in this price range . It's not even close really.
At the high end you can't lose with a Oehler 35 but the Necos (the QuickLoad folks) PVM-08 is highly regarded as well. I'd like to try one.
If you can find (and afford) one of the coveted and elusive Oehler 43PBL (Personal Ballistics Laboratory) systems you'll have your speed and your pressure data all gathered by one unit.