Which Crony?

[crabo]

I'm thinking about getting a Chrony for Christmas. Any recommendations?

[biggome]

Well, if you are cheap (like me) and do stupid things (like me) you will buy the cheapest one you can get. I have two F-1s and have managed to shoot them both (one with a 22Mag. the other with a 45 Colt) and they still work.

The better ones are probably just as tough though they are harder on the wallet when you kill them though they do offer a "I want to trade my dead one for a good one" service in the event you are like me!

Paul

[Southern Son]

I got a Chrony Master Alfa. It is a cracker. Remembers a string of upt to 10 shots and will give the Avg., the standard deviation and the extream deviation, along with highest and lowest velocities. Has the LCD readout on a little box that you keep on the bench with you (the cord is a little on the short side, about ten feet). The advantage of that is when you are testing black powder loads that have a grease cookie, you don't have to stop the shooting mid string to go and clear a great big blob of the LCD screan. I know that it ain't as good as some others on the market, but it does anything that I could need to do, and it does it well.

[trk]

I borrow one from a friend once in a while - it is proof that alcohol and bullets are not a good combination. It still works, but it is WELL ventilated.
(It's an OLD F-1).

[dale2242]

I have a Shooting Chrony Beta Master. I love it. I would highly recommend it . Easy to use and reasonably priced.---dale

[buck1]

I bought the cheepest one they sell about 10+ years ago, it works great and has given -0- trouble. ...buck

[bobk]

Along these lines, I have to tell you that I've killed more chronographs in the past five years than I have deer. Anyone have pics of their handydandy chrono protector, so I can steal the design?
Bob K

[woody1]

I have a Shooting Chrony Beta Master. I love it. I would highly recommend it . Easy to use and reasonably priced.---dale

Me too. If you do opt for the Beta model Chrony, spring for the Master model (with the separate monitor) it's worth the extra $25 or so. Regards, Woody

[montana_charlie]

I got a Chrony Master Alfa. It is a cracker. Remembers a string of upt to 10 shots and will give the Avg., the standard deviation and the extream deviation, along with highest and lowest velocities.
The most basic F-1 will provide all of those numbers, too.
It just needs a switch to be plugged in to the side.
CM

[mainiac]

I bought the pro-chrono about 15 years ago. It has always performed, and i see they still make them. Highly recommend them! Aint no more expensive today, then they was 15 years ago!

[jameslovesjammie]

How much do you want to spend? If I were going to get a Chronograph right now, I'd get the CED Millennium 2. It comes with the monitor and 20 feet of cable, has a large 1 3/4" display, and recalls the last 1,000 shots. It also does the standard deviation, high/low/average velocity, and can omit flyers.

When you're done shooting, take it home and plug it into your USB on your computer and download and catalog all your info. If you're shooting indoors alot or in poor lighting conditions, you can buy the infared kit for it and be able to shoot in the dark if you wish.

I would say this is the best chronograph setup next to the Oehler Ballistics Laboratory.

http://www.shootingsoftware.com/chronographs.htm

[35 Whelen]

+1 on the CED Millennium 2. Wonderful display, accurate AND has infra-red skyscreens available, which means you can use it in low light or even in the dark. I have a Chrony Beta Master and it's a *********..after a couple of years it became very unreliable and frustrating to use. But, I know all first time buyer buy Chrony's.
35W

[44man]

Buy a Pact. If you shoot the eye, it costs almost nothing to fix.
The box is on the bench with you.

[AZ-Stew]

Along these lines, I have to tell you that I've killed more chronographs in the past five years than I have deer. Anyone have pics of their handydandy chrono protector, so I can steal the design?


Bob,

Shoot over sand bags, not by holding the firearm merely with your hands/arms. When you get the gun set up on the bags, look along the barrel, both from the top and sides, to be sure the barrel is pointed through the opening above the screens, below the sunshades and between the sunshade supports. I don't use any type of "shield", just careful alignment between the gun and the Chrony. I've had it for over 5 years and there's not a mark on it.

Now for the Chrony evaluation...

In the 90s I had a unit made by Competition Electronics that worked well for a long time, then began to go downhill. I guess several shotgun pellets and skimming a few rounds across the top of the skyscreen enclosures didn't help any.

I sent it to Chrony on their trade-in program, tossed in a few more $$ and got their top-of-the-line Gamma Master that comes with a printer. I also bought the leather storage case, a computer interface cable and their ballistics software.

I've had the Chrony for over 5 years, probably closer to 10, and I've had two problems with it, and one with the printer. The first was due to one of our range officers not paying attention to where he was going during a line break and walking into the cable that connects the LCD readout/control box to the sky screens, thus pulling the control head off the shooting bench onto the concrete and damaging the LCD. I sent it back for repair and it works like new. The second issue was that the sunshades wore out and had to be replaced. The problem with the printer was that the solder joints holding the socket that takes input from the Chrony were poorly made. After I soldered the socket back onto the circuit board I haven't had any problems with it.

The Ballistics software I bought with the Chrony would not work on my computer. I called them and they said, "Oh, yeah. We know about that". So I asked them why they were selling a known defective product. They couldn't give me a good answer, so I sent it back for a refund. That was a long time ago, so they've probably fixed the software problem by now.

One more thing about Chrony... If you look up prices on their web site for replacement items, such as the sunshades for the sky screens, you'll find a price for the item. What you won't find, unless you download their order form, is their shipping charge. In my opinion, there is nothing obvious about finding either the order form or the shipping charge. I ordered two sets of sunshades from them, but only received one. I called them and they told me that they had used the $$ I sent for the second set to pay for the shipping. I had written them a letter and used the part numbers on their replacement parts page, rather than using the order form. There is nothing on the replacement parts page telling you about either the order form or the shipping charge.

Now that I've beaten them severely about the head and shoulders, I'll mention that I'm satisfied with my Chrony. It performs as advertised and has generally held up very well.

Regards,

Stew

[Lloyd Smale]

i just bought a new pact. Seems like a nice unit. I havent used it enough to really make a judgement on it though. Its got to be better then a chrony though!

[35 Whelen]

Oh yeah, I had a Pact also, but it was stolen. Pact was an excellent Chronograph, every bit a good as my CD Millenium, and both infinitely better than the Chrony I have.
35W

[missionary5155]

I bought the El Cheepo back when it was $68 or $72... I just use it to do a final velocity check so it gets used about once or twice every 3 years when we get back up there... but it is nice to know the REAL velocity rather than the "Guestimates" you read all over the place.
But it works and I think is right... never checked it against another as the readings seem in the ballpark of what manuals and load info says.

[imashooter2]

I use the F1 Master. The remote readout is a must at my usual range where there can be long periods between cease fires.

Calculations in the machine are nice, but I just jot the numbers down and plug them into this Excel spread sheet when I get home:

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/imashooter2/crnycalc.xls

[AZ-Stew]

I've seen several posts on this thread claiming that "X" or "Y" chronograph is "better" than a Chrony. I'm not doubting your word, but I'd be interested in reading the details of what you claim is "far" better than the Chrony.

Regards,

Stew

[tall grass]

If you want to get the chrony on the cheep they have a reconditioned model 105 alpha for about $64.00. Check it out at the bottom of the products menu. Add $9.00 shipping and its at your door.

regards

Jim

[Bigjohn]

A boolit proof one!

John.

[imashooter2]

A random piece of data...

Just for giggles, the last time we were at the range together slughammer and I lined my F1 Master up behind his PACT. The F1 showed every shot as 10 to 15 fps faster than the PACT. Which one was right? Were either of them right? Beats the hell out of me...

[BorderBrewer]

A random piece of data...

Just for giggles, the last time we were at the range together slughammer and I lined my F1 Master up behind his PACT. The F1 showed every shot as 10 to 15 fps faster than the PACT. Which one was right? Were either of them right? Beats the hell out of me...

As the saying goes, "A man with two watches doesn't know what time it is" : )

BorderBrewer

[35 Whelen]

I've seen several posts on this thread claiming that "X" or "Y" chronograph is "better" than a Chrony. I'm not doubting your word, but I'd be interested in reading the details of what you claim is "far" better than the Chrony.

Regards,

Stew

I said the CED I currently own and the PACT I formerly owned were infinitely better. I made this statement because I've had nothing but trouble with my Chrony (Mine's a Beta Master). My Chrony finally got to the point that I had to shoot dangerously close (vertically) to the skyscreens to have any hope of a reading. Also, it completely stopped detecting smaller caliber bullets such as .22. That's what lead to the purchase of the CED, which so far has shown stellar performance.
35W

[AZ-Stew]

35,

Sounds like you might have been able to send the Chrony back to the mfr. for replacement of the skyscreen sensors and been back in business. Slow degradation of the triggering function sounds to me like the sensors went bad. Sorry you had the experience. That's pretty much what happened to my Competition Electronics model, but they had quit making it by the time mine went bad, so repair wasn't as good an option as replacement.

What I posted earlier is the only trouble I've had with my Chrony. While it sounds like quite a list, the only real trouble I've had with the chrono itself is that the sunshades developed plastic fatigue from being used so many times. They just wore out, and the jack coming losose from the circuit board in the printer was poor workmanship. I fixed that in about 10 minutes. The display problem was due to human error on the part of one of our range officers, so I can't in any way blame Chrony for it. The software issue was pretty much unforgivable. Until I see someone who has bought a recent copy and shown me that it works, I wouldn't recommend it to Obama.

So, over the 5-10 years I've owned it (can't remember when I bought it), I've had one issue of normal wear causing a part failure and one issue of bad solder joints (poor workmanship). I'd say that's decent service. Not perfect, but I'd say it's not bad for almost any piece of electronic gear.

(P.S. --- Carefully proofread the last line of your signature file (HunRer?)).

Regards,

Stew

[ddeaton]

I just bought a Pact, but havent tried it out yet.

[crabo]

I just bought a Pact, but havent tried it out yet.

Go try it and let me know what you think. They are made about 45 minutes from here and I like that. Which one do you have?

[ddeaton]

It is the Pact Pro. I downloaded the software from their website and loaded it up. It works great and downloads the shot groups from the unit fine. I bought mine used, so it had some strings in memory. It will even import the strings into a spreadsheet. Very cool, nice way of record Keeping.
I am having knee surgery this week and wont get to shoot through it for a week or 2.

[crabo]

I am having knee surgery this week and wont get to shoot through it for a week or 2.

Been there, done that ..... twice. I had both knees replaced. I'll pray for you,