Need Chronograph suggestions

[ghh3rd]

I'd like to get a chronograph sometime in the near future, and wonder what kinds other forum members have. Can't afford the best right now, but want to at least be able to plug in a wire and put the display on the shooting bench.

Any 'good one for the money' suggestions?

Thanks,


Randy

[southpaw]

I have a chrony alpha model. It doesn't have the extras. I just write down the velocities as I am shooting. I believe that it was around $100 when I bought it 4-5 years ago. Little bugger takes a licken and keeps on worken (I have shot it, or a part of it 4 times now). I haven't fatally wounded it yet, just a few grazing shot here and there. You would think that it wouldn't be hard to avoid it but sometimes you get careless.

It is very easy to work with. Set up is pretty simple just put the sky screens on plug the cable in and turn it on and start shooting THROUGH it[smilie=b: (not into it)

I hope some others have info on other chronographs as I think that I maybe looking for a new one if I am not more careful and wouldn't mind hearing about some others.

Jerry Jr.

[HollandNut]

I have the Chrony F1 , great little machine , think I paid about $100 for it thru Midway a couple years ago ..

You can also get a refurb thru them , used to be about $75 ..

I want the Oehler 835 (??) , it's a complete ballistics lab , around $900 or so , but knowing my luck I'd smack it good ..

[fredj338]

I've got an Oehler, but unfortuantely, no longer available. The CED is probably the best unit out there right now next to the Oehler. I have had a PACT, marginal screens, & a friend has the top of the line Chrony, APOS IMO. He also bought the CED. Sure, the Chrony's work, if the light is just right & you shoot directly over the tiny screens @ just the right height. We setup all three in line & fired dozens of loads over them. They all read within 6-8fps of each other but ther Oehler NEVER missed a shot & the CED rarley missed a shot. The Chrony missed a full 50% of the shots. JMO, buy the CED, it's not that much more.

[threett1]

Had an F1 Chrony for many years til a buddy borrowed it.:-( A 255gr semi wadcutter out of his 454 barrel ended its life. The Competition Electronics Pro Chrono is doing wonderful service for me now. Quite Pleased.

[Marlin Hunter]

I have an Ohler 35P proof chrono. I bought it when it was cheap. I have the old (rusty) metal sky screens. I also have the indoor light assembly to shoot under fluorescent bulbs. Chronos don't light fluresent lights.

http://www.oehler-research.com/model35.html

[Hip's Ax]

The Ohler 35P has been discontinued, if it were still available I would have bought one.

After asking all over the internet I bought the CED. Haven't tried it yet.

[acl864]

I've got a Shooting Chrony Alpha Master. Not bad for the money.

[mpmarty]

I don't remember the brand but it has worked fine for a few years for me. It reports each shot in a string of ten then gives standard deviation hi, low etc. It's red in color and has a long cord with the display on one end and the chronograph on the other. Powered by a 9volt battery. I use it outside and normally don't use any sky screens as the instructions say you only need them on a sunny day, I'm in Oregon, don't have a clue what they're talking about. Thing works fine for everything I shoot over it. I put a couple of skinny dowels in the sky screen holes so I have an aiming area to shoot through.

[lwknight]

There are a lot of good chronos out there under 100 bucks. In fact most all the basic models are about 100 bucks. They probably all have the same guts too.

One suggestion: If you get a 9volt batter type, keep an extra battery in the extra space of the battery compartment if it exists. If not , just keep a spare with you.
Sooner or later you will leave it switched on and run the battery down.

[HeavyMetal]

Bought a Chrony when the little Red one was the only one they made!

Made a stand from Steel that had a pair of Mirrors siliconed to it so I could read it from the bench with my spotting scope. Never had to worry about a round hitting it!

Once I realized the machine was picking up double images and sound waves from my shots I glued some balsa wood to the metal struts used for the "defusers" and added a wedged shaped piece of construction papaer pinned to front and rear screens then threw out the "defusers" and the unit has never missed a round fired over it!

Well worth the C note I paid for it back in the day and would do it again in a heart beat if I needed a Chronograph.

Someday I'll buy the new F-1 with all the goodies and pass this along to the BIL or Nephews!

[fredj338]

There are a lot of good chronos out there under 100 bucks. In fact most all the basic models are about 100 bucks. They probably all have the same guts too.

One suggestion: If you get a 9volt batter type, keep an extra battery in the extra space of the battery compartment if it exists. If not , just keep a spare with you.
Sooner or later you will leave it switched on and run the battery down.
The diff. in all the chronographs is not the internals but the screens. Look at a Chrony screen; small, shallow angle, poor quality. Look at the Oehler screens, far bigger, wider shooting area & a sensor that sits lower & probably more sensetive, the CED are quite a bit better than the PACT or Chrony too. I can only report my first hand knowledge shooting over all three simultaniously, the Chrony will work, 55%-60% of the time under all lighting conditions. For me, it's worth another $50 to get one that works 98% of the time.

[largom]

I have had my PACT for about 15 yrs. Only time I had a problem was when I set the unit on my shooting bench [my stupidity] and the muzzle blast vibrated the screen wires and gave false readings. I now set the chrono on a stool next to my bench.

Larry

[Southern Son]

I have a Chrony. It has the remote screen so I can put it next to me at the bench and read the velocities. It will also give me Average, Standard Deviation and Extream Spread. The tip on the extra 9 volt battery is a good one. I found that if I put the battery inside the Chrony when it is folded up, the top of the battery was touching a metal surface in there and the batterty would be nearly flat when I went to use it next time. The only time it has ever missed a bullet I put over it, the batttery was nearly flat. Put a new battery in it and it started working straight away.

[Shiloh]

I have a Chrony beta. The blue one. Traded in a rad Alpha model I accidently shot.

Shiloh

[runfiverun]

i have the competitive edge dynamics millenium.
it has the start stop screens and wires back to the box.
i mountedthe screens on a tripod so i can set up on uneven ground.
it's got all kinds of junk and the data can be downloaded into a computer.
but it measures strings up to 250 rounds and gives a list of all shots or is broken up into the string you just fired giing the info you need.
it even alerts you if a shot is out of the range of your string.
i just taped the reciept to the front of the first sky screen and nobody has even come close to shooting it yet.
iirc it was like 120 bucks 15+ years ago i may or may not have changed the first 1 to a 4 on the reciept though..

[dale2242]

I have the Shooting Chrony Beta Master and am very happy with it...dale

[dragonrider]

I have used a Pact for 15/20 years, Still workin fine.

[bruce drake]

I bought a Chrony F1 in May prior to my move to GA but I have yet to set it up. One of these days I'll get it set up and shot over. The box stares at me every time I open the trunk of the car where it is stored by the shooting bag.

Bruce

[pdawg_shooter]

I have a Pact, bought it new, used the heck out of it for about 3 months. Been in a cabinet in the loading room ever since.

[870TC]

I have the Pact, very happy with it. Had a competition electronics bought it new and it never worked. Smashed it with a ball peen hammer after customer service would not help me.

[casey]

Been using a Pact for a long time. Funny thing about it is that my buddy has two of them including one of the first ones that has a rechargable battery in it. I have a model about 15 years old. We shot a very consistant load through all three of them and the results where almost identical. Within two to five f.p.s. Used one set of screens and all three chronos one at a time. Very consistant between the three boxes. Never had a problem with one, did ruin a sky screen with a errant fifty cal. round ball once though!

[AZ-Stew]

I've been using a Chrony Gamma Master (with printer) for 7 years or more. No complaints. One of our range officers wasn't watching where he was going during a cease fire and walked between my bench and the tripod and got caught in the display cable, pulling the display onto the concrete in front of the bench and ruining the display.

They all work pretty well as long as you follow the instructions and don't shoot them. Use the sun shades, move the sensors (sky screens) far enough from the muzzle so muzzle blast, flash and powder gasses exiting the muzzle don't disturb readings, and try to avoid shooting when the sun angle is so low in the sky that it comes in under the sun shades and glints off the bullet. This will produce false readings. As far as I'm concerned, there isn't much difference between them as long as they're used correctly.

Regards,

Stew

[Ricochet]

I'm on my third basic Chrony. The first two died violent deaths. Never had any problem with them, other that that they're not bulletproof. Come to think of it, I did have the screens on both of the first two perforated by unburned powder grains. Fixed that on #3 by Scotch taping a glass microscope slide over the screen. If that ever gets cracked, I'll easily replace it. It's gotten blotches of boolit lube on it that would've hit the plastic.

[45-70 Chevroner]

I have had two Crony Alphas the first one I gave to my brother. I still have the other one. I have not had any problems with either one. Although when the battery gets low it will mess up. This is probably true of all of them. One note of caution put a 1/4 inch thick plexiglass in front of the readout but only as big as the front of the unit it's self. This is to protect the unit from gas checks that some times come off the bullet. I don't know for sure but I think the newer ones come as a remote unit ie. screens out front, readout on shooting bench. A chronograph makes it much easer to figure ballistics. Aside from that it's just neat to know what your loads are doing.

[Crash_Corrigan]

I have the cheapo Chrony for about 13 years. I used to use it a lot until my reloading skills got a mite better.

I have settled down to a few favorite loads for my battery of handguns and rifles.
When I last checked them out most of them were quite consistent and there really was not any need to measure the velociity.

As long as my loads are assembled correctly, with consistent COL, same charge, same primer, same powder and same neck tension I get good accuracy.

I keep good records and I have a load log with every batch of every cartridge I have ever made in it. I just follow the formula to duplicate a load that has worked well for me in the past. There are not any little boxes with mystery loaded cartridges in my trailer. They all have an index number which corresponds to my entries in my load log and that will tell me all the vital information.

However, now I have a new rifle in the dreaded 6.5 x 55 MM calibre and I guess I am going to have to use a chrony again to figure it out.

[river-rider]

I heard that the 35P was going to be made again and sent a email to the good folks that make them and asked if I needed to buy any spare parts. In two hours I had a return email telling me that they planed to support the 35P for the foreseeable future.
I have two of the 35P units and one of the 33 units that came before the 35P.
They are good people. Any problems I have had were always promptly answered and I have trust in these people.
In a day when you see made in China on bottom of about everything you pick up,ask yourself how many companies do you really trust. Trust is worth spending more.

[Forester]

The 35P is back and if you can swing the $$$ that is the way to go IMO.

I have a CED M2 and it is a great setup especially with the IR screens. It rarely ever misses a reading and if you shoot a little low (as some here seem prone too) you only kill the sensor not the expensive part.

[fredj338]

The 35P is back and if you can swing the $$$ that is the way to go IMO.

I have a CED M2 and it is a great setup especially with the IR screens. It rarely ever misses a reading and if you shoot a little low (as some here seem prone too) you only kill the sensor not the expensive part.

The only reason so many Chronys get shot is the poor screens that require you shoot low, no mmore than 8" high.

[JIMinPHX]

I bought a Chrony brand F1 about 20 years ago & she's still going strong. The plastic sky screens are getting yellowed with age & are cracking a little, but other than that, she's as sound as the day she was new. I've documented over 500 pages of targets with her & I have no idea how many more I shot but didn't keep. She's had plenty of use.

Spare sky screens can be had for $10. Other spare parts are available too. Back when I bought mine, they were under $70. Now they are around $100, but still well worth it in my book. I can read the display from my bench, so I never felt the need for the upgraded version with the remote display, but it is also available if you want to pay a little extra. Also, Chrony will let you trade in your old one when you upgrade to a higher level new one.

I just can't say enough good things about that product -
http://shootingchrony.com/

[ghh3rd]

I chose the F1 a few months ago and have used it a few times and it's worked well. The readout is on a wire so at least if I clobber the box I'll still have a souvenier :-)

I've tried it with pellets outside and it worked, and even a small crossbow inside [SWMBO was away] near a window and it worked (314 fps). So far, so good...

[Mavrick]

Like river-rider, I've got an Oehler M33. When the 35p came out, my M33 was doing so well I didn't see any reason to upgrade. I like the Oehler because I can use a different screen-spread, but otherwise it doesn't give a lot of different information than the others.
After about 30 years, I did upgrade to Skyscreen II's, and that gave me a much larger sensitive area to shoot. I can shoot a bunch of groups before I have to go forward and change targets.(I shoot at a supervised range)
I would seriously consider going to a 35, but it's going to be quite a while before I put a hole in the computor, so I don't see it happening.
I would tell you to look at the RCBS chrono as it has a screen-area similar to the Oehler, and the readout being on the bench sure seems like good idea to me. I put mine behind me to protect it from strange readings caused by vibrations.
Have fun,
Gene

[257 Shooter]

Ohler is taking orders for the 35P $575.00 plus $20.00 Shipping and 8.125 % Tax for Texas customers. Shipping in August first ordered first out.

[Xcaliber]

I have had my Oehler 35P since 1997 and everything including the printer still works. I've been very happy and I guess lucky that it still does. Took a large gun case and cut out the foam to fit it all in the gun case . Have kept it inside the house under my bed where the temperature stays the same. Checked it again last week and still works fine. Just have to put in a fresh battery. I believe a lot of them have the printer gone bad because of the printing mechanism rollers go out 1st and getting parts was hard back then. Now I understand that they will continue with support for the model 35P but are still not going to be building anymore unless something has changed recently.

[mroliver77]

I use the CED and am a happy camper.

Jay

[gerrycan]

Hi, I just started using my new F1 last Saturday and it took while to get the hang of it. Some readings were plausible[1100/1150] others were crazy[9135].I moved it out and up and it settled down but not permenantly.Gerry