F1 Chronograph screw up?

[GARCIA]

I think it may be the way the range is set up to shoot. Have to shoot west to east and you are always in direct sunshine.

May try later in the afternoon when there will be shadows from the range roof or earlier in the morning when there is still a little bit of shadows.

Going to try the tricks with the cards and everything else mentioned. Hopefully I can get it to work so I can have some data.

Tom

[Von Gruff]

Another trick is to use a felt tip and blacken the boolit or bullet as this can give a better reading on the screens on a bright day.

Von Gruff.

[GARCIA]

Going to try a couple of differant options and see what works best at this range I am using.

Will post a couple of pictures and see what the board members have to say.

Tom

[376Steyr]

Supposedly one cause of insanely high readings at close range is the supersonic gas cloud from the muzzle blast reaching the screens before the bullet does. Personally, if things are previously working well, I start getting bizarre readings late in the day, as the sun moves towards the side or behind me.

[mustanggt]

I have an F1 also and works well for the money. Just within the last 2 weeks however it quit working. Replaced 5 different batteries and no go. I'd switch the unit on and it showed nothing on the LED readout. Took it to the range last Friday and it magically worked. I hate that. I don't know what caused it to malfunction so it could happen again. On the rods I put orange tape 3" above the eyes and blue 6" above and try to shoot between the two. It's just an aid for me to try and be more consistent and hopefully cut down on erronious readings. It also helps in setting it up relative to the rifle on the rest at the bench.

[Bulletstarter]

I have been shooting and reloading since the 60's but just joined this group. I started with and still have an Oehler 33 with unshot screens that still works. However I bought an F-1 MASTER Chrony for convenience. I was disappointed in the unreliability of it and bought the lighted shades. They worked fine on cloudy days but only God has control of the weather. Most of the days I want to shoot, the sun is out in all its glory. I taught and built all kinds of digital electronics. So I built a number of different screens to no avail. One day I had a DAH moment and found a solution to shoot in all kinds of light conditions. I simply made a frame and turned the whole Chrony unit upside down! The sensor is looking DOWN at the led lights and never misses a reading. If anyone asks, I will upload some pictures. As I get older, I have more time to make things convenient for myself. I put a 12 volt lawn and garden battery in a plastic battery box and mounted 3 switches and 3 cigarette lighter outlets on the side. I bought a 9 v output cigarette lighter plug-in to power my chrony, a regular 12 v to power the led lights, and a third 5 v plug-in to power an old cell phone. When I'm shooting my 20 practical, I mount a cell phone on my scope and another on my spotting scope. No parallax on the rifle and great picture on the spotting scope for my older eyes. I'm 73 and having the most fun ever working up new loads. Just started loading 45 long colt black powder and am having a blast! I really like this forum! Very informative!

[Walkingwolf]

It needs to be at least 10 feet from the muzzle and muzzle blast.

Yup, three feet is too close. The muzzle blast at close range will screw up readings.

[OuchHot!]

I shot my first chrony, an accident but I was pretty frustrated with its finicky nature with lighting. I added lights to my newer chrony and found it to be very reliable even with airgun pellets but only with lighting. Otherwise it was finicky. I have moved on to others (use the lighted chrony for pellet guns only. I saw another person who, like Bulletstarter uses the chrony upside down and puts a tin foil reflector on the ground for the lighting. When I shot my first one it was due to trying to get the bullet directly over a sensor on a bright day.......got too close.

[mold maker]

I haven't tried it yet, but the LED 12 V lights available from china will last forever on batteries and produce lots of light to reflect on sky screens with even light. The intensity is variable with the voltage. Besides that, they're cheap.

[imashooter2]

Hmmmm... why do you suppose they put that instruction sheet in every box?