Best handgun to Shoot your Chronograph With

[BLTsandwedge]

Two weeks ago I had the pleaure of shooting my chronograph- twice. A shooting friend gave me one of NAA's micro .22LR revolvers to pull down some velocity figures. Having never fired one of those micro-guns, I didn't know that such a short sight radius means big variations on point-of-impact. I loaded four rounds (I don't know why four)- Lapua 22LR standard target rounds. The first round- 560fps. Second round- no reading. Third round- 227fps. Fourth round-544fps. After the third round I noticed that the chrony wobbled a bit- and the 227fps reading was bizarre.

Long story short, rounds two and three hit the protective plate that guards the first light meter on the chrony- giving the plate two significant dents. The third round (or a piece of it) somehow came off the plate at such an angle as to actually proceed over both light meters- giving the 227fps reading. On the way through it bent one of the front skyscreen posts a bit.

The chronograph now works flawlessly. It's the same Shooting Chrony Beta that I'd complained about earlier. I'm assuming this is how many of us adjust our chronographs- the question is, what's your favorite gun and load to shoot your chronograph with?

[tek4260]

I really need to build a heavy iron box with an angled front to protect mine. I know its coming......

[Glen]

A 180 grain .44 Special at ~1000 fps, right through the center of the front panel of a Chrony will make it very difficult to read the display.

[mike in co]

water pistol, maybe a rubberband gun

[1Shirt]

Well, I clipped one of the supports on my son in laws yesterday with my 357. Probably adequate!
1Shirt!:coffee:

[Heavy lead]

Well I hit a guide rod one time with a 300 grain XTP Hornady with over 30 grains of 296 out of a 454 Casull and it exibited fine terminal performance and would highly recommend this combination for such activities.
Believe it or not the chrono survived, to be taken out by a gust of wind a couple of years later.

[Blammer]

my chrony is all safe & sound tucked away in storage, no chance of it getting shot! :D

[Frank]

BLTsandwedge said
The third round (or a piece of it) somehow came off the plate at such an angle as to actually proceed over both light meters- giving the 227fps reading. On the way through it bent one of the front skyscreen posts a bit.

When you sell it you can say it's an ombda shooter. Ombda = One Minute of Barn Door Angle. :bigsmyl2:

[Maine1]

i find that a 10mm 200 gr XTP will slay the chrony very well..

[Longrange]

750 grain FMJBT out of a M107 takes care of them real good.

Of course it is not a hand gun.

[9.3X62AL]

A cast Lee 100 grain RN launched at 1350 FPS from a CZ-52 does stellar work on downrange-box-on-camera-tripod chronographs. DRT.

[AzShooter]

I've now hit my Pac Chrony 5 times with my Model 686, 627, 10, 29 and I let three friends borrow it and they hit it with .45s,.38supers and a couple of 9mms. There have been a lot of plastic parts flown off of it lots of dings and dents but it hasn't died yet.

I tell my friends they can shoot it but if they hit it it will cost them $30, that's the cost of repair. I now have a Chrony Beta for backup.

[RSOJim]

The blast from a 500 Boswell ten feet away does really well. Hasn't worked since.

[Lloyd Smale]

i put down the ageing ohler screensof my buddys with a 475 linebaugh and it made a very clean kill. Complete penetration and quick knock down.

[warf73]

Never got one with a pistol, the only one I've killed was with my 300WBY. Saddly it wasn't even my crony was a friends that instisted I needed to crony my rounds that I was loading. Needless to say 15 or so rounds into the testing session I got it dead middle. That one shot cost me 2 cronys, I replaced his and bought me one.
I've never killed one since.

[kenjuudo]

I killed my first one with a .380. Second one has survived a factory .303, ripped the chrony from the tripod mount and sent it end for end but it survived. I believe the soft aluminum block and the give in the 1/8" base absorbed alot of the hit.

[dragonrider]

A 38 super will punch a nice hole in the black plastic housing that holds the sensors of a Pact unit. My freind did that for me, his very first shot over a chronograph.

[BLTsandwedge]

So it's obvious to me that I just don't have enough heart and/or fortitude to do the job right. I've just gotta pump myself up an' git 'er done. I can't match Long Range's BMG but by the other posts it seems I can get something accomplished with the 629, a 429421 and a handful of 296. I'll give 'er a whirl this weekend.

Thanks gents......

[357maximum]

Is it just me or do some of you have a complete and total inability to shoot a group while using a chrony? For the life of me I cannot shoot a group with the chrony between me and the target.[smilie=f:

A few years back I winged my ol mans chrony with my 357max and just folded one of the tin lips in.....whew.:-( He gave me a little lecture on what I did to his stuff and we carried on shooting.

A week or so later I clipped a sky screen support with his 32/20, 32H&R mag Buckeye blackhawk.........same speech was given.

A month or so later he hit it dead nuts center with a 30 herret and it was DRT. :p All I did was repeat his his words to me and he got mad........no sense of humor I guess.

He now has one of them remote beta units......I now let him do all the over the chrony shots..........I lack the ability to be comfy with a chrony apparently. I just work up my loads according to groups.........and when I am happy I go over to his house and let him find out where I ended up. Saves me money and he feels like he is serving a purpose....win/win system. :p

[Lloyd Smale]

had to chuckle. Im the same way. I cant shoot groups over a chronograph either. i think its because im to worried about hitting the screens.
Is it just me or do some of you have a complete and total inability to shoot a group while using a chrony? For the life of me I cannot shoot a group with the chrony between me and the target.[smilie=f:

A few years back I winged my ol mans chrony with my 357max and just folded one of the tin lips in.....whew.:-( He gave me a little lecture on what I did to his stuff and we carried on shooting.

A week or so later I clipped a sky screen support with his 32/20, 32H&R mag Buckeye blackhawk.........same speech was given.

A month or so later he hit it dead nuts center with a 30 herret and it was DRT. :p All I did was repeat his his words to me and he got mad........no sense of humor I guess.

He now has one of them remote beta units......I now let him do all the over the chrony shots..........I lack the ability to be comfy with a chrony apparently. I just work up my loads according to groups.........and when I am happy I go over to his house and let him find out where I ended up. Saves me money and he feels like he is serving a purpose....win/win system. :p

[BD]

I find that the preferred firearm for hunting chronys is a rifle with a brand new scope on it. If you really want to fill your tag, buy a scope with 1/2 moa clicks rather than the 1/4 moa that you may be used to... I replaced my steel sky screen rods with wooden dowels after the first time I let the local PD use it to check the reloads they were buying for practice. I insisted on doing the shooting myself after the first time I used it to check loads at a local IDPA match. I'm on my third one in 15 years.

Oddly, I've shot some really good groups through a chrony. I think it's usually because I'm not trying to shoot groups at the time. I once put 35 rounds of .270 WBY into an inch at 100 yards while shooting a load work up with RL 25 under 150 grain Nosler PTs. I spent all afternoon doing it too. I'd fire three shots, then go shoot another gun while the WBY cooled down. I about fell over when I walked down to pick up my target board.

Another time I shot two 1/2 groups in a row out of my Bushy DCM off a rest at 100 yards using the match iron sights. I was working up a Varget load for the 77 grain SMKs one winter morning with a friend down in Hampton, ME. He was working up a surplus 4895 load at the same time and we were taking turns on the rest and loading at the table in between. We'd brought a spotting scope as it was just about freezing and there was 3 feet of snow on the ground, so we were trying to limit the walking as much as possible. He was watching me through the spotter when I hit 24.5 grains and he started swearing at me at shot three (trying to shake me up), After the five in the mag I took a look for myself. He accused my of being just plain lucky so I had to load 5 more and to my total surprise I was able to print another group just like it, but a little to one side, on the second mag. I'm still shooting that load in that rifle 15 years later. Oddly the groups have opened up considerably over the years. Maybe the barrel's shot out :)
BD

[KYCaster]

My least favorite way to kill a chrony is with a loose gas check. Seems like kind of a cheesy way to waste a hundred bucks. If I'm gonna kill it I'd much rather see a more dramatic death...like from a 9mm...or a 38spl...or a 357mag...or a 38super...or a 44mag...or a 45ACP. Not that I'd know first hand what kind of effect any of those would have, you understand. [smilie=1:

Jerry

[Dark Helmet]

Whatever I'm shooting that day seems to do fine:violin:

[Shooter6br]

i never shot mine but did have it to close to my rifle and the muzzle blast did a number on the plastic. I fixed it and gave it away .Bought a Pact 1 from Midway on sale and never worried about it again

[fivegunner]

I did the same thing that Lloyd did, shot all 3 of my skysreen`s with a Linebaugh .475. a one shot kill!!![smilie=l::groner:

[xr650]

500 S&W Mag. One shot kill. No follow up shot required. It was only 440 gr.

[Paul105]

I had one that that needed to be euthanized. It was contrary from the start. I even sent it back to the factory. When the factory failed to cure its rebellious nature, a 300gr .45 Colt load between the eyes put the poor thing out of its misery. Never felt one bit of remorse and its replacement (different make) has been cooperative and reliable.

[Treetop]

My faithful old chronograph was almost 30 years old when it suddenly stopped working one day. It never occured to me that the unit itself had died, so I assumed that I wasn't shooting low enough over the pick ups.

You can guess what happened next... My .45 ACP 200 grain H&G #68 (with a charge of 5.3 grains of WW 231 behind it) blew the leading Oehler Sky Sceen to pieces. :-|

I now own a brand new Beta Chrony :smile:

[RobS]

had to chuckle. Im the same way. I cant shoot groups over a chronograph either. i think its because im to worried about hitting the screens.

My friend shot my first one and tore off the post arm and pulled the entire plastic housing out of one of the ends when one of his 230 grain 45 ACP bullets made a friendly connecting flight at 800ish fps. Epoxy along with a new "custom" arm and now my Dad owns it. My friend felt so bad he bought me a new one and at the time I asked him how in the world he could have ever shot it.

Well I'm on the other end now as I just clipped mine a few weeks back chronographing while shooting groups. I only bent one of the arms luckily as a 45 cal 280 grain bullet winged it at around 1150 fps. Came back home and worked things back straight with my arbor press and there is only a small reminiscence now that the gun smoke has cleared. I went back out a week later and couldn't shoot groups through it any more though…………...well I could actually they just weren’t worth a darn. So now if I want to shoot groups and chrono I have to load up more ammo which isn't going to kill me I guess. :)

[mike in co]

shooting groups and chrongraphing at the same time......

i just dont understand you guys....

its the only way to go...

i put up a target down range, put my rest and rear bag on the bench and line it up with a gun in place with the center of the target. then go place the chrono in line, about 12' away...and shoot.
90 percent of the time i dont even see the chono,,,the sights and the target..........

its all in the setup...

mike in co

[RobS]

shooting groups and chrongraphing at the same time......

i just dont understand you guys....

its the only way to go...

i put up a target down range, put my rest and rear bag on the bench and line it up with a gun in place with the center of the target. then go place the chrono in line, about 12' away...and shoot.
90 percent of the time i dont even see the chono,,,the sights and the target..........

its all in the setup...

mike in co

Mike................I guess we can't all be perfect such as yourself...........[smilie=l:

[piece]

I shoot mine with a .223rem and Sierra Blitzking @3800fps.
I do not work anymore :(

[Thumbcocker]

It is obvious from the posts in this thread that it is not so much what gun you have to shoot the chronograph but that you have a gun available to do the shooting. It also appears that shot placement trumps velocity or boolit diamater.