Chronograph's

[FTIII]

I'm not very "experienced" with chronographs and want to buy a good dependable accurate machine. Who makes such a machine? where can I find them? prices?

Thanks

BudT

Information

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[Bill H]

I have personal experience with Pact and Oehler. Both have a good reputation, and my pact has been running well over the last 10 years.

I do not know the prices now, but the Pact is much less expensive. Avoid the model which has the display downrange along with the screens.

[joem]

I have the shooting chrony, master. I have used it for about ten or twelve years and it works just fine. I have the printer , but don't use it very often.

[jjroth]

1996 Pact Model 1.

[John Kepler]

The actual guts of the machine...the photo-diodes, are virtually identical regardless of who makes the unit or how much it costs. All that's really left to determine is how much excess money you have, and how many "bells & whistles" you think you simply have to pay too much for.

Me? I've got a cheapy Shooting Chrony F-1 that cost less than $60 in the Dark Ages (and IIRC, are about $80 today)! As for bells and whistles....my pencil has NEVER suffered from a battery failure and I steal them from one of my customers.....ditto the spiral notebook I record everything in....and I learned how to add and subtract in 1st Grade! So much for "needing" any bells & whistles!

Oh....and to whomever recommended Oehler...they got out of the business about 4 years ago!

[Former Cav]

a friend of mine bought a cheap chrony where the screen was on the little sheetmetal box that held the sky screens. We could not get it to work with a .45 pistol.
I have had an Oehler 35 P for probably 10 years now and it has been flawless.
I did buy mine without the thermal paper printer as thermal paper is temporary and I also like to use my pencil and spiral notebook. My 35P does tell me the following:
High (fastest)
Low
Average
Statistical deviation
Extreme spread
HTH
Bob

[jjroth]

making chronographs??

[JB White]

We used an inexpensive Chrony for years. They work well once you can find the "zone" they like to operate in. Nice compact package that fits on a cheap camera tripod so it's more likely to go along on a casual range day.
Indoor lighting can wreak havoc on the readings sometimes, and if there is a flourecent tube in the vicinity, forget about it. Any flickering at all disrupts the readings and flourecent lighting is all high speed flickering too fast for the eye to catch.

Once we got used to it, we were able to chronograph everything from .177 pellet rifles to the 22-250 with sastisfactory results.
Arrows...no. The screens aren't far enough apart to compensate for the shaft length.

If sastisfying curiosity for an average velocity is all you are looking for then the Chrony is fine. Good for knowing where your loads are in reality instead of trusting published fps figures.

If you are tweaking/checking loads for BR or LD shooting etc where the numbers are much more important, then buy the better machines and screen setups.

[talucah]

My F-1 Crony worked worked fine for over 5 yrs until I shot it.
Bob

[John Kepler]

making chronographs??

Allegedly, "...to concentrate on other significant business interests"...meaning making stuff for the US Gub'mint!