Chronograph?

[Luckus]

I bought the ProChrono last summer with the remote, and am completely happy with it.

[GaCop]

Unlike the PACT PC2 I had, My Beta Chrony will give me readings on a cloudy day. On cloudy days I don't have to use the diffusers.

[riemer]

CED M2 is great! The computer sits on the bench with you.

[MNbogboy]

I have had the Chrony F1 for years and it definitely can be fussy especially with line ups on my camera tripod...err..err...err..err
But after building my "junk pile" stand....the only errors I receive now are because my bags walk on the table....
The setup procedure is easy...The steps are:
a. Locate the stand at your required distance (mine is approx 10' in front of bench).
b. I stand up a tape measure on the cross angles and then look at them through a lower scope power
to determine the approximate heights of the two cardboard pieces.
c. Insert corrugated cardboard pieces in angle clamps on the base.
d. Set rifle up on bags and aim at the target (in this case target is 150 yards down range).
e. Top edges of cardboard must be just below the line of sight (some where between 1/2"and 1-1/2").
f. Trim cardboard with scissors if you can't get on the target or insert longer piece if the top edge
is below 1-1/2".
g. Do not mount the chronograph at this time..
h. Fire one shot at the target.
i. You should now have a bullet hole in the top of each cardboard. at this point I run a rod through
both bullet holes...I mount the chronograph and adjust the "three axis" adjustment rods until
the chronograph "eyes" are directly underneath and parallel to the rod (in my case an arrow shaft)...
j. At this time remove the cardboard inserts and shoot....This setup has never failed to register on
the first try and has significantly reduced all errs.....

The enclosed pictures should help my explanation...The stand itself is made from scrap steel pieces I had laying around.
As far as accuracy goes I check mine from time to time at both 10 feet and 100 yards....Using a ballistic program such as Bergers and knowing your bullets BCs the muzzle velocity you plug in will give you the muzzle velocity at 100 yards.....If your 100 yard readings compare (within the SD of your MV) with the ballistics program your chronograph most likely is reading correct....I would buy another F-1 because it has always been reasonably accurate and now is very reliable...
http://http://i862.photobucket.com/albums/ab182/MNbogboy/chrony_arrow_bullet_holes.jpghttp://i862.photobucket.com/albums/ab182/MNbogboy/chrony_ready.jpghttp://i862.photobucket.com/albums/ab182/MNbogboy/chrony_line_up.jpghttp://i862.photobucket.com/albums/ab182/MNbogboy/chrony_bench.jpg

[GaCop]

My Beta Master Chrony is very easy to set up and the digital readout remote sits on the bench so the numbers are easy to see. I use an old Velbon professional camera tripod I bought back in 78 when I was heavy into photography, it's still going strong. I rarely get error messages unless the battery is getting low.

[MatthewUSMC8791]

The Oehler 35 is awesome and i did do some comparison to my Shooting chrony Gamma Master and they were close...

But if your running a chrony for fps and that for a shooting table for greater distances, just remember chrony's cant substitute for field data.... you can run your own data with JBM on yoru iphone in the field...

EXAMPLE

Zero rifle at 100yds... then run a logical guess for what you think your round is doing @fps..

For example my 300 win mag using 208amax @ 3000fps its 10.34moa @ 600yds and 23.84moa @ 1000yds...

well you shoot it at 600 and see where you impact and keep adding fps to your data til you hit where yrou aiming and then run JBM again with updated fps and hit yrou 1000yd target... then you know EXACTLY what your load is doing....

[MNbogboy]

MatthewUSMC8791,
Very good point and I am glad to see others using that method....
Back in the 70s & early 80s I used your method of determining velocity before I ever even saw a chrony...In those days I used published data for the bullet I was using and drop tables from reloading manuals....This always proved to be very reliable....My long targets then were 400 yards but if the printed data was close your results would be close...The chrony after the fact verified those calcs and now makes just a bit less of a guessing game and far easier on these old legs....

You are right there is no substitute for field data..

I take it by your screen name you are a marine...Thanks for your service.
Randy