Non-phixion
CGN frequent flyer
Cool story bro
CHRONOGRAPH
- Thread starter Jguichon01
- Start date
Cool story bro
Non-phixion
CGN frequent flyer
For me its less to do with the velocity impacting the bullets performance than it does its accuracy. I shoot long range quite a bit, and the groups definitely get worse with inconsistent velocities and higher SD's when I walked those ammo lots out to 600m. At 100 it's not enough to write home about, at 200 meters and beyond its noticeable how groups will open up, and that's not exactly confidence inspiring.
Gabriel S.
Member
- Location
- Calgary, AB
Unless you're reloading for competition, you don't really need it. There are ways to back-calculate your muzzle velocity, and if you have access to a 500m+ range, you can use the actual drop to tweak the muzzle velocity in your ballistic calculator.
What is useful from a chrono is the SD and ES, as they provide data points for your reloads and reloading technique during load development and afterward, while you still have to fine-tune the load.
If the cost is not an issue, I recommend getting one, as it will pay for itself over time, especially if you like shooting. Eliminating the guesswork from your loads will help reduce the number of shots you have to take during load development and the learning stage.
To conclude, is it a must? No. Does it help? Yes. Does it save money in the long run? Yes.
Garmin released the 2nd generation of the Chronos, which means the 1st gen will drop below $500 in the next few months. Another option to consider is Athlon and our own Canadian brand called Labradar, also known as how not to treat customers and run a business lol
I hope this helps.
What is useful from a chrono is the SD and ES, as they provide data points for your reloads and reloading technique during load development and afterward, while you still have to fine-tune the load.
If the cost is not an issue, I recommend getting one, as it will pay for itself over time, especially if you like shooting. Eliminating the guesswork from your loads will help reduce the number of shots you have to take during load development and the learning stage.
To conclude, is it a must? No. Does it help? Yes. Does it save money in the long run? Yes.
Garmin released the 2nd generation of the Chronos, which means the 1st gen will drop below $500 in the next few months. Another option to consider is Athlon and our own Canadian brand called Labradar, also known as how not to treat customers and run a business lol
I hope this helps.
I think it is a useful tool, but like the bore scope, it can be a double edge sword, you can go crazy and think you rifle or your reload are #### and can loose some confidence in your self…. Same with the bore scope, thinking your barrel/throat is shot when in reality it is still good enough for hundreds of rounds and maybe thousands of round if used for hunting. I don’t own a bore scope cause I don’t see the need for one. I own a chronograph cause it gives me some data that I wouldn’t be able to get cause I can’t do maths to save my life 
.
.
Lol, yup, they sure do. - dan
. Anything that's worth having will upset someone.
Walked into P&D for a few supplies today and they had the C1 Garmin on for the same price as BassPro/Cabelas. So I picked it up. Testing starts day after tomorrow.
Targets upset some people too. Enough that they’d rather believe their chronograph, ballistics program, short range groups, and have a childlike faith in scope tracking and advertised BC than actually shooting those distances. Mention wind and they’ll get down-right belligerent.Mirage is a non-starter.
Muzzle velocity is a by product of chamber pressure. If you load to printed data and shoot to chart your drop you can reverse calculate your MV. A chrono is a bit of an easy button like others have said it saves some time and components basically on every load you develop and also can tell you if your approaching max pressure if you have a reasonable idea of where you should be with bullet powder combo. Also handy to help out buddies if they want to know what factory stuff is doing out of their gun. I don’t load more than most on here and it has been a worth while investment for me which would probably get more worth while the more you load
I know some people at our range that lose their mind if their ES is above single digits .
However, watching a recent V2 challenge video between two F/O shooters, they were shooting 49's and 50's ( 10 shots each) with high V counts with loads that were running as high as 30FPS extreme spread. The bad wind switches between the time they decided their wind call and got behind the gun was what turn V's into 4's.
For those that are not familiar with Fclass, the V is 1/2MOA, and the bull is 1MOA - very close to 5" and ten " respectively at 1,000 which is what this particular match is shot at.
Cat
I reload just for group size. And old F class guy at my former range once told me if you get a chrony, you’re going to end up going down a deep rabbit hole of sorting and weighing brass, primers, projectiles, neck turning, and all the other things that cause those little variations and spreads and deviations. He said if you’re happy with clover leafs on paper at 100, skip the chrony.
Sounds perfectly logical. A chronograph is an evil device and will do this to a man. It is the same effect as black rifles causing people to commit crimes.. The liberals can explain it......
Chronographs are a great tool if one knows how to use them properly .
If not , a person can get way too wrapped up in the chronograph data and forget that the original intent is to hit what is being aimed at!
Cat
Last edited:
I think chronos have divided chinaderp more than the liberals have!
I don't get into the numbers thing. I hate math so that isn't my deal. I don't need to know a bunch of fancy crap.
Im like ""Track". I like that I can verify the speeds against the manuals, especially with solids as I want to make sure my bullet is hitting at a good speed for the distance to target.
I don't get into the numbers thing. I hate math so that isn't my deal. I don't need to know a bunch of fancy crap.
Im like ""Track". I like that I can verify the speeds against the manuals, especially with solids as I want to make sure my bullet is hitting at a good speed for the distance to target.
I had one of the ones you attach at the end of the barrel - it had it's usefullness - my experience was that my SD will be all over the place and my groups were fantastic. I also have single digit SD's and the group was horrible. I sold it and now base my reloading on group size rather than anything else.
I did find it useful when I shot factory loads I would compare their velocities with what my rifle actually got - based on this information I can guess quite accuratly what the bullet drop would be beyond 100 yards. My velocities will be 80-100 feet less out of the barrel.
They have their uses for sure. The other day my son and I were playing around with a 18” 30-06 that he had used culling with ammo that had been loaded for another rifle, no load development ever having been done for it specifically. Only issue was that although that load was crowding 3000 in the rifle it was loaded for in the first place it only got 2650 fps in that particular short pipe.
We thought we’d see if we could wake it up a bit with Superformance. Turned out to be really easy, we had it up to 2850 in just a few minutes, loading in the shop and testing them just outside the door. Shot under 1” 5 shot groups at 125 yards which is the distance from the man door and the edge of the yard.
What was interesting was we could repeatedly prove that virgin brass was 50 fps slower than FL sized shot in the same gun. We could load 1 more grain in the virgin brass without pressure signs than the same case FL sized. There was a 50 fps difference between Win standard primers and WLRM, with Rem Mag primers fitting right in between. ES was single digit with the WLRM, about 35 with the standards and right in the middle with the Rems.
So what did we learn? Well in that rifle fired brass was worth the same as one grain of powder, and the hottest primer was worth another one. Combined on the low side it was 100 fps loss of velocity; combined on the hot side it was the same as loading 2 grains hotter. If we were pushing the limits in the virgin brass a primer swap and fireformed brass would have been interesting or maybe just annoying. Any combination of the new or fired brass and any of the three primers would shoot into the same sub MOA group at close range; We know because we did that too. It did show that in that rifle, 100 fps difference in velocity, 3 different primers and new and fired brass never made any difference at all as far as accuracy at close range. So much for consistent velocities and close range groups being worth much. Long range targets would show that difference in a heart beat.
We thought we’d see if we could wake it up a bit with Superformance. Turned out to be really easy, we had it up to 2850 in just a few minutes, loading in the shop and testing them just outside the door. Shot under 1” 5 shot groups at 125 yards which is the distance from the man door and the edge of the yard.
What was interesting was we could repeatedly prove that virgin brass was 50 fps slower than FL sized shot in the same gun. We could load 1 more grain in the virgin brass without pressure signs than the same case FL sized. There was a 50 fps difference between Win standard primers and WLRM, with Rem Mag primers fitting right in between. ES was single digit with the WLRM, about 35 with the standards and right in the middle with the Rems.
So what did we learn? Well in that rifle fired brass was worth the same as one grain of powder, and the hottest primer was worth another one. Combined on the low side it was 100 fps loss of velocity; combined on the hot side it was the same as loading 2 grains hotter. If we were pushing the limits in the virgin brass a primer swap and fireformed brass would have been interesting or maybe just annoying. Any combination of the new or fired brass and any of the three primers would shoot into the same sub MOA group at close range; We know because we did that too. It did show that in that rifle, 100 fps difference in velocity, 3 different primers and new and fired brass never made any difference at all as far as accuracy at close range. So much for consistent velocities and close range groups being worth much. Long range targets would show that difference in a heart beat.
