When does one need a crono?

You never need one just to reload. You need one to develop the most consistent load, but plenty of people have reloaded for decades without one, and many will never use one.

Your buddy is the kind of guy who really likes gadgets and add ons isn't he?

4n2t0 said:
When you want/need to know how fast the bullet is travelling.
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Even then, you could take shots at 100 and 300yds and use the drop of the bullet to calculate velocity. Chrony is easier but certainly not absolutely necessary.

I bought one for two reasons.

1) reloading 303 with powder from 7.62x54r. It would be nice to know what speed they are going, as there is no published data to go off of.

2) it was cheap. (bought it on sale and convinced my brother to pay for half).
 
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Suther said:
You never need one just to reload. You need one to develop the most consistent load, but plenty of people have reloaded for decades without one, and many will never use one.

Your buddy is the kind of guy who really likes gadgets and add ons isn't he?
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Short answer YES ;) He is a tactikool guy... you know doing those red dot with a 45 degree mount on every AR guy who will never caught installing an iron sight. I do reload for going down the precision route. But later I mean. ;)
 
4n2t0 said:
That's hard to do with a pistol though.
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The pistol you just shoot at shorter distances. The only reason you need 200 or 300 yards with a rifle is the drop is pretty small from 100 to 200. You've just got to be ok with math and able to work through a physics problem.

lavino said:
Short answer YES ;) He is a tactikool guy... you know doing those red dot with a 45 degree mount on every AR guy who will never caught installing an iron sight. I do reload for going down the precision route. But later I mean. ;)
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So what you're telling me is he wants access to a Chronograph and thinks he can convince you to get one... Lol

A Chronograph helps in two major ways IMO. Velocity can be used as a proxy for pressure which is always nice (although there are plenty of other ways to know ammo is too hot). The other is measuring the spread of velocity, which tells you how consistent it is.
 
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Suther said:
The pistol you just shoot at shorter distances. The only reason you need 200 or 300 yards with a rifle is the drop is pretty small from 100 to 200. You've just got to be ok with math and able to work through a physics problem.
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Yeah...about that...

I ain't none too smart and that sounds extremely complicated and time consuming so I bought a ProChrono for $180. I made my own USB communication cable so that I can download the data to my computer. For a cheap chrono it does everything I need it to do.
 
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lavino said:
My friend says "dude you need a crono" but I am like.. I just started and will be loading min and gradually go up. Better focus on making the rounds correct and etc first. I don't think I need one just yet right? Til about when you will actually need one?
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Take a read; pretty much convinced me, and I have the original magazine: "Some Truths About Chronographs: What do they tell us?' Handloader # 204, April-May 2000" by John Barsness. I am a devoted disciple of most anything that guy has wrote regarding hand loading, pressure and velocity. He is a regular on the 24hourcampfire site - "Mule Deer".
 
4n2t0 said:
When you want/need to know how fast the bullet is travelling.
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This will allow you to calculate (using any of a number of free online software) the bullet trajectory at various ranges.

The chronograph will also tell you how consistent the velocities are. Consistency is the key to accuracy.

And, as noted by Boo, above, you can back calculate and estimate the pressures you are generating.

Chronos are relatively cheap, you can get a reasonable one for $120 or so.
 
Potashminer said:
Take a read; pretty much convinced me, and I have the original magazine: "Some Truths About Chronographs: What do they tell us?' Handloader # 204, April-May 2000" by John Barsness. I am a devoted disciple of most anything that guy has wrote regarding hand loading, pressure and velocity. He is a regular on the 24hourcampfire site - "Mule Deer".
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Couldn’t agree with you more both on the importance of chronographs and the quality of Barsness’ writing. I soak up all I can from him, he’s a wealth of handloading and rifle related knowledge. I’d encourage any handloader to have a read.

https://www.riflemagazine.com/magazine/article.cfm?tocid=285&magid=22

I consider a chronograph the most important tool I use in load development.
 
Great tool for helping calculating your dope and as others pointed out, to gauge your consistency and how hot your ammo is getting along with the usual telltale signs on the cartridge.

If you shoot ipsc, it's a great bonus to chrony your reloads to the appropriate power factor so you don't show up to a match to shoot for nothing because your loads to meet PF. Or you reloads being too hot and a disadvantage to you.
 
I use a chronograph but I have developed plenty of great loads for rifles without one.
You don't need one at all but it is a useful tool if you do have one. When I'm working up a load I use the chronograph and just load a couple test cartridges then shoot them over the chrony. I look for pressure signs and note the velocity. If everything looks good and I'm way below my ballpark target velocity I jump up the powder charge a lot more than I normally would then shoot again. Looking for pressure signs and noting the velocity, I repeat this taking larger jumps in powder charge than I would when zeroing in on a load. Once I'm in the ballpark I start looking for the accuracy node. This is mostly shown by the results on the paper (the further you test the better) but also by low velocity spread on the chrony. You can easily find your velocity/accuracy nodes without one but it does speed things up and give you a better idea of where you are.
This method doesn't work for many guys though as I live on enough land to have my own gun range just outside my shop and all my reloading gear is set up in my shop so I don't have to build a whole bunch then drive to test them.

Save yourself some math and just install a ballistics app like Strelok or one of the many other free ones available for your phone. You just enter your zero distance (100yds typically) then enter the drop at a further measured distance and it tells you approximately what the velocity is. This is not much help during development but once you find a load that shoots well you can test it at longer range and figure it out.

With or without one you can easily build an accurate load. A chronograph does have a place in your tool bag but it isn't a necessity.
 
Considering that there are chronographs out there for less then a couple hundred bucks, they are something that I personally think every reloader should have. I don't use mine very often, but they are the most convenient way to confirm your load data.
 
Chronographs are a good source of information, but some people do use them to take shortcuts that end up causing issues. I have seen people sight in a rifle at 25 yards, and then never shoot at a target further , and then take shots at animals at 500 yards or more. Other people work up loads at close range, only paying attention to ES, and SD without actually shooting groups at longer distances. I have watched people sight in at 100 yards, chronograph a load, punch data into their phone, and then continue to miss a target at 500 m , because they did not want to accept the fact that their calculations were faulty, because their data was faulty, usually due to optimistic bullet B.C.s from the bullet manufacturers. A chronograph should never take the place of actual shooting at longer distances, because theory and reality, are not always one and the same. That being said, I have owned several chronographs, and currently own a Magnetospeed.
 
How do you like the magnetospeed stubblejumper? I currently have a shooting chrony and want to upgrade. I like the labradar but I shoot too many sub 22cal rounds and 4000fps rounds so feel I would be better suited to a magnetospeed. Only downside I see is attachment to the gun, but don’t see it being a big deal compared to the number of dropped shots I’m currently experiencing. If labradar could track 4000fps plus and sub 22cal bullets I’d probably own one.
 
leveractionjunkie said:
How do you like the magnetospeed stubblejumper? I currently have a shooting chrony and want to upgrade. I like the labradar but I shoot too many sub 22cal rounds and 4000fps rounds so feel I would be better suited to a magnetospeed. Only downside I see is attachment to the gun, but don’t see it being a big deal compared to the number of dropped shots I’m currently experiencing. If labradar could track 4000fps plus and sub 22cal bullets I’d probably own one.
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The Magnetospeed is quick to set up, and is accurate. I typically do my initial load testing, chronograph some loads, then fine tune and chronograph again, I don't chronograph while shooting groups.
 
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