Chronographs

[Jar Head]

Hi Guy's
I'd like to ask chronograph owners how much they use or need their chronographs. I was really thinking of ordering one w/ the hopes it would give me some good data I could use but now I am affraid of getting one thinking it will open Pandoras box. It seems w/ all my rifles I get very good accuracy around 2 or 3 grains under a max load. For example my 7mm rem. mag. shoots 160 gr. Partitions w/ 60 gr. of Reloader 22 beautifuly. I know that it not at it's max velocity, I'm guessing 2900 fps or so & I'm affraid that I will start trying to bump up the speed & mess up my groups w/ a chronograph. It's enough to drive a guy crazy !

Jar Head

 

[madman]

I have one and use it often. I'm more interested in accuracy, and then once I get a good load, I chronograph it to help be understand what it's going to do at long range.

I own a PACT and like it a lot. However, I reloaded for years without one. There is no substitute for trigger time.

--Mark

 

[remingtonman_25_06]

Cronographs make finding the "right" load for your rifle a little easier. You will find the low and high node with a cronograph. YOur velocities will all be real close. These are your nodes you need to work with. They also let you know when you are approaching MAX or close to it. If you cant tell pressure signs, velocity is the next best way to measure pressure. I use mine almost every single time I work up loads. For long range shooting, you have to have one to know what your load is doing. You then go to the range and verify everything. Cronographs are one of the most important tools for the reloader IMO.

 

[Richracer1]

I agree with the above. I use mine for finding the velocities once I get the most accurate load. This gives me the ballistics info for scope sighting-in and tragectory of the bullet path. For velocity, I shoot a minimum of 5 shots and my PACT 1 XP will calculate avverage velocity, extreme spread, std deviation, average deviation, along with the high and low.

Get one, it's not opening pandora's box if used properly.

 

[Desert Fox]

Chronograph is a must for handloader.

 

[FOTIS]

Chronograph is a must for handloader.

Yup! Refuse to work up a load without one.

 

[fredj338]

While not a must, I do enjoy the extra knowledge I collect about my loads. I pretty much use it whenever I am bench shooting. Even if the load is a known one, shooting in high heat or extreme cold will change things a bit & I like knowing not guessing.
I have a beautiful .280 that shoots great groups but vel. was always well below what the "book" said I should get w/ certain powders. Switching to diff. powders allowed me to see the vel. gain & back off where I needed to still get the accuracy & vel. I wanted.

 

[baltz526]

you do not need to spend a lot of money on a cronograph, a simple one and a calculator will do everything you will ever need. it helps a lot. if you do shotgun shells or bow hunt it is interesting to know what they are doing also.

 

[Guest]

I like to use a chronograph to gather the basic info, but I use an Excel spreadsheet to analyze the strings of data. Unless you need something like Taylor Knock Out value or some other calculation that Excel won't do, it is so much easier for me to look at my data in Excel. My comparison is to a PACT Professional I have, as well as a Beta Master Chrony. Both of these units analyze the data, and the PACT will even print it out, but for me the spreadsheet works best. Easy to build, too.

I worked for years without a chronograph, but I must say that since I got them, I am all about knowing what my loads are doing. With more obscure calibers you can really use the information as part of your load development, where there may be less available data.