Things I (re)learned about chronographs

[fordson]

Got this case off Amazon (where else) for about $25 bucks. Works fine

 

[halfmoonclip]

Had an Ohler for years, it gave great service, only shot it with the Scorpion with an optic...forgot about the difference in optic and bore height. Happily, the skyscreens are relatively inexpensive, and Ohler offered great CS.
Used mine in our Club's indoor range, and it won't work with fluorescent lights, so it was necessary to use 12" incandescent 'display' lights, which clipped on the skyscreen shades. But this meant stringing power cords, as well as the lines to the skyscreens themselves.
Got a LabRadar for Christmas four years ago, and have been extremely pleased. Setup is painless, and it generally works without drama.
Moon

 

[rockquarry]

Ahhh yes, compressed powder loads. Another "variable" that needs attention. I try to stay away from them if possible, but that's just me.

Rick H.

I don't follow the part about "another variable that needs attention". What does that mean?

Sometimes, compressed loads provide the best accuracy; maybe even velocity. On occasion, they become an integral part of the load development process.

 

[Phenix]

I have had a CED for years. I liked it as the unit was on the bench and only the dumb screens were forward. I never shot a screen yet.

I got the Rangemaster from Athlon. I have to say that is the only way to go because I do use it a heck of a lot more! Little tripod comes with it, i set it to the side of my guns and shoot. Easy peasy.

How does it compare to a Garmin regarding cost and reliability?

 

[Lance Boyle]

Well cost is going to be less than a good comparison as the CED they quit offering and I bought it 16+ years ago iirc. Iirc it was $225ish then. Iirc I bought it on sale and at the time a Chrony brand was a lot less. The CED brains were on the bench with wire leads running 15 yards to the down range sky screens. You could shoot the screens but they were like $20 if you shot them. I never did as I was quite careful and about surveyed mine in to shoot groups at the same time with my bullets centered over the sensors and just a couple inches over the sensor windows for best consistency.

I got the Athlon unit on a pre buy for $325.

The CED worked most of the time but would miss/get an error message on some shots, maybe less than 5% but there for sure. Mostly a sun and cloud issue. More than once horse flies and june bugs made a dash through the screens like a teenager hitting one of those town PD “your speed is ##” radar setups. With the screens and sunshades on sometimes a modest wind could spin the screens off the boreline or even get blown over. I used a cheap walmart tripod then. Light but too light and I would hook a sand bag on a hook under the tripod center shaft. The cheap plastic still didn’t lock the pan action all that well. That of course is a tripod issue.

The Athlon doppler radar unit has yet to miss anything. It just doesn’t. It sets up in half a minute. I couldn’t go back!

Mine is an Athlon unit not a Garmin. Pretty much the same thing in a similar format.

 

[Tom K]

....
I got the Athlon unit on a pre buy for $325.
....
The Athlon doppler radar unit has yet to miss anything. It just doesn’t. It sets up in half a minute. I couldn’t go back!

Mine is an Athlon unit not a Garmin. Pretty much the same thing in a similar format.

I started in the early 1980s with an Oehler Model 33. I then used a Chrony for a couple of decades. Both required shooting over skyscreens set up downrange, which is a pain. Five years ago I bought one of the big orange $600 LabRadar units that sit at the bench. It worked, but it seemed finicky about alignment and muzzle placement. The controls were never intuitive - I had to re-read the manual every time I used it. Relatively bulky and heavy and a bit of a battery hog. If I didn't plug in a auxilliary USB battery pack it would eat up the disposable AA batteries.

A couple of years ago I bought a Garmin Xero from a forum member for $525, and it is fantastic! It weights next to nothing and takes up virtually no space. Sets up in a few seconds and I've never had to read the manual after the first time. It has missed very few shots whereas the LabRadar would miss several per shooting session. Rechargeable via USB and a full charge lasts many hours.

The only thing I don't like about the Garmin is that it stores its data in a .fits file format, that there is no good converter for to transform them to .csv or other Excel compatible files. The shot sessions can be sent from the unit to your email as .csv files via the app, but that requires a smartphone and the app. And that is the problem - apps can stop being supported and no longer function. I hate having a piece of equipment that is dependent on a piece of software that may go away in a couple of years.

I emailed Athlon about this and they said that their unit saves the shot sessions as .csv files that can be downloaded directly from the chrono via a USB cable. For this reason alone, if I had to replace my Garmin I would get the Athlon, not to mention it is $200 less in retail price.

The $400 Athlon Rangecraft looks like the best buy in a chronograph at this time.

 

[rockquarry]

I bought a Garmin yesterday and used in this morning to chronograph around 75 shots. Worked perfectly. I only gave the manual a cursory glance last night and that was all that was necessary. I have no use for apps, smartphones, emails, and files when it come to chronographing. A ballpoint pen and range notebook continue to work well for me and I can make whatever notes are necessary.

I haven't used the Garmin enough to make a thorough judgement, but I said recently in another post that of the six chronographs I've had in forty-five years, all have had quirks of some kind. I'm looking for Garmin quirks; didn't find any today but I'll not give up the search so soon. I guess my Labradar I'll keep as a spare. I always like to have a an extra chronograph.