Is investing in a chronograph a good idea?

[tenngun]

That’s good shooting.
Any toys a toy and if’n we want it it’s our money, and keeping our family and having fun are the only thing that money is good for.
However. If you get three inch groups at a hundred yards you put any four legged in America in the pot.
So if you get x load to go 1752 fps at the muzzle or 1676 fps what’s it mean?
Can you hit at the range your shooting with power needed to do the job you needed it to do?
There are numbers that count. How fast your cars going so hoe high your blood pressure is. On the other hand if your going to watch a movie and then go to bed 118 min and 136 min probably won’t effect your decision

 

[Eterry]

When I got a Pact Chronograph I told friend what I paid. He said I'd get my money worth in fun. He was right.

 

[Howard Pippin]

I too bought a tepico ( spelling could be wrong) chronograph sometime in the 1980s. They were nothing but two magic eyes that you placed exactly 10 feet apart, placed your shots about six or 8 inches above them and had a meter that recorded the fraction of a second that a bullet broke across the top. You then had a chart that told you what the speed was. Because of the problem from sunlight, I built brackets and put 2 50 watt 12 volt bulbs Above the magic eyes and did my shooting at night. It actually worked really fine, but was slow and cumbersome to set up. I think it costs me somewhere between 75 and $80 in those days. Some years ago I gave up and bought one of the new chronographs that would record low enough for even archery and gave direct readouts for about $120. I was never sorry that I experimented with this, I discovered early that factory speeds were not up to par and when I do find an accurate muzzleloader load I still like to chronographs it. When I prorate my hobby out, it's far cheaper than golf.
Squint

 

[PastorB]

I really like my chronograph! Some pretty strange things happen, velocity wise, when making even small changes in loading procedures or components. Nice to know for sure what is going on, not leaving it up to speculation or logical guesswork. As cheap, relatively speaking, as chronographs are nowadays, why not use one?

 

[bisleyjohn]

I have one - somewhere.

 

[Griz44Mag]

I bought a magnetospeed when I got into "other" types of shooting and for that it was an essential tool.
Now I do mostly black powder and I still like to see what my speed is running.
I use that data to plug in to calculate the anticipated drops at distances. I do occasionally carry my white smoker to the longer range just to see what I can hit. Shooting at larger steel plates - you know when you hit - I hear the ring.
Being able to calculate the anticipated drop gives you a good idea of the Kentucky elevation you need to hold over.
The targets are 24 x 36 so I can estimate where I need to hold over above the target to get on the plate.
For my 54 GPR (calibrated to zero at 50 yards, 1610 fps) at 200 yards the calcs say up 19.4 MOA (x 1.04 x (2)) = 40.35" holdover - or just above the full height of the 36" target. The calcs are accurate too. That's 8 turns up on the Ghost Sight peep post.
Would I ever shoot at a deer that far away - NO. But it sure is fun to do it at the range is some measure of success.
BTW - I use the BalisticArc software on my phone for stuff like that - a neat tool albeit not HC or PC - but then neither is a chrony.....

 

[hanshi]

I bought an Oehler around 25 years ago and wouldn't be without one now. It spoiled me.

 

[nkbj]

Finding out the muzzle velocities of the fast twist percussion .45 and the .62 flinter TC Hawken was worth the price!


Besides, my huge kluge 1980's Oehler had finally died and I missed having a chrono. The new ones are just way cool.

 

[firestick]

I've had a chronograph for years and while I dont think it would be much good for finding the most accurate load it's kind of neat for finding out how fast your most accurate load is going. In other words an unnecessary but nice toy to play with to impress your friends and fellow shooters at the range.

I am thinking about getting one just for that reason. Truly wondering how fast my .58 Lee R.E.A.L. is cooking over 80 grains of Black MZ. I know 100 grains sets you back a bit at the bench.

 

[TNGhost]

For the casual hunter, perhaps not very important, but there are quite a few out there that target shoot seriously with muzzleloaders and many at long range. Working up loads is made easier, and finding things like deviation are important to accuracy at those ranges. It ain't always just about killin' that deer.

Now if it is the historically, period correct issue that concerns you. then go with the ballistic pendulum, which can be just as accurate and just as useful, albeit a little less convenient to use, since 1742.

 

[Black Jaque Janaviac]

The problem with chronographs is, once you've measured what you shoot they tend to sit around doing nothing. Renting one would seem a far wiser option. However, no one who owns one is likely to let a mere aquaintance borrow it, unless they don't mind it coming back all shot up.

That said, they are useful. Your most accurate load will be found on the paper, but if you are wondering if an extra 10 grains of powder is getting you much more power; or if the 3F load is any faster than the 2F load; or if the poor group is caused by wild velocity changes. . .

 

[Griz44Mag]

The problem with chronographs is, once you've measured what you shoot they tend to sit around doing nothing. Renting one would seem a far wiser option. However, no one who owns one is likely to let a mere aquaintance borrow it, unless they don't mind it coming back all shot up.

That said, they are useful. Your most accurate load will be found on the paper, but if you are wondering if an extra 10 grains of powder is getting you much more power; or if the 3F load is any faster than the 2F load; or if the poor group is caused by wild velocity changes. . .

With the magnetospeed that straps to the barrel and when not in use it fits neatly into a small package that carries very easily in the range box.
When at the range I wind up helping a lot of newer shooters set up their guns and many times help them understand the importance of ballistics for longer shots. The range I go to has targets out to 850 yards. It is amazing how many experienced and knowledgeable people there are who never shot beyond 100 yards. Even for black powder it's nice to know how much holdover you will need for any particular ball to get it out to 200 yards and on paper without shooting dozens of balls to figure out what elevation you need.
There is very little risk of shooting your chrony with these unless you are just a complete *****. uninformed individual. (Sorry, I was told not to use that word....
The other useful function is calculation of energy. If you know the mass and speed it is easier to determine if the load has enough energy to make a clean kill at distance. Just because we can shoot that far, does not mean the delivery will have enough ooompfh to make a kill. For paper of course - it's pretty thin skinned so it's easy to kill (if you can hit it!)

 

[hanshi]

Chronographs are rather inexpensive and a good one can be had for a "C" note. You don't need a costly one with bells & whistles; somethin along the lines of the "Beta Chrony" is excellent.

 

[Cattman]

when you find out tnghost post the results. however you will cause a storm to erupt on the subject. usinf 4f gets some shooters really yelling. i think its fun to listen to. used 4f in a 50 round ball custom i built once. shot clean, cracked when it went of and was very very accurate. only tried it after a local shooter won a match using 4f. every one wondered how he got his rifle to crack so nicely. 4f was the answer. he didnt blow up his rifle so i tried it and liked it. now here comes the storm.

 

[hawkeye2]

I must have missed the post where TNghost brought up using 4f.

 

[Archer 756]

wondering what does 4F have to do with the subject of chronograph post maybe I missed something.

 

[Zonie]

4F powder has absolutely nothing to do with the subject of this thread so, let's forget it and go on talking about the subject.

 

[Idaho Ron]

My .02 since I own a Ohler 35 Chronograph. Finding out the speed of the load is nice. If you have a good base line on the speed that is data that can be used later. Some have already talked about Standard Deviation or the consistency between shots.
I opened a bottle of powder and my shots were all of a sudden shooting high by a couple inches. So my first thought was a hot can of powder. So I dug out my chronograph. It told me that I was exactly where I was supposed to be So I went to work to find out why I was off. Next I checked my powder measure. 80 grains of pyrodex P is supposed to have an actual weight of 64.5 grains. My was throwing 66. It got moved just a pinch.
A chronograph can help you if you think something is going on. They are useful but sometimes sit for long periods of time.