TargetTalk

I am looking for a device to measure muzzle velocity from pistol, one single able to measure muzzle velocity of air, 22lr and center fire pistol, so from let say 140m/s till 500m/s.

What cheap model could anyone recommend ? What is the typical price of the solutions ?

Depending on where you are, have a look at the CED M2 Chronograph.

http://www.cedhk.com/show.php/Object29

http://shootingchrony.com/products_SCMMCM.htm

~$90 USD MSRP (have seen them discounted)

Steve

Now you have the Mercedes and the Fiat. To quote an oft used phrase - 'Quality has no regrets'

Quality may have no regrets, but paying for a Mercedes heavy truck when a FIAT passenger car will serve the purpose is another story.

Do you kinow the new RCBS ammomaster: http://www.gamaliel.com/cart/product.ph ... 311&page=2
It is also cheap

And another:

http://www.combro.co.uk/cb625.html

£39.95 = ca. $80

That one is only for air power. It fits to the barrel of the air rifle/pistol. Their website has a very natty little demo of it in action.

I think the OP wants something to do air and .22, so a more conventional unit is required.

I've had the Chrony (bottom end model)- same unit- since 1990 or thereabouts.

My Chrony has been dropped, immersed in water, shot in the face, ridden around in the back of pickup trucks on dirt roads etc.

Still works great, is easy to set up and use, and is pretty stingy with battery consumption.

I have used it successfully for air pistol and rifle through .357 mag and 6.5x284. Indoors and outdoors.

Downside: since my model doesn't have the infrared-driven remote printer etc. I do have to write down my own numbers; although the unit will compute and record high-low-average for strings.

If my Chrony is a Fiat, it's the most reliable, trouble free Fiat I have ever heard of!

Steve Swartz

Steve Swartz wrote:I've had the Chrony (bottom end model)- same unit- since 1990 or thereabouts.

My Chrony has been dropped, immersed in water, shot in the face, ridden around in the back of pickup trucks on dirt roads etc.

Still works great, is easy to set up and use, and is pretty stingy with battery consumption.

I have used it successfully for air pistol and rifle through .357 mag and 6.5x284. Indoors and outdoors.

Downside: since my model doesn't have the infrared-driven remote printer etc. I do have to write down my own numbers; although the unit will compute and record high-low-average for strings.

If my Chrony is a Fiat, it's the most reliable, trouble free Fiat I have ever heard of!

Steve Swartz

Thanks to all of you for the feedback.

Steve, what model do you have, the normal, cheapest one or the master one with a remote control (not so clear if it is only a remote display or also a control) ? Would you recommend the remote ?

Another question, there are also more expensive models (alpha, beta, gamma...) but the benefit of them (besides the printer for the gamma) are not obvious, any advise.

What would you buy if you had to do it again ?

Then another question: does the Chrony work indoor, does it require an additional lightning system ?

Jipe:

I have the low end one- I think it's called the Delta? I have no experience with the ones that have the remote infrared printer etc.

I used mine indoors in my basement- I had two "gooseneck" lamps I just positioned above and a little bit to the side of the skyscreens. As long as the skyscreens are reasonably well "lit up" (my lamps had 60w incandescents) it will work fine.

If I had to do it over again- the printer deal might have saved me a little bit of time over the years, but I think I would have just stayed with the low end unit again. I run all my own stats and analysis anyways, so just recording the values as they occur (the numbers on the faceplate are big enough to read from the 15-20 feet away) works fine for me.

Hi Steve,

Thanks again for the fast answer.

I think you have this one, called the F1 (for measurements in feet/s, the M1 is m/s):


They sell something to put lamps above the diffusers:


Same as you did but more expensive !

For the money, utility, and convenience, the Combro is hard to beat IMHO. For airguns, you don't need to have any real separation between the muzzle and the chronograph.

http://www.combro.co.uk/cb625.html

jrmcdaniel wrote:For the money, utility, and convenience, the Combro is hard to beat IMHO. For airguns, you don't need to have any real separation between the muzzle and the chronograph.

http://www.combro.co.uk/cb625.html

This one's already been suggested.... and rejected....

See the OP.

jipe wrote:I am looking for a device to measure muzzle velocity from pistol, one single able to measure muzzle velocity of air, 22lr and center fire pistol, so from let say 140m/s till 500m/s.

The Chrony will work indoors, providing you have incandescent lighting.

Any fluorescent light within range of the sensor will upset it.
At least that was the case with a ~1990 model.

We used to turn off the fluoros and use a halogen lamp.

My current chrony works fine, but I've only used it outdoors.

Jipe:

The one you posted looks similar to mine . . . except mine's blue (with dents, lead flecks, and a cracked face now!) and gives measurements in either f/s or m/s (switch on front).

Yes, the fancy lights are marvelous looking but any incandescent (no, flourescents don't work well for the optical receiver frequency) bulb- positioned somewhat above the plastic sky-screens- will do.

I suppose for AP/AR you could put the lead sensor right under the muzzle. Not sure why one would want to though. At least a foot or so away won't create any problems.

The further away you are- and the smaller the projectile- the more accurate you have to be!

Steve Swartz

(For AP and AR you could put the sensor right up agaisnt the target face as long as you shot 9s or better!)

I also had a Chrony, brought it when it first on the market aronnd 1987 or 88, cost about $60 or so at that time, still works very well, its a bare bone basic model, runs on 9V battery, over the years it had measure velocity from 250 ft/sec bb gun up to 3500 Ft/sec 6MM, never once gave me any trouble.

The newer and higher model Chrony come with its all the bells and whistles you can think of, it can print out the velocity of a string of shots, gave you the average vel. extreme spread, standard deviations and so on, also it had a detachable read out, so you can measure down range vel.

I think you can still get a basic Chrony for about $120 or so, still a pretty good value for the money, IMHO.

Tony

Tony C. wrote:I think you can still get a basic Chrony for about $120 or so, still a pretty good value for the money, IMHO.

Tony

I found the basic F1 model on eBay new for less than 90USD and the F1 archery (that includes the lightning system for indoor use) for 30USD more.

The RCBS model (see post above) is actually not yet on the market (at least in Europe), should be available early 2008.

I just got my Shooting Chrony archery with lighting system.

I measured the muzzle velocity of my two AP.

The results I obtained with my LP10 (factory tuned) are the expected ones:
- 160m/s with Vogel rifle match 0.53g 4.49
- 165m/s with H&N pistol match 0.50g 4.50
- 171m/s with RWS R10 pistol 0.45g 4.59

The results obtained with the LP@ light of my wife are much lower:
- 134m/s with Vogel rifle match 0.53g 4.49
- 136m/s with H&N pistol match 0.50g 4.50
- 144m/s with RWS R10 pistol 0.45g 4.59

The two pistols share the same base, the only difference is the barrel that is shorter one the LP@ light.

So I wonder if these speeds are due to the shorter barrel, 160mm instead of 224mm, or if I should adjust the muzzle velocity ?

jipe wrote:So I wonder if these speeds are due to the shorter barrel, 160mm instead of 224mm, or if I should adjust the muzzle velocity ?

Are they both putting the shot holes where you expect to see them?
Are they both giving acceptable groups from a rest?

The only thing that knowing the velocity will tell you is whether the gun/ammunition combination is behaving consistently from shot to shot. It tells you absolutely nothing about accuracy.