Hunting Forum

Hi All,

I'm getting ready to buy a chronograph for the first time, and I was wondering if any of you can recommend a good one.  I read some reviews of the CED M2 and the Shooting Chrony F1, Alpha, Beta, and Gamma.  Overall, they all get decent reviews, but sometimes it's hard to tell by the reviews because some people get frustrated by poor instuctions or operator error, so they give a product bad reviews.  I'm looking to your expertise/experience for the real deal. 

I saved about $300 for a chrony and realized that they are a good bit cheaper than that, so budget isn't really a factor.  Perhaps with the savings I can buy some ballistics software and a PC cable.

I noticed by the reviews, a LOT of people complain about shooting in "the perfect light" or the chrono doesn't register at all or it registers errors.  It seems this is less of a complaint with the CED than the Shooting Chrony, but it is still a factor.  I also noticed that Shooting Chrony came out with a LED Chronograph Lamp to compensate for the lighting problems.  It only got 2 reviews on Midway USA, but both people said it solved all the problems.  Do any of you have experience with this?  Is it worth the $96 that they're asking to save the frustration? 

As always, I appreciate your input.

I received a Shooting Chrony Beta as a Christmas gift about ten/twelve years ago. It's worked great for me. It came with sky diffusers to use in bright light conditions, although I've never used them. I've used it for rifles, pistols, muzzleloaders, archery, paint ball guns, air guns and even a nail gun once upon a time. The only time I've every had any difficulty with it was when shooting patched round balls from my muzzleloader rifles, and I believe that was due to the patch pulling away from the ball that was causing my inconsistent readings.

The F1 crony works very well. No frills. Around $75 from Midway USA

I havce two. An original f1 chrony and a Pact Professional XP. Just back from the range using the pact to work up loads for my 264 Win. I like the pact as it has a printer and that make it easy to keep track of strings. I think any of the new chronographs will work for you just pick the one that has the features you want.

I had a Chrony and did find it a little fussy with light. i now have a competition engineering chronograph and really like it. It is less picky about the light conditions. I bought this one after watching a friend use his and was impressed how much better it worked than my Chrony.

I have an original Chrony F1 that I bought about twenty years ago or so. Still works just fine. On a real bright sunny day it has a few glitches, but I made a sun roof for it that shades the sides and top with windows to allow the sun to shine straight down and give really accurate results. The bigger, more expensive chronographs are all good if you use them enough to warrant the price. I like the small Chrony as it folds up and stays out of the way when I don't need it, and it doesn't get kicked around and damaged in storage or transit to the range. A standard photograph tripod works well to hold it, too.

I've used Chrony's since they first came out and have been very pleased. There are two solutions to the inconsistent light issue: buy or make a light box; learn to judge the available light to determine whether to use the diffuser or not.
I'm a patient person, so I have no problem just waiting for the cloud to move. I also built a slightly less opaque diffused with a plastic panel and some aluminum rod from Hobby Lobby. This appears to give a larger "reading window" in bright sun. Remember that if you can't see a distinct sharp-edged shadow, you'll probably need to remove the diffuser panels.
Get the remote readout or place a clear plastic panel (1/4" plexiglas) to cover the readout because powder granules can damage it eventually if you use really slow rifle powders.