neweboarhunter

I was just wanting to see who uses a chronograph. What make/model etc. In your opinion is this a necessary piece of equipment for testing your reloads?

oldelkhunter

I have a simple Chrony and also a Pact unit. They are absolutely necessary if you reload and even if you use factory ammo. Your only SWAG if you you don't use one.

charlie brown

I have a Shooting Chrony Alpha Model. They are a must for someone who reloads. They can tell you how consistent your loads are especially, which I think is the most important issue. If you do not have consistent loads, a chronograph should answer most of the questions regarding group patterns and many other issues.

Briman

Nope, not necessary. Been reloading for 10 years without one, and never have had problems with putting together a safe accurate load. Not saying that I don't wish I had one, as I will get one sometime in the future, but they simply aren't a necessity.

oldelkhunter

No not necessary at all unless you are trying to develop loads with a specific velocity in mind. I take anything I read in a reloading manual with a grain of salt. In our sue crazy society sadly they have also been impacted. You have to remember that most of these manuals come with test barrel info and not loads created in real hunting rifles(with a few exceptions) and the velocity variation between printed and actual will be huge in a lot of cases and rarely matches up to the manual. I have witnessed it with certain cartridges and the differences at long range had I used published trajectory tables for that specific bullet/load would have been tremendous.

stress-relief

I have a Beta Master Chrony and I think it's an important tool for reloaders. Once I develop a good hunting load, I run the figures through a Ballistic Calculator. This then gives me a print out which tells me my bullet drop at various ranges. I have these calculations sealed in platic. When I go hunting I review the bullet drop at various ranges and in conjuction with my laser rangefinder I believe I can increase my chances of a good shot.

Solitary Man

I've got the Beta Master Shooting Chrony also. I suppose it's not absolutely necessary, but I wouldn't want to be without it now. Since velocity is a direct result of pressure, I want to know what my loads are doing speed-wise. If I'm getting substantially more velocity than reloading manuals suggest I should, then I probably got an over-pressure situation and I want to know about it.

stubblejumper

While bullet drop tables are better than guessing, the only way to determine the true trajectory for a given load is to shoot it at the distances in question.I use a chronograph because I like to know my velocity even though I did reload successfully without one.I find that a chronographs greatest use is when you change lots of components such as powder.If the velocity suddenly changes dramatically with a new lot of powder it lets you know that you should re-develop that load again.

Briman

I gotta agree that published velocities have little bearing on reality.
For me, I rarely take shots longer than 300 yards at the range, and while hunting my ranges are much shorter, so I don't need to use any ballistic tables to try to estimate where a bullet of a certain velocity/BC will land, because I already have the dope on the ranges that I'll be shooting. Experiences and distances with other will certainly vary.

As for determining high pressure, velocity isn't the best way to judge it. Some rifles are going to give higher or lower velocities than others or test barrels. At the top end of the pressure scale, pressure will increase pretty dramatically for small increases in velocity. measuring the fired casehead expansion with a good micrometer is a far better method of detecting high pressure situations.

eldeguello

It is certainly NOT NECESSARY to use a chronograph! However, if you are like me, you'll want one just to really find out how fast your reloads are going! I bought my first one as soon as they were within my price range. My first one was an ITCC brand, which used wires for starting and stopping the counter. Then I bought a low-end Sky-Screen Oehler, which I still have, plus a Chrony "F" model.

One of the things I learned was that velocities predicted in the reloading handbooks in the '60's were a lot closer to the truth than a lot of what is being printed today! There are a couple of brands of current reloading manuals whose figures are inflated by as much as 200 FPS over what I am getting! This was not so true years back. I could "guesstimate" a probable MV for a load, and find it very close when measured. I think "liability-itis" has infected some of the publishers too much!!