Which chronograph to buy?

[Vaquero]

Ordered the caldwell from cabela's.
Should be here next week.

 

[shooterfpga]

Ordered the caldwell from cabela's.
Should be here next week.

Sounds good. The chrono app just got another update btw and cs is prettt quick at getting phones to play well with their equipment. Most of it seemed to be phone aoftware based issues.

 

[Brojon]

I just got rid of a Chrony and got a Caldwell from Midway USA. Much less finicky and I can use my phone to collect the data. Outstanding! And if I shoot it I'm only out $69.

 

[vmax]

I'm a little late to this party, but I have been studying this as well and thinking about the new Caldwell from Cabelas

They have a deluxe kit, that comes with a tripod, and all of the cables to hook to your smart phone for $129 and if you use a Cabela's card, you get and additional $15 back in club points (dollars)

 

[shooterfpga]

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/38...nic-hand-held-wind-meter?cm_vc=ProductFinding


Heres another product by caldwell im looking into getting. Its basically a cheap kestrel/fdac knock off. No reviews on midway yet but id seen it for the first time when the caldwell chronos went on sale. Ill try and dig up some reviews and hopefully someone else finds some too. But i think this is a very good direction for budget minded newbie LR shooters.

 

[Vaquero]

I'm a little late to this party, but I have been studying this as well and thinking about the new Caldwell from Cabelas

They have a deluxe kit, that comes with a tripod, and all of the cables to hook to your smart phone for $129 and if you use a Cabela's card, you get and additional $15 back in club points (dollars)

We'll give her a whirl next nice weekend.
I'll holler.

 

[TheDan]

That radar one looks awesome, but total overkill for anything I'd be concerned with (not like that has ever stopped me before...). Pretty much any premium bullet manufacturer will specify the ballistic coefficient so with muzzle velocity you should be able to work out your drops and velocity. You could always measure drop at various distances and work the maths backwards, too.

 

[vmax]

We'll give her a whirl next nice weekend.
I'll holler.

10-4 bud.
I pulled the trigger and bought one tonight, I had enough Cabela's points to pay for it so I figured what the hey

 

[Vaquero]

10-4 bud.
I pulled the trigger and bought one tonight, I had enough Cabela's points to pay for it so I figured what the hey

Well crap!
I'll just cancel mine then

 

[shooterfpga]

That radar one looks awesome, but total overkill for anything I'd be concerned with (not like that has ever stopped me before...). Pretty much any premium bullet manufacturer will specify the ballistic coefficient so with muzzle velocity you should be able to work out your drops and velocity. You could always measure drop at various distances and work the maths backwards, too.

I NEVER go with what the manufacturer says is the bc. Many are over compensated. I use brian litz g7 bc which are tested and trued.

 

[vmax]

Well crap!
I'll just cancel mine then

I just couldn't stop myself!

 

[dee]

I NEVER go with what the manufacturer says is the bc. Many are over compensated. I use brian litz g7 bc which are tested and trued.

Same here. I try to keep up with any data he posts.

There is a good comparison of chronographs in Litz's new book. The Ohler was best with a custom bracket for the the screens. I just use a pro chrony and then adjust my velocity to match drop on my rifles.

 

[vmax]

I got my Caldwell Chronograph premium kit in and had a chance to get it out the other evening.
It's a nice unit, well built and designed. I set it up on the tripod that came with the kit. It has a simple switch on the left side.

MPS - OFF - FPS

after I turned it on it does a 5 second countdown and goes into ready mode. We set this up in my shop and opened the door so my son could shoot his airsoft gun through it. Downloaded the Caldwell Chorongrah app for Andriod, plugged the phone into the unit and opened the app. You immediately see the FPS on your phone. Also the app lets you set up groups and it holds that data for you in that group.
one drawback. I have an HTC One M8 phone and the app didn't get the data from the unit. But we put the app on my son's Samsung Galaxy and it worked right away. I called the customer service number that came with the unit the next day and they told me it had to do with the way that Andriod runs on the HTC phones. The cable is supposed to plug into the earplug jack and it works on every phone but the HTC. They have a solution if you have an HTC phone, they mailed me out (no charge) an adapter that will plug the unit into the micro SD port instead.
So overall, I am very happy with the Caldwell Chrony. Gonna take it out later today after work for a quick trip to test some 38 Special loads I worked up.

 

[vmax]

I got my Caldwell Chronograph premium kit in and had a chance to get it out the other evening.
It's a nice unit, well built and designed. I set it up on the tripod that came with the kit. It has a simple switch on the left side.

MPS - OFF - FPS

after I turned it on it does a 5 second countdown and goes into ready mode. We set this up in my shop and opened the door so my son could shoot his airsoft gun through it. Downloaded the Caldwell Chorongrah app for Andriod, plugged the phone into the unit and opened the app. You immediately see the FPS on your phone. Also the app lets you set up groups and it holds that data for you in that group.
one drawback. I have an HTC One M8 phone and the app didn't get the data from the unit. But we put the app on my son's Samsung Galaxy and it worked right away. I called the customer service number that came with the unit the next day and they told me it had to do with the way that Andriod runs on the HTC phones. The cable is supposed to plug into the earplug jack and it works on every phone but the HTC. They have a solution if you have an HTC phone, they mailed me out (no charge) an adapter that will plug the unit into the micro SD port instead.
So overall, I am very happy with the Caldwell Chrony. Gonna take it out later today after work for a quick trip to test some 38 Special loads I worked up.

ok, I take that back

took it out to the range, set it up and turned it on. Error message. It won't work. Called Customer Service, told them the error message and they said they have had a bunch of them ship out that were bad. It's an error in the rear sensor.
The way he put it was you get a good one or a bad one. They are in the process of getting new units tested and shipped out right now so it will take 2-3 weeks to get a replacement.

I took a chance and went down in flames I guess. Mine worked fine when I first took it out of the box but only had it on for a few minutes.

They were very apologetic and sorry about the situation so I can't be upset with them, just upset at the situation.

 

[shooterfpga]

ok, I take that back

took it out to the range, set it up and turned it on. Error message. It won't work. Called Customer Service, told them the error message and they said they have had a bunch of them ship out that were bad. It's an error in the rear sensor.
The way he put it was you get a good one or a bad one. They are in the process of getting new units tested and shipped out right now so it will take 2-3 weeks to get a replacement.

I took a chance and went down in flames I guess. Mine worked fine when I first took it out of the box but only had it on for a few minutes.

They were very apologetic and sorry about the situation so I can't be upset with them, just upset at the situation.

Did you have the phone plugged in when you booted it up?

Try unplugging the phone from the unit boot it up and then plug the phone in.

 

[vmax]

Did you have the phone plugged in when you booted it up?

Try unplugging the phone from the unit boot it up and then plug the phone in.

you're just gonna have to trust me on this. Any and every thing you can think up to try was tried today.

The unit is bad.

When I first opened it up at the house Tuesday night and turned it on it worked fine with the ap on the phone.
It even read my son's airsoft gun just fine.

Today it had Error2 on the LCD without the phone attached. Took out the battery, waited. Tried again. Customer service said it was a bad unit like many of them have been apparently a bad rear optical sensor.

 

[shooterfpga]

Yeah i had seen a few units with that error but some were able to make it go away. Sucks you got a defective one. But as you mentioned luckily their cs is good.

 

[scap99]

The labradar will have a suggested retail of $559.95. The Oehler 35P is $595.00. So I'd call the labradar the cheaper option among premium chronographs.

The cheap chronos all cost around $100.

In the $200+ range there are a couple of units from PACT and CED but I don't like those. I'm willing to pay for the proof channel (extra accuracy) and replaceable parts (if I shoot them) of the Oehler 35P. Or I'm willing to buy something so cheap that if I shoot it, I won't cry. Anything in between seems to me to be neither fish nor fowl.

This one popped up on my radar, pun intended, recently.

Was leaning magnetospeed, but this radar unit is looking really tempting.

 

[shooterfpga]

This one popped up on my radar, pun intended, recently.

Was leaning magnetospeed, but this radar unit is looking really tempting.

Magnetos are awesome. Downside is the poi shift a lot of people get. Either use it to get fps and then zero and leave it on all the time and account for the shift.

 

[Mexican_Hippie]

I have a new Chrony I need to try out. Got it about a year ago and just never got around to it.