[Ginormous]

I've pretty much decided that I am going to buy a chronometer. It'll do double duty clocking my BP and center fire pistol loads.

Having never owned one before, I'd like to avoid the pitfall of acquiring a chrony that has problems reading, is cheap, flimsy, or just not up to the task. Additional requirements: I'd like remote control and read out capability, decent memory for a number of shot strings, mean, mode, avg, standard deviation output, ease of cleaning, good warranty and plentiful replacement parts.

Your experiences and suggestions for a good chronometer are greatly appreciated. Also, et me know why you think any chrony you suggest is the right one as well. :)

[MCgunner]

I think you mean chronograph. A chronometer is a stop watch OR a navigational time piece. :D

I've owned a cheap Shooting Chrony for 25 years and it's worked flawlessly, very accurate when tested against other units. I highly recommend it with a caveat. I don't shoot shotgun loads or sabots over it for fear that the sabot or wad will smack the unit. Not a large screen, mines the older model. Even the newer ones with the sticks holding the screens, I don't think I'd wanna risk. You need an Ohler with a remote screen (which is rather large, too) if you wanna do shotguns and sabots IMHO. Even then, you don't wanna hit a detector. A detector on that Ohler probably costs more than my whole Shooting Chrony set me back.:rolleyes: For black powder, just get a basic chronograph. I'd like an Ohler with the strain gauge and sound detectors would be way cool for accuracy work if I had my own private range set up where I didn't have to remove 'em. There are lots of gadgets like that which are really not useful on a BP gun. You don't need a exterior ballistics computer and that built into it. Having it calculate your standard deviation MIGHT be useful to determine load consistency, but you can live without that, too, IMHO, just shooting BP guns.

I do all my ballistic and statistical computations on the computer for my rifle stuff. Don't need all that stuff for handgun load development, either, though a strain gauge would always be handy for measuring chamber pressures. That's kinda why I'd like one of those Ohlers. But, really, I don't do a lot of load development anymore and my old Chrony has served me well, with the computer for trajectory computations. Shooting Chrony offers the remote LED, I think they offer statisical calculations, too, and they have an optional printer. You should also check out the Pact, costs a bit more, but might offer you more what you want. You really can't buy a bad one since the Shooting Chrony is the cheapest and i've found it very acceptable.

[Ginormous]

Hah, I could use both then! But yes, I certainly meant chronograph. :o

[AdmiralB]

I have a Shooting Chrony F1 Master, bought it from Midway for $89 a few months ago. So far, works fine for BP.

I had a fancy Pact back in the '90s, shoulda kept it, but this'll do fine.