Well I opened the wallet and have a $70 F 1 chrono from wallyworld on the way. Any tips on how to go about setting it up ? Does anyone know how many shots in a string before you have to reset? The only tip I know is don't shoot it.
10 years and you have neither shot the chrony itself nor shot any of the rods?
You obviously don't use it very much
You must be using a rifle. Try it free hand, not on a rest with a mouse gun .380. When I first got mine, I nicked one of the uprights. After that, I used a rest with a target to shoot at behind.10 years and you have neither shot the chrony itself nor shot any of the rods?
You obviously don't use it very much
I got mine for Christmas '10 and only just shot over it a few months ago. I had read so many posts about how finicky it was, and had a buddy that seemed to have no end of troubles with his, that I kept getting cold feet about getting it out. I'm pretty sure that my buddy just did not know about the "keep a fresh battery in it" rule, and I have had ZERO problems. The thing has been absolutely great. Sure, I've had an ERR 2 here and there and a few readings that were obviously wrong, but the SD's let me know when something is off. I did manage to shoot it a little bit on the second outing. Noticed when I was putting it away that the sheet metal was bent back a bit behind the second sensor. Had I been a half inch lower, it would have looked like Joseph's above. I say, go out, use it, keep some batteries around, and report back on your results.
For instance, I am a bit worried that my 10mm 10.8gr 800X load in my 6" Storm Lake G20 barrel is reading at just under 1500fps. That's a 900 ft-lb load out of a 700 ft-lb cartridge. Seems odd that 1.5" of barrel would add that much velocity, but it seems to shoot fine, with no "pressure signs" and is an accepted load at the 10 ring.
Pellet gun is not necessary, either, if you just want to test it for operation. Get a medium-long (20" or so) rod and wave it as fast as you can passing over the sensors and you should get readings in the 300-400 fps range. (The longer the rod, the faster you can get the end of it to go. With my hand alone, I could not get enough speed or a compact enough "shadow" to get a reading.) The rod should be at right angles to the axis of the instrument so the shadow or the rod is as short as possible.Try getting used to set up first with a pellet gun at home. Better than at the range when you have to wait for it to go cold to make adjustments.