How important is the ability to chronograph?

Not required if you are staying within published data.

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I strongly disagree. Think of a chronograph like the speedometer on your car. If you stay close to beginning level loads it might not be necessary, but why would someone buy a 30-06 and load it to just over 30-30 speeds. Like people who drive 35 in a 55 just to be safe they don't speed.

When you look at load data you may see a load that says 47 gr of powder "X" is a max load with 150 gr bullets and to expect 2900 fps. The 2900 fps is the limiting factor, not 47 gr of powder. When working up a new load you start at a lower number, maybe 44 gr and work up to 47. But it is good to shoot them over a chronograph as you go. When you start approaching 2900 fps you are approaching a max load.

You may reach 2900 fps in YOUR rifle at only 45 gr. Then 45 gr is a max load in THAT rifle. In other rifles you may go all the way to 47 gr and still only get 2800 fps. Technically it would be safe to go over 47 gr until you reach 2900 fps in THAT rifle. But I don't advise going over book loads. While they may be safe in one particular rifle if they somehow ended up in another rifle could be way over a max load in that rifle.

Most cartridges max pressure is 60,000 PSI or less. Traditional pressure signs that people look for don't even start showing up until you hit 70,000 PSI. Yea, people loaded without one for years. Some of them were shooting mouse fart loads from their rifles, others were well over max loads. But both groups were blissfully ignorant of what they were doing.

A usable chronograph can be bought for less than the cost of 2 boxes of premium factory loads. If I had to spend $400-$500 for one I might be hesitant. But as cheap as they are today no hand loader should be without one.

I have two of them, but only have used them for Pellet rifles. For powder burner handguns just do not see any use for my shooting needs. Defense ammo I personally do not reload, trust the Quality manufacturers to have done the testing before they put it on the market. And there are so many test and reviews of ammo on the internet etc. that show the results of defense ammo for almost any gun that I own. Range ammo is range ammo to me. Do not want to even think about taking the time to set one up and mess with it.
Yep, probably would if I shot precision Rifle, but that is not going to happen for me.
Reloading to me is a hobby into it self. I guess it is how devoted you are to that hobby. When I go to the range, which is weekly, I want to maximize my time. Prefer to spend most of it shooting and training and leave. Testing of my guns with different amo for accuracy is time consuming enough.

jmr40 said:

When you look at load data you may see a load that says 47 gr of powder "X" is a max load with 150 gr bullets and to expect 2900 fps. The 2900 fps is the limiting factor, not 47 gr of powder. When working up a new load you start at a lower number, maybe 44 gr and work up to 47. But it is good to shoot them over a chronograph as you go. When you start approaching 2900 fps you are approaching a max load.

You may reach 2900 fps in YOUR rifle at only 45 gr. Then 45 gr is a max load in THAT rifle. In other rifles you may go all the way to 47 gr and still only get 2800 fps. Technically it would be safe to go over 47 gr until you reach 2900 fps in THAT rifle. .

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That is a general statement that I am not comfortable with. There may be guns that will never produce book numbers even if you go to 70 gr of powder in THAT rifle and blow it up. It's not velocity that determines max but pressure. Telling someone new to reloading they can just keep adding powder till they get book velocities outta a particular firearm is not something I would advise. But that is me.

Simple answer for me, I do not have one or particularly want one. And I have been reloading for a long, long time. I do know that you can reload safely and successufully without a chrono. You may be interested in different things. I have never shot over 300 yards and do not shoot pistol competition where meeting the power factor is critical. I expect if you are reading wind and dope at 600 yards you need to know the velocity?

Last time I went to the rifle range I might have been the only one there without a chrono sticking out from the gun. I did come back and look on the internet to see what they were. The new magnetic ones. But had no urge to order one.

For my shooting I don't think of the chrono as needed but instead as fun. I'm not a hunter or competitive shooter, I just like sending rounds down range and I also enjoy the reloading process. I've always liked crunching numbers and obtaining the data from the chono and studying the results with different powders, loads and bullet weights is fascinating to me.

I don't have to pay for range time by the hour and can spend all day there if I want, so setting up and recording with the chrono presents no hardship to me. And since the range is never crowded I'm not holding up anyone else with my puttering around. It's just my way of obtaining maximum enjoyment from my hobby.

I went many years without one and did fine.
I have had one for a long time and I am doing fine.
I have more points of data than I used to. More data is gooder.

A chronograph can eat up a lot of ammunition. If your goal is to save money by reloading, the chrono is counter-productive. Not only does it cost more, but you'll blow a lot of ammo measuring it. As it has already been pointed out, you can make good ammo without one. There is no need to measure velocity or make any adjustments for variances.

On the other hand, the chronograph is easily the most informative single tool in load development for a particular firearm and cartridge. The value comes not from measuring the velocity, but the consistency of it. Again, this can chew up a lot of ammo, because you're measuring the extreme spread and standard deviation of groups not just the velocity of single cartridges. You certainly don't need to do this for plinking ammo, but it does satisfy a lot of curiosity. There can be a real demand for this kind of data in precision disciplines, but based on your reluctance to afford a $100 chronograph, I don't suspect you're reloading for precision.

A lot of reloaders enjoy reloading. More than one has said they shoot to reload. If reloading is really a hobby you enjoy, you'll want a chronograph so when your thoughts dwell on reloading, you'll have more data for your brain to peruse. If reloading is just a means to the end of more ammo for shooting then use the money for more components and don't waste ammo shooting over a chrono.

My chronograph is used to benchmark against standard loads (a 45-grain bullet in .22 Hornet at 2400 feet per second, for instance).

Its use is especially important to me with old rifles, trapdoor Springfield and military rifles, when my goal is to match their standard loadings.

mcb said:

Not required if you are staying within published data.

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this, in a nutshell.

murf

Chronographing is necessary when trying to stay within velocity limits for certain competitions, or when going outside published data, which should only be attempted by advanced handloaders. I have reloaded for over 40 years and have yet to own a chronograph. I have used one owned by a friend, but more as a curiosity than a necessity.

The cronograph is a tool that is used by many people for different reasons.
1. As a reloader it can tell you about quality of your reload process. This is a subjective assessment based on the quality of the components and your abilities to assemble them as identical as possible. As an example some powders produce on average higher standard deviations than others. Varget is a powder many competion leaders use because in most cases produces low deviation numbers. There are other reasons as well but that's not in the scope of what were talking about. Additionally components like primers are also tested in the same way. Does primer xxx produce a better SD than primer yyy. So for reloading a crony is a tool to evaluate your methods and components.
2. As a shooter you get data for dope calculations and can tell you critical information like when your bullets will go trans sonic.
So will this tool help you as a shooter or reloader, yes. Is it a critical piece of initial equipment no.

A chronograph does not and cannot tell us anything quantitative about internal ballistics. We have not even the most tenuous calculation which reflects a real and reliably quantifiable calculation between chronograph measured velocity and actual maximal pressure in the bore. Even with strenuous inputs given to Quickload, the predictions of maximal pressure and corresponding muzzle velocity may not accurately represent our rifles, ammunition, or components in the real world. In general, qualitatively, increasing pressure increases velocity, but we know it’s impossibly exhaustive to actually and quantifiably correlate this, formulaically.

Such... Chronographs are a tool for an external ballistics. If you have no consideration for external ballistics in your application, you likely will not find any value for a chronograph in your process. Hunting deer to 200yrds with a .3G1+ bullet at 2600-3400fps simply doesn’t significantly dictate a significant benefit satisfied by a chronograph. Nor does plinking with 9mm for defensive handgun practice. Even competing in known/fixed distance formats may not be significantly benefitted to know their velocity.

But Chronograph data can be critical for some applications - almost all forms of competition have velocity requirements, minimums or maximums, or both. Variable range long range shooting may not require a chronograph, but is certainly benefited significantly in having this data - accurate muzzle velocities can significantly shorten our data development phase (DOPE) and reduce our ammo costs to walk rounds onto targets.

It’s not so complicated that this question should come up so often. Don’t miss a rent or mortgage payment to buy a chronograph. Don’t waste money if your application doesn’t prescribe distinct value for it.

I think you sell the load development aspect of using a chronograph short. I agree a chronograph alone can tell you very little about internal ballistics but used in conjunction Quickload (software) you can get some fairly accurate (not perfect) insight into internal ballistics. We are getting off newbie focused reloading but I have worked up loads from scratch using Quickloads and a Chronograph for fed-back to the model. Later that load/data was verified in a SAAMI spec pressure test barrel and the Pressure vs Time curves were remarkably close. It was close enough that I continue to use my method as needed. If I did it just once you could call it luck but I have done it with multiple loads over the past few years. Not something a newbie should be trying but it can be done successfully and safely IMHO.

Think of a chronograph like the speedometer on your car.

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I like this analogy. Obviously not needed to drive safely.

I guess it kind of goes off the rails a little because I never owned a chronograph before I started to shoot competitively and I have never owned or driven a racecar with a speedometer...

A chronograph and BC tables can get you some trajectory numbers that are going to be pretty close to what really happens but I don’t think the tables are a great substitute for recording what actually happens when you shoot.

Is a chronograph necessary to shoot well--no.
Can a chronograph be useful--yes.

jmorris said:

I have never owned or driven a racecar with a speedometer...

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My formally SCCA Improved Touring C now H Production Honda Civic race car still has a speedometer (too lazy to remove it) but I rarely look at it. The tachometer is an indicator of speed and is useful when learning a new track. You can use the tach to see if you are going faster at a particular place, the speedometer does not have enough resolution to see slightly different speeds at a quick glance.

Of course, onboard data collection systems are are reasonably priced these days. But, they can overwhelm the user with too much information.

Chronographs are including more and more capabilities so the user needs to be careful to not get lost in the excess data.

cfullgraf said:

Is a chronograph necessary to shoot well--no.
Can a chronograph be useful--yes.



My formally SCCA Improved Touring C now H Production Honda Civic race car still has a speedometer (too lazy to remove it) but I rarely look at it. The tachometer is an indicator of speed and is useful when learning a new track. You can use the tach to see if you are going faster at a particular place, the speedometer does not have enough resolution to see slightly different speeds at a quick glance.

Of course, onboard data collection systems are are reasonably priced these days. But, they can overwhelm the user with too much information.

Chronographs are including more and more capabilities so the user needs to be careful to not get lost in the excess data.

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My honda rs250r race bike only had a tac, and the only thing that mattered was beating the guy in front of you. Having more data on the track may or may not help you. Same happens in shooting. More is better if its timely and you have the ability to use it.

The idea that published maximum velocities are the best indicator of having reached maximum peak pressure is pure foolishness. It is complete folly to continue loading additional powder mass until you reach the velocity that someone else reached with a different barrel and different atmospheric conditions. Only the internal chamber pressure generated for a given powder mass is practically consistent between the test apparatus and your firearm. There is no SAAMI or CIP specifications for anything outside that.

Since revolver load data is almost always developed with test barrels that do not have a barrel to cylinder gap, and the test barrel is often 10" or longer, it would be guaranteed to rupture cylinders if someone were to load more powder until their revolver produced the velocities shown in published load data.

There are many other cases where your gun will deliver substantially different velocities for a given charge mass. You are certainly not limited to handgun test barrel velocities in your rifle, and if you're loading for your AR pistol, don't try to load up to the velocities of a 24" test barrel.

Barrel length and the differences between test barrels and actual firearms like revolvers are not the only thing that causes wide discrepancies in published velocities and actual velocities for the same chamber pressure level. The difference between sea-level, 31hg barometric pressure, 30 degrees F, and 90% RH and 5000 feet, 29hg pressure, 90 degrees F, and 10% RH can exceed 70 fps.

I find the use of a chronograph very useful, even for handgun plinking rounds.

Early on, I noticed that the first round of every cylinder from my revolver was slower than all the other rounds. That is when I found out about powder-forward effect, so I do that test every time I work up revolver loads now. I had one powder that showed 300fps difference between powder-forward and powder-rear. I don't use that powder for fear of sticking a bullet at reduced charges. Yes, I could tell the difference, but not by exactly how much without the chrono.

More recently I was testing a new, highly touted powder in 45acp, and was seeing large extreme spreads and unexplained differences from one shot group to another. Further investigations showed not only case position sensitivity, but also sensitivity to different types of primers. Some shots I could tell the difference without the chrono, but for most I could not. I may have never discovered this problem without first questioning the results from the chrono. As a result, I won't use this powder for 45acp.

I can tell some things about loads that I would not be able to tell any other way. Sometimes I see the standard deviation and extreme spread drop as I go up in charge. This tells me that the powder in question has a pressure range where it prefers to operate. Sometimes I see the opposite, telling me that I probably should not go higher in charge.

On low pressure rounds, like 38spl and 45acp, about the only high-pressure sign that is useful is how dirty the cases are, indicating low pressure not forming a gas seal. To me, knowing the velocity becomes more important than with other calibers, within the limitations others here have indicated.

Having said all that, I worked up loads in 40, 9mm, and 380 early in my reloading hobby without the use of a chrono. But I used tried and true powders and load data. Is a chrono absolutely necessary? No, but when you get down to it, neither is using a scale, since you can just use the Lee dippers. You don't need a tumbler to clean brass, you can just wipe off each one before loading. If there is one thing I have discovered about reloading, it is that there are lots of shiny reloading gadgets I never knew I needed. Some are more useful than others.

Toprudder said:

I find the use of a chronograph very useful, even for handgun plinking rounds.

Early on, I noticed that the first round of every cylinder from my revolver was slower than all the other rounds. That is when I found out about powder-forward effect, so I do that test every time I work up revolver loads now. I had one powder that showed 300fps difference between powder-forward and powder-rear. I don't use that powder for fear of sticking a bullet at reduced charges. Yes, I could tell the difference, but not by exactly how much without the chrono.
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I see the powder forward vs powder rearward in spades with my 45 Colt loads with Unique powder.

In the long run, it does not seem to make a difference in accuracy with my 45 Colt loads but it can have an effect with other cartridges.

Something to keep in mind and yes, a chronograph is a way to see some of the differences in velocity.

I use it for rifle. As others have said it's "essential" if you're going to go out any significant distance and you need to compute drop, etc.

For pistol it's the "if you stay within published data" that is critical for getting by without a chronograph. My chronograph has saved my bacon on a couple of (pistol) occasions. In both instances I have pistols that have short leade. I've had to load cartridges shorter than what was in the published data. In both instances the chronograph told me I was hitting max velocities before I was close to published max load. On more than one occasion I've brought test loads home to pull because the chronograph told me they were going to be too hot.

I didnt have one, and then I had one, then it got shot (not by me), now I don’t have one, and I’m still okay.

I thought it’d be more useful than it ended up being. For me, it was like a tachometer; a curiosity. Neat, but not really necessary, so long as you understand everything that went into it before you pulled the trigger.

Sypher.... said:

I ask because I don't see funds in my future for one anytime soon.

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Then, not very important at all. Many, many people did some very fine shooting before chronographs became widely available. Annie Oakley never saw one. They certainly aren't important enough to worry about, or to do without something else that is important in order to get one.

Welcome to reloading. Be safe and enjoy.

I've been using them for years and have accumulated three with a newly acquired Labradar.
My Shooting Chrony master has never been shot although I did need to replace the sky screens.
Replaced it with a competition electronics model only because of the tablet APP.
New Shooting Chrony's are going for $130 bucks at Midway USA, be happy to sell you mine, make me an offer.
You will need to write down your results but it is what it is.