chronographs,what can i learn from them?

[Matt1911]

Other than,"neat,this load goes x fps"what do you use them for,and how do you adjust loads per data?
This might sound niave,but i still have never varyed from winchesters load data/componets in my reloading,but i am starting to wonder if i can do better.....

 

[Kamicosmos]

a friend of mine just picked up a chrony and we played around with it this weekend. Our primary interest will be twofold:
1)Double check/verify book numbers
2)Double check/verify our load performance.

A real good example is I have always wondered what velocity my .44 mag loads do out of my various .44s. I shoot a 240 grain bullet with 23 grains of H110 out of the following:
5.5 inch Redhawk
12" Contender
18" Marlin 1894
6" Desert Eagle

I used to shoot IDPA, so there was a desire to see how light of a .40 round I could load that would still qualify for Major power factor. Hard to do that without a chrony.

We only chrono'ed about 15 shots, but already noticed alot of variation in some mil surplus .308 rounds. My friend's DE .50 loads however, were much more consistant, only vared around 10-30 fps...

Overall, a chrony is mostly a geek thing for me. I just love having Stats to throw around...

 

[saands]

Well ... the geek factor certainly comes into play ... but it has real uses as well. If you want to match a factory load for cheaper practice then a chrony allows you to measure the performance of the factory load (in YOUR gun) and then work a load up to the same level (assuming that you stay within the published limits for the powder you chose). If you are shooting rifles at long ranges, then knowing the ACTUAL muzzle velovity will make your drop predictions MUCH more accurate. The chrony also gives you insight into your loading process ... not so much with the average velocity that you attain, but more when you look at measures of the variation in the distribution of velocities (the range ... or more informatively the standard deviation).

I, for one, have been humbled by the consistency of the old Russian mil-surp that I have chronoed If I could have 50% higher std dev's than they do, I'd be THRILLED!


Saands

 

[Jeeper]

It is one of those fun things to have that eventually you rearely use. It is nice for competitions to check your loads. It is also very nice for rifle to predict trajectory. I personally think that it is rather useless for pistol loads in general. If you arent loading near the hot end of the chart it wont tell you much that is really usefull. Even then it wont give pressure data. Do you really care if the load is 50fps off what the book says? It really depends on what you are loading for. If you are doing super accuracy then it is good. FOr most people I think it is useless. I havent used mine more than 3 times in the last 5 years. I check new loads for USPSA on it and that is basically it.