Even though it wasn't one of the items I mentioned when I first started the reloading investments thread, later on when someone mentioned their Magnetospeed I definitely agreed with it being an important tool.

Granted, I don't use it all the time. More so with some rifles/cartridges than others. But pretty much every load I am serious about gets chronographed at some point.

I used it just last night on a new 223 load. Rifle is an 18" Encore in 223, using the excellent Sierra 1365 and Benchmark. I loaded up a ladder and shot it when I got off work. Took the results home and studied it a bit, used that data to roughly identify low and high node. Went to the bench and loaded 3 rounds of each. Since my range is only 2 miles from my house on private land, I ran back over there and popped the rounds of real quick to see where in the ballpark I was. Both fell right in track with where I thought they should be and that helped give me confidence I was looking in the right areas to continue my accuracy testing.

One of the reasons I load is to produce ammunition that does exactly what I want it to do. Travelling at the proper velocity is one of the parameters I look for since impact velocity has such a great effect on terminal ballistics. It seems most folks want to know the bullet speed for external ballistic drop charts, but then neglect terminal effects. But both together form the big picture. For target shooting terminal is irrelevant. But pretty much all my rifles are called upon to hunt on occasion, even the ones I do LR and target shooting with.

There may be more accurate chronographs than the Magnetospeed. But especially in the wind we have around here I will NEVER go back to a chrono with skyscreens again. They are such a PITA. Tricky setup, missed shots, wind blowing the screens over, lots of gear. The Magnetospeed is so simple, so easy compared to that. At some point the Lab Radar could be a viable option for me as well. It sure would be nice to be able to grab the speed data while I was shooting ladders. But right now it is out of my price range.


And EDIT to add, that was an excellent post Jim. That is exactly why I use one a fair amount. Primers, bolt lift, that kind of thing has always been kind of like reading tea leaves to me. Actual velocities gives me one more tool for me to use to make sure I am staying safe.

Last edited by JTPinTX; 06/22/17.