I have to agree that speed is a key metric for load work up. Many times I have had pressure signs below book maximums, No I wasn't injured and could back off or try different combinations of powder or bullet, Most agree that these pressure signs, like hard bolt lift or brass flowing in to the ejector slot occur many thousands of PSI above SAAMI max pressures. While its great to have rifle and brass that can handle that from time to time, id rather not depend on it. Now that I use a chonograph for load work up I usually get tipped of by velocity before I get to the point of high pressure signs.
The other side of the coin is stopping at a book max because without a Chronograph you have no idea that your load is still way below expected velocity.
Its probably 15 or so years ago I got my shooters Chrony for something like the cost of 2 boxes of bullets ( I think mine was a refurb from midway) Its was a useful tool that was worth more than I paid. It missed some shots, but mostly worked for my purposes. In the end I mostly replaced it with a Magnetospeed, just for the convince of set up, but still use the shooting Chrony when I have a bigger project and want to shoot groups with out removing the MS. I never did an extensive side by side, but on the few occasions when I did some parallel shooting they matched up within 10 fps or so. With MD's comments I am tempted to do a better comparison with the Shooting Chrony and Magnetospeed.
