Gentlemen,
Would someone please explain the "song and dance" that's involved in setting up an Oehler 35P.
Isn't there setup time with all models? Are they considerably less time consuming?
I think a lot of shooters would like to hear it firsthand from the fellows using them.
Thank you in advance for your time and help.
Soup
The two main benefits of the Oehler are the ability to control accuracy and verification of every shot.
Controlling accuracy - Longer screen spacings are more accurate. Velocity is measuring time to travel a distance. If that distance is small, errors are magnified. In other words, if your measurement of the distance is off 1/8" it is more problematic on a 12" spacing than it is on a 120" spacing. Also, "Seeing" a bullet is difficult. Does the sensor see the nose, midpoint or tail? Does each sensor see the same part? If you have a short spacing and the first screen triggers on the tip of a long bullet but the last screen triggers on the base you will get an inaccurate reading.
Verification of every shot - The Oehler actually makes two measurements of every shot. They are expected to be very close. If they are not close, you know you have a problem. It is like running two chronographs.
The "Song and Dance" involved is that you have to position the screens in front of the gun and then shoot thru them. It is not difficult. It is even easier if you set the firearm on sandbags, pointed at the target, and use a laser boresighter to project a beam forward. You can then align the screens quite easily.
Longer screen spacings make it a bit more difficult but still doable. If you go over about 8', you probably need support for the middle screen as well as the two end screens.
I usually test with a 9' spacing.
I've said it before: We hear a lot of people say they verify their chronograph by comparing it to an Oehler. I've never heard anyone say they verified their Oehler by comparing it to another brand of chronograph.
All chronographs can give good data. All can give bad data. I'm not fond of a LabRadar but I am very fond of 2 LabRadars, run at the same time. I've documented velocity variance of about 60 fps, due to setup error that I would not have noticed without the 2nd unit. It IS NOT a fault of the machine. Once noticed and re-aligned, the problem was fixed.
