Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Chronographs

My first "chronograph" was a ballistic pendulum, put together with the directions in P.O. Ackley's first volume of his HANDBOOK FOR SHOOTERS AND RELOADERS. Built it in the basement of the first house I bought, which was outside the "city limits" of the little Montana town I lived in then. That was about the time electronic hand-calculators started replacing slide-rules, and I had one. As far as I could tell, the pendulum worked.

But must also admit that I am not obsessed by muzzle velocity, after going many years without a "real" chronograph, instead actually shooting at various ranges with my rifles to determine the trajectory. But when I started writing about hunting rifles (among the many other subjects I wrote about back then, from Western history to fishing) and realized that an actual electronic chronograph was required to be published--rather than listing "approximate" velocities from loading manuals, which used to be common.

Bought my first electronic chronograph in 1979, when still in college, a unit that hasn't been made in years. It included both "break screens"--made of a grid of thin aluminum glued to equally thin paper--and light-screens. Tested them against each other, and came up with the same numbers. (Oh, and it was one of those chronographs where you turned a dial that pointed toward numbers from 0-9, and wrote down which little red lights beside each number lit up. Then you looked through a booklet that listed the velocity of that series of numbers.) The major test I made was running some Remington .22 Long Rifle ammo through my old Marlin 81 and finding the velocity closely matched the chrono.

That chronograph eventually died in the early 1990s, and since by then more of my income was due to gun writing, I bought one of the early Shooting Chronys, which believe it or not cost $50 from the L.L. Bean catalog. Tried it with the same batch of Remington .22 LR ammo, and the results were very close.

After that went through a bunch of chronographs, including two more Shooting Chronys. Learned the various ways they can go wonky--or work well. Along the way got to visit several professional pressure labs, and learned a LOT--including the fact that EVERY one used an Oehler chronograph of some sort. (As Buford Boone noted, have never heard of anybody testing chronographs for accuracy against anything but an Oehler.)

But again must emphasize that I do NOT believe every handloading hunter needs an accurate chronograph. Though along the way I also learned that muzzle velocity has a far closer correlation to pressure than any of the traditional "pressure signs"--and having accurate velocities can also save plenty of time when testing loads for POI at longer ranges--and am not talking 500+ yards, but even 200-400, depending on the cartridge. All of this eventually saved me a lot of time--and components. (Dunno anybody who doesn't want to save on components these days.)

Might also mention one of the more extreme instances where "published data" did not come anywhere close to reality. A good friend in the gun-writing business bought a 7mm Remington Magnum back when it was still one the hottest-selling rounds. He loaded up some 160-grain bullets and found they shot well with the load listed in the same bullet manufacturer's manual, which supposedly got 3000 fps. He used it for years in western Montana to take big game from deer to black bears and elk, and boy, did it knock the snot out 'em! Man, that magnum sure did a job.

Then he got into gun writing, a few years after I did, and had to buy a chronograph. I can't remember which brand, but it might have been an Oehler, since Shooting Chronys didn't exist then. He found out his devastating "magnum" load got around 2700 fps, about like "modern pressure" loads in a 7x57. But he never shot anything beyond about 250 yards in that steep, timbered country, so even the extremely "slow" bullet still worked great. But he would have been surprised at the trajectory if he shot anything beyond 250 yards.

No, handloaders don't need chronographs--and in fact I have long felt they hamper some handloaders, who're always trying for absolute maximum velocity. But "affordable" models have been around for at least 30 years now, and buying and using one doesn't make any sense unless it's accurate.