Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Anybody reload without a Chrono...

Good answer!


I agree. A guy at work was bragging about his $39.99 blister packed scope and how it is as good as any Leupold. I told him I would break it quick. His reply was it would be fine as long as you didn't use it! Duh!

...Yep...sounds like me back in the mid 60's...Substitute Weaver for Tasco...14 years old & blew my first primer while shooting at a small forked horn. I thought I'd blown my eye out. Lee dippers ...I still have two tiny clouds floating around inside my right eye. I bought my first scale promptly after that.

If you remember the old story if you became lost sit down and start playing Solitare and someone would come along and tell you how to play. Well same way when you show at the range with a chronograph. You meet some highly entertaining people with some strange ideas. I have checked my chrony with several others and its ball park. Some people have all but wanted to fight when their book loads and estimates were short a few hundred FPS. one Engineer type claimed the SD was off with factory and reloads running less than 50

you can extroplate velocity by using JBM

zero at 100

shoot to 300, 500, 700 (or as far as you can get decent data) and record the elevation required to get there. record conditions (temp, ect)

pull up your bullet in JBM, input the conditions, and tweak the MV input until it matches the elevation you needed to get to those distances. then print your card

BUT, you gotta input accurate numbers and know if your scope is calibrated in IPHY, MOA, ect.

I just wanna hit the target............

I have only been reloading for a couple of years. Before I shot my 1st reload, I bought a chronograph. I just felt better being able to correlate the actual powder charge & MVs vs. what the reloading manual states. It is not uncommon for me for the 1 caliber I currently reload for to reach max velocity before reaching the max powder charge listed in a reloading manual. I never ever exceed the max book MVs. Perhaps I could do so safely but why bother. As one of the previous posters has stated, all of my shots have been within a relatively short distance (ie, within 125 yards). I am much more concerned with safety and knowing my MVs is comforting to me. Also, it's interesting to me to see the effect(if any)that colder weather has on my reloads (ie, I develop my reloads in the heat of summer). I have a Brother-in-Law, who just started to reload and right now he has no idea what his MVs are. He's going to use my chrono to see what he's getting. Like in my case, he is very curious (as he should be) as to what he is achieving. To me a chrono is another analytical tool available that will ensure I stay out of trouble. Since they are so affordable, why not? But to each his own.

Pretty much my point of view..I boke down and got a chrono a few months back, but haven't used it yet..

I tend not to stray over book loads and use their velocity figures for guidence as part of the process of selecting a powder. After that, my primary concern is accuracy out to say 300m.

After getting the chance to play out to 1000m, I'd like to do some more, and in that game I think a chrono is important, hence my purchase..

This may be only an example of one but I had a 22-250 VS that I used to take Pdog shooting in WY several times a year. And I had a very accurate load worked up for it. I also used it in factory matches and regularly won.
Needless to say, over the summer, throat erosion would be pretty severe, so each spring I would reset my COL and adjust my powder charge using my Chrony until I was back to my winning velocity.
When I finally sent it off to be rebarrelled, the bullet was seated into less than half of the neck of the case and my powder charge was out of the book BUT my velocity told me that I was still operating safely because my velocity never exceeded what had originally been a 85% load of max.

I reloaded for several years w/out a chrono and, as others have said, as long as I stayed within published parameters didn't run into any issues at all.

That having been said, if you reload long enough chances are you'll want need a chronograph!

Everybody reloaded without a chronograph when I started reloading, only the factories had such things..I started using a chronograph about 1980 I guess..Used it a lot over the years, but have not used it much lately, and see no reason to as about all I do these days is hunt...

You don't have to have a chronograph to be a reloader..You can work up a load very easily and safely without one just like we used to do it...

Here is what to look for and how its done:

1. begin one grain below book max and work up from one grain or a half grain at a time, whichever makes you warmer and cozier..

2. watch for flat primers, watch for ejector marks on your case, watch for that little black ring aroun your primer, be aware of a sticky bolt..anyone of these things is a pressure sign but no need to get anal over a flat primer, its just an indicator to be aware of, as it may be only a soft primer..but the other observations are critical and with any of them its time to cut back a grain or two.

3. One can also mic a new unfired case then shoot it then mic it again, record your reading of the case that fits your chamber...Now using your resized once fired case mic it then shoot it then mic it again..You don't want any expansion as a rule. However you can tolerated .005 and some say even .015..I usually go with 0 as that suits me fine and I dont' lose enough velocity to make one iota of diffence..Is this step necessary, no its not, but its an option for those that like to play.

4. The other option and a real good one for the new reloader is get several reloading manuals, start a grain or two under their max and work up to the manuals max and if all is well just stop right there.

NO, nobody has to have a chronograph, it's just another toy all us suedo experts must have to play with and its an interesting test of your ammo and you gain a lot of pretty worthless knowledge from it, unless you have ignored all the above signs and all the sudden your old 06 is pushing a 180 gr. bullet at 3000 FPS as opposed to say 2800 max! . The animal you shoot will die anyway and the accuracy you get is apparant by looking at the target with or without the chronograph.

That said if you play in the red lane, the danger zone, you probably need a chronograph but you'll probably blow up your gun anyway sooner or later as that is your personality!

Again Ray is living in the 40's. Shame they ran you away from AR.

I just got a chronograph, after about 5 years of reloading. The one thing it is doing for me is allowing me to get the most I can out of my rifle/load combination and helps me ensure my loads are safe.

Just the other day, in my 20 inch bbl 308, I worked up to 46 grains VARGET with a 165 grain bullent and up to 47 grains for a 150 grain bullet. I ran some factory remington PSP corelokts over the chrono and they averaged 2720 fps. I worked my 150 grain loads up to 47 grains VARGET (book max) and I am averaging 2700, with no signs of pressure at all, great accuracy, and about the best speed that I can get with a 150 grainer in my rifle.

Is chronograph absolutely necessary, no probably not, but I think it helps you get the most of out your rifle safely.

Some will survey a level line and put indexes on the targets. This way you know the point of aim is at the same horizontal incline.

Then measure the drop at respect ranges.

The real nerds pull out the vintage HP48 and start cranking it out.

Not saying being this nerdy is bad. I have 2 HP48's. I could have bought a chrony with the money I put into one.

I reloaded for decades without one. They are about the cheapest way available, however, for us to approximate what our pressures might be. There are no free rides when it comes to velocity. If you unit it 200 fps faster than published loads, there is a reason.

i don't have one. however i do not shoot competitively and do not exceed published load data, so if my groups are small enough i am good to go.

I reloaded for years before I had could justify the funds for one
I split the cost with a buddy and we both used it a lot.
I now use mine for load development and to see if how much summer temps. change my fall and winter loads,and visa/versa
Otherwise it stays at home and I shoot known loads.

Like Ingwe, I always have to smile when someone shoots their pet load over my chrony and then feels cheated if it doesn't meet the speed they had guestimated from a manual.

I rubbed my eyes in disbelief when I first shot my favorite IMR 4895 loads over the chrony. The loads were about 150-200 fps lower than I expected. I thought "this thing is off" but I shot some factory loads over it
and proved to myself that the chrono was reading correctly. 150 fps is not going to make much of a difference for any shots I will ever take but I still like to get the most I can out of the gun/load and still stay safe.

Good shooting

As above, we all reloaded for years without a chrono. Contemporary wisdom, aka "well, everybody knows..." sufficed.

"Everybody knows that those manuals are just an approximation, you can usually go at least a couple of grains over their max"
or
"Everybody knows that those manuals are lawyer proofed, you can safely go a couple of grains over their loads"
or
"Load until you get pressure signs like sticky bolt lift or a blown primer, then drop back a grain and call it good".

Those that were really gunny and read Bob Hagel and Ken Waters measured case head expansion.

We'd probably crap a brick if we knew what kind of pressures we were really running in our rifles back then.

Even when I got my first chrono* in the early 80's I figured my rifles had to be able to reach the speeds the manuals listed - out of their 24 and 26" test barrels! If my 22" .30-06 didn't hit 2900 fps with a 165 grain bullet with a max charge from the manual then I didn't see any problem adding powder until it did. I ain't gonna tell you how much IMR-4350 I was loading, but that '06 sure had one loud muzzle blast to it!



*Oehler Model 12 IIRC with an octal readout - every shot you had to twist the dial to four different positions and watch a little needle indicator to get a 4 digit number. You looked up that number in a table to get your actual velocity.

"Why not use technology? Guessing you also believe the reason that loads in today's manuals are different than those of old is because of lawyers."

In both sentences, you effectively put words in my mouth that I didn't say. That ain't honest nor is it sanitary.


"Lots of folks take pride in shooting Tasco scopes and using Lee dippers, more power to them."

Perhaps you know more about that than I, but no one I know feels that way even tho some are limited to that. I respect them for going forward while doing the best they can.

I try to answer any poster's questions honestly and as he wrote it for his needs. And putting down the choices of those who can't afford or cannot justify what I chose to use just isn't my thing. That smacks of an elitest attitude to me but if you take pride in doing so, here or on AR, more power to you.

Whole lot of venison gathered in each year by guys using Tasco scopes and Lee Loaders.
I have a 700 Classic in .300 Savage with a vintage K3 on it. For whatever reason, I have only reloaded for it using a Lee Loader. I shoot 150gr RN bullets and have killed several deer with it.