Is the Chrony F1 the best chronograph ? Video Review of the F1

[Scubashot]

For starters police dont chrono theyre sent to the lab at £500 a pop.

Been listening to the wrong people R2 are affected by light same as any other. Showing an led light on to the sensors makes no difference, switch on extra set of indoor lights reads 18-24 ft/sec faster to match a controlled unit.

You may be correct regarding the police testing.
I am going by Skan's website that states:
"SKAN CHRONOS HAVE BEEN IN CONTINUOUS USE WITH UK POLICE FORCE AND AIRGUN MANUFACTURERS FOR THE LAST 26 YEARS"

Whether the police themselves test using them or refer the guns to independent laboratories that use them, the end result is the same. If it passes with your own Skan you may be pretty confident that it will pass with any other Skan being operated by the Police or their chosen representatives.

I feel that you are in danger of "throwing out the baby with the bathwater" in suggesting that it is pointless testing with anything other than a very expensive and complicated radar setup.
As most of us build in a margin of around 0.5 to 1.00 ft-lb of muzzle energy, we are probably safe from most minor variations between chronographs.

[lensman57]

You may be correct regarding the police testing.
I am going by Skan's website that states:
"SKAN CHRONOS HAVE BEEN IN CONTINUOUS USE WITH UK POLICE FORCE AND AIRGUN MANUFACTURERS FOR THE LAST 26 YEARS"

Whether the police themselves test using them or refer the guns to independent laboratories that use them, the end result is the same. If it passes with your own Skan you may be pretty confident that it will pass with any other Skan being operated by the Police or their chosen representatives.

I feel that you are in danger of "throwing out the baby with the bathwater" in suggesting that it is pointless testing with anything other than a very expensive and complicated radar setup.
As most of us build in a margin of around 0.5 to 1.00 ft-lb of muzzle energy, we are probably safe from most minor variations between chronographs.

What radar set up? My F1 is useless but my Combro agrees with our Club's Skan to within 5ft/s. That is good enough for me and I should imagine a lot of air gunners that need to keep a check on their guns. The Combro works indoors and outdoors equally well but one like any other light reading device has to be careful not to operate it under strong sunlight or oblique illumination or dodgy lighting conditions, and that goes for the Skan too. A bit of common sense I am sure would stop people having to spend serious money on a radar set up and the likes.

The Police use Skan but that is for the initial assessment and for a full report the gun will be sent to any one of a number of approved labs where the pellet testing will take place.

A.G

[angrybear]

As long as you have a chrono, & it works accurately for you then that's all you need, what anyone else uses is largely academic if theirs works for them.

Is the F1 the best chrono ? NO, not by a country mile. However is it a good value unit for Joe average ? yes it is.

Personally speaking the F1 is no good for me because if I'm load testing I want to record multiple strings & be able to compare min, max, ave, & spread later, along with the target grouping, so I use a pro chrono which lets me do all that.

I only lasted through the vid to where the derisory comments about the variations like the printer started, but that's longer than with most.

[rancidtom]

I have an F1, I have a Combro and I have a Skan.
The F1 lies unused for the majority of the time. The only time it gets used is when taken out to do field testing of BC. It is very susceptible to changes in light but so long as it has good batteries it can be used, for this purpose I suggest a thick perspex plate in front as protection for the screen against fliers and I also use a 5 gallon white plastic container with top and bottom cut off as a sunshield tunnel over the whole chrono. I have calibrated it against my Skan and under optimum conditions it agrees within 1-2% of the Skan readings
The Combro gets used for the muzzle velocity readings when calculating BC, with careful use and good batteries, always remembering to set the calibration value every time the batteries are changed it gives readings +/- 1 or 2 FPS with my Skan.
The Skan is my bench chrono. Every rifle I own or work on gets run through the Skan as it is the same chrono that the police will use in event of an investigation. All results are logged and stored on the computer, every gun that's ever been shot, tuned or repaired by me is recorded for my piece of mind and to prove to the police that it was to the best of my knowledge legal when it left me. If ever my Skan produces a strange result I check the calibration figure and clean the sensor windows. If it won't show the correct calibration value it goes back to Skan for repair and re-calibration. So far it has been totally reliable apart from the sensor window covers coming un-glued from the plastic tunnel (probably due to getting 50+FtLb guns tested through it reasonably regularly, even with silencers these produce enough muzzle blast to rattle the windows! ) This "problem" has been cured with double sided sticky tape, I know another Skan user who has replaced with thicker perspex but so far I've not felt the need.
The Skan is plugged into the mains 24/7, this ensures the electronics are always at correct operating temperature (timing is done by quartz crystal oscillators, the accuracy is dependent on temp). The workshop is kept at 20-21 deg C, there is no direct sunlight or artificial illumination shining into or on the sensors.
Before taking my other chronos out for a BC test I will run a couple through them in conjunction with the Skan to check their calibration, while they will almost certainly be a lot cooler at the range they should both be at similar temps when recording velocities for BC calculations so I can assume they will be reasonably calibrated to each other at the range, but it's quite simple to put one or two through the F1 with the Combro on the muzzle and the F1 a couple of feet out rather than 50 yards away just to confirm they are within 1% of each other.
The instructions for the F1 Chrony state 99.5% accuracy, if we are talking about velocity readings in the 800 fps area this equates to +/-4 fps so don't get carried away with trying to get any chrono to read identically to another, they are acceptably accurate if used correctly, I use my Skan as my primary measuring tool as it is identical to the tool the police may use if ever there is a question over the legality of a gun I have worked on. I can honestly say that the gun was legal when I worked on it and if any tampering has been done I can disclose to the police how my guns are marked with "tamper evident" seals and marks, if there is any evidence of tampering then the gun is not guaranteed to be as it was when I measured it last. While this may or may not be admissible evidence for a court it goes a long way to prove that I am being honest and not attempting to disregard any legislation regards muzzle energy for sub12 and sub6 guns.