Chronograph Best At The Moment

[Hsing-ee]

I’ve got an old Skan chronograph that really ought to go to a collector. It’s got red LEDs and a button and it’s black and rectangular like something off a 70s BBC sci-fi like Blake’s 7.

What’s a more compact and up to date chronograph, not one of those awful things that goes on the muzzle, but something decent that doesn’t cost more than £140 or I won’t buy it.

What are all the cool kids measuring their speeds with the now?

[S Hebby]

Try and get a secondhand LMBR R2A. Superb bit of kit.

[Racing]

I use a FX "brick".
Ie; their earlier version. Works a tad different vs most other chronos in that it´s a doppler radar.

Very small, very compact. Runs on 3 AAA batteries. It´s just a transmitter though why you hook it to your smartphone via FX app, and the whole thing works a million bux.
Doesn´t care what weather.. temperature and so on. It being a doppler in turn, it just plain works.

Sensivity of the unit can be set through the app on the phone, as can pill weight, caliber and what not. Mind you, this is the FIRST version of it.

The second one just hit the market and them are more expensive and see.. here´s the thing. I place mine close to the muzzle. On a bench, a stick.. whatever. I NEVER EVER hang anything what so ever to the barrel... Again, the unit just simply works. No "dialing in" or the likes.

Turn it on. Open the app on the phone and the two asks if they should dock right off. Just press yes, and the unit in essence does the rest. You pick if you want to add pill weight and through that get muzzle energy together with speed.
You can opt if you want the app to read it out loud to you.

Here´s what i think..
They´ve become rather common why i say, find a used one. I did, mines a few yrs old by now, and i believe i forked over the equivalent of approx 60£ for it. I´ve used the living SNOT out of it, not only airguns but loads n loads of blackpowder firearms too.

It in my opinion only got one drawback and that´s that it´s "power hungry". Thus i normally pick AAA batteries up in bulk, and if i´m at the shop.. recharge AAA´s.. Thus not an issue really.

I believe it should be noted that i also own, and use of course, a rather expensive LabRadar. Yep, that orange doo-hickey everyone and their uncle raved about a few years back.
FX and Garmin have both released their take on the LabRadar semi recently, but to be quite candid i´ve looked into both and albeit the Garmin size wise is about on par more with the FX brick i still don´t see any "need" to replace my trusted old LabRadar.

Btw. To trigger the LabRadar using airguns i´ve got one of their small microphones that handles that.. just point towards the gun and set sensivity..

This has of course also lent that i´ve come to compare the two and truth be told the difference is like 1 or 2 fps or thereabouts. In other words.. same same from a practical point of view.

The LabRadar though also hands that it "tracks" the projectile which hands that i can calculate BC for basically any given projectile too. Needed? To most.. not really to be honest. To a nerd like me though, yes

LabRadar though (bought that used too) ran me an easy 10 times the money of the FX brick.

The "brick" however is what by FAR gets used the most. As it´s always there, you can place it like.. where ever.. Sturdy and so on.

One note though.
I keep a tiled floor at the shop right why it´s been more than once the damn thing has hit the floor. At first it had me running around like a one legged chicken as it had dropped to the floor and stopped working!!
GAAAH!

Well. Took it apart, and within there´s a joint where the one part of it hooks to the other aaaaaand.. them had just come apart. So.. just pushed that back in and bolted the thing back together. Yep.
Back in business.

So. Seeing the alternatives, nope. The original "brick" is in my book hard to beat.

[Travis299]

I’ve got an old Skan chronograph that really ought to go to a collector. It’s got red LEDs and a button and it’s black and rectangular like something off a 70s BBC sci-fi like Blake’s 7.

What’s a more compact and up to date chronograph, not one of those awful things that goes on the muzzle, but something decent that doesn’t cost more than £140 or I won’t buy it.

What are all the cool kids measuring their speeds with the now?

This model has been excellent for my use for about 4 years.

https://www.caldwellshooting.com/ran...1.html#start=1

[madcarlos]

I’ve got an old Skan chronograph that really ought to go to a collector. It’s got red LEDs and a button and it’s black and rectangular like something off a 70s BBC sci-fi like Blake’s 7.

What’s a more compact and up to date chronograph, not one of those awful things that goes on the muzzle, but something decent that doesn’t cost more than £140 or I won’t buy it.

What are all the cool kids measuring their speeds with the now?

Think I have the same skan unit. Only reads ftps. Like a shoe box with square window. Think whatever you buy won't last as long as the one you have.

[Neil54]

I have a Caldwell that I really like.

In all honesty I use my Chinese one more as it works under florescent lighting.

[Hsing-ee]

Think I have the same skan unit. Only reads ftps. Like a shoe box with square window. Think whatever you buy won't last as long as the one you have.

Actually you’re probably right. I just use it to check after a re-spring not for making spreadsheets for science.

[Jesim1]

The original FX chrono is a good bet, easy to use, great features, can be moded to run on a power pack, easy to get the info into your Pc to make graphs etc.....

It measures to the nearest 3fps, so not ideal for people doing high end tuning work, but for anyone wanting a chrono accurate to 1% then they are a great option.

[billywhizz1]

I use a £10 chinese one, works as it should, easy to use, and use my phone too calculate it. ive checked it against the very expensive club one and there really isnt much in it.

[angrybear]

"the Best" is the one that suits your requirements , some people only test a single gun inside at the bench after a rebuild,
other people put a chrono up every time they have a plink, or take half a dozen guns out every weekend in rotation to check over.

I use a 'Competition Electronics Pro-Chrono Digital' V frame type because I like to test while doing zero checks, I've got a usb interface but the new ones are bluetooth.

I certainly wouldn't change yours just for the sake of it.

[oldskoolzzz]

In all honesty I use my Chinese one more as it works under florescent lighting.

I use a £10 chinese one, works as it should, easy to use, and use my phone too calculate it. ive checked it against the very expensive club one and there really isnt much in it.

I’m the same quite like the little sub £20 Chinese Chrono I once tested it back to back with the clubs SKAN and there was only 3fps variance.

Plus the Chinese one is great in the garage for quick testing as the rechargeable battery lasts ages.

[Murphy]

I have a 21 year old Chrony F1 that has worked flawlessly over the years.

[madcarlos]

Actually you’re probably right. I just use it to check after a re-spring not for making spreadsheets for science.

It's a cracking unit , May have to put a pen or your barrel though the unit to reset it now and then once switched on but these must be near 30 years old, Been tempted to get a new one, its the diamond window that puts me off, Maybe I'm just used to a big square window,

[Dornfelderliebe]

I’ve got an old Skan chronograph that really ought to go to a collector. It’s got red LEDs and a button and it’s black and rectangular like something off a 70s BBC sci-fi like Blake’s 7.

What’s a more compact and up to date chronograph, not one of those awful things that goes on the muzzle, but something decent that doesn’t cost more than £140 or I won’t buy it.

What are all the cool kids measuring their speeds with the now?

I killed my ballistically brilliant chrono a few weeks ago and now have a cheap chinese one which I cannot get to display fps so refer to a hand written table of mps/fps.

[BC312]

I have a Skan chrono, square black box with red led screen which shows a number which you have to calculate the number. You shoot through a 2 inch hole with a paper or card slot so as to not hit the machine and get the pellet in the correct place. Worked very well for years but now i have to re shoot because the machine doesn't recognise a pellet reading, have to do it again. Not sure if the led is dirty with dust or the electronics are failing. It would be good to get this corrected, if anyone knew what to do or which electronic component usually fails.