First chronograph question

[want2learn]

A friend was kind enough to gift me his Chrony F1 chronograph.

I've never used one before but doing a brief search revealed a lot of posts describing people having shot their chronograph. I guess it's easy to do?

I would sure appreciate any helpful hints / instruction as to how best to establish a safe, appropriate and optimal set up so that i don't do something i will regret while obtaining good data.

I will be using a Sig SSG3000 bolt action rifle prone in 6.5x47L with the center point of the scope mounted apx 2 inch above the central bore of the barrel.

I can shoot on a bench if that's felt to be better/ safer....but that would mean finding a suitable tripod.

thank you as always

 

[Diablo]

you can shoot off a bag on the bench, you don't want to kill your chronograph.

Set up cronograph (on its' stand) about 10 feet in front of the muzzle, you can look along your rifle bore to make sure you will be shooting well inside the skyscreen(s).

I've owned/used chronographs for many years and never killed one, but had a friend hit one of my Oehlers with a 44 magnum one afternoon (called Oehler and they shipped me the parts the same day).

 

[Rocketvapor]

Wind blew mine around on the tripod.
Didn't notice and shot a screen rod.

 

[DownhillFromHere]

There's going to be a learning curve. You will get frustrated with errors arising because one screen or the other didn't "see" the bullet. At some point you'll probably upgrade to a LabRadar or MagnetoSpeed. But what you have will give you good data. You just have to work for it harder.

If you don't have to share a firing line with other shooters, it's easier. People get annoyed when they're asked to stop shooting every two minutes while someone is trying to align a Caldwell or Chrony or similar.

The way I used mine was to set up my target, then set up my rifle on bipod and rear bag centered on the target, and then arrange the chrono so the bullet would go between the screen rods. Remember to align through the barrel, not the scope... that two inches could be the difference between a good reading and an explosion of chrono bits.

And yes, I shot mine. I was on a "no blue sky" range where shooters are essentially forced via baffles and such to shoot into a berm, so I had to set the chrono further from the bench than I wanted. It doesn't take much twitch with a 9mm pistol, even resting it on a bag, to drop the bullet path a couple of inches at 25 feet, and I put a low-velocity polymer-coated bullet through the very top of the front panel. It ricocheted down and left , hit and bent one of the crews joining the case halves, then blew the battery downward out of its compartment in a shower of battery bits. The bullet itself was still in the case; the whole setup was so light that a lot of the impact energy was spent tipping the tripod over. The chrono still works, as critical components were untouched. If it had been one of my JHP handloads, I doubt the thing would have survived.

Good luck. Have patience, and you'll get good data.

 

[want2learn]

thank you