Gun Vice & Chronograph

[Cold_Bore_88]

Good evening all,

Just want your input on a good gun vice to "seriously" sight in my rifle. I can get to 1 MOA but I have always wondered how accurate I could really get it (without my mediocre shooting capabilities). Any advice on a good brand/setup?

I am also looking at purchasing a chronograph to more accurately measure velocity for my ballistic calculator. I usually just use the velocity on the 168 A-Max box. Only problem is that I am using a 16" barrel (not 24").

Advice on one or both?

 

[BLDTYLRY]

MagnetoSpeed v2 is very convenient and quick to set up.

 

[DesertLefty]

I have a serious gun "vice". Way too many guns and gear. My wife would much rather spend that money on furniture and vacations.

As for a "vise" to hold your gun, they're useful for cleaning, but not for shooting. Short of buying a rail gun, the only way to shoot your rifle better is to learn to shoot better. Sorry for the bad news...

P.S. It is worthwhile to spend money on good ammo, a good trigger, a better barrel, and maybe a bedding job. Those things help. That plus a bipod and a couple of sandbags is all you need.

P.P.S. Sorry for the flippant response, but it was just too much to resist. Good luck!

 

[Scratchthejeepguy]

I really like my pro Chrono digital, much better than my buddies shooting chrony.

 

[Fred @ Bison Tactical]

+1 for MagnetoSpeed

 

[MSTN]

The Oehler 35P is awfully easy to set up and get solid results out of with a minimum of prior intellectual effort. I really like the half-page long set of "Quick Set Up" instructions that actually work!

 

[bh-ltr]

Save money on the vise and spend it on more ammo. Then spend more time dry firing. When I'm at home and bored even late at night I lay down behind the rifle and do dry fire practice at leaf tips out the window. Then once that gets easy stand up plop down and the dry fire on a leaf. Then when that gets easy if you have a magazine in your rifle plop down stick the magazine in then close the bolt and dry fire. Make sure that no matter how you're dry firing that you FULLY cycle the bolt and keep your head down on the rifle and work it like you're going to need to perform a quick follow up shot.

That being said I've read a lot of great things about the MagneoSpeed chrono and I should be receiving shipment of my new V2 tomorrow. I've used an Oehler 35P and they are a PAIN to setup on public ranges. If you're out on your own they aren't terrible but by comparison to the MagnetoSpeed they are a ROYAL pain. Testing between the MagnetoSpeed and the Oehler 35P are within 99.6% of one another in third party testing. That same testing showed the MagentoSpeed to be 99.9% accurate when compared to high speed video footage. Being that this third party report is presented on the MagnetoSpeed I'd take it with a bit of a grain of salt but its got enough great reports that I'm impressed enough I bought one.

~Brett

 

[Cold_Bore_88]

Haha! Sorry for the mispelling. I appreciate all of your advice. I will look into those chrono and see what I can do. Ease of setup is a big plus to me.

 

[mikeltee]

Desert Lefty is right. Do not handicap yourself by using a lead sled to shoot. You should however have a good vice to clean your rifle and mount stuff to it. I like the Tipton Gun Vise. It's affordable and sold everywhere. The magentospeed is the holy grail of chronographs. Get the version 2 if you are going to use suppressors or pistols.

 

[bh-ltr]

I don't know if I'd go that far yet. The Oehler 35P is the holy grail and the MagnetoSpeed is a similarly accurate much easier to setup model. I don't think its been around long enough to reach grail status yet. However that being said I should take delivery on my MagnetoSpeed V2 today. Fedex delayed me a day but its out for delivery now.

 

[bh-ltr]

I just had a chance to play with my MagnetoSpeed V2 today. My average velocity came within just over 1 standard deviation of my applied ballistics forced balanced velocity to make my data match at 683 yards. The difference in velocities accounts for a 0.2 mil or 7 inch difference at 1000 yards. Considering that I got my forced balanced drop at 683 yards by shooting a clay pigeon at that range and then inputting that data into Applied Ballistics I'll take it! Hell the clay pigeon was probably 4" or so in diameter so that could be my margin of error right there. Especially when you consider that 0.2 mil at 683 yards is about 5 inches. Ok sorry I'm kinda a numbers guy and I'm VERY impressed with the MagnetoSpeed. I should also state in its defense that the Oehler was 1.5 std deviations below my forced normalized velocity. When you back calculate the actual muzzle velocity it was only 1 standard deviation away. Both are very capable units. I greatly prefer the setup of the magneto speed and don't see myself bringing the hold Pact Professional XP workhorse of mine out again any time soon.

~Brett

 

[Archer762]

I have the cheapest chrono from Midway and have had no problems with it, from Archery to 7mm Rem Mag. It keeps track of a 10-shot string, tells me avg velocity, std deviation, min-max fps. I don't see a need to spend more.

For a "Sniper" forum, funny how many people want to buy a gun rest to shoot from a bench. Wanting to see "how accurate my rifle is" should not be a concern of an inexperienced shooter. Even if it's only a 2-moa capable rifle, your time should be spent practicing marksmanship with thousands of rounds, varying distances in varying conditions.

 

[Abq-Defense]

Some people shoot from a bench with a rack/vise to do load development. By reducing bipod skip and shooter error, some feel they see the differences between loads easier.