Chronographs

[nortac]

Annnnndddd Garmin has entered the chat.

Xero® C1 Pro Chronograph

www.garmin.com

I might have to grab one.

So this is also doppler radar?

 

[nikonNUT]

So this is also doppler radar?

It is.

 

[nortac]

I acquired the "Airgun Mic" trigger for the Labradar unit and used it while shooting my 10/22 with subsonic ammo and it worked great. I have not tried it yet with suppressed firearms or actual air guns. I did try shooting with a pellet pistol before I got the airgun mic and as expected, it would not register the shots.

 

[nortac]

So as I have documented in the reloading thread, I have recently done a lot of chronographing of pistol loads that I would have never gone to the trouble to do with old skyscreen chronos. Although as a long time reloader, I knew that different powder and primer combinations would show different variances, it's a whole lot more illuminating to document it with your own reloads. While all the powder and primer combinations worked fine subjectively, everything went bang and functioned in the gun without any problems, the objective data from the chrono shows a different picture. Whether it's of practical significance is up for debate. It's all the little details that can only be objectively demonstrated when using a chrono that really brings out the reloading geek in me. For instance, it was very interesting to me to see how CCI and Federal primers acted with Unique powder with otherwise identical components and loading technique. As compared to Federal, the CCI primers were less consistent in velocity, extreme spread and standard deviation, but when the powder was switched to Win 231, CCI equaled or exceeded Federal performance.

 

[Borderboss]

I have an old Chrony I haven't used in 20+ years, and I thought the LR unit was too big for indoor range use, which is my typical use. So when I saw the Garmin, I immediately ordered one and waited. It showed up about a week ago, and I took it to the range this past weekend.

Overall, I like it a lot. It's tiny, and sits on the shooting table without taking up much room. I went to test five factory loads I'm using in three different guns (two 9mm, two .38 Super, and one .357). That part worked like a champ.

I did have two glitches, which I think may be related to each other. First was syncing to the app on my phone. It synced perfectly fine at home, but it just wouldn't do it at the range. The app couldn't find the unit. So I proceeded without the phone app, which was no biggie.

The second glitch was a real PITA. I was in the first string of testing, and all of a sudden I get a message on the screen that there's a software update and did I want to "Update" or "Cancel". I just thought I would cancel and do the update at home later. No, no, no, you can't do that. When I selected "Cancel", it just returned back to the prompt. After a couple of times of this, I just decided to waste some of my one hour range time to do the update. It took about five minutes to do the update, and then it was fine and I could proceed. But I do intend to contact Garmin to tell them the "Cancel" prompt doesn't work.

Later I thought about it and thought that the inability for the phone to synch with the app might be connected to the machine ultimately wanting to update the software, but I didn't get the update prompt until like 10 minutes later. Another issue I'll bring up to Garmin.

Anyway, I'm definitely a fan. The thing works and it's tiny.

 

[nortac]

So while at the range two days ago, I chronographed some .22 LR loads, CCI Standard Velocity and CCI Green Tag shot from my Ruger 10/22 with a Kidd barrel. One would think that the more expensive Green Tag ammo might be more consistent, but not so during this shooting session.
The CCI Standard Velocity had an Extreme Spread of 44 FPS and a Standard Deviation of 11.25 FPS for 72 rounds fired.
The CCI Green Tag had an Extreme Spread of 68 FPS and a Standard Deviation of 13.6 FPS for 98 rounds fired.
Who would have known this without a chronograph? It was not possible to compare relative accuracy between the two due to windy conditions. But I probably won't pay extra for Green Tag again. Next time out I'll compare Wolf Match and Lapua Midas+.

 

[nikonNUT]

So while at the range two days ago, I chronographed some .22 LR loads, CCI Standard Velocity and CCI Green Tag shot from my Ruger 10/22 with a Kidd barrel. One would think that the more expensive Green Tag ammo might be more consistent, but not so during this shooting session.
The CCI Standard Velocity had an Extreme Spread of 44 FPS and a Standard Deviation of 11.25 FPS for 72 rounds fired.
The CCI Green Tag had an Extreme Spread of 68 FPS and a Standard Deviation of 13.6 FPS for 98 rounds fired.
Who would have known this without a chronograph? It was not possible to compare relative accuracy between the two due to windy conditions. But I probably won't pay extra for Green Tag again. Next time out I'll compare Wolf Match and Lapua Midas+.

Man, Greentag is the ammo they 1) Didn't drop on the floor, and 2) Is hand boxed by some little ol' ladies. It comes off the same line as SV and that is a direct quote from a friend that has toured the company including the primer room.

 

[nortac]

I chronographed a 100 rounds each of Lapua Midas-X and Wolf Match Target. A little surprised at the results.
Midas-X
Ave. 988
Hi. 1026
Lo. 920
ES. 106
SD. 16.7

Wolf Match Target
Ave. 995
Hi. 1049
Lo. 912
ES. 136
SD. 34.4

I think I'll stick with CCI Standard Velocity.