Best Chronograph

[Topher Durden]

I’m looking at getting my first chronograph. I’ve heard many good things about the Magnetospeed Sport but others say it is not accurate. Has anyone used this chrono? Or has anyone had great results with a different unit that is $200 or less. What would you purchase today for $200 if you could do it all over again?

 

[dugsagun]

Chronographs are cool and a necessary part of reloading to get the load fer yer gun. My plan is to actually get a new one as my shooting chrony "beta" model is looong in the tooth, and takes forever to set up when im by myself. I would like to get the magnetospeed you mention as there is nothing to setup down range to shoot thru. I have read alot of reviews, and i believe it is worth getting. Hopefully some others will chime in also.

 

[Doublehelix]

I have heard good things about the Magnetospeed, but also some things that would keep me from buying it. I love my Labradar, but that is way out of your price range.

Other than those 2 setups, everything else is going to be something you have to setup to shoot through which has its own set of drawbacks, but there are lots of decent choices around the $100 - $150 range.

 

[BoilerMakerME]

Have a Magnetospeed V3, but didn't have a previous Chrono to compare to, it seems very accurate, but it cost more than the sport. It does change POI shift and is a little fumbly attaching to gun. If you were going to get serious i believe i'd save up for a Lab Radar. If not i'd probably stick to the ~$100 screen one's like the Beta Master.

 

[LeverGunFan]

I have a Labradar, but before it was available I would have bought a Magnetospeed. The "conventional" chronographs with skyscreens take some time to set up and align, and you have to have access in front of the shooting bench which can be difficult if not impossible at public ranges. Brian Litz, author of several books on ballistics and an accomplished long range shooter, tested the full featured Magnetospeed and found it to be very accurate. I would think the sport model to be the same or similar in accuracy, but perhaps not have all the same features. My vote is for the Magnetospeed in your price range.

 

[jbrubaker]

The Magnetospeed is worth every penny over an optical chrono. I've had my optical out exactly one time since getting the Magnetospeed and it was so much more effort to set up and it wasn't even registering all my shots. I can't speak to how accurate the Magnetospeeds are, but they are so much easier to use than the optical ones.

I have the Sporter and the only thing it doesn't do that I really want is mount to a pic rail for shooting on a pistol. The more expensive v3 model supports the pic rail mount, I believe.

 

[Doublehelix]

The Magnetospeed is worth every penny over an optical chrono. I've had my optical out exactly one time since getting the Magnetospeed and it was so much more effort to set up and it wasn't even registering all my shots. I can't speak to how accurate the Magnetospeeds are, but they are so much easier to use than the optical ones.

I have the Sporter and the only thing it doesn't do that I really want is mount to a pic rail for shooting on a pistol. The more expensive v3 model supports the pic rail mount, I believe.

The Magnetospeed V3 is $380, whereas the Sporter is only $180, that is a pretty big difference for a Pic rail mount. There must be more differences than that, right?

IMHO, once you get to $380, you might as well pony up the extra cash and buy a Labradar for $560, right??? It's only money...

 

[gmcttr]

How do you use a magneto speed on a 1911 and other semi-autos without a rail?

 

[jbrubaker]

How do you use a magneto speed on a 1911 and other semi-autos without a rail?

Officially, you can't. It's not designed to work (out of the box) on semi-autos without a rail.

I'm in the "scribbles on the back of a napkin" phase of designing a wooden mounting platform for the magentospeed chrono and something of a rest for the muzzle of a pistol to sit on which aligns everything correctly. I do not think it will be hard to get the parts to all line up close enough for repeatable measurement. For my purposes, I usually only need to chrono a pistol once or twice in its life, so this would be workable for my case. But obviously this is all outside the realm of factory configurations.

That's the big benefit of the optical chronys: it is freestanding apart from the firearm, so any firearm can be used. The magnetospeed, while so much easier to use, is more limited.

 

[ART338WM]

I researched chronos TO DEATH and ended up buying a Caldwell Ballistic precision. All of my research lead me to this conclusion, if you can afford it buy a Lab Radar Chronograph, unfortunately I couldn't. Magnetospeed is a great product but IMHO it's way, WAY to costly for a design with such a limited application. You can't shoot shotguns, compound bows over it and HG's require IMHO to much hassle. So that leaves a person like me with a budget limited by Cabela's points to optical chronos. Although I reload and I feel strongly EVERY reloader needs a chrono, the cost of it I feel as strongly is directly proportional to needs. I do not compete nor do I shoot beyond 800 yards so I felt the Caldwell would more than fulfill all of my needs for a chronograph. I would have LOVED to have bought a Lab Radar, I use my Cabela's points to buy what ever reloading/shooting items I can, the more costly the items the harder I try to use my CP's and unfortunately Cabela's doesn't sell Lab Radar Chrono's and of the ones they do, the Cadwell was the best choice. I have read more than enough side by side reviews of sub $200 optical chronographs that have shown they are pretty much all the same in terms of accuracy.

Because I shoot, rifles, handguns, both smokeless and BP/SUB muzzleloaders, and compound bows a Magnetospeed was out of the question. I bought my Caldwell in March of 2017 and have used it over a dozen times both in and out of doors. It has worked very well with no issues. The free cell phone app is great and you can email your results to your computer. I have but one complaint and moderate disappointment with my Caldwell BP Chronograph. My only complaint is it goes through batteries quickly, and I was disappointed in the el-cheapo tripod that came with it as being less than usefull. I promptly replaced it with a pretty good Bogan off Amazon and it works MUCH better.

I did notice I had pinched one of the connection cords for my light bar and called Cadwell to order a replacement, the CS rep didn't even ask how it got pinched he just shipped me a new one and I got it in three days no questions asked 100% free I wasn't even charged S&H. I absolutely LOVE to shoot, and so do both my sons and unfortunately for me my boys discovered the joy of shooting other than .22lr and now are addicted to my 9mm HG's, my AR's and enjoy shooting above all others which I found quite surprising, the JM stamped marlin 336c's I bought them for deer hunting. So I happily spend a large amount of time reloading and even larger sums of money on reloading components and bulk 9mm and 223 so saving $300 was something I couldn't ignore.

Bottom line is I am like 99.9% of other gun owners who bought most of their guns to shoot as often as possible limited only by the amount time I can get to the range and how much I can afford to $hoot. Save for bullets, I long ago amassed all the powder and primers I will ever need to reload for my HG's, so saving $300 (actually if you count I used my C/points the items cost me only sales tax so I actually saved over $400) on a single must have purchase means I can buy enough 9mm bullets to reload 4K rounds.


Having progressed in my reloading to trying to produce as accurate of reloads as I can has required I purchase more expensive dies made by the likes of Forster and new gauges to measure things like run out and the amount of $$$ I can spend on shooting/reloading/hunting etc has not increased so I must expend my limited funds judiciously.

I recently found a private HG range 20 minuets from my home and if it checks out OK I will join it as well so I can shoot my HG's even more often, I love the rifle club I belong to, but it's 40 minuets from my home and the public indoor ranges by me cost more in range fees in 3-4 trips than this new place I found will per year.

Lastly on the Caldwell, my friend went on a Utah elk hunt last year and shot his 300wm through a chronograph a person he met at Bass and Bucks gun range was using, it was not a Caldwell but one of the other sub-$120 optical chronos out there. He shot 5 rounds through it with a MV average of over 3200fps for a 180 grain Nosler Partition and 76 grains of RL-22. I told my friend that based on a 24" barrel and his reduced maximum COL due to magazine constraints , sounds very high and should have shown IMHO some form of pressure signs, to which re replied there were none.

He shot 10 rounds over my Caldwell of the same exact load in themps near identical, and his MV/average dropped to a more realistic MV/average of 3130fps over 100fps slower. What amzed my friend was my 300wsm with 180 grain bullets was consistently within 10-20 FPS/MV of his 300wm, and these were my most accurate load but not the fastest which were equal to and some above his MV for 300wm. RL-17 gave me MV's of 3170 FPS but not as good accuracy and in wormer temps a ever so slight but noticeable stiff bolt lift.

Give the Caldwell a look it has served me well thus far.

 

[Dave A]

The Magneto Speed V3 is on sale at Midway USA for $340 plus shipping, regularly $380.