While not an Oehler, I have been very pleased with my Competition Electronics Pro Chrono Digital. And, believe it or not, it does have an advantage over the Oehler - ease of setup. This is important when shooting on public ranges, and the firing line is cold while everyone is waiting for you to set up your chronograph. Accuracy compares to my partner's Oehler 35. Good system for the money.

John

Which chronograph do you folks prefer when working up your loads? I'm thinking of getting a new one soon and would like the opinions of some of you guys because I'm not familier with a lot of the newer stuff out there. Is one that much better than another or just more costly? Do they all hook up with the lap top or are some just with there own little printers? Any info you can send my way will be greatly appreciated. I don't mind spending money for one because it's something that I want and need but I want my moneys worth if you know what I mean.
Roadtrash

I understand the CED Millenium chrono is about the best think going right now for under several hundred bucks. Supposedly more accurate than the venerable Oehler... Uploads to your laptop. $179.

I got a Shooting Chrony for around $40 refurbished.
It has served well for almost two years now.
No printer, or anything like that, but I just bring a pad of post-it and a pen to the range, which I'd do anyway, to write down casehead expansion, group sizes, etc.
If you have the money, there's a lot more advanced equipment out there, but I can say this little guy does tell me how fast the bullets are going, at least well enough to suit me.

Your first chrono should be a cheapy chrony... because you WILL shoot it... get the cheapest one they make, with a remote.

jeffe

Roadtrash,

I have owned 4 chronographs. The first was a 1981 Custom Chronograph replete with the paper/metalized screens. It was an excellent chrono--even by today's standards. Alas, the outfit went out of business and so did the screens. My second was a Pact with the early version of "Sky Screens". It didn't seem to be accurate when measured up to other (with known accuracy) chronos. It also frequently failed to read. So I bought a chrony (about 1992, I think). It was not accurate!, nor consistent. Maybe the newer ones are better--but I have heard some of the same complaints from others.

So I finally broke down and bought an Oehler 35. I sprung for the third screen instead of paying for the printer. My printer is one of those high tech thingies called a three ring binder--just chalk full of semi-useful information that I continually write down. The Oehler is often used as "back up" to the ballistics labs high priced chronographs.

I have used Oehler 43 Ballistic Lab quite a bit in the past. It uses the Oehler 35 chrono.

The new CED/RSI system looks real interesting. The CED chronograph is claimed to be the equivelent on the Oehler 35. The price of the whole CED/RSI is less expensive than the Oehler 43 w/ the 35 chrono. I don't know how much the CED chrono by itself costs.

Currently, I would narrow it down to the CED or Oehler.

Casey

Jeffe is right.I shot my first chrony and gave my next 2 chronies away. The one with the remote comes with a near 15' cord. !/2 the time it reads gas velosity and the other 1/2 shows an error message.When you call the factory they say " oh yes it happens all the time. You must go out and buy yourself a longer cord. Sorry but we do not supply that." My new Oehler works just fine but I've got to build some kind of base to hold it down in a wind strom. The people at Oehler are nice folks to work with also. Unlike Chrony they stand behind their product. roger

Roadtrash,

Welcome to the forum.

If you are serious, and are going to be doing a lot of shooting over the chronograph, then I respectfully suggest you get an Oehler 35P.

Nothing, but nothing, comes even close. I have tried them all.

Bought my first Oehler thirty years ago. The read-out was a needle swinging between a "yes" and "no" label. Ran in Base 8 and used a pamphlet of tables to convert binomial read-out to Base 10. Still get a lot of comments when I show it to people and tell them it measures bullet velocity -- "yes" or "no".









Have had many chronographs since then including other Oehlers, Chronys, PACT, and CED. Ya'll do notice the most important piece of pressure measurement equipment in the picture -- the rubber mallet.















Had a seven foot rail made so all the skyscreens could be mounted simultaneously and centered at the same spot. The building of the rail was a project for some physics PhD candidates working at a National Lab and studying measurement variation in general. They tried to get the skyscreen mounting spots within angstroms of each other, but were frustrated that the results of the chronographs were in English units (fps) rather than "scientific" metric.











Currently using a CED chronograph with infrared skyscreens in an indoor location. Seems to work fine. But it doesn't get the comments that the old binomial read-out Oehler got.





Hammer

Post deleted by Hammer

I have a CED unit myself. Works fine & a lot cheaper than an Oehler 35P, plus they have a rep here in Australia. I asked the rep and also Charlie Sisk I think raises this at 24 hour campfire. How do you reference it? ie. How do you know the speeds displayed are accurate?? There does not seem to be a readily available referencing procedure.

Hammer as you have so many chronographs on that rig how did the readings compare between the various brands. How reliable were the readings?

Perhaps you can through some light on this matter.

I should be ashamed to say this but now that I have one I don't really use it as often as I thought I would. Its just more gear to bring to the range.