What should I look for in a Chronograph?

[Hard Dog]

Hi guys,

I am planing on buying a chronograph in the near future and would like your opinions. What features are a must have? Are the ones in the $100 price range any good? Which manufacturers are good and which should I avoid? What about lights and how do you power them? As you can tell I hardly know anything at all about chronographs. I just know that I need one!

Thanks in advance,

Tom

Sir, FWIW I used a PACT PC2 chronograph for many years. When it stopped working I sent it back to PACT for repair and they told me they no longer supported this model with parts and offered me a discount on a Professional XP.

In my humble opinion having the features that will do the math to determine standard deviation, extreme spread, and average muzzle velocity is worth having. A print feature is nice but not mandatory for my purposes. It does help to have a record of your chronograph sessions, so I kept a log book rather than a lap top and printer.

The chronograph has to be able to "see" the bullet to provide a measure of the velocity. On dark or cloudy days there is not alway enough ambient light for the chronograph sky screen sensors to "see" your bullet as it flies over. The infrared sky screens PACT uses as an option are very helpful for this purpose but require a 120v power supply.

Most chronograph owners I know will admit to having shot their chronograph sky screens on occassion. Regardless the piece of the PACT chronograph sky screens that are hit by your bullet they are all cheap and easily replaceable. I keep spares in the bag with the chronograph. It's nice to be able to make on the spot repairs when the need arises instead of having to pack up and go home. HTH, HD.