01 March 2009

Chrono fun!

The BBTOJ brought a new toy this week. I've been looking at Chronographs for a while and a recent Midway email announced a sale. The price was simply too low to ignore ($70 for the bottom line Chrony F1). I considered some of the higher models, but decided the bottom line was all I needed.

The unit worked flawlessly. It only missed a couple shots out of the hundred or so. Recording the data by hand is a PITA. While Chrony offers models that log the data, they are more expensive and weren't quite what I wanted. We can do better (stay tuned)! OTOH, I'm getting to the point where a range trip involves a small trailer. Between the Ammunition, magazines, projectile launchers, targets, spotting scope, and now tripod and Chronograph. The load gets bigger and bigger... where does it end?

This was interesting, if not completely unexpected. Here was have bullets from the same batch* fired through three different length barrels. Barrel length on the X axis and bullet speed on the Y axis. Conclusion: Imagine that, bullet speed is proportional to barrel length.

I'm looking forward to the centerfire comparisons. .223 vs 30.06 vs 8mm Mauser. I hope to throw a .308 into the mix as well but my money is on the Mauser.

* 9mm 7.0 grains AA#7 behind 115grain Hornady FMJ-RN.

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