Looking at getting my first chrono, and don't know a lot about them. At this point I'm just shooting out to about 500 or so, and am looking to get data for ballistics.  I'm also looking at getting into reloading at some point and have a couple of kids in college, so really don't need to blow the budget on this thing.

Was looking around and was wondering if there are any good suggestions or if the one listed below (or one like it) would suffice?

www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00HYQ39G0/ref=ox_sc_act_image_3?smid=A1WB700LJYWJ6W&psc=1

I bought the pro chrono shown,I like it ,works fine, they do go on sale for a little cheaper,it does everything I need and really helped in my reloading

Pro Chrono Digital+++++

If your time is valuable, the Magnetospeed is the bang for your buck.
If you shoot at a public range not only will you be wasting your time trying to align the optical chrono, you will be wasting everyone else's time too.

Pro Chrono.

Magnetospeed would be more convenient, but not an extra $200 more convenient. And can you attach it to a suppressor or chrono your bow?

Pro Chrono.

One thing I lack any understanding of is the constant 'I own X and it's great for my very specific and limited use case so obviously X is what you should buy' from POTG.

Optical chronos from ProChrono and Shooting Chrony etc...: They are merely ok. Ok in the same sense as hemorrhoids. It won't kill you but it sucks to have most of the time. I have both of these but they're a pain in the nuts to use more often than not. The ProChrono is the most reliable of the two. I reserve them both for summer duty outdoors and honestly wish I'd never bought them (particularly the Chrony). The way it works forces you to go downrange to set it up, someone always shoots it in the face eventually (including me) and when it's not positioned correctly or you want to change targets you have to wait till a cease fire or just forget about it. PITA little buckets of hateful misery. I rely on these heavily for 1 thing though: working with my old semi-auto pistols that lack pic rails. Doesn't do black powder well at all without the chrono being further away than I like to shoot through. 100 bucks of don't go there unless you know you have to, it's just cheaping out.

Magnetospeed: This is the lightest, easiest and fastest to use and set up that there is in the world and you never have to go downrange and if it's not set up right, you can fix it right there and right now. There's some increased danger or perceived danger anyway in that you're fiddling around at the muzzle (obey the 4 rules). V3 works with suppressors. Works fine with black powder rifles. Doesn't work with bows or artillery or paintball but will work with pistols/rifles that have a picatinny rail and with many revolvers. Aims itself. $180 (sporter) - $380 (v3)

Labradar: All of the benefits of the magnetospeed without needing to attach anything to the muzzle. Idiosyncratic in some respects like distance from muzzle, direction of aim, etc... and pricey. Works with artillery, bow and arrow, slingshots loaded with rocks, doesn't matter. User interface is cludgy and takes a while to get set up and is not intuitive at all. Eats batteries like they're made of pez when not being acoustically triggered and is physically pretty damned big compared to the other 2 options. Has to be manually aimed for each target you plan to shoot. $500

My advice for most people: The magnetospeed sporter model is really the best compromise between price:performance:features and is the easiest to use and really live with day to day for 90% of shooters. If you have special needs like suppressor or pic-rail equipped pistol use, use the v3. If POI change is a worry for you, try the labradar.

Yes I mention artillery. Turns out the labradar does a great job with everything from .50cal BP to small black powder howitzers/mortars/canon.

As someone who sits on the board of a range with 400 members.....you can't believe the number of "skyscreen" pieces I have cleaned up off the range over the years....I know why they call them Sky Screens, apparently, pieces fall from the sky from time to time....The Magnetospeed is definitely a better product.

I had a ProChrono and bought the Magnetospeed, much faster to setup, use, and don't have to shut the range down to set it up!!

Magneto.  5 rounds with it on, 5 with it off.  Velocities/pressures and then accuracy with it off.

One of my rifles routinely turns in better groups with the magnetospeed attached than without.

I  have never seen this until I got my 24" AR Grendel bbl. Long and thin I guess is the issue maybe. It seemed to reduce groups  .1-.2moa regularly.

I recently  put a muzzle brake on the rifle and from my last two range trips it seems the brake has tightened groups up better than the Magnetospeed. LOL. 
 Without the bayo it would give me just over 1moa 10 shot groups with the bayo mid .9moa.

Now with the brake and bayo the groups are 1.2-1.3 moa but with just the brake, mid to low .9moa, I'll take it.
Gave me this 14 shot group yesterday, happy with it from my Brownells bbl.

I looking at this thread and saw the magneto speed sporter mentioned so I watched some you tube videos and thought about it for a little bit.  The bayonet idea is interesting but then I realized that most of my rifles that I reload for are old surplus rifles.  (1903, various Krags, Swedish Mauser, Steyr M-95, ect)  On many of these old military guns there is often not a lot of room between the muzzle and the end of the wooden hand guards/ fore end of the stock for setting this thing up.  Most have only about an inch to three inches of exposed barrel to use and since there are certain parameters that this thing must be set up at in order to work correctly I am questioning whether there is enough room to move this back on the barrel before you run out of room on the barrel and are against the wood. Also, the front sight may restrict even more of the limited usable area.   On a gun like a Garand with the gas cylinder right below the front of the barrel I don't think it would set up correctly there at all.
Maybe I'm missing something here but if my concerns are valid just a warning to others that this may not be the set up for you if you want to use it for the same things I do.

I had this same problem, I've been using a magnetospeed V2 for the last couple years and it's been great but I started reloading for some milsurp bolt guns and a couple of my AR's that have long hand guards. They don't have enough barrel sticking out to mount the bayonet so I ended up buying the cheap Caldwell chrono to use on those and it pretty much sucks.

The Magneto speed changes the barrel harmonics so you can't do reliable accuracy and chronograph testing at the same time - unless you plan on keeping the magneto speed attached 24/7 as a stupid looking muzzle device.

It's a necessary evil for a hot range that never goes cold, but that's it one and only virtue.


Setting up a traditional chronograph down range isn't time consuming if you know what you are doing.  Set either your rifle (unloaded, bolt open, chamber flag inserted) or a wooden down on a rear bag and front rest aligned with the target and then align the chronograph on the rifle or dowel.  Takes less than a minute and can easily be done in any cold range period.

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99% of the problems with optical chronographs are caused by improper set up, and reports of an unreliable "brand" usually translates as "the shooter set it up wrong" or "the shooter sets it up inconsistently".  

The science is pretty simple, but it requires the chronograph to be set up so that the bullet passes straight across the sensors at zero angle and constant altitude over each sensor.  You also have to be careful in low angle light and shade the whole unit in late afternoon, early morning, etc.

My first chronology was a Pro Chrono.

I got tired of too many issues (getting stuck on same velocity several shots in a row, sudden drop of 200 FPS).

Got a Magnetospeed Sporter.

Much easier to use.    No anomalies so far.

I had the sporter a few years ago and used it without any problems, actually really liked it.
Got the Labradar when the first started shipping them because I knew a dude that knew a dude.

The one one thing that's often not mentioned is you can use the labradar "full time" meaning, every shot I take gets logged.
So when I input my average MV into my kestrel or whatever, it's an average of 50 shots, not 5 or 10.

I use the Caldwell’s, Chrony and MagnetoSpeed.

The MagnetoSpeed is good if you shoot at public range. I don’t anymore so I don’t use it, as you can’t test accuracy with it hanging on the barrel. I like the Caldwell’s so far.

Trick: use a tape measure to measure from ground to muzzle. Then measure the same to the center of the chronograph and set it. Done. Don’t know why people think it is difficult to set one up.

When I say Caldwell’s I’m taking the Ballistic Precision model Here

I like this one. I turn the lights on and get good readings in different light.

I started with a Caldwell.  One day I noticed enormous spreads show up by moving my rifle an inch side to side.

Next I had a magnetospeed.  This is a pretty good design, but it can be hard to use on certain firearms and it can change point of impact.

Finally I bought a labradar.  I should have skipped the magnetospeed and went straight to it.