Hirtenberger: chrono'd..

[yorick]

Today out of my 16" Carbine

2 mags (40 rounds)

lowest reading 2509 fps
highest reading 2653 fps

MOST actually clustered around 2600 fps (+ or -) 20 fps, only one reading was below 2550.

Ambient temp was 25 deg Farenheit, gas settting 4.5...

[ August 10, 2001: Message edited by: EMDII ]

[CSAcavalry]

Yorick, thanks,
havent bought a chrony yet,
sure would like too.
What's the best and cheapest
that is the simplest,
i.e. doesnt need all the bells
and whistles I can manually
record the data.
Regards, CScav

[yorick]

I too delayed in getting a chony for many moons. Handloading off books and charts, estimating velocities etc etc......

Made ONE range trip with a loaner chrony from a friend and I was HOOKED. Ordered one from midway (www.midwayusa.com) the next day! http://www.fnfal.com/forums/smile.gif

In my opinion, the basic model (F1) is all you need, you can see the display 10 yards away without leaving your shooting position, I keep a little notebook nect to me, shoot, record MV...etc etc...

As a matter of fact, I just got the latest catalog in the mail yesterday, and wouldn't you know it (the week after I buy one at regular price) Midway is having a sale on the F1 chrony right now....
http://www.midwayusa.com/online/prodsearch.exe/BuildLink?SaleItemID=845555

(they always wait until I buy before they have a sale.... http://www.fnfal.com/forums/wink.gif )

I bought a cameran tripod from Walmart for $14.95 for a easy to adjust mount, you bag your rifle, and set up the chony 3-10 yards out, the camera type tripods really make it easy....

My last range trip I recorded the following..
7.62x51 Hirtenberger 16" carbine - 2600 fps avg
44 mag hunting ammo out of a S&W revolver - 1400 fps
.243 handloads 70 gr BTHP from a Savage 110 - 3700 fps
.338 Lapua Magnum 250 BTSP from Sako TRG - 3050 fps


Way too much fun!

[Wadman]

Isn't it a delight to find out what performance you're actually getting from a particular load? Now if you have different firearms of the same caliber, try testing them also.

[JohnnyMac]

.243 handloads 70 gr BTHP from a Savage 110 - 3700 fps

Man 3700 fps is smokin' for a .243 load, even with that light slug! What's the recipe? What kind of accuracy are you getting with that load? Must shoot flat as a pool table out to 250 yds!

JMc

[lutefisk]

I've HAD a "Chrony" for many years. It worked real well after I constructed additional shading...just cardboard. Two observations:
I shot it once and it still works(ego deflation).
I loaned it out 1 1/2 years ago and still haven't gotten it back. Mike, they don't have your full name...yet.

[SP10]

He he he! One of my buddies wanted to chrony a factory sabot slug load through his Mooseberg Trophy Slugster a few years back. He forgot about sabots falling off the slug. You'd be surprised how much damage the sabot did to his digital readout. Poor guy didn't even get the reading from his slug.

[yorick]

Johnymac:

Load on the smokin' .243 is 50 grains (slightly compressed, basically max case capacity) of VV N160, federal 210 primers, and the Sierra HPBT 70 gr bullets.

Accuracy wasn't quite as good as the 3300 fps 85 grainers I worked up, but still under 1 MOA out of the "as issued" Savage 110...I am looking for a better stock before I really look for tight groups (choate maybe?) as the factory ram line crap is warping and interferes with my free floating barrel...

Guy I shoot with had his .223 savage 110 (with a choate stock) do a 10 shot group at .48 ctc with his handloads...hoo-yahhh!

(edited to correct misremembered group size http://www.fnfal.com/forums/smile.gif )

[This message has been edited by yorick (edited February 28, 2001).]

[CSAcavalry]

yorick, are you sure he didnt shoot 3 and
7 off target.... http://www.fnfal.com/forums/smile.gif
Thanks for the info.
I got the new Mid-Way today and found it
before the wife hid it. http://www.fnfal.com/forums/smile.gif
Regards,
CScav

[rMac71]

250 gr at 3050--whew that's gotta leave a mark. I shoot a 210 berger out of my 300 ultra at 3050 and that makes my eyes blurry.

[yorick]

CSAcavalry - oops...I mis-remembered the .223 group sized acheived by my .223 shooting friend, actually was .48 ctc...sorry for the exageration....

see pics of the target on the accurate reloading forums:
http://www.serveroptions.com/ubb/Forum6/HTML/000994.html


rmac: yeah the 338 lapua does beat on you a little, I can only shoot about 20 rounds a session before the shoulder starts to hurt and "the flinch" sets in...


[This message has been edited by yorick (edited February 28, 2001).]

[BUFF]

Funny chronograph story.

I am poor college student, and am at range in early September shooting my .30-06, getting ready for elk hunt.

New shooter arrives in expensive, custom Suburban. Makes six trips from truck to firing line tables to carry all his gear. Has four rifles, all Weatherby's. Has huge European variable scope on each. Has each rifle in aluminum hard case worth more than my rifle and scope. Two of his rifles and scopes worth more than my cherry Ford Bronco. Dressed in precursor to L.L. Bean clothes.

Has chronograph, first I had ever seen (1975). Has skyscreens (boxes the bullets go over to 'time' the bullet's speed by measuring the time between the bullet's shadow) mounted on custom machined aluminum bar mounted on expensive German camera tripod worth more than my 35mm and all lenses. Has steel tape measure, level, plumb bob. Has thermometer, barometer, anamometer. Has custom sandbags. Has spotting scope like NASA uses to watch rocket launches from the Cape. Has leather-bound range notes notebook, gold Cross pen. Takes an hour setting up chrono, sand bags with tape, level and plumb bob. Has gear spread out over three tables, plus the one he's shooting from.

Small, interested crowd gathers. Oehler chrono has skyscreens, is state-of-the-art. New shooter obviously enjoys being center of attention. Ignores all attempts to engage in conversation, finally tells one shooter that the day off of work is costing the new shooter more than the fellow makes in two or three weeks, and he has no time for "small talk." Crowd backs off.

New shooter finally finishes preparations. Settles into seat attached to table, spends another ten minutes adjusting sand bags, rifle. Pulls on fingerless kid leather gloves, amber shooting glasses. Dry fires twice.

Finally removes single cartridge from custom ammo box that looks like cigar humidor. Holds it up to the light for examination. Satisfied, he carefully loads it into the magazine, slides bolt home. Breaths carefully, lets breath half-out, holds it.

BOOOOMMMMMM!!!!!!!

Skyscreens blown to smithereens from dead-center hit to both. Low shot! Tripod teeters back, then forward, then back and tips over. Stunned silence. New shooter expressionless. No one moves.

After about three minutes, new shooter stands up, opens bolt, extracts empty, puts it back into cartridge box/humidor. Looks at chronograph unit on bench as if it holds answers.

I am unable to contain myself. Biting my tongue, I run over to him and excitedly ask, "HOW FAST DID IT GO?"

New shooter turns his head and looks at me. No change from blank expression on face, except eyebrows drop slightly, jaw clenches a bit, and his complexion darkens. No verbal response to my question, so I innocently ask another.

"Don't those skyscreens get expensive? What does a ten-shot string cost to shoot?"

He continues silent glare. Then, he disassembles gear silently, carries it all back to his Suburban, and leaves in a noisy, dusty cloud of wheel-spun dust.

The other shooter, the one new shooter told he had no time for small talk, a nice old guy incidentally, walks over to me as we watch new shooter enter Suburban and roar off. We watch him go. Crowd (about six or eight of us, all semi-regulars) still silent.
Old guy breaks silence by saying, "Not very friendly, was he?" Everyone cracks up. We laugh for five minutes before resuming shooting.

We never saw new shooter again.

BUFF

[This message has been edited by BUFF (edited March 01, 2001).]

[CSAcavalry]

Buff, that was a great story, you must be of
Scottish ancestry http://www.fnfal.com/forums/smile.gif
Yorick, that still isnt a bad group.
CScav

[BUFF]

English, Danish and a little American Indian, but they all drank a lot.

BUFF

[GySgt D]

Shot my chrony twice, one round after the other, but it still works. I also reloaded by guestimation for several years. Loaded many thousands of rounds without ever knowing how fast they were. Now that I have a chronograph, it all seems so ridiculous.

[Enquiring Minds]

BUFF, you're merciless... and a credit to Bob Newhart and deadpan comics everywhere.

Somewhere a very happy gun store owner retired early on Mr. Bigshot.

[Tenderfoot]

:D
I loved the range story BUFF!
I like it when Po Folks win!
I'll bet those skyscreens are more expensive than my WalMart clay pigeons! ($4 for 90 at last count)!
Great story, glad some gunshop owner got to this guy before he went liberal!
TF