Chronograph Recommendation?

[pasky]

Looking to invest in a chronograph for load development and testing. I am not a competition shooter, most of my shooting is pest/vermin control, stalking and a bit of long range plinking, which rules out spending on a Labradar. What are your recommendations?

TIA
Pasky

[Catch-22]

Magnetospeed!

Isnt affected by light/weather conditions like the traditional chronographs can be.

[One on top of two]

Magneatospeed V3 for me 👍

[pasky]

Thanks for the replies. Do you find that the Magnetospeed V3 effects group size for load development?

[One on top of two]

Nope 

[Catch-22]

Hanging it off the barrel will definitely affect barrel harmonics and POI...possibly group size too a bit. But i don't think it really matters tbh. 

I use the magnetospeed during my initial OCW test. I use the chrono data to figure out the suitable charge weights to focus in on in the 2nd round of testing. Remember, primary focus of OCW isn't really group size, it's to find the middle node of a few charges that show a plateau, meaning they're likely to be stable.

The 2nd time out with the OCW I don't worry about using the magnetospeed as I now know velocities from OCW 1. I just focus on retesting the identified loads from OCW round 1, albeit with different seating depths to tighten things up. This way there's no possible chance for the magneospeed to affect the groups the 2nd time out.

Once I settle on the optimised load, I do a final 5 or 10 round test with the magnetospeed to ensure velocity is as it should be. If I've changed seating depth or neck tension, it may have changed velocity just a smidge.

HTH! 👍

[One on top of two]

This ☝️ Pretty much do the same . 

[pasky]

Thanks for the advice and your experience’s gents, looks like the magnetospeed is the way to go.

Cheers

Pasky

[Montey]

As your loading for varminting the cold bore shot is nearly always the most important one so my advice is to focus on that after you've sorted the rest as  previously described.