Tried this thing out for the first time today. Perhaps y'all remember that I had a couple of Shooting Chrony models with which I had zero luck. My personal opinion is that this model is far more user friendly. It provides more consistent velocity reports and the data analysis function works very well.
I positioned it about eight to ten feet from the muzzle and this provided consistent reports for everything but the Walker shooting fifty grains. I think with that pistol and that load, there was just too much stuff passing through the traps. I may build a little stand to clip some clear acetate sheets on so as to avoid crap getting onto the unit and through the traps. I mounted the M2 on a cheapo tripod and have already shifted it to a more stable tripod for my next shooting day.
With the unit you can arrange your shots into strings which for a revolver is very convenient. A six shot string is very logical. You download the data into a computer using the software that came with the chronograph. But once it is downloaded there appears to be no way to amend the data in the computer. It appears only to be a way to display, save, and print the data. It would have been very easy to write the software such that it has a statistical analysis function somthing like SPSS. In this way you could delete shots in the strings and the calculations would update within the computer. But this does not happen. I think the shots need to be reviewed in the chronograph (which is easy to do) and undesired velocities deleted in the chronogaph before downloading. The chronograph itself will calculate standard deviation, and average for the string. It will also tell you high and low velocities for the string. The software appears only to be a way to display and save string data. I developed a form which I am using to keep the strings straight. I can note the string number, the revolver used, how many shots in the string, the powder and charge that was used and the ball that was used.
I am pretty happy with the system so far.
I positioned it about eight to ten feet from the muzzle and this provided consistent reports for everything but the Walker shooting fifty grains. I think with that pistol and that load, there was just too much stuff passing through the traps. I may build a little stand to clip some clear acetate sheets on so as to avoid crap getting onto the unit and through the traps. I mounted the M2 on a cheapo tripod and have already shifted it to a more stable tripod for my next shooting day.
With the unit you can arrange your shots into strings which for a revolver is very convenient. A six shot string is very logical. You download the data into a computer using the software that came with the chronograph. But once it is downloaded there appears to be no way to amend the data in the computer. It appears only to be a way to display, save, and print the data. It would have been very easy to write the software such that it has a statistical analysis function somthing like SPSS. In this way you could delete shots in the strings and the calculations would update within the computer. But this does not happen. I think the shots need to be reviewed in the chronograph (which is easy to do) and undesired velocities deleted in the chronogaph before downloading. The chronograph itself will calculate standard deviation, and average for the string. It will also tell you high and low velocities for the string. The software appears only to be a way to display and save string data. I developed a form which I am using to keep the strings straight. I can note the string number, the revolver used, how many shots in the string, the powder and charge that was used and the ball that was used.
I am pretty happy with the system so far.