Overall, had a decent day at the range...even with the couple snags, it was surely better than working
Anyhow, I got everything set up. Luckily, there was a guy at the range who knew about chronographs, so he helped me out a lot and gave me good advice.
Anyhow, I'd brought my .22 bolt rifle, so I could shoot away cheap ammo to get the chrono set up (and not blow away my good, handloaded ammo)
Anyhow, I was getting errors and really wacky info. Then, while sighting through the scope and between the wires, one of the bullets tagged the upright on the right side and bent it up. Well, I went downrange and fixed around at the bar. The front eye was knocked a little catty-wampus, but it was OK when I realigned it.
Something was strange...So, I stepped off to the side of the chrono and sighted in on the target with my .22. I fired 5 shots and none were anywhere near the paper! WTH!!!??? then, I remembered that about 20 years ago, I took the scope off that rife and swapped it with the one on my pump .22. I'd never sighted in the bolt .22!
So, I got out my Enfield No4Mk2. No scope to muck around with and I know where that one hits. I put a shot over the chrono and SUCCESS!!!
It went like clockwork from that point on. I tested in strings of 5 and wrote down the readouts...I know the thing stores the data, but I'd rather work it that way.
In all, I shot the following:
No4Mk2 Enfield - .303 British
No5Mk1 Enfield - .303 British
Savage 99 - .300 Savage
Super Blackhawk - .44mag
Blackhawk - .38spec & .357mag
SP101 - .38spec & .357mag
I had different loads and bullets to try and got a lot of data.
Some interesting things I learned:
- Barrel Length makes a BIG difference. About a 7% difference between the No4 and the No5 (a carbine). Major differences between the 2 1/4" SP101 and 4 5/8" Blackhawk (14% - 25%).
- My .300 Savage loads are very close to Remington Factory in terms of velocity (about 30fps less)
- My .44mag JHP hunting loads are very close to Winchester JSP Factory in terms of velocity (about 45fps less)
Then came one of the snags...
The chronograph developed a strange "flutter". Strangely, it wouldn't work and give me any usable data. The error message isn't in the instruction manual...maybe you can help me
troubleshoot
Here's a photo:
yep...
In all prior instances, I was single-action firing my SP101. I had 2 rounds left in the box lof my 125gr JHP loads and figured I'd shoot them over, just to get rid of them and also, just to play more with the chrono. Out of reflex, I double-action fired the last round...and must have pulled it low.
So, that brings me to one more thing I learned...a .358" diameter, 125gr, Jacketed Hollow Point traveling roughly 1200fps will turn a chronograph into a pile of busted-azz parts.
Upsides to the session:
- Learned a lot about my handloads
- Got my deer rifle sighted in
- Got my deer handgun sighted in
- had to stop shooting a couple times to let the deer walk through. One time, a doe and fawn, the second, a nice 8+ point and Y-buck bachelor pair, and then a spike came right within 20 feet of me *while I was shooting* and decided to graze right in my shooting lane.
- Now I have something to do at the reloading bench.
So, even with the busted-azz chrono, it was a good day.
Aqualung