Frustrating morning with my Chrony

[bdb]

I decided yesterday to dig out my F1 Shooting Chrony that has not seen the light of day in about 7-8 years. I had previously only used it for archery since I didn't reload back then. I have been working up different loads for 9 and 45 with Titegroup and W231 and wanted to check them out to see what I was getting. I know how they feel and which loads are more accurate but I wanted to get some speed confirmation.

So, I setup the chrony in the yard last night and checked it with one shot from the bow. Yup, still worked but I was shocked to see 256fps as the result. I know my bow shoots way faster, at least it did last time I chrono'd it. I started second guessing the bow and have been bummed out about it since yesterday.

Anyway, this AM I started with .45, below are the results. I was also getting lots of errors (err1, err2) requiring a reset and sometimes it wasn't registering a shot at all.

Blazer factory 230gr. 786, 828, 836, *reset*, 787
5.6gr W231 230gr Berrys. *reset* 745, 827, 816, 812 *reset* 782, 830, 836
5.4gr W231 230gr Berrys. 835, *reset* 747, 763, 748
4.5 Titegroup 230rg Berrys. *reset*, 668, 703, 739
5.0 W231 230Gr Berrys (my primary plinking round). *reset* 702, 746, 761, 733, 734, 744

Frustrated I moved on to 9mm. Probably shot 30 rounds, lots of resets but mainly it would not register at all. I got 2 speed measurements out of them all which was a 4.3gr W231 and 115gr Berrys at 1072 and 1109.

Pretty much all I can conclude is the damn thing is flaky and seems to take a few rounds to "warm up" before it starts giving consistent readings and even then it's not that consistent most of the time with lots of no reads and lots of "err1" and "err2" requiring a reset. And not even registering the 9mm was shitty.

Oh well, I guess I can't really rely on it. It was early (8am) and the sun was bright. The range has baffles overhead to keep bullets from getting out but it was pretty bright where it was set which was about 10 feet in front of the muzzle. Any thoughts here or something I may be missing with the chrony?? The metal rods and diffusers were on and nothing appears broken.

 

[xtry51]

Too much light coming in at a low angle do to time you were shooting. Probably need a bigger diffuser.

Chronos are very finicky to the climate. Shoot the same load two different time I guarantee you'll get two different results. I rarely use mine anymore, usually just if I'm working a new powder and want a ballpark number for a first load to confirm what I'm feeling and get a rough estimate on the fps increase between two loads.

ETA:

Did you clean the sensor windows before going out? Use a couple Q tips with alcohol or windex on them.

 

[bdb]

I was suspecting some of the above. Thanks for the feedback. I did not clean them, that's a good suggestion.

 

[RImike]

Also, I have noticed that sometimes it gets confused with the muzzle flash, so ensure its set far enough away from you.

 

[mac1911]

Er1 and 2 are sensor codes. Clean your lenses, make sure your battery is fresh, I use the difussers all the time.
Shooting pistol I had to go to about 10' with my loads under 1000fps.
Early/late Sun doesn't help and the over head baffles create even more problems.
I use my shooting crony for pellet guns indoors often. With a nice bright light obove the crony I get very good results.... that's the down fall of the shooting crony it relies on the interruption of light between the sensors. I always use the diffuser, try to go one over cast days and if possible with the sun high or behind me with cover from the range.
The over head baffles really play games with it also.