Score! New ProChrono Pal

[Lifeislarge]

Just picked up a new ProChrono Pal off of Craigslist. Never used, in the box for $50. I'm about to start my first few loads this week and was sweating the testing side of things, but now that's taken care of. Anything I should know before proceeding?

[Guest]

Aim high.

[Sarge]

Anything I should know before proceeding?

Load development/chrono tips

Don't try to load 10 rounds and chrono it. It takes awhile for your press to settle down and be consistent. Loading 10 might be OK IF you just want to see if you are in the very general ball park before making too many. But once you are in the area you want to be in load up at least 50 and take the first ten that come off the press and use them to warm the gun up or something. Take the last few that come off the press and put them with the first 10 as well. They will be shorter than the rest and behave differently. Chrono what is left.

Put a target out at 25 yards or so and align it with the screens of the chrono. Draw a black dot in the center and aim at that dot. This will do two things. It will keep you from shooting through a different area of the screens every shot and it will tell you if a given load is more accurate than another. It is amazing what you will learn by doing this. A great feeling load means nothing if it is shooting a 12" group at 25 yards. You will see one load shoot high right and another will shoot dead left, etc..

You want a soft shooting load but you NEED an accurate load. Believe it or not the chrono will help you find the right combination for your gun.

Shoot at 10 feet.

Try to shoot when the sun is high in the sky.

Try to shoot when you have white clouds overhead or use a no shoot on top of your screens to give better contrast.

Write everything down!!!!!!! Nothing worse than trying 5 different loads and not remembering how each one did.

Take a calculator to the range with you. Always nice to know if you ended up loading a 190 PF load.

[Lifeislarge]

Anything I should know before proceeding?

Load development/chrono tips

Don't try to load 10 rounds and chrono it. It takes awhile for your press to settle down and be consistent. Loading 10 might be OK IF you just want to see if you are in the very general ball park before making too many. But once you are in the area you want to be in load up at least 50 and take the first ten that come off the press and use them to warm the gun up or something. Take the last few that come off the press and put them with the first 10 as well. They will be shorter than the rest and behave differently. Chrono what is left.

Put a target out at 25 yards or so and align it with the screens of the chrono. Draw a black dot in the center and aim at that dot. This will do two things. It will keep you from shooting through a different area of the screens every shot and it will tell you if a given load is more accurate than another. It is amazing what you will learn by doing this. A great feeling load means nothing if it is shooting a 12" group at 25 yards. You will see one load shoot high right and another will shoot dead left, etc..

You want a soft shooting load but you NEED an accurate load. Believe it or not the chrono will help you find the right combination for your gun.

Shoot at 10 feet.

Try to shoot when the sun is high in the sky.

Try to shoot when you have white clouds overhead or use a no shoot on top of your screens to give better contrast.

Write everything down!!!!!!! Nothing worse than trying 5 different loads and not remembering how each one did.

Take a calculator to the range with you. Always nice to know if you ended up loading a 190 PF load.

Wow Sarge, thanks. You just corrected three mistakes I was about to make right off the bat. I had planned on loading 10 rounds each of incremental powder weight from the recommended minimum to the max. I honestly hadn't even considered accuracy in the testing, just power factor and feel. I suppose loading a couple hundred rounds for testing is nothing if I can get what I'm looking for and then crank out 5K. I have a nice tri-pod to mount the chrono to so I'll try to make sure it's lined up with the target behind it. I suppose I'll bring some of the Atlanta Arms that I've been shooting to find zero prior to testing. Do you test from a rest or just free style it? Soooo much to learn. When I first decided to start loading I figured, get the equipment, some supplies and load. Piece of piss. I will definitely be listening very closely to those wiser than I.