Caldwell Ballistic Precision Chronograph G2 (Review)

[jschweg]

I purchased one of these a few weeks ago and had to opportunity to take it to the range this past weekend. This is a relatively new product from Caldwell, and is the newer revision of their original chrono which as been around for some time. My motivation for buying this one was it's ability to work without issue under florescent lighting, as they have flipped it over with the sensors pointing down. The sensor shades on the bottom have built in LED lighting that is powered by the unit itself which is charged via a microUSB cable.

It isn't really what I would consider cheap ($200 on amazon), but considering you get a carry bag, tripod, light kit, and bluetooth connectivity to your phone all in one package, it makes it a pretty good deal. You'd probably spend close to that buying light kits and wireless modules for some of the other brands out there anyway. Just a few shots of the bag and what it looks like after being assembled. 

Here is just a quick shot of it setup on the tripod about 10ft from the firing point.

Caldwell also has an app on the Android/Apple store that you can use with it and will communicate with the chrono over bluetooth (the previous version used a long 3.5m audio jack that a lot of people had trouble with). I had no issue connecting it to my phone and it gives a lot of great information. You can use it in a basic mode where it will just display the just the velocity information that it reports on the physical device itself, however you can also have it track strings and calculate PF on the fly if you input your bullet weight.

 

So all in all, I'm really happy with this Chrono. I shot about 20 or so rounds of my 9mm handloads through it, as well as a whole mess of .22 just for the hell of it. It picked up every one. 

Edited August 23, 2016 by jschweg

[abb1]

Hmmmm, I just got this chrono, and as soon as the bluetooth pairs, an 'error 2' is displayed and the app crashes. I am using IOS. This was just trying to pair it in the house. I will try again at the range this weekend.

[78Staff]

Shot mine for first time today, outdoors, plenty of light, but got a lot of Err2 and Err3's... sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't.  Tripod is junk, as many have stated, I used a different tripod.  When it worked it was nice, BT paired up no problems and I was able to save several strings, although they included a bunch of errors...  I'd say out of 60 shots at least 20-25 didn't read.  Seemed to not like higher velocity, that;s where the errors started happening.  45acp worked well, once I started pushing 10mm at higher velocities ie 1200-1400 is when the errors started piling up.  Not sure if there is setting for higher velocity?  Anyway, it's likely going back.  I"ll either grab a Pro Chrony or just splurge on the LabRadar maybe.

[Steve_53]

I've used mine extensively for both .45 ACP in the 750-800 fps range and 5.56 in the 2900+ fps range and have not seen any issues (there isn't any sort of setting for velocity range that I've seen, btw) - what kind of distance from the chrono are you shooting at?

[78Staff]

Roughly 10ft or so, maybe a bit more.  It worked great for 700-1100, just when I started testing some 10mm loads (which is really, really where i needed it lol), it only triggered a handful of times.  I sent it back today - Amazon has dropped the price to $140, I bought it a week ago from Amazon for $190 so it was going back for that fact alone, but I would have re-ordered it at 140 if I didn't have so many issues with it.  I ordered the pro chrony and BT adapter instead though and will give it a try before committing ~$700 or so to the LabRadar.

I really wanted to like it, nice little package that should in theory also work indoors, but really didn't want to have to fiddle around with it with issues.  The pro chrony won't work indoors without lights I know but I can add those if it works out better than the G2 did.  I hate to sound elitist but I've really never had a Caldwell product I wasn't disappointed with, as i mentioned in the other thread they always seem to be the "cheap" option and hesitated to even by the G2, but figured I would give it a try.  Maybe I got a bad one, who knows.  But the Pro Chrony while not as slick looking has nothing but good reviews and long record of use - am figuring it will work out fine.

Edited November 21, 2016 by 78Staff

[78Staff]

Shot the Pro Chrono today, No issues at all.  Set on tripod, turn it on, Phone app connected, and every shot registered, no errors.  Seem like there are a lot of people using the G2 with no issues though, so maybe I just got a lemon.  Anyway happy with the PC.  Also a guy at the range had a PACT Professional XP Chrono, it was pretty nice too, had the remote box via wire and seemed to work well once setup - they had some issues getting it algined/set just right, but once that was good it worked pretty well.  Had built in printer too, but twice as much I think.