Shooting Chrony Beta Master Chronograph (long)

[XD Niner]

I had a chance to try out my new Shooting Chrony Beta Master Chronograph yesterday. I bought it NIB on eBay for $108 delivered to my front door. It was just as advertised and is a bargain at that price.

Setup was very straight forward and took less than five minutes. All you need to do is follow the instructions. (I know this will be a problem for many of you but give it a try. You might enjoy the new experience. ) The only thing I needed to supply was a 9-volt battery. I chose to mount mine on a tripod that I have for my camera. This seems to be the easiest method although you can also set the chrony on a table or other support if you prefer. However, this makes adjustment a bit of a challenge.

The Chrony Master models have a remote control which incorporates a LCD screen to report the data. This is connected to the sensor unit by a 16-foot long cable which allows you to set the unit aside on the table you are using for a pistol rest and safely out of the danger zone.

I adjusted the height of the tripod so that the upper edge of the unit was 5 inches below that of the table I was resting the pistol on plus the height of the pistol barrel. I did this because the instructions recommend that the bullet pass 4 to 6-inches above the sensors. This arrangement made it much easier as the pistol is then shooting on a flat path parallel to the ground and the chrony’s horizontal axis.

Rather than install the light diffusers, I simply placed an IPSC target with the No Shoot white side down atop the supports. This provides a consistent light background for the sensors to “see.” I had read that this is a better approach than trying to rely upon the diffusers. It was a day of broken clouds alternating between bright sunshine and an overcast sky. However, the use of the No Shoot target seemed to allow the unit to work consistently regardless of the daylight conditions.

I also put a printed target a couple of feet behind the unit with the bull’s-eye at the exact position that I wanted the bullet to take as it passed over the sensors. This helped me to aim the pistol more accurately and minimize the chance that I would shoot the chrono or the supports.

I placed the unit almost exactly ten feet from the muzzle. I had a couple of instances where the rear sensor failed to read the bullet when I did the initial testing. I then found that if I moved it about two feet closer the chrony worked perfectly. The instructions indicated this might be the case.

I only had about 30 minutes to play a bit with the unit. During that time I ran four full ten-round stings using different ammo loads and three different pistols. Of course I was mostly interested in Power Factor. My .45ACP reloads using 4.0 grains of Clays and Zero 230 grain JHP’s in brass casings averaged 169.7 from a cold barrel in my 5” Springer Black Stainless 1911. The same load in Nickel casings and a warm barrel ran a bit hotter at 173.2. Nickel casing rounds from the same batch averaged 172.2 using my S&W 1911Sc. I also ran a string using 9mm WWB 115 grain FMJ through my XD-9 Tactical which resulted in an average PF of 136.5. I did not encounter any wildly varying readings in any of the strings.

The unit provides the following data for each string (normally ten rounds): highest velocity, lowest velocity, average velocity, extreme spread, standard deviation and the velocity of each shot. Each of these requires the press of a single button which allowed me to push the button with my left thumb while writing with my right hand. A printer is also available but I didn’t feel it was worth the investment.

Advanced features can be reached using a combination of two push buttons. This undoubtedly helped to keep the cost of the unit down but it is a PITA to use. The good news is that I’ll likely never use any of them.

Overall, I give the Shooting Chrony Beta Master an A-. The only drawback is the need to use a combination of buttons as described above. Considering I saved about $80 over a CED Millennium Chrono I think it is a bargain for those who use their chrono only occasionally.

Edited January 17, 2007 by XD Niner

[Merlin Orr]

Kent.. Thanks for the excellent report. Good job.

[rodney brown]

XD Niner

Thank you for the report on the Chrony. I too am looking for a chronograph and have just started reading all I can.

You are right, the Chrony is alot cheaper than the CED that I was looking at from Dillon.

Rod

[dfwmiket]

Just want to add one little thing:

The Shooting Chrony IS great, and does a decent job for the price.....but make SURE you know your readings on other chronos, too, especially since the CED is the most commonly used match chrono out there. Better to be safe than sorry--a couple fps can make a world of difference.

-Mike

[.40AET]

.but make SURE you know your readings on other chronos, too, especially since the CED is the most commonly used match chrono out there. Better to be safe than sorry--a couple fps can make a world of difference.

I hope that I just had a bad one, mine was 60fps high. I went minor at the first major match that I went to and skinned by at 165.?? the next few matches. A friend helped get it straigt by running mine in series with 2 other chrono's. Check it against some known ammo or with another chrono.

Good luck,

[XD Niner]

I will try to verify it against another chrono and preferably a CED. I may have a chance to do so next month.

However, I've run three 10-round strings on two seperate days using 9 mm WWB 115 gr. FMJs through my XD-9 Tactical. Winchester claims a muzzle velocity of 1190 fps. The three runs averaged 1187, 1191 and 1197 fps which resluts in a 137 PF. This seems to be very reasonable so I'm not overly concerned about the accuracy of the Beta Master.

Edited January 26, 2007 by XD Niner

[Cuz]

If you are buying your shooting Chrony from the factory, I highly recommend getting the memory upgrade so it will hold 1000 shots.

When I go to the range, all I need to record is the string and what ammo I used. I can store over 100 ten shot strings in permanent memory. Then when I get home I enter the data from the chrony into a spreadsheet on my computer. It's very easy and convenient.

-Cuz.

[chunger]

I just bought a Master Beta as well. . . took it to the range this past weekend, and it worked well. . . I guess temps were probably in the high 70's or low 80's, and it was sunny. I used the sun screens as provided with the unit roughly 10 feet away in direct sunlight. It works. . . the user interface is the mos cumbersome and ridiculous thing I've seen, but I don't need all the fancy functions and learning to do what I need to do was quick.

I shot my reference ammo through which was some Winchester JHP. . . out of a PACT chrono, 10 shot string was 854.4 through my new Chrono, it was 854.1 I'm very pleased with the price. I hope not to be going to the chrono very often, but these days with my .45 load troubles, I seem to be out there measuring a lot.

The unit is a bit slower than the PACT, but if you wait until the last shot registers before firing another one, it works very well.

-'Chung