ProChrono w/ indoor light system: Range report

[MemphisMechanic]

I bought the ProChrono specifically because:

(1) Another local already had one, and it worked all the time. Period. Was clearly the least sensitive to lighting conditions out of all the ones I've seen. This includes nearly everything except the CED M2. No experience there.

(2) I heard the indoor light system actually works, from someone who posted here on BE. And it was only $30ish, versus the vastly more expensive CED infrared setup.

So I bought one.

First thing I did when it arrived was to setup the indoor skyscreens (overpriced sheet of white cardboard and a fish tank bulb) and shoot a rubber band across it. Bam - 53 FPS. Sweet.

So I've owned it about 2 months now, and it's only failed to pick up a projectile 2 or 3 times out of at least 500 pistol rounds, 50-75 from rifles, 4 arrows, and about 25 rubber bands - My wife's dad and brother are big bowhunters ,and it clocked their bows at 231/232fps, and 279/281fps respectively. Expensive bows appear to have low standard deviations.

Most importantly, the indoor lighting setup works great. My data is very agreeable to the same batch of ammo run over the machine on a good overcast day, and it also tracks nicely with every other chrono we've parked it next to - except for a fairly bright day where the numbers were still about right over the ProChrono, but a Shooting Chrony was going nuts, and reading 129PF loads at somewhere between 600-630fps.

In other words, I like it.

Here's a couple pics from the indoor range at an IDPA match, just before we clocked at least 10 shooters with it. You can see it's a pretty simple setup. Just a pair of cardboard baffles that angle the diffused light down into the sensors, without any way for them to see the bulb directly.

Edited April 24, 2009 by MemphisMechanic

[BigTinVA]

Did you buy the remote control so that you can send the results directly to your laptop? I am really pleased with my ProChrono Digital but the remote really makes it nice even though there is a little more to set up.

Edited April 24, 2009 by BigTinVA

[MemphisMechanic]

Did you buy the remote control so that you can send the results directly to your laptop? I am really pleased with my ProChrono Digital but the remote really makes it nice even though there is a little more to set up.

No, I haven't. I prefer pen and paper. Even though I could zap them to my laptop, or even just turn the machine off and pull the numbers back up from it's memory when I got home... I never have to worry about wires, cables, or batteries that way.

[High Lord Gomer]

Cool! How do I get one?

Edit: The light system, I mean. I already have the chrono.

Edited April 24, 2009 by High Lord Gomer

[Greg Bell]

Did you buy the remote control so that you can send the results directly to your laptop? I am really pleased with my ProChrono Digital but the remote really makes it nice even though there is a little more to set up.

I also bought the remote laptop setup and liked it. I send the reports to a pdf file for reference. We ran a few strings for some of my shooting buddies and I emailed the pdf's to them when I got home nice feature for an extra $49

[MemphisMechanic]

Cool! How do I get one?

Edit: The light system, I mean. I already have the chrono.

I forget where I bought the chrono and light setup from. I think Midway. Unfortunately, everything gun-related is blocked at work, so I can't check to be sure. From looking at Competition Electronics' website, it appears that competition electrioncs has radically redesigned their light setup.

That might not be a bad thing - the box for the light setup is shaped a lot like a 16" pizza carry-out box. The new one, without the massive cardboard sheet, looks a lot smaller.