Chronographed?

[Hanshi]

Who in our midst has chronographed their rifles?  Shortly after I bought mine - over twenty years ago - I chronographed everything from my .22LR rimfires to my 45/70 loads.  It has only been in the last 12 or so years that I chronographed any of my muzzleloaders.  Actually, some of them have yet to be measured.  I mostly just checked the speed of loads I'd worked up and had been using for some time.  Sadly, I did not record all the data.  Some I did write down and a few were eye-opening.

Anybody else?   

[rdstrain49]

Anybody else what?  Fail to record data?  Yep.

[hotfxr]

Need you ask? It's a gadget and we chrono everything from BB guns (Avg 350 to 450 fps), slingshots, arrows (My 1959 Damon Howitt long bow hybrid shoots a wood arrow at 191fps) all the way to my cannon. We do record the data, but usually lose the notebooks immediately.

[pilgrim]

Need you ask? It's a gadget and we chrono everything from BB guns  to my cannon. We do record the data, but usually lose the notebooks immediately.

    How many FPS  velocity did you have with that Mole?                

[Patocazador]

I have problems chronographing my muzzleloaders. I think it registers the patch or wad about 1/3 of the time. I chrono-ed my Ruger Old Army and got readings of 750+ some of the time and ~310 fps at others. All I could figure out was it registered the wads sometimes.

Same thing with the rifles when I used patches or wads.

[Dogshirt]

Chronographing a muzzleloader requires the chrony to be far enough from the muzzle that the patch AND the muzzle blast do
not affect it. It will not give you a true "muzzle velocity" but it will be close enough to work with. A light cross wind will help to keep the patch from going over the chrony as well.

[William]

I've always been curious as to what velocities my muzzle loaders are pushing the RB and it's not because I am equating them to the power of my center fire rifles, past and present.  In fact, the only CF guns I own are themselves antiques, having sold my modern stuff.

Anyway, my observation has been that the somewhat lowly round ball seems to kill game out of proportion to what it's paper ballistics would indicate so I've always been curious as to the velocities I'm getting from my front stuffers.

[Red Badger]

Whats a Chronograph?    When were they invented?    

Seriously I don't own one and have never had the opportunity, or realistically the inclination to check... If the ball goes where I want it with the penetration power it needs then I'm good.     

[hotfxr]

Whats a Chronograph?    When were they invented?    

Seriously I don't own one and have never had the opportunity, or realistically the inclination to check... If the ball goes where I want it with the penetration power it needs then I'm good.     

Obviously you failed at the immature guys fascination with gadgets class at that fancy college you go to. How will you ever quote boring and meaningless statistics at parties now? 

[Hanshi]

I'm still interested in who uses a chronograph with their muzzleloaders.  I've never had any more problems with them than with centerfire.  Normally I will set the screens at least 15 ft from the bench.  IIRC the true muzzle speed is with the screen distance, in my case the 15', added back to the reading.  I don't do that because I consider it "much ado about nothing". 

One thing I've learned is that velocity is nowhere near a straight curve.  Speed gradually increases then can jump 200+ fps with the next addition of just 5 grains.  An increase in charge can also give LESS speed than the previous load.  I did say EYE OPENING, RIGHT?  "Frinstance", simply changing patch and lube in my .40 upped the speed of a 60 grain load from 1935 fps to 2100 fps.  Oddly, the 40 grains load was decreased by around 30 fps to  under the 1700+ fps I'd gotten previously.

[Hanshi]

  Yes, chronographs are mostly for the "cognicentie"; what's that word mean, anyway?   

[hotfxr]

Being fully cognizant of the bell curves relating to velocity, force, friction, gravity, etc. I choose to ignore that as irrelevant. As much as I like insignificant facts when it comes to setting the chrono at 5 yard intervals and trying to keep consistent loads, well that's for people with a lot of letters following their names. But when used in a jocular manner as we do, never really caring for the data except for bragging rights, it works great when comparing shots at a fixed distance. As long as those numbers keep showing up on the little screen, and mine are bigger than the other guys, I am happy. Not very scientific or for that matter accurate, but I don't understand big words anyway, so we keep it simple.

And that's the facts!

[old salt]

What hotfx said!
When I started in this sport of our I was told I need to keep a note book for info on the different loads and all. So I got one. the thing is I got it out the other day and gave it toBlue Bird used it for her family history.

[Dogshirt]

Keeping the notebook is important when working up the loads for a rifle or pistol. But AFTER one has established what a certain firearm likes, all of that becomes irrelevant.

[Hanshi]

Okay then, our furry, resolute leader.  "chronograph" is a word that comes from the Klingon word "Kronos", which is their home planet in the Vega system.  Just to be different, humans decided to spell it with a "ch" instead of a "K".  I have no idea where "graph" comes from but it sounds like an acronym, whatever an "acronym" is.