Shooting Chrony Ballistic Printer $66 at MidwayUSA

[hyounker]

I don't remember seeing the Shooting Chrony Ballistic Printer this cheap before ($66):

http://www.midwayusa.com/eproductpage.exe/showproduct?saleitemid=644359

I think Midway's shipping is a little higher than most, but should still be better than most for the printer and shipping total.

[shadow]

Good deal Henry. :)Ed

[TCups]

Henry:

I did check out the ballistic printer and in fact, pushed the button.  Midway, prompt as ever, shipped and I got the printer a few days ago.  Tonight is the first time I played with it.  I had to figure out a set up for indoor shooting over the Chrony, however.  An incandescent desk lamp with a shade between the diffusers, one of Pogo Timmy's traps and the wife's ironing board (first usage it has had in years) solved the set up problems.  

The advertisement says the printer works with all Chrony models, and as advertised, the printer seems to work fine with my "bottom of the line" F1 Chrony.  Operation seems fairly straight forward.  With the F1, you have to turn the Chrony off and on to start a new string.  The printer can be run real time or print at the end of the string.  It comes with a 16 ft. cord to connect the printer to the Chrony.  This works nicely as the printer can be placed on the shooting bench and can remotely control the Chrony.  In real time mode, it prints the shot number and velocity after each shot.  After a string of up to 30 shots (I think that is a limitation of the F1 model Chrony), pressing the "Stat" button causes the printer to print the String#, lowest velocity, highest velocity, average velocity, maximum spread, standard deviation, and total number of shots fired.  Here, for example is what the print out of 10 shots from my AR2078a look like:

#1     631.15
#2     634.89
#3     630.13
  . . .
#10   629.94

------------------ C
      #1  $
627.68  -
636.73  +
632.20  *
    9.05  c
    3.00  ?
    #10  T
----------------- C  

Guess my knee pad note book has some high tech help, now.  The printer runs on 4 x AA batteries and also comes with a 6V power supply.   The F1 Chrony on a 9V battery and no external power supply option.  I always seem to forget to switch the Chrony off and then have to go scrounging for 9V batteries.  Wish the Chrony either ran on AA batteries or had an external power supply option or both.   Anyway, it seems to me that if you are in the market for a Chrony and want to consider the printer option, then it might make sense to buy the cheaper F1 model and spend the savings on the printer, unless you just really need all those extra functions of the Alpha, Beta, Gama or whatever on the more expensive models.

Anyway, thanks for the tip on the sale price.  Something to do indoors with the air guns these very cold evenings when I can't go outdoors to shoot.

[hyounker]

Tommy, I'm jealous!!  I decided to pass on this deal in order to get a new rifle.  You may remember I am getting a B26 from MM.  I also need to get started on some reloads for my eight year olds .257 Roberts, and I don't even have the dies yet!!

I guess my old notebook will have to stay around for awhile longer.

I bought my Shooting Chrony Gamma Master in 1998 (the receipt is still in the box) for $215.  Nowadays, you can buy the Gamma Master WITH the printer for under $200!!!  But, that chrony has been more than I ever imagined.  It has seen 4000+ fps from my 220 Swift reloads all the way down to 280 fps to calibrate the boys paintball guns for action.  I use it for paintball, arrows, airguns and high power rifles, and it has performed flawlessly over the years.  Probably shouldn't complain about the price, huh?

Thanks for the review.