Ballistic Precision Chronograph, Slingshot Bullet Bow Velocity Speed Tester with MPS/FPS Joules Readings

Previously had an F1 Shooting Chrony, which lasted a long time. When it died, I didn't want to spend to replace because I just occasionally need to verify handloads.This is a great budget option for casual users. Works perfectly. Simple to set up and use. Shot my handloads across it, gave consistent readings in the expected velocity range. Like the compact and lightweight design, AA batteries (instead of 9v of my old F1). Screen is easy to read. Controls are simple. They included an extra rod, screws, and light strip.If you are going to haul a chrony to the range numerous times a month, and shoot many rounds across it, get something more sophisticated.If you are a casual user like me, and sometimes just need to verify velocity against the reloading tables, this should serve you well, and you won't cry if you accidently hit it with a projectile, because it's cheap to replace.

I really wanted to like this device, but it is a waste of money. First the instructions are worthless, and the only thing that gives you any instructions on setup is a small picture of what it should look like once put together. The instructions on changing from one setup to another MPS to FPS in their small manual does not work, and picture does not explain how it is done. The manual said to press a confirmation key as shown in the manuals picture, but no confirmation key is shown; see jpg picture. I tested it to see if it worked with a number of arrows, paint ball gun, and the device never registered any velocity. The display screen only showed;” - - or - - - - “! I should have expected that this velocity meter would not be up to par with more expensive meters, because it was too cheap!

I own a significantly more expensive chronograph (Prochrono DLX) that broke after a gust of wind knocked it over on its tripod. I decided to replace it with one of these chronographs, and ended up wishing I just bought this one to begin with. Despite costing 1/3 as much, this one is straight up higher quality than the Prochrono.-Works indoors, works in pitch black lighting, AND works even if the sun is directly shining on it SO LONG AS you add covers to the sensors. It doesn't come with covers, but you can just cut some cardboard and tape them over each sensor and it will work in direct sunlight.-It will work outdoors even without the covers, as long as its in shade or the sun isn't shining directly on it.-The detection region is pretty generous. As long as it passes roughly over the center, it will give a reading. With the Prochrono, I had to make sure the shot was perfectly centered AND 1-2 inches above the sensors or else it would often fail to detect.-Detects slow moving objects as well as fast ones. You can move your hand over the top and it will detect the speed every time. All the other chronographs I've used will only detect small, very fast objects.-Detects tiny bullets as well as larger ones. I've tested .177 airgun pellets and it always detects them. Likewise, I've tested .30 caliber rifle bullets and it always detects them.-Has a setting to display the kinetic energy instead of the velocity. This is useful when developing loads for hunting.The biggest downside is that the instruction manual is poorly written and doesn't make sense. Its pretty easy to figure out how it works without it, though.The only other downside is that you have to spend 3 minutes cutting cardboard and taping it to the sensors if you intend to use it outdoors on a sunny day.Pictured is the way I have it setup. It works even on sunny days at 1 or 2 PM.

For $40 or whatever it was, I wasn't expecting much out of this but I only needed it to get a decent guesstimate of how my paintball gun was performing. Thus far I don't have too many complaints, although the essential Chineseosity of this device clearly shows through when you're assembling it. It's obvious that it's made in a way to ruthlessly cut the price point, but it does indeed work.For instance, the arms that hold the upper LED strips on screw onto some threaded rods that are quite simply put through the casing and bent to give them their angle, like someone at the factory just grabbed them and tweaked them by hand with a pair of pliers. It works fine, but looks decidedly janky. The LED strips are powered by way of sending current through the metal uprights; screwing them on solidly is essential to making the thing work. The mounting screws appear to be commodity fine thread computer case screws, and the couplings on the uprights are clearly just jelly bean motherboard standoffs. Whatever; it all fits together and functions just fine.In the box you get one spare upright and one spare LED strip, presumably in case either A) one of them turns out to be a dud, or B) you manage to shoot one off.I found the electronics are quite sensitive to voltage and the unit is not at all happy with the 1.2v input voltage of NiMh rechargable cells. It works fine with alkaline batteries or those zooty regulated-to-1.5 lithium not-quite-AA cells. The display is a simple white led 7 segment arrangement which the description calls an "HD" display. You keep using that word. I don't think it means what you think it means.I will echo the other users' sentiments here that the user interface is more than a bit cryptic and the manual makes absolutely NO sense. The device boots up by default into meters-per-second despite showing "FPS" on the display. You have a very brief window of opportunity immediately after power on to press the bottom square button which will toggle to feet-per-second, which makes the display flash "FPS" rather than showing it solid. See, it's TOTALLY clear and intuitive... Really, the goofy user interface is the only issue I have with this. It seems to me it could have been made much less stupid than it is for no cost other than a slight reprogramming of whatever cheap off-the-shelf microcontroller is surely inside this thing.Anyway, you fling a projectile through and it'll show how fast it reckons it went on the screen. You can configure how long the number stays up but by default it'll clear automatically after 3 or 4 seconds so don't dawdle in writing it down. The unit forgets any configuration you did the instant you power it off and doesn't remember a single setting, so you'd either better be happy with the defaults or git gud at reconfiguring it every time you power it on. Overall it seems accurate enough to me. The numbers it gave me seem plausible for my paintball gun (280 FPS or so) and my air rifle (1100 FPS or so) but I haven't tried to put an actual rifle bullet through it yet. I can say it will read down to exceptionally slow objects, i.e. if you hold it vertically and just drop something through it you can make it read single digit FPS values. Jury's out on extremely fast objects, at the opposite end of the spectrum.There's basically nothing inside the casing so it's extremely lightweight and probably prone to being knocked over in the wind. There is indeed a standard 1/4-20 tripod thread on the bottom if you want to mount it to a cheap camera tripod, or you could just put a brick on it. The only requirement is that you don't cover the windows over the infrared receivers towards either end.Apparently in bright sunlight you may need to fashion some kind of shade for it, but I've not yet had that issue. I figure you could just drape or tape a piece of cardboard over it or something.