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

If you like knowing what your gear is actually doing instead of just guessing, this Ballistic Precision Chronograph is a must. It gives clear MPS, FPS, and Joules readings, which makes dialing things in way easier.Setup was straightforward, and the display is easy to read. It picks up shots consistently without me having to perform a ritual dance to get a number. Whether testing airguns, bows, or even slingshots, it delivers solid, repeatable results.It’s compact enough to bring along without being a hassle, but sturdy enough to handle regular use. If you’re into tuning, comparing ammo, or just satisfying your inner data nerd, this thing is a blast.Five stars. Finally, numbers instead of guesses. 🎯

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.

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.

This chrono is finally working well in a brightly lit (4000K L.E.D.) workshop but if your chrono is as finicky as mine there are a few things you should know. First, after unboxing, the battery box fell out, pulling the negative wire off the power switch. Resoldered the wire and remounted the battery box with Velcro tape.Second, the metal rods did not conduct power to the L.E.D. strips very well.. with fresh batteries, these lights strips were only getting three volts (should be about six volts). Everything looked fine but it refused to work. The problem was the threaded hex fittings are poorly attached to the rods. They look secure but caused a voltage drop. Fixed by carefully "crimping" them to the rod using the wire cutting edge of a pair of linesman pliers.I am pleased with the end results and a bit surprised that a light shade was not required above the unit. I would guess that depends on your particular building lighting and if any A.C. voltage component is being emitted. Apparently my 120VAC shop lights feed a pretty clean DC current to the L.E.D.s.I use the chrono on a short target range (20 feet) with an assortment of .177 Co2 pistols. The chrono effectively showed how many "high power" shots I could get before the velocity fell off as the Co2 cartridge is depleted. Yes, you could just shoot until the projectile begins to drop... no chrono needed, but why do that when you can spend Christmas day screwing around with a soldering iron, voltmeter and guns.I also have a "pump" style air rifle and was able to see the pellet velocity based on the number of pumps. I was surprised to see that my Dad's ancient Daisy 800 pellet/BB rifle still shot over 600 FPS. Also, it's interesting to quantify various brands of pellets or Co2 cartridges.One final note.. If you are having trouble selecting FPS (Feet Per Second), you have to hit the enter button pretty quick after turning the unit on. The instruction manual is a bit wonky so read it a few times.P.S. It's fragile, don't shoot it!UPDATE April 2024:Unit got worse overtime, even with fresh batteries (not picking up shots) so I replaced the 4 AA batteries with a rechargeable 2 cell LiPo battery (7.2 V nominal, 8.4 V fully charged). Works well,, for now.UPDATE July 2024:Still working well. Displayed velocities (FPS) are all close to velocities specified by gun manufacturers... Diana Airbug, Crosman Vigilante, Crosman American Classic, Daisy 880.

The FPS readings were wildly inconsistent with my competition PCP pistols (under ~500fps). Big swings in FPS, and every 4-5 shots a complete failure to register at all. This is in an indoor range with proper lighting, I sanity checked on another chrono to make sure it wasn't my pistol. I use a chrono for relative measurements, it just needs to be consistent but it couldn't even muster that. The instructions were impossible to read, and the build quality was genuinely bad. They just bent some small screws poking out of the body with pliers, which you attach the posts to. They were all 4 bent differently, you have to bend them yourself to make it somewhat even. Same size and shape as a real Chronograph, but it absolutely doesnt perform like a real one. Save the money, its not worth the headache.

For 35 bucks you cannot beat this. I have owned many chronys over the last 25 years or so. One of the complaints I always had about my fancy more expensive ones is that they require bulky light kits to make them work indoors. Not this one. It works perfect indoors and doesn't matter what type of lighting you have or don't have in the room you are using. Pictured are some readings shooting .22 Super Colibris in my garage at 10 yards out of a Savage Rascal. The machine is easy to fire up and gives accurate readings. No complaints at all. Yeah the structural build quality is not that of a 200+ dollar setup. But it's cheap, light and attached right up to an old camera tripod I had. And the best is it uses AA batteries. I am sick of rechargeable non-replaceable batteries in almost everything I bought now days. 5 stars for this chrony. Very affordable and just works.

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.

The USB C input on the side of the chronograph is for using an external power source. It works for me when using my own USB cord connected to a USB power bank. My USB C laptop power cord did not work though, so the input power must be specific or "smart" to make the chronograph work with external power. External power bypasses the on/off switch and the switch does nothing when external power is used, it just turns on when external power is used and turns off when you disconnect external power. The USB C cord included in the box will need a wall outlet plug which is not included, but if you have a USB to USB C cord, you can try it with a cell phone charger plug and it might work if the electric output is appropriate. You're probably better off with 4 AA batteries anyway instead of guessing what the input power needs to be since this info is not explained at all in the instructions included. My chrono assembled fairly easily and seems to work. Haven't tested it yet other than throwing a tictac through it which did display the velocity. By all signs it should work and for the price I can't complain much. Deciphering the instructions isn't easy but some of the other reviews will help you decipher the translations.