Chronograph recommendations please

L

Lpgc

Active member
Joined
Mar 24, 2026
Messages
215
Reaction score
307
Location
Yorkshire
I want to buy a cheap chronograph so I'm asking for recommendations please.

I've read they start cheap at around £20, do these cheap (Chinese) ones actually work or are they terribly innacurate / a waste of money? I know some would recommend expensive ones that are probably accurate to the nearest 1 (or even less than 1) fps but if the cheaper ones are accurate to (say) 2 or maybe even 5fps I think that would be more than adequate for my needs.

I do expect the same question has been asked plenty times before but I've done a couple of searches and haven't found an existing thread entirely on the same subject or I would have read and posted on it instead of starting a new thread on the subject. Sorry for starting this thread if I've missed something that should've been easy to find.
 
 
Yes,, the cheapo's are fine for ocassional testing
the black one is not the best for springers imo.
IMG_20260511_164828_411.webp
 
Last edited:
Jay.T said:
Yes,, the cheapo's are fine for ocassional testing
the black one is not the best for springers imo.
View attachment 975223
Click to expand...
Ahh... The one I just bought is black. But I don't think it's the same as the one @That hurts linked to (the one I bought)?

Troy.T. said:
Would be interested to know how you get on with it please.
Click to expand...

I will come back to this thread to say how it goes after it's arrived and tested it, though I don't have another chrono to compare it against so it'll be a bit of a belt and braces review.
 
I bought the one @That hurts recommended, thanks again for the recommendation.

It is definitely Chineseum and is fiddly to use but it seemed to work on the HW80 I recently bought, which did 572fps with 14.5grain Superdomes which is 10.5ftlbe.

It did not work so well with the HW77. I recently said that I'd lost the underlever latch for the HW77 (and I'm still looking for replacement parts)... The design of this chrono means you really need to clamp the end of the barrel into the chrono (by tightening 4 allen bolts). The problem with this is that at the end of the HW77 barrel there is the odd shaped cocking latch 'boss', so it doesn't really suit the gun.

Funny bit - When I tried using it with the HW77 I shot the rear LED off. I was trying to hold the gun parallel with the chrono whilst also holding the gun's underlever closed due to the broken cocking latch. Fail! Had to laugh!

Any recommendations for a replacement LED for this chrono? It must be infrared but will any infrared LED work?
 
Lpgc said:
I bought the one @That hurts recommended, thanks again for the recommendation.

It is definitely Chineseum and is fiddly to use but it seemed to work on the HW80 I recently bought, which did 572fps with 14.5grain Superdomes which is 10.5ftlbe.

It did not work so well with the HW77. I recently said that I'd lost the underlever latch for the HW77 (and I'm still looking for replacement parts)... The design of this chrono means you really need to clamp the end of the barrel into the chrono (by tightening 4 allen bolts). The problem with this is that at the end of the HW77 barrel there is the odd shaped cocking latch 'boss', so it doesn't really suit the gun.

Funny bit - When I tried using it with the HW77 I shot the rear LED off. I was trying to hold the gun parallel with the chrono whilst also holding the gun's underlever closed due to the broken cocking latch. Fail! Had to laugh!

Any recommendations for a replacement LED for this chrono? It must be infrared but will any infrared LED work?
Click to expand...
You plonker ... there's no need to clamp the unit to the barrel, just put a length of pipe in the 'V' block and shoot through :

20230124_115128.webp

👍
 
I had the same cheap one recently and then got a Natechrony and the cheap one was within a few fps of the Nate
 
@Morse - you are stirring things. My Chinese Chrono is within 3 fps of my calibrated chrono. Yes, calibrated. Fully traceable to National Standards in the timing circuits using off air frequencies. . See many previous threads. I'd trust it as much or more than any chrono mentioned here.
In practice, virtually any chrono using 2 spaced sensors will have negligible timing errors, (Or it's broken) and any further uncertainty is purely down to the accuracy of the sensor placement. We are not really worried about a fraction of a percent.
 
colinb said:
@Morse - you are stirring things. My Chinese Chrono is within 3 fps of my calibrated chrono. Yes, calibrated. Fully traceable to National Standards in the timing circuits using off air frequencies. . See many previous threads. I'd trust it as much or more than any chrono mentioned here.
In practice, virtually any chrono using 2 spaced sensors will have negligible timing errors, (Or it's broken) and any further uncertainty is purely down to the accuracy of the sensor placement. We are not really worried about a fraction of a percent.
Click to expand...
I asked a legitimate question out of curiosity. If your chrono is accurate then fine, suffice to respond accordingly …… without accusation.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top