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I've just found out how necessary a chronograph is.

S

Sak

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My Hw100 exhaust valve started protruding in to where the magazine is located so a quick google and it's a fairly common problem for the metal pin to come loose from the plastic body. I had a spare valve & breech seal so i changed the valve but i now had an air leak through the barrel so i suspected the valve wasn't seating, i had read a post earlier where someone had glued the pin back to the body of the valve, so that's what i did & that worked as a temporary fix until i get a new exhaust valve & now no air leak.
I had put the original valve back in the rifle with a new breech seal & nothing else, today i decided to check the rifle with my Natechrony & it was 1.6 ftlbs in the wrong direction, so out with the allen keys & it's now shooting 11.4ftlbs.
It just goes to show how important it is to have a chronograph.
 
Having grown up on guns that would not break the law, without some serious engineering, or stupidity, the current PCP's that can quietly creep, or just be delivered over, is a different world and one that demands a chrono.

The only one I had that was over, did that of its own accord, (AT completely intact) was a BSA ultra MMC that crept up due to glue and fibres in the transfer port.
Never in a million years would I have guessed that as a reason to check them every now and then, without any external changes.
 
Sak said:
My Hw100 exhaust valve started protruding in to where the magazine is located so a quick google and it's a fairly common problem for the metal pin to come loose from the plastic body. I had a spare valve & breech seal so i changed the valve but i now had an air leak through the barrel so i suspected the valve wasn't seating, i had read a post earlier where someone had glued the pin back to the body of the valve, so that's what i did & that worked as a temporary fix until i get a new exhaust valve & now no air leak.
I had put the original valve back in the rifle with a new breech seal & nothing else, today i decided to check the rifle with my Natechrony & it was 1.6 ftlbs in the wrong direction, so out with the allen keys & it's now shooting 11.4ftlbs.
It just goes to show how important it is to have a chronograph.
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My FX chrono was left round my friends two weeks back, as an oppty for him and his lad to check their Pellpax supplied ( I think) Gamo air rifles... as both were new, they presume are under 12 .. picking it back up during the week- not too sure that they wanted to check their rifles. Checked and adjusted my TX when bought. No one wants the expense of a Chrono- but would be very unwise indeed for anyone not to want to check their rifles output.

Edit, I went for an FX radar chrono used in tandem with a phone to run the software- great bit of kit- if one decides to buy an airgun- as others say, its a must have.
 
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I wouldn't want to be without a chrono even if it was only for periodic checks. Absolutely necessary for anyone who does any work on air guns. I wouldn't want to take an air rifle to the range or to a perm if I wasn't satisfied it was running legal, as I wouldn't be able to relax. Had a few surprises when testing different pellets, expecting lower weights in a PCP would produce lower ME but got the opposite! Occasionally got heavier pellets giving increased ME in springers too.
 
OldStock said:
Having grown up on guns that would not break the law, without some serious engineering, or stupidity
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Yeah, back in the day I think it was more or less a given that you had to shoehorn an ‘Ox’ into your rifle to get to the limit or over.
But then again my local gun shops were predominantly sellers of ‘real guns’ first and foremost - most air weapons were an afterthought, secondhand, and in all honesty a bit tired.
Nowadays new guns are so cheap and more often than not knocking on the door of the 12ft/lb limit, even at a price point of £99 - but not once had I have an RFD mention checking the power or even try to sell me a chrono.
I’d be willing to bet there are loads of overpowered guns out there, with owners totally unaware, because all they do is shoot, and don’t know what a chrono is or that AGF exists!
With chronos so cheap - they could easily be bundled in with a new gun - no excuses.
 
It took me a while to realise that wanting one or not wanting one isn’t really an option. But now I’ve got one I’m glad I did.
I mainly brought it just to keep a random eye on the legality of my guns but its uses far outstretch that one task. Couldn’t be without one now.
Pocket FX nice and easy.
 
I don’t have one yet, and as an engineer I’m a bit concerned about how well calibrated they might be, especially the cheaper chronos. Hopefully I have a perm coming soon, and intend to check my rifles monthly, or when they are big changes in weather to make sure I stay legal. But I’m concerned that I might be reading legal with a bunch of different pellets only for the police to test with their chrono and it read higher.
 
The shop I always used before sadly closing would chrono every air rifle leaving and every rifle entering,,,that said it doesn't mean things won't change..I got one when my Ultras( still in warranty) POI drastically dropped..took it back to be fixed,,a mate of mine owned an MMC which he got from another shop,he'd had it from new but hardly shot it..when he took it to trade at my shop they offered top dollar as it was as new and they had a collector who wanted one mint,,however,,the price came down once they checked the power,,it was 14.5 fpe,,from new.
 
Legend289 said:
I don’t have one yet, and as an engineer I’m a bit concerned about how well calibrated they might be, especially the cheaper chronos.
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It’s a laborious watch, but the last two videos were on just that. I was a little shocked by the result! I will do more testing next month

Are cheap chrono’s any good? We test one against two more expensive options. Part 1

Are cheap chrono’s any good? Part 2: We test one against the Nate Chrony Extreme Ballistic.
 
Like others my main use of my chronograph is to try and ensure my equipment is within prescribed legal limits, as best I can.
But they are also a great reason to shoot everything you’ve got on a regular basis, and I’m sure I’m not the only one who gets a mild sense of satisfaction when you get a 10 shot string with a lower fps spread than the last time.
I’ve actually toyed with the idea of telling my wife, who is aware that my rifles need to be within a legal limit but otherwise no understanding of how it works, that I need to buy another rifle so that this one can ‘cool down’ for a while 🤣
 
I always wonder how the plice can claim to test power accurately.. All they use is a skan chrono, just like anyone else can go out and buy.

How do they calibrate the thing, bet they are not too keen to talk about that. What about temperature?? What temperature do they test at??

It would HAVE to be 20c, as that would be the temperature that the chrono was calibrated at, unless calibrated by a clown, but if you tested a pcp or a co2 gun, at say, 30c instead you would get results a lot different.

What i mean is, the law says "capable of discharging a missile so that the missile has, on being discharged from the muzzle of the weapon, kinetic energy in excess, in the case of an air pistol, of 6 ft. lb. or, in the case of an air weapon other than an air pistol, of 12 ft. lb"

But what if at the time they took it from you [8am on a winter morning] it was INCAPABLE of blah blah, but once they got around to testing it in their nice warm building, it WAS then capable of blah blah..

They need to specify a temperature...
 
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Legend289 said:
I don’t have one yet, and as an engineer I’m a bit concerned about how well calibrated they might be, especially the cheaper chronos. Hopefully I have a perm coming soon, and intend to check my rifles monthly, or when they are big changes in weather to make sure I stay legal. But I’m concerned that I might be reading legal with a bunch of different pellets only for the police to test with their chrono and it read higher.
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I think that pellet, and temperature variations is why I, and so many other end up using a gun around the 10.8fpe mark with the most accurate pellet.

The tolerance of chronos is probably much narrower than either temperature or pellet variation, so if someone was setting the gun at 11.99fpe with the heaviest pellets, then yes they may need to get the chrono tested, but also give their head a good wobble.
 
Ramma22 said:
Does anyone know or has heard of anyone being pulled by
police, having their guns taken and tested, and found to be
over the limit? Cos I for one have not.
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Me neither..

I think it is just when people have been arrested [quite rightly] for doing lunatic things that this sort of thing arises.
 
Oldtime said:
Me neither..

I think it is just when people have been arrested [quite rightly] for doing lunatic things that this sort of thing arises.
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I’ve had all my guns seized and tested twice, both times from my home. One was due to a report from an ex copper who claimed I shot a seagull, then it wasn’t a seagull it was his caravan, then he couldn’t find any damage on the caravan (or the seagull presumably?🙄). The other one was because I bought an air rifle from an online retailer who was on a home office watch list!?
 
Tinbum said:
I’ve had all my guns seized and tested twice, both times from my home. One was due to a report from an ex copper who claimed I shot a seagull, then it wasn’t a seagull it was his caravan, then he couldn’t find any damage on the caravan (or the seagull presumably?🙄). The other one was because I bought an air rifle from an online retailer who was on a home office watch list!?
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It never ceases to amaze me the number of air gunners who have the attitude that it won’t ever happen to them 🤦‍♂️!

It’s like car accidents, it’s not always what you do, it’s what others do, as in your second example. A chrono is such an important bit of kit it should almost be a law to have one!
 
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