Checking velocity in club range

[Alpha1]

bradaz11 So it is thank you for pointing that out I stand corrected. Obviously the guy has no idea what he is doing hand loading wise my advice would be to avoid him like the plague. Do not shoot next to him he is a danger to your health.

[shotgun sam]

bradaz11 So it is thank you for pointing that out I stand corrected. Obviously the guy has no idea what he is doing hand loading wise my advice would be to avoid him like the plague. Do not shoot next to him he is a danger to your health.

The original poster is obviously new to reloading and all credit to him for asking for advice, rather than just barge into it blindly.
We all were new to reloading at some point, did everyone avoid you like the plague when you were a newbie?

If in doubt ask someone who knows is a good policy to have in life especially when reloading. Only once have I known someone have a major problem with reloads and they had been doing it for years, they liked to push to the limits until the day their rifle exploded injuring several people next to him plus himself.

[Jimminy234]

I find the idea quite wasteful, I’ve recently been sent a small quantity of 4 variations of bullets for my .303 so if I test the velocity of each I’ve wasted 25% off them straight away. I’ve also been told it’s worth varying the powder load so I would need to check those rounds as well.
Then crimp or no crimp? Etc
It would soon add up to lots of velocity tests even though they are all likely to be very close to each other.

The original poster stated he was looking for load data for an indoor range if you think shooting .303 on and indoor range and developing a load for indoors is a waste of time.
I am so glad I don,t have to shoot along side you.

I did not ask about load data, I’m after advice on if there was a good tool for measuring velocities because everyone at the club could benefit from that.

I have a well proven recipe and get consistent results. Some people use more powder, some use less. I can just keep using the starting load because it works, is consistent and safe, But I’d like to know if I can improve accuracy a little

When I did my 44mag load development I made 10 off each powder weight in .2 grains increments. I shot 5 with the magnospeed and 5 for a group.
What I found was the lowest powder weight gave the best results and I got an sd of 2 fps and all recipes were well under the range limits.
What would be nice is if I can do the same thing but only shoot 5 and get a velocity without having to waste 5.

[redcat]

Might be worth getting the members together and buying a decent chronograph between you. Or maybe the club would buy it? The one at Yarners is there for any member to use when they need to.

Redcat

[Jimminy234]

That’s the point, I don’t know what chronograph is the best option. I need more information before I can go to the committee with options that are better than what we have.

[1066]

I have a Chrony F1 with an extension button, at my short range club we have a Caldwell. Both seem to give the same results and both work well. There's no reason why, if you position the chronograph correctly and shoot from a rested position you can't check velocity and accuracy at the same time. If you mount the chronograph on a camera tripod about 1o feet down range and line it up right you should be good to go.

[TattooedGun]

David Wylde of Valykrie Rifles overcame the issue of the magnetospeed interrupting the barrel harmonics by building an adaptor that attaches the magnetospeed to the stock via a rod to put it in the correct alignment for the muzzle.
This only really works if there's some way to attach the adapter to the stock, but is worth considering in some cases for this issue.

The method that Alan (1066) suggests with a "traditional" optical chronograph may be your best option to do both accuracy and velocity testing. Optical chronos tend to be the cheapest option, but can often require their own light source above the optical sensors for use indoors.

[Lancs Lad]

I own and use a magnetospeed chrono for my target rifle reloading process.
I fully accept that the tool is designed to measure velocity at the muzzle and that when attached to the barrel, there will most likely be a POI shift. I was aware of this limitation when I purchased it.

With that in mind, when trialing new loads, I make up batches of 5 rounds of each load (perhaps 4 batches in total) and shoot them without the chrono attached to establish any promising nodes / groups.
If such a group does show promise, only at that point does the chrono go on. There is a cost involved in reloading and finding the load your rifle likes in terms of time / materials etc. It's a part of the game and pretty much unavoidable if accuracy is your objective.

These observations relating to the magnetospeed causing a shift in POI pop up on various forums frequently and I honestly can't understand why people don't just use this particular chrono model as it was intended, instead of trying to make it do something for which it was not designed.

Just buy a Caldwell or sell a kidney and buy a Labradar. It really is as easy as that!

Happy New Year to all.

LL

[Rockhopper]

I went to the tunnel range out Ashbourne way, they have a chrono that sits a few feet in front of the barrel, just shoot normally and it prints out your velocity. No idea what kind it was but It worked fine and told me everything I need to know. That’s probably not very helpful to anyone!

[channel12]

I have read and re-read your original post and my question is why do you need the MV of every batch you shoot? I don't think I have ever chrono'd my .38spl/.357 loads because I'm shooting at my club's range and once I had a load that gave a good group I didn't the MV. My .223 loads I do chrono to get ballistic data out to 500 yards.
To echo Laurie find the load and bullet that gives you the best group and then chrono that if necessary.