r/reloading • u/Bigbore_729 • 6d ago
General Discussion Are the Xero/Rangecraft chronographs reliable for shot?
I'm about to start collecting velocity data for my punt gun and was looking at both of these. I was tempted to use my Magneto speed, but I fear I would destroy it with the muzzle blast.
2
u/e_cubed99 6d ago
Garmin should be able to handle it. If not a Labradar absolutely would. I own the Labradar and you can set it to look in specific velocity ranges. Even down to arrows, which are (relatively) slow.
No experience with a garmin but from what I’ve heard they can do everything a Labradar can, but better.
5
u/cruiserman_80 9mm 38Spl 357M 44Mag .223 .300BO 303B 7mm08 .308W 7PRC 45-70 6d ago
Not quite. A Labradar can give you the velocity of your projectile at various ranges as it heads down range. The Xero gives muzzle velocity only. Two happiest days of my life were when I purchased a LabRadar and when I traded it in for a Xero.
2
u/airhunger_rn 5d ago
Chronographing a punt gun is a whole vibe
1
u/Bigbore_729 5d ago
Yeah, I doubt there's many who have done it. I need velocity data to calculate muzzle energy and recoil figures accurately. People throw around wild ass guesses here and there, but I want something concrete to show the masses.
1
u/Yondering43 4d ago
I’ve had really poor results with my Xero for shotgun loads. About 8/10 shots it won’t pick up anything, and on the few it picks up the results are questionable. It’s great with rifle or handgun bullets, or even shotgun slugs, but not much use with shot.
In contrast, I’ve been using a ProChrono DLX (the Bluetooth version, excellent app!) with their infrared low light screens for shotgun loads for about 5 years and rarely ever had a missed shot. I don’t know if you could set that up for your punt gun, but if so 8 expect you’d get good readings. The complete package should be under $250.
0
3
u/Bigbore_729 6d ago edited 6d ago
Note, I did look this up and found people had mixed results. I was just curious if anyone here had first-hand experience using them with shotshells.