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Member Joined: 01 Dec 2006 Posts: 524

Did anybody read the article in the current issue of Sporting Clays Magazine on velocity testing equipment? I'm not going into the details, but after reading it you wonder why anyone even bothers.

Member Joined: 08 Nov 2005 Posts: 3438 Location: Illinois

Chronographing shotshell ammo,while not as precise/neccesary as metallic loading still has it's place.Metallics have a start/stop range where most shotgun recipies have only one recommended load.It still let's you know how your loads compare to the stated or known velocity of another load

Joined: 15 Dec 2005 Posts: 287 Location: missouri

A chronograph for testing shotgun shells can be an extremely useful tool if you understand properly how to use it. One of the things it will show you right off the bat is how lame some factory ammuntion is (many of the Promo type game loads) and how good some of the factroy ammo has gotten, Remington STS target loads are very good having a very low velocity spread between shells which means they are very consitant. Every wonder why you can shoot the same shells from the same box at birds and sometimes you knock them down cold and sometimes you don't? Shooter error of course is one reason, but vast inconsitancies in shell to shell performance of cheaper shells is another factor, the listed veloctiy on the box you buy is an average of over 100 shells tested for that lot not an indicator fo shell to shell performance. Many types of cheaper promo loads I have shot over the chrono have velocity spreads of over 100 fps which means of listed velocities are 1200 fps you may get some that shoot 1150 fps and some that shoot 1250 fps, you just won't know.
I shoot alot of high speed steel for waterfowl, with my chronograph I have some of my pet loads down to around 35 fps velocity spread, which means I get consistant performance . I also chornograph my loads in warmer temperatures then in 30 degree or colder temperatures to see if the they perform the same.
The chronograph can and is a very useful tool for the shotgun shooter, some may think it's a lot of work for very little outcome. Then again when I am freezing my butt off after driving 3 hours in the middle of the night to go sit in a duck blind, and that first flight of the day comes to check out my decoys, at least I know I can count on my ammo to get the job done.

Member Joined: 15 Jan 2007 Posts: 40 Location: California

JIG,

16GAwaterfowler has again hit it right on the head. Without testing how do you know what you have? When you read these threads where questions are being asked about this or that powder, hull, wad, what have you, how do you know if any of the answers have any meaning unless you can quantify what results?

Lack of uniformity in shot velocity - as described for the promo loads - implies all sorts of other undesireable things. The shot column is pushed to a specific velocity by chamber pressure. If shot velocity is all over the map, then chamber pressure is also all over the map. The question then becomes why. Was the powder used for that load a rejected batch? The manufacturing reality is that nothing is thrown away - too much money was spent making it. Was the amount of powder less - or more than it should be, which relates to quality control. Were tolerances wide for the cheaper product. Was the shot charge the exact same weight for each load? Again quality control. We could go on and on, but basically you get what you pay for.

However, the crux of the matter rests with 16GAwaterfowler's last paragraph. The game season is short. Game is scarce. License's are costly as is the ancillary equipment. When you are out there freezing your butt off and the first game shows up you certainly want to have the best shot you can get available to you. Anything else is false economics.