Chronography

Well, I really need a chronograph... or rather I really need a NEW chronograph.

I have a 15+ year old Chrony F (painted green at least), with CARDBOARD skyscreens. It works, but it pretty much sucks. No memory, no remote, no strings or timers etc... Plus, CARDBOARD screens.

I'm doing some load development, and I really need a good chronograph; this thing just aint gonna cut it.

What I'm wondering though, is whether I should upgrade my current Chrony, or buy a new chronograph; and if I buy a new one, which one should I buy.

Chrony has GREAT customer service; and a fun little upgrade program. You can take any green painted Chrony F1 model (the old red and black models are trade-in only, for a bit more), and upgrade it.

The upgrade pricing is seriously great. I can go to a Gamma Master Chrony for $85, or $135 with the printer (which sells for $95 separately). They’ll take ANY chronograph, even a broken one, as a trade-in on the same gamma master for $114 without, or $158 with the printer.

The gamma master is their top of the line, with the 1000 shot memory, 100 strings, string editing; High, Low and Average Velocities; Extreme Spread and Standard Deviations; remote, timer (with 1000 shot memory and 100 strings), and a PC interface (the web site says the memory is 500 shots, but thats old copy. The gamma master gets the 1000 shot memory upgrade by default).

All in all, it’s a kick ass deal; and like I said, I think Chrony is a great company.

BUT…

I’m also lusting after the PACT Pro Chronograph XP, which runs $199 from midway; and is as much more feature rich than the Gamma Master, as the Gamma Master is to the original Chrony.

You get everything the gamma master can do, plus nice extras like IR skyscreen option, every possible string calculation you can think of, wind drift, ballistic coefficient calculation, Kinetic Energy, Momentum, TKO, and IPSC power factor.

Yeah, that's frikken cool.

The Gamma Master Chrony has a retail price of $200; and honestly, I don't see why anyone would choose it over the PACT (unless they valued the compact nature of the Chrony. It's really easy to fit into a large range bag and the like - which, I admit, is a useful thing). At the upgrade price of $135 however, that's an attractive offer; and the more feature rich chronographs are a lot bulkier and harder to transport.

Then theres competition electronics ProChrono bargain model ($99) and the Millenium, which has a lot of the features of the Pro XP; though isn't QUITE there, for the same price.

So, anybody have any experiences they'd like to share with those, or other models? Opinions? Different ideas?