Ballistic Precision Chronograph, Slingshot Bullet Bow Velocity Speed Tester with MPS/FPS Joules Readings

If you like knowing what your gear is actually doing instead of just guessing, this Ballistic Precision Chronograph is a must. It gives clear MPS, FPS, and Joules readings, which makes dialing things in way easier. Setup was straightforward, and the display is easy to read. It picks up shots consistently without me having to perform a ritual dance to get a number. Whether testing airguns, bows, or even slingshots, it delivers solid, repeatable results. It’s compact enough to bring along without being a hassle, but sturdy enough to handle regular use. If you’re into tuning, comparing ammo, or just satisfying your inner data nerd, this thing is a blast. Five stars. Finally, numbers instead of guesses. 🎯

For $40 or whatever it was, I wasn't expecting much out of this but I only needed it to get a decent guesstimate of how my paintball gun was performing. Thus far I don't have too many complaints, although the essential Chineseosity of this device clearly shows through when you're assembling it. It's obvious that it's made in a way to ruthlessly cut the price point, but it does indeed work. For instance, the arms that hold the upper LED strips on screw onto some threaded rods that are quite simply put through the casing and bent to give them their angle, like someone at the factory just grabbed them and tweaked them by hand with a pair of pliers. It works fine, but looks decidedly janky. The LED strips are powered by way of sending current through the metal uprights; screwing them on solidly is essential to making the thing work. The mounting screws appear to be commodity fine thread computer case screws, and the couplings on the uprights are clearly just jelly bean motherboard standoffs. Whatever; it all fits together and functions just fine. In the box you get one spare upright and one spare LED strip, presumably in case either A) one of them turns out to be a dud, or B) you manage to shoot one off. I found the electronics are quite sensitive to voltage and the unit is not at all happy with the 1.2v input voltage of NiMh rechargable cells. It works fine with alkaline batteries or those zooty regulated-to-1.5 lithium not-quite-AA cells. The display is a simple white led 7 segment arrangement which the description calls an "HD" display. You keep using that word. I don't think it means what you think it means. I will echo the other users' sentiments here that the user interface is more than a bit cryptic and the manual makes absolutely NO sense. The device boots up by default into meters-per-second despite showing "FPS" on the display. You have a very brief window of opportunity immediately after power on to press the bottom square button which will toggle to feet-per-second, which makes the display flash "FPS" rather than showing it solid. See, it's TOTALLY clear and intuitive... Really, the goofy user interface is the only issue I have with this. It seems to me it could have been made much less stupid than it is for no cost other than a slight reprogramming of whatever cheap off-the-shelf microcontroller is surely inside this thing. Anyway, you fling a projectile through and it'll show how fast it reckons it went on the screen. You can configure how long the number stays up but by default it'll clear automatically after 3 or 4 seconds so don't dawdle in writing it down. The unit forgets any configuration you did the instant you power it off and doesn't remember a single setting, so you'd either better be happy with the defaults or git gud at reconfiguring it every time you power it on. Overall it seems accurate enough to me. The numbers it gave me seem plausible for my paintball gun (280 FPS or so) and my air rifle (1100 FPS or so) but I haven't tried to put an actual rifle bullet through it yet. I can say it will read down to exceptionally slow objects, i.e. if you hold it vertically and just drop something through it you can make it read single digit FPS values. Jury's out on extremely fast objects, at the opposite end of the spectrum. There's basically nothing inside the casing so it's extremely lightweight and probably prone to being knocked over in the wind. There is indeed a standard 1/4-20 tripod thread on the bottom if you want to mount it to a cheap camera tripod, or you could just put a brick on it. The only requirement is that you don't cover the windows over the infrared receivers towards either end. Apparently in bright sunlight you may need to fashion some kind of shade for it, but I've not yet had that issue. I figure you could just drape or tape a piece of cardboard over it or something.

I ordered this for my son as a Christmas gift. When i got it, it was damaged pretty badly. The arms were bent & it didn’t work. I reached out to the company and they were happy to resend me a new one. So I shipped the broken one back. The new one came & worked really well it was very accurate. Plus it was a good price too. My son is happy with it. The company shipped out the replacement almost immediately after I sent the broken one back. The shipping was very fast. we got it was in about 2-3 days. I would definitely order from this seller again! They handled this issue super fast & easy!

The FPS readings were wildly inconsistent with my competition PCP pistols (under ~500fps). Big swings in FPS, and every 4-5 shots a complete failure to register at all. This is in an indoor range with proper lighting, I sanity checked on another chrono to make sure it wasn't my pistol. I use a chrono for relative measurements, it just needs to be consistent but it couldn't even muster that. The instructions were impossible to read, and the build quality was genuinely bad. They just bent some small screws poking out of the body with pliers, which you attach the posts to. They were all 4 bent differently, you have to bend them yourself to make it somewhat even. Same size and shape as a real Chronograph, but it absolutely doesnt perform like a real one. Save the money, its not worth the headache.

First, the packaging was great. A box, within a box, within another box! With the unit came one extra light strip, an extra metal support leg, a couple extra screws, and a small Philips and flat screwdriver. They are small, and obviously cheap but they work ok, and these and extra parts are a nice touch. The bad. I put everything together and only the front light LED indicators came on. I looked in the manual and it indicated that if the indicators are not working that you put it on backwards (there is a left and right indicated on the light strips) or batteries need to be replaced. The batteries were brand new and over 6 v. total (4xAA) and the orientation was correct, so not any of the suggested fixes would work. I was about ready to return it but pulled out my multimeter 1st... With the uprights/support posts off the base screw connectors showed 6.2 v. front and 6.2 v. in back. I put the posts on and measured the post bases front and rear (both 6.2 v.) and then put posts on again and measured at the top of the posts front and rear. The top of front posts were 6.2 v., but no voltage in the back at top of posts. I pulled the posts off again and measuring ohms showed no continuity top of rear posts to the bottom. Now this would seem impossible as at least looking at the assembly it appears to be 3 pieces of conductive metal screwed together, but maybe there is some Loctite or something in there, not sure but that was the case. I soldered up a couple jumper wires with alligator clips and connected top and bottom of rear posts, measured 6.2 v. at the top now. I added the light strip and the LED indicator lights are on. I tried it out at that point with my pellet gun and it works great now. I gave it three stars as it seems like a pretty nice little unit once I got it going, but you should not have to mess around so much with a new item to get it to work, even if it is inexpensive. I guess the alternative would be to return it and hope the next one was better, but I wanted to use it now.

Previously had an F1 Shooting Chrony, which lasted a long time. When it died, I didn't want to spend to replace because I just occasionally need to verify handloads. This is a great budget option for casual users. Works perfectly. Simple to set up and use. Shot my handloads across it, gave consistent readings in the expected velocity range. Like the compact and lightweight design, AA batteries (instead of 9v of my old F1). Screen is easy to read. Controls are simple. They included an extra rod, screws, and light strip. If you are going to haul a chrony to the range numerous times a month, and shoot many rounds across it, get something more sophisticated. If you are a casual user like me, and sometimes just need to verify velocity against the reloading tables, this should serve you well, and you won't cry if you accidently hit it with a projectile, because it's cheap to replace.

I own a significantly more expensive chronograph (Prochrono DLX) that broke after a gust of wind knocked it over on its tripod. I decided to replace it with one of these chronographs, and ended up wishing I just bought this one to begin with. Despite costing 1/3 as much, this one is straight up higher quality than the Prochrono. -Works indoors, works in pitch black lighting, AND works even if the sun is directly shining on it SO LONG AS you add covers to the sensors. It doesn't come with covers, but you can just cut some cardboard and tape them over each sensor and it will work in direct sunlight. -It will work outdoors even without the covers, as long as its in shade or the sun isn't shining directly on it. -The detection region is pretty generous. As long as it passes roughly over the center, it will give a reading. With the Prochrono, I had to make sure the shot was perfectly centered AND 1-2 inches above the sensors or else it would often fail to detect. -Detects slow moving objects as well as fast ones. You can move your hand over the top and it will detect the speed every time. All the other chronographs I've used will only detect small, very fast objects. -Detects tiny bullets as well as larger ones. I've tested .177 airgun pellets and it always detects them. Likewise, I've tested .30 caliber rifle bullets and it always detects them. -Has a setting to display the kinetic energy instead of the velocity. This is useful when developing loads for hunting. The biggest downside is that the instruction manual is poorly written and doesn't make sense. Its pretty easy to figure out how it works without it, though. The only other downside is that you have to spend 3 minutes cutting cardboard and taping it to the sensors if you intend to use it outdoors on a sunny day. Pictured is the way I have it setup. It works even on sunny days at 1 or 2 PM.

The USB C input on the side of the chronograph is for using an external power source. It works for me when using my own USB cord connected to a USB power bank. My USB C laptop power cord did not work though, so the input power must be specific or "smart" to make the chronograph work with external power. External power bypasses the on/off switch and the switch does nothing when external power is used, it just turns on when external power is used and turns off when you disconnect external power. The USB C cord included in the box will need a wall outlet plug which is not included, but if you have a USB to USB C cord, you can try it with a cell phone charger plug and it might work if the electric output is appropriate. You're probably better off with 4 AA batteries anyway instead of guessing what the input power needs to be since this info is not explained at all in the instructions included. My chrono assembled fairly easily and seems to work. Haven't tested it yet other than throwing a tictac through it which did display the velocity. By all signs it should work and for the price I can't complain much. Deciphering the instructions isn't easy but some of the other reviews will help you decipher the translations.