Chronographs?

2 Corinthians 5:17 KJV "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold all things are become new"

I have never owned a chronograph, and never used a chronograph and never gave much thought to owning one. WHY? Always thought that most rifles and shotguns and muzzleloaders were capable of placing their shots into the vital zone at whatever range I deemed to be reasonable to shoot at a big game animal. Whether a given load out of a ML left the muzzle at 1800 fps or 2000 fps mattered little to me. I hunt mostly whitetail deer, although I did take a moose in New Foundland with a Ruger mdl 77 .300 Win Mag a few years back. As I recall the 180 grain Speer Nitrex bullet that hit that moose in the near side shoulder did an admirable job of dispatching him in short order. Moose have a reputation for showing no effect of being slammed in the shoulder or the lungs with all manner of appropriate calibers. This one merely flinched and kept going, and I lost sight of him in the trees after about 4 steps. He only took about 8 steps and piled up. The bullet broke his near shoulder, turned the lungs into jello and broke a couple ribs exiting the other side. He was quartering towards me at the time of impact. I was totally impressed with that caliber and the Speer Nitrex load.

In any event, I am strongly considering the purchase of a Chronograph, not so much for myself as I feel it would be of interest to my readers to get velocity readings and perhaps an occasional printout on some of the newer saboted loads out of the TC Encore 209/50, my Omega and also my brother's thumbhole laminated Savage smokeless ML. I am curious about the .338 Federal loads also, and what the heck, might as well test the Marlin 336 .35 Rem with a comparison of the 200 grain round nose core lokt that made it famous against the new Hornady lever revolution plastic tip loads etc. Might like to see a printout or two on the 405 grain Buffalo Bore slugs out of the 45-70 also.

In other words, maybe it is time I printed out my own range tests, and included muzzle velocity on some different loads. Who knows, I might run some loads through the Ruger 7.5 inch Super Blackhawk .44 mag while I am at it. I might even get to wondering why I never owned one before. Can't wait till summer, as we are into about 18 inches of snow on the ground and single digit night time temperatures, not to mention that deer hunting season has two weekends left.

I probably will not get into the chrony stuff till spring, but I guess it would be nice to have one. Next thing you know, I will want to start reloading again. Dan http://www.gunsandoptics.com/