Chronograph Shield

Maximizing the performance of your Rossi firearm.
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Mrlucky353
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Chronograph Shield

Post by Mrlucky353 »

My friend Tonto accidentally shot my chronograph. Of course he manned up and paid for the repairs without complaint. Still, he was distraught and filled with shame that he missed from ten feet and put a 40 S&W bullet hole perfectly centered through the front of my chronograph.

I tried to reassure Tonto that he shouldn't feel like The Lone Ranger, and that many, many others have done the same thing. But I could see that his pride was hurt each of the three times that he did it.

Many other people have posted pictures online showing the damage caused when they inadvertently shot their chronographs. This is what some damaged chronographs look like:

shot chronograph.jpg
shot_chrono.jpg
Competetion Electronics will repair/replace bullet ridden chronographs at a discounted price.
Still, it could get expensive for the persistent. And since an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, I checked online to see if a commercial shield might already be on the market. However, Google found nothing.

Some might say that the solution is just don't shoot the chronograph. Just don't miss. Don't flinch. Aim better and use better trigger control. And of course, they're right.

I started to give that advice to Tonto as he stood with a still smoking pistol in his hand. But the look in his eyes said that perhaps it would be more prudent to keep that golden advice to myself.

Protecting a chronograph from low shots is simple in concept. All you have to do is place something sturdy in front of the chronograph. A railroad tie would do nicely, but it might be awkward getting it in and out of a city boy's Prius. AR500 steel plates could also protect a chronograph, but where would the ricochets go?

So here are some initial design criteria for Tonto's Chronograph Shield. I welcome and solicit all suggestions for improvement in both design and implementation. The current criteria for the Shield are:

1) Inexpensive;
2) Portable, lightweight, easy to carry and set up;
3) Not attached to the chronograph in order to protect the chronograph from impact damage;
4) No risk of bullets deflected back towards firing line or over backstop;
5) Able to accommodate different calibers.

The first step was to determine how much protection would be needed. Four 2x4's were duct taped together and shot from ten feet to see how many boards would be penetrated by 32 acp, 40 S&W and 45 acp ammo.
4 2x4.jpg
Surprisingly, the 32acp 73 gr FMJ, the 40 S&W 135 gr JHP, and the 45 acp 230 gr FMJ each penetrated to about the same depth, going completely through two boards and imbedding into the surface of the third 2x4.
3rd 2x4.JPG
Therefore, three 2x4's were used as the initial shield, using string and a ten-dollar shephard's hook from Lowe's to hold the shield in place in front of the chronograph. Additional boards could be added for stronger calibers as needed.

Below are two sample pictures showing the relative alignment of the chronograph and the shield from both the side and from the front. When in actual use, both would be set up so that shots fired would impact the mud backstop and not the rock driveway. Note that the chronograph is mounted atop an inexpensive camera tripod. Also note that 3/16 wooden dowels are used in the chronograph instead of metal dowels.
Chronoshield Side view.JPG
Chronoshield front View.JPG
The pro of this implementation is that it meets the initial design criteria. A con is that it is a bit time consuming to set up and align so that the boards completely protect the chronograph housing. Another con is that 2x4's don't provide protection for the tripod holding the chronograph, especially if used for longer shots.

Tonto tried out this proof of concept design. Even though he didn't say much, I could tell he liked it.
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Jaybm
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Re: Chronograph Shield

Post by Jaybm »

Well two replies come to mind ...
1. Yankee ingenuity, but then I noticed where you're from so that doesn't fit ;)

2. And that's why I don't own a chronograph +1

Seriously though .32's penetrated as far as the .45's, that's surprising and
brings up thoughts about edc caliber.

Thanks for the post ... Jim
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Re: Chronograph Shield

Post by Archer »

I tried to reassure Tonto that he shouldn't feel like The Lone Ranger, and that many, many others have done the same thing. But I could see that his pride was hurt each of the three times that he did it.
Soooo...

Tonto shot your chronie 3X?!?

Perhaps you guys should be shooting over HIS chronie?

What's that old saying:
Once is chance, twice is coincidence, three times is enemy action...
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Re: Chronograph Shield

Post by f100cleveland »

How many vehicles has he shot driving down the road through your shooting range?
Mrlucky353
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Re: Chronograph Shield

Post by Mrlucky353 »

Jaybm wrote:
Seriously though .32's penetrated as far as the .45's, that's surprising and
brings up thoughts about edc caliber.
Jim, everything possible was done to maximize penetration of the 32acp in the 2x4 test:

a) using 32 acp FMJ instead of JHP;
b) using the hottest brand ammo that was available. Some brands penetrated much, much less.
c) using the longer barrelled Taurus PT132 instead of the shorter barrelled Keltec P32.
In chrono tests, rounds fired through the PT132 (3.25" barrel) achieved 12% better velocity
than rounds fired through the Keltec P32 (2.7" barrel).


Steve
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Re: Chronograph Shield

Post by Mrlucky353 »

Found this interesting link at the brianenos.com forum:

Poll: How Many Chronographs Have You Murdered?
http://www.brianenos.com/forums/index.p ... =38833&st=
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Re: Chronograph Shield

Post by Mrlucky353 »

I gave Tonto another chance with my chronograph this weekend, although with the Chrono-Shield in place.

Watching him, I noticed that whenever a shot was not read by the chronograph,
Tonto would aim his next shot just a little bit lower.

It looked like Tonto was thinking that bullets passing closer to the chronograph
might have a better chance of being read.

So I marked the guide rods about ten inches above the chronograph for Tonto to use as an aiming level.
That seems to have helped Tonto a bit.

But I left the Chrono-Shield in place.
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Re: Chronograph Shield

Post by Jaybm »

Smart decision !
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