You don't really need it unless you just want one.
I bought a ProChrono years ago. Inexpensive and works great. When I start working up a load I just got to know how fast it's going. It's just me and I know it's not mandatory but it's what I want and chrony's can be had fairly cheap. I also use it to see what some new commercial defense loads do. It can be very enlightening. Sufice it to say some published data from cartige manufacturers are a little inflated.
Chrony's are especially helpful if your going to do any long range shooting, weather its hunting or competition. Using your velocity, and ballistics tables, you can pretty much see how much your bullet drops at a given range. Its not going to be dead on like putting the test on paper though. If all you have is a 100yd range, its a good start.
The problem with software guestimates - BC is not a constant.
The only time I've found crony useful: choosing between two powders for hunting loads near maximum - see which one has more oompf.
Of course there is the whole SD vs accuracy notion ... but I'm yet to see SD out of whack on hand-weighed ammo regardless of load, even though some groups look like #00 from 30 yards.
We bought the Chrony Alpha Master so dad could chrono his converted BP revolver to safe levels.After that,its just fun to play with.The spread on factory ammo is surprising sometimes.
I just started shooting IPSC and have shot two matches. When do they check for minimum power? I've never seen it done.. is it random?
For now, I just shoot factory at matches, but I see that changing soon. Shot my first reloads today and they seemed to work just great. Not sure what speed they were though. :-)
B
