CaldwellG2 Ballistic Precision Chronograph with Tripod and Rechargeable Battery for Shooting Indoor and Outdoor MPS/FPS Readings

This is the first chronograph I have ever used and so far so good. The only part I found confusing was how the app depicts caliber as I think it's 0.355 for 9mm. So essentially it works with I think decimal inches. However customer service has been responding via email and helping me with any issues that arises mainly my lack of knowledge but I am figuring out the new way of thinking. So far the chronograph works as well as the app once dialed in via manufacturer, caliber, type and weight. I think the build quality is solid and it's very easy to use thus a good value for the money and with results sent to the phone via Bluetooth the readability is instant.

Caldwell is a brand that can stand on it's own name. great product.

First off, the flimsy stand BROKE in 2 places while I was removing it from the plastic bag! It broke at the hinge where the three arms attach to the center slider. Very poor design in that the plastic is too thin where it should be much thicker. I used crazy glue to attempt a repair but, overall, the stand is Chinese junk and is useless. I set the G2 unit on a wooden support instead. If I had intended to use it outdoors I would be mad.Regarding the Caldwell G2 unit (Lot 8-29-20) itself, I made 300+ calibration shots in the first 2 months using 9mm, 45ACP and 38 Special rounds. I use it indoors with one shop lite off, one on 15' away, and the G2 lights on. I get good results with 9mm and 45ACP but the unit does NOT like the 38 Special. I'm lucky to get 1 38 Special shot out of 30 giving me a reasonable number in the 750fps range. 98% of the shots read 107 to 130fps, which is ridiculous! I've tried about every adjustment and solution I can think of with no improvement. Fortunately, 38 Special is not my focus.Today, 3-1-21, after 650 shots, I changed my set up slightly with the chronograph 2 feet closer to the shop lite at the other end of the room. The chrono didn't work at all. Customer support said to shut off ALL Fluorescent lights. I tried that. I set 1 incandescent light near the target box/chrono so I could see where I was shooting. I set up a second incandescent light by my shooting bench and this provided good results with 9mm and 45ACP. I still cannot get readings for the 38 Special.This equipment is very sensitive to room lighting! I may be getting it figured out, all except for 38 Special. I'll keep working on it.Still, if you are going to use this indoors, expect to have a major hassle with lighting.

Easy to use and has its own self-contained carrying case!

I absolutely love this thing. I have used several chronographs in the past, and recently I had purchased the Deluxe Chronograph Kit from Caldwell but was having issues with it giving errors and misreadings. I sent it back to Amazon as defective (I was getting roughly 40 missed readings a minute when the IR lights were on, even when I wasn't passing anything through the screens...I'm guessing one of the IR light panels were bad and flickering, making it appear something was passing through the screen). Anyway, I decided to upgrade to the G2 and try it instead; I'm VERY glad I did. the rechargeable battery works great, and lasts 2 hours on a charge if you are using the lights, and much longer than that if you do not use the lights. The days I've used it have been dark and very overcast (actually I was rained out the first time I took it out), so not a lot of light to work with and the LEDs worked perfectly as intended. I love that it has bluetooth and can work work with the Caldwell App wirelessly. The App is actually really neat, you can download it and kind of check out how it works before buying the chronograph to get a feel of what it can do. In two full days of shooting hundreds of rounds through it, I got ZERO missed readings and ZERO extra false readings. I don't expect it to work that well, as I'd assume all chronos miss every now and again, but this one really exceeded my expectations. it comes with a tripod and carrying case too which is nice. Another great feature that goes unnoticed is the fact that it charges via a micro USB port. The reason that is great is you can buy those "portable power banks" designed to use on cell phones, and use it instead to power the chronograph. I use Milwaukee Power Tools, and they sell a "power bank adapter" (as does Makita and Dewalt) to convert their batteries into USB power supplies...using one of my Milwaukee M18 batteries allowed me to run this thing all day long with zero issue, and I had plenty of power to spare, so if you get a little creative, you can use this all day long without worrying about batteries dying on you! I cannot recommend this chronograph enough to anyone who is looking for a solid performer in any condition and wants the added convenience of Bluetooth wireless phone connectivity and rechargeable battery pack that can be also be powered by micro USB!UPDATE 4/5/18: I've owned this Chronograph for a few months now and have had it out a few more times since my initial review. I still give it 5 stars, but something I found that could use improvement is the tripod...it turns out it is very wobbly (head unit) on a breezy/windy day. the tripod itself has a hook on the bottom to hang weight from to keep it from tipping over (I learned the hard way!) but the head is so flimsy that it tilts and spins the unit fairly easily, even when the knobs are all tight (it's just flexible and cheaply built - the head of the tripod that is). The good news is it's easy to get a better tripod if you experience the same issue, but since this is dedicated to this task I may take all the adjustable features of the head of the tripod and eliminate them by epoxying everything together as one piece, eliminating the flimsiness and flex inherit of the design. I don't expect much better given the fantastic price point of the whole package, but just an observation I wanted to share with everyone.