Caldwell Velociradar Chronograph, the Reloader’s Best Friend

Having been a reloader for over 45 years, I am always looking for “tools of the trade” to help my reloading bench efforts. Sometimes, those items take the form of reloading presses, dies, powder scales, or similar equipment. Other times, helpful tools take other forms. I have an example here… the Caldwell Velociradar chronograph.

Caldwell Velociradar Chronograph

Live Inventory Price Checker

	Caldwell VelociRadar Chronogra	Midsouth Shooters Supply	$ 499.95
	VELOCIRADAR	Caldwell Shooting	$ 648.99

Yessiree, Bob… another chronograph. But this one’s different… I’ll explain that in a bit. First, here is a bit of background: I’ve had a lot of experience with chronos.

Over the years, I have owned seven chronographs. Why so many? Because I’m good at shooting them. I shot two of the seven, one of which was terminal. The one I started out with was the old Shooting Chrony – the one that folded in half when not in use and used one 9V battery. I took its name literally, and the first one I owned received a fatal shot. Then, I replaced it with another one like it, which I used until I could afford a Caldwell. I bought a Ballistic Precision and used it a lot. After becoming a gun writer, I have been sent other units to review, which I was grateful to receive. Caldwell sent me their Ballistic Precision G2, the “upside down” unit with the sensors facing down. It worked, even after I put a .22 bullet into one of the wired support arms. The bullet passed between the wires… wow. Good thing it wasn’t a .45! That it still works fine is a testimony to how well it was made.

I mentioned wires. One thing all these chronos had in common was that they used light to measure bullet speed, and they needed sky screens or sensors to accomplish that. That meant wires, either internal or external. I got tired of stringing sky screens downrange or placing the chrono downrange and running cables back to the bench. I also got really tired of having to shoot into a “window”, either under or over the sensors. That’s how I shot my chronos… I was off just a little bit. So, in order to avoid killing more chronos, I bought one of the radar units, the Garmin Xero C1 Pro.

It was much better. No wires, no window! It measured bullet speed with radar technology if you just pointed it toward the target. Another plus of radar units is their ability to pick up bullets regardless of lighting. With optical chronos, you need a decent day outdoors to shoot, or a range with suitable lighting. Some ranges have lighting that is not ideal for those chronos. With radar, lighting doesn’t matter. I haven’t tried it after dark, but I don’t see why it wouldn’t work – as long as you could see the target!

The Garmin was all good, but I wanted to get more data from the chrono than just muzzle velocity and energy. So, I reached out to Caldwell again and they sent me their new Velociradar. Finally… downrange data streams awaited! What’s the difference?

The Velociradar Difference

The Garmin uses Doppler radar which picks up one reading, at the muzzle. It is very small and useful if you want a quick velocity/energy check. But it can’t measure downrange velocities. The Velociradar goes about things differently. It uses Chirp radar, which allows several measurements of bullet speed and energy downrange. Here are a few screenshots from one of my shooting sessions. I was testing S&W’s new Volunteer X .308 AR. I’ll walk you through the process.

Once you have entered the caliber and bullet weight (“New String”, then the settings icon), you will choose “New String” from the main menu. That menu offers three choices: “Load String”, “New String”, and “Settings”:

But, before you select a string choice, you might want to look at the Settings menu. There are not a lot of choices but it does give you some control:

This is the settings screen. The top choice that got blanked out with light says “Trigger,” You can select which trigger you want to use – the default acoustic one that starts measuring bullet speed with the noise of the gun being fired, or if you are at a range and are surrounded by guns you can use a strap-on recoil trigger. This is a switch that you attach with its included Velcro strap to part of your gun and then plug into the Velociradar. That switch starts the unit when the gun recoils. Clever, that. Other choices that you will previously select are auto-ready… whether the unit is ready on its own for the next shot or whether it waits for you to tell it to be ready. The next choice is units. I’ve chosen feet, not meters, per second.

After you shoot and end your string, this first of three screens comes up:

Your information is displayed on this screen. We have:

• How many shots were fired;
• Minimum, maximum, and average velocities;
• Extreme spread;
• Standard deviation;
• And, new to the world of hobby-level chronographs, average ballistic coefficient.

That’s a lot of useful info for the reloader.

The next screen shows individual shots and their data…

The third menu choice, D.O.P.E., shows this screen:

You can see how it extrapolates trajectory, velocity, and energy out to 400 yards. It assumes a 100-yard zero.

The second choice on the main menu is “Load String”. Here, you can re-examine previous strings you’ve shot. Notice here that all but the bottom choice shows handgun velocity (in this case, 9mm) data while string 3 is obviously from a different gun. That would be the S&W .308.

One thing I like about both the Garmin and the Caldwell chronos is that you do not need to keep replacing batteries. Both of them charge their internal L-Ion battery via a USB-C interface. That’s handy and saves a bit of money.

The Phone App

Perhaps you noticed the Bluetooth symbol at the top of the menus. The Velociradar will connect to your smartphone – you can download the Caldwell app. It will search for devices to link with, so turn the Velociradar on and your phone will find it.

The app will make using the Velociradar easier to use. You can control aspects of it from your phone, and summaries are available later for evaluation.

Here’s what it looks like:

When you first open the Caldwell app, this is what greets you. Turn the Velociradar on, and it will appear on this screen. Select it.

The ready screen. After you select “new string” and start shooting, info will pop up here and on the chrono.

Below is an example of the .308 string I showed earlier on the phone. This screen summarizes everything and allows export to a .CSV file if you like. Click on the string box and then the “option” choice to bring up that and other choices. You can also view shots, get a dope chart, and more. Click on the “+” to add notes about everything from what gun/bullet you’re using to the weather conditions. It’s very complete.

Not only can you get information useful for shooters and reloaders, but you can also add guns and other components to your “Armory”. That’s another choice from the app’s main menu. That way, if you develop several loads for a pet rifle, you only have to enter it once and can then call it up when needed.

Summing Up

If you are a reloader or a shooter and you don’t already have a chronograph, you might want to give the Velociradar a hard look. It’s in the same price range as other radar units, but it gives you a lot of information that others may not be able to provide. I know that, over the years, my chronographs have helped me in my load development. They’ve even provided useful information about factory loads… mostly, not to believe the velocity printed on the box… and have helped me decide on which load to pursue for a given purpose. The extreme spread and standard deviation numbers are a great aid in deciding which ammo gets further development.

A chronograph is a tool and a handy one at that. I think every serious reloader or shooter should own one. I know that now, since I own two radar units, I’ll not go back to the sky screen versions. Radar technology is so handy and accurate that this reloader will stick with it. With the Velociradar’s downrange ballistics and ballistic coefficient readouts, it’s a no-brainer. Maybe you should check one out.

About Mike Hardesty

With experience spanning over 45 years, Mike Hardesty has long enjoyed shooting and reloading. An inveterate reloader, he casts bullets and reloads for a diverse array of firearms, each handled with long-practiced precision. Living in rural Indiana, his homestead boasts a personal 100-yard range where he shares his love for guns to his four sons, their wives, and eleven grandchildren. As a recognized author, his writings have been featured in notable platforms like Sniper Country, Bear Creek Arsenal Blog, Pew Pew Tactical, TTAG, Dillon Precision’s Blue Press, and Gun Made, revealing his ongoing passion for firearms at the age of 72.