Careful with that Chronoscope Eugene

Finally having a chronograph to check my air rifles with is a blessed relief, and has got to be one of the most thoughtful birthday present a wifey could get. Not only are they useful for checking the power of any air rifle, they're also useful for diagnosing any problems. So long gone are the days of firing my air rifles into a phone directory, a popular test commonly used back in the 1980's in the days of my youth.

You can expect to fork out about a £100 for one usually, however the Combro Mk4 is a smaller unit for around £50. This little unit connects to any barrel or silencer up to 30 mm in diameter  with the aid of an elastic band, but i recommend using tape as it holds on more securely

Spares and repairs are cheap which is just as well, because if you are not careful you can end up shooting of one of the end sensors. This is quite common apparently if you don't pay full attention, and this is what happened to me after owning it for only three days. I am an imbecile of the highest order, no better than a lowly slug or dare i say it, a dung beetle. Looking at the spares section on their website which is very good, i discovered the replacement parts where cheaper than the £3,50 lower tariff. However the metal cover with a small hole that protects the sensor was out of stock, so the wife suggest i give them a bell and find out when it would be.

The person i spoke to was very helpful and pleasant and we had a very good chat, on hearing my tale of woe he asked for my name and address and said he would send me the two parts i needed. Not only did he not charge me but they arrived the very next day, now that is what i call really good after sales care.

With the sensor and channel next too me i set about dissasembling the chronoscope, using a cross head screw driver to remove the two screws on the back and the tightening knob and nut.

This is done to change the batteries any way, so that's what i removed next. With this done i used the cross head to remove two screws that hold the curcuit board to the front housing, which left me with the board, sensors, and the broken channel.

It was at this point i discovered that sensors were held in securely to their reccess's in the plastic channel, though the channel would unclip from the board i would have to disconnect the sensors as well.

I didn't want to take any chance of ruining the chronoscope by doing this myself, so i decided to put it back together and just attach the metal screen to the broken channel with some tape for now.

Besides i have only heard glowing reports from this company and my personal experience with them confirmed this, so i am better off sending it back to them to repair it for me. Other people have said they are very quick to do the work and return their chronoscope's, three days in some cases. It works for now, but when i have a spare tenner i will the chronoscope and parts back and have Combro do it professionally.