I found the Steinert chrono to be extremely sensitive on how you set it up. If not all the angles where spot on, I got some results that did not match up at all. But when I got it right, it was very easy to use.
Agreed, but this seems to be precisely its problem, because you
can never know just how precisely it is aligned.
For example, if you align the chrono to the best of your ability (using the pistol-type sights built in, ensuring it is at least 3m from the muzzle, and remembering to compensate for the offset between the rifle and the chrono), shoot a string, then remove and realign the chrono, without
touching the other chronos you are using as controls, and repeat this for every string, it will differ from them by different amounts for each string, and not just by a few feet-per-second, but by as many as 100 FPS.
Thus, however capable it may be of providing accurate readings when optimally set up, this seems to be fatally undermined by the impossibility of knowing that
it is optimally set up... in which case, its other virtues, and it has many, are sadly irrelevant.
Has anyone tried a Steinert in comparative conditions like this and achieved reliable consistency?
I'm wondering if it might be worth trying to mount a 1 MoA red dot sight to it...