For those of you who don't follow rec.sport.paintball, a while back I compared a slightly modified VLocity to the handheld RadarChron. I performed the test after it occurred to me that I could chrono the same shot via using both chronographs simultaneously. This initial study and a later follow-up study I performed (that used to be on this webpage) yielded interesting results.
In short, the results from the previous two tests indicated that both chronographs function reasonably well but that care must be taken lest the VLocity interfere with the RadarChron's operation via some stray RF signals.
But neither of the previous tests were really designed to determine which of the two chronographs were more accurate. Everybody always assumed that the RadarChron was, but there was no data to confirm or deny this assumption.
I have thought about this question a bit and decided to run a third test. Lacking an authorative source (IE, professional chronograph or similar) to compare data against, it occurred to me that the most logical way to guesstimate the accuracy of the chronographs is to compare the standard deviation of the data produced. Is this an accurate guesstimate? Beats me. I'm no statistician! Nonetheless, here it is for your reading pleasure.
I fired a total of 40 shots. However, I threw out the data from the first 10 shots as both chronographs indicated the gun was all over the place. This is likely due to the fact that I had just cleaned the gun and the oil had not had time to get evenly distributed. Thus, 30 shots worth of good data was obtained.
At no time was the gun's velocity adjusted.
| VLocity | RadarChron | |
| Average Velocity | 270.9 | 268.0 |
| Standard Deviation | 5.31 | 5.21 |
As you can see, the chronographs performed very similarly. The average velocity indicated was only 2.9 fps (1.1%) apart. But to answer the question of "Yeah, but which one is more accurate?" it appears that the RadarChron is more accurate - barely (see standard deviation). Still, I believe the data is in sufficient agreement to say that either chronograph is perfectly acceptable for recreational play.