The 7 Best Shooting Chronographs of 2026

Athlon's radar unit is the one to look at if the Garmin's price made you wince. It measures 65 to 5,000 fps through Doppler radar, weighs 4.7 ounces, and carries an IP67 rating, so it goes in the range bag, comes out in the rain, and doesn't care where the sun is.

In use it does the job we buy a chronograph for: point it, shoot, read. The 2.4-inch screen is bigger than the top pick's and shows average velocity and spread for the string without a phone, and memory holds 50 sessions of 100 shots each. Its 65 fps floor is the practical advantage over the Garmin — light bows, slingshots, and airsoft guns live well under 100 fps, and this unit still sees them.

Where it gives ground is the app. Pairing with the Athlon Ballistics Lite app can be stubborn, and the layout isn't as polished as Garmin's. Treat the phone as a convenience rather than the only way to see your data and you'll be happy, because the on-device session view does the essential math. For a radar unit that costs noticeably less, that's a fair trade.

Competition Electronics has been building the ProChrono for a long time, and the DLX is the version with Bluetooth baked in. It's a conventional optical unit: a body that sits on a tripod downrange of the muzzle, screens above the sensors, and a display that shows feet per second.

That means setup matters more than it does with radar. You need even light across both screens, a clear line for the projectile, and enough access to place the unit where it belongs, which is why we set ours up during a cease-fire and leave it there for the session. Get the alignment right and it reads arrows and bullets alike without complaint; rush it and you'll chase readings that don't make sense.

What earns it a place in this guide is the Digital Link app. It streams each shot to your phone, calls out the velocity so you don't have to squint at a screen 10 feet away, and saves the whole string as a PDF or a spreadsheet with the average and spread already worked out. No other optical unit here gives you that much data handling for the money, and a two-year warranty backs it up.

The V3 answers a problem radar and optical units can't: a public range where nobody is walking downrange to set up a tripod. It straps to the barrel, the bayonet sensor sits under the muzzle, and you shoot. Rain, dusk, indoor lighting, a covered bench — none of it changes the reading, because the sensor never depends on ambient light.

It fits barrels and suppressors from a half inch to 2 inches, and the bracketing system is what holds it steady. Fit is the part to check before you buy. The bayonet needs clearance behind muzzle brakes and flash hiders, and a hard-tapered barrel can leave the mount working loose under recoil, so check tension every few shots rather than assuming it stayed put.

Strapping anything to a barrel changes its harmonics, and the V3 is no exception. Expect your point of impact to move while it's mounted: zero, chronograph, then confirm zero again with it off. Data logging is the reward for the fuss. It records strings, has a rapid mode for rate-of-fire work, now handles air guns, and ships in a hard case that is the difference between a tool that survives the truck bed and one that doesn't.

The cheapest unit worth recommending here runs on four AA batteries, sets up on an aluminum frame with two light strips, and reads in FPS or MPS — plus energy in joules, if you want to know what a pellet or arrow actually delivers. Its rated window of 4 to 6,500 fps is wider than several units that cost considerably more, and the stainless-and-aluminum build doesn't feel like a toy.

Two things to know going in. Bright, low sun across the screens is what produces dropped or odd readings, so rig some shade — a piece of cardboard clipped to the frame does it — and expect to think for yourself at assembly, because the instructions are thin and the menus take a minute. The light strips themselves can go in backwards, which is the usual reason a new unit reads nothing at all, so check that before you blame the sensors. None of it changes the arithmetic once it's running: the numbers come out believable and repeatable, and that is the whole job.

The G2 turns the usual optical layout upside down — sensors low, light above — so the screens sit in the base and the included LED light kit hangs over them. That isn't a styling exercise. It's how the unit keeps reading when there is no dependable sun, including on an indoor line.

Sensor spacing is 18 inches, and Caldwell calibrates each unit to within a quarter of one percent. It reads in MPS or FPS on an LCD, pairs with the free Caldwell app over Bluetooth, and the included tripod adjusts from 15 to 42 inches, which covers everything from bench work to offhand shooting.

Power comes from an internal rechargeable battery rated at three hours, so a long session wants a USB pack in your pocket. Bluetooth pairing is the shakiest part of the package: it works, but it isn't the automatic handshake you get from a radar unit, and the app is basic.

Indoors with the light kit running is where this thing makes sense, and it's the one here designed around its light kit rather than hanging one on a sun-screen frame — for tuning a PCP rifle or working up a load in a garage, that's the shape you want. The tripod is the weak link, thin-legged and wobbly on a bench, and consistency is the thing to verify: run a load whose speed you already know before you trust a new one. A sturdier tripod and one known-good string solve both.

Caldwell's other kit is the conventional version: a body with sun screens up top, an LED light kit for indoor or overcast work, a tripod, and a carry case, all in one box. The processor is factory calibrated to within a tenth of a percent, it reads in MPS or FPS, and it sends strings to the Caldwell app over Bluetooth.

The screens are oversized, which is the detail that matters on a glaring afternoon, and the light kit means the same unit works under a covered line or in a shop. It's plastic, it's light enough to carry one-handed, and nothing about the assembly is complicated — the screens slot in and the tripod screws on.

If you want one purchase that covers outdoor and indoor sessions without adding anything, this is the shortest path, and the light kit and case alone justify a lot of it. Plan on replacing the tripod, which is the lightest thing in the box, and buy from a seller with an easy return, because a unit that won't power up is the failure to watch for in the first ten minutes.