I bought this chrono from Midway last week. It was on sale, and despite the horrible user reviews I decided to give it a whirl. Before I go into details about the chrony, I will give you a little insight on a few PACT products I already own.
A brief history...
Last Christmas I bought a PACT digital powder dispenser and scales. The scales have been awesome, but I did have to send the dispenser back to PACT for service a few months ago. They repaired it and sent it back in a reasonable amount of time, but I was a bit frustrated because I live 20 miles from their factory and they refused to let me drop the unit off in person. Instead they told me it must be mailed. When they sent the unit back, attached was a $16 invoice for shipping. That really irritated me because I could have saved time and money by just driving out to their facility to handle the warranty repair. To top it all off, the guy on the phone said that they do not allow customers in their factory, and if a customer tried to come in, "They would likely be shot." I was shocked to say the least, but whatever. The point I am trying to make is that while thier customer service did a good job in repairing my unit (it works like a charm now), working with them was inconvenient and their attitude was poor at best. Needless to say, I completely ingored paying their $16 shipping invoice. I figure if they are not willing to do face to face business, they can absorb the one way shipping charge. Furthermore, they could have sent the unit back in a USPS Flat Rate box for $10, but I was never offered any type of shipping option. It only cost me $10 to ship it to them; I'll be damned if I pay $16 to get it back.
So, despite the fact that PACT's customer service had let me down, my experience with their scales and powder dispenser have been mostly positive. The scales are always on the money, and the powder dispenser throws + or - .01gr. every time. Both units seem to be well built and of good quality. I was hoping that the same level of quality would be incorporated into their chronograph, but this was simply not the case.
My new Chrony is here!!!
I opened the box to my new chronograph and was immediately disappointed with the cheap carrying case that held the main unit; a made in China special. When I inspected the main unit it seemed to be well built, but upon installing the battery I found the fit to be extremely tight. This makes battery installation and removal quite awkward. The skyscreen assembly was made of lightweight plastic, but that is acceptable as someting too heavy would make the unit want to topple over. The aluminum bracket the skyscreens mount to was lightweight but very sturdy. The sensors seemed to be made very cheaply, but were adequate.
Instruction Manual (if you can even call it that):
After an initial inspection of the parts, I was now ready for some assembly. I immediately reached for the instruction manual. What a joke! It does not tell you how to assemble the skyscreens and sensors, it simply says, and I quote, "You will figure it out." I eventually did "figure it out", but there are several different ways these parts can be assembled, so it would be nice if the instructions stated the appropriate way to set it up. The manual is full of mispelled words and condescending remarks. It is at best completely and totally unprofessional.
Time to do some shootin'!
I took the chrony outside and set it up. It is cloudy and overcast, so I am anxious to see what happens. I live in the city, so a Gamo Hunter pellet gun will be the firearm of choice for my tests. I fire a 10 shot string, but the unit only records 9 shots. I fire another string of 10... every shot registers. Cool! The velocities even look to be about right. I print off both strings and everything is fine. Maybe this thing is not so bad! I go ahead and pack it up for the day. Out of 20 total shots 19 of them registered. I figured I would try again tomorrow and see what kind of results I get.
The next day...
Its bitterly cold, but without a cloud in the sky, so I decide to fire another 20 shots to see what I get. Shot 1 didn't register. Same for 2, 3, 4, and 5. I reposition the sensors to where they are getting more direct light. My next shot registered, but readings were intermittent over the next few shots. Some would register and some would not. I had heard that light is a major issue with chronies, so I had a set of Infrared sensors as my ace in the hole. The IR sensors were purchased directly from PACT (who took 7 days to ship
) because Midway doesn't carry the IR sensors only. I plugged in the IR setup and immediately started recording shots. Out of a 10 shot string 9 shots registered. I fired a total of two, 10 shot strings with about a 90% sucess rate. I attempted to print the string slips, but the printer would not work. It would begin to work, but then the unit would completely shut off and restart itself. Weird. Maybe the cold had something to do with it? Anyway, I had completed enough testing for one day so I powered the unit off and took down the sensors and skyscreens. When I went to put the main unit in its case I noticed that it was on. Wait a minute... didn't I just shut this thing off? Maybe I'm going crazy? I turned the unit off again and watched it. Sure enough, about 30 seconds later the unit automatically powered back up. I flipped the unit over, wrestled the battery out, and put everything away.
Time to interface with my PC...
Needless to say I am a bit frustrated by now, but I attempt to interface the chrony to my PC anyway. PACT has incorporated an extremely old 9 pin serial connector into its design. I had noticed earlier that my PC doesn't even have a serial port (the last computer I had with a serial port was in 1999) so I bought a USB to serial port adapter. Well, guess what... the damn thing will not interface with my PC. I immediately call PACT and tell them I can't get their unit to interface. The tech support fellow told me I should try to find a computer with a built in serial port connector and try to interface with it. He suggests that this will help us determine if the problem is with the chrony or my PC. I seriuosly doubt the problem is with my PC, and I am more inclined to believe that the problem lies within the ancient interface design that PACT is using. Anyway, I plan on going to my dads house to attempt to interface the chrony. He has a computer with a built in serial port.
To sum it all up...
I am really disappointed with this unit. I had hoped it would work well, but it seems to be full of intermittent failures. I do not like the archaic interface design, lack of consistency in recording shots even with the IR sensors, and some of the features on the unit are anything but user friendly (you can't even delete a single string... its all or nothing). I am not sure if I want to send the thing back to Midway for a replacement PACT unit, or if I should exchange it for a CED Millenium. The CED with IR capabilities will cost a bit more and it also doesn't have a built in printer or ballistics calculator like the PACT unit does (PACT's ballistic calculator actually works quite nicely, and the ability to print a string in the field is cool when it works). CED does have a substantially better user rating on Midways website, USB port interface, and I have talked to a few fellow forum members who like the CED unit.
Any and all suggestions on what my next step should be would be greatly appreciated. Please feel free to chime in with what type of chrony you have and potential likes/dislikes.
Furthermore, the purpose of this thread is not so much to rant, but instead to inform anybody who is considering buying a PACT chrony. Out of fairness to PACT, I will update this thread as new developments arise.