My PC III is giving me string times that are waaaay wrong–like 903.42 seconds, and splits are way off as well. I also can’t figure out how to dump the data and start over. Any thoughts?
EDIT: Or should I consider replacing it with something else?
Okie John
There’a a tiny screw to adjust inside. I had to adjust mine a few years ago and I forget where the screw is and which way to turn. Contact Pact. They helped me.
Indoors/outdoors?
The sensitivity adjustment screw is inside the battery compartment, behind the battery. Remove the battery, use a Phillips-head jeweler’s screwdriver to turn it counterclockwise to reduce sensitivity. Gas it up, test it. Repeat until you’re not seeing wonky results.
If that’s a no-go, contact the manufacturer.
To “dump” info:
After any firing string (and after transcribing results you want to keep track of…), arrow-key to 1st shot, arrow-key back to last shot, arrow-key forward once.
Instead of re-displaying 1st shot info, should result in the little circle doing it’s rain-dance on the screen, signifying that the unit is ready to record a new string.
In that state, the info from that prior firing string is still there, until you hit the start button to record a new string.
If there’s a way to outright clear it, instead of set it up to record over existing info, I’m unaware of it.
It’s a classic 25- and 50-yard bullseye range: outdoor, but with covered firing points that have thin plywood barriers between shooters. It’s like shooting inside a 4’x6’ plywood box. I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s so much blast and echo inside that little area that the timer is reading all of that instead of just the shot.
Everything else you said sounds about right. I’ll give it a try this weekend and get back to you.
Thanks.
Okie John
It worked.
Thanks.
Okie John
Awesome info! Mine was acting similarly hinkey!
Yeah, mine was registering .10 splits all the time, and registering rounds that I hadn’t fired. I’m getting better, but not THAT much better…
JW777 locked me on, a while back, to the sensitivity control.
Every split today was 1.41 while doing the drill of the week. A six shot string had nine splits listed for totals in 700s. I’ll have to try this fix, my range session sucked, and tracking incorrect data only makes it more frustrating.
It’s good to know that others are having this problem.
Should I replace my PACT timer with something more reliable?
Okie John
It doesn’t seem like a more reliable timer exists, but this is just from watching a couple different blogs. The CED timers look nice, but are much more complicated to use and I’ve read of several with much more serious problems than my pact.
Agreed. Reliable = not tits-up, not having to make the exact same sensitivity adjustment one’d have to make on a pricier model that’s just gonna fail within a year of purchase.
They will act goofy when the battery is dying. I would swap the battery prior to tweaking the sensitivity.
Sounds like you’ve fixed it…but mine does the EXACT same thing when the battery gets low. Replace the battery, and it behaves well again.
Easier to do(and in my opinion more likely to actually fix what’s wrong.)
I tend to replace the battery more frequently than in any other device I own-about every couple range trips. I don’t if I inadvertently turn it on or what but the batteries don’t last long in my PACT. Maybe I’m using shit batteries, but at $3-4 a pop they aren’t bottom of the barrel.
I am looking to get a timer… after reading this thread and the reviews online the PACT 3 has me a little worried. Anyone had any experience with the CED 7000 timer
the PACT timer is very good and easy to use. I have dropped it multiple times during drills and it has been fine.
The out of the box sensitivity is set wayyy to high. It was recording the buzzer as its first shot and giving me messed up splits too. Even a gust of wind could set it off.
There is an adjustment screw in the battery compartment. use a jewelers screwdriver to dial it down a bit. Now it works 100%
This is something of an oversimplification, in addition to being mere opinion on my part, but the way I look at it is this:
When it comes to timers, you can either spend about $130 on a blood-simple Pact III timer, have it last a loooong time, and put up with the possibility of having to go through the utter horror of using a jeweler’s screwdriver ( :eek: ) instead of a control feature to adjust sensitivity OR one can go for the feature-rich timers that cost about the same to over 3x more, and expect to replace them at fairly rapid pace.
IF what one does with a timer rates the purchase of the feature-rich ones because those features are either very useful or very convenient, simply know that none of them have proven particularly robust, so have a care with them while in use.
Hell, I know guys that successfully rock the iPhone shot-timer app, but they need to buy an external mike because the on-board one doesn’t cut it. There’s many roads that lead to Rome…
I used to get ruggedized cell phones, like the Verizon G’zOne Boulder and similar. About $400, balls-out retail. They can make cell phones, with ALL the stuff they do (messaging, calendars, data transfer by cable, sounds, freakin’ GAMES…the whole enchilada), AND make them tough enough that I had NO concerns over heaving it off the top of an LAV-25 turret in a fit of NCO-ing (i.e., rage) without going TU…
…but something as simple as a ruggedized timer, despite having only a fraction of the functionality as a modern shoe-phone, manages to escape the industry. 
I’ll cop to not knowing a bloody thing about the whys and wherefores thereof (software…? …phones use software, too, WTF…), but I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that from the outside looking in, it seems distinctly weird.
I wouldn’t worry about PACT products. My Club Timer III works fine now that I’ve adjusted it. I’ve also gotten excellent service from other PACT products, including a chronograph sensor that I tagged with a 220-grain Nosler Partition at 2,500 fps. Just give the adjustment screw 3/4 turn and you’ll be good to go.
Okie John
Well Midway USA sells the PACT III for $124 which is the same price as all the other ones so I guess I will give it that good old college try! If it sucks I know who to send the “needs improvement” NCOER to cough JSantoro cough :dirol:
Nuts…wouldn’t be the first…