Ballasting a speargun, horizontal or nose down?

I like mine just a little muzzle heavy. I find that my grip is steadier, and my shots more consistent, when the muscles in the arm and wrist are working against just the slightest steady resistance. That slight resistance seems to dampen any miniscule flinch or twitch.

Quote from Tin Man

I like mine just a little muzzle heavy. I find that my grip is steadier, and my shots more consistent, when the muscles in the arm and wrist are working against just the slightest steady resistance. That slight resistance seems to dampen any miniscule flinch or twitch.

I've often wondered about this. I agree having the muscles working against slight resistance is beneficial... but along those same lines of reasoning, wouldn't a slightly muzzle-light speargun be better? That way, the muscles are tensed and primed in the correct direction to offset the recoil & muzzle flip will be coming. With a slightly negative front, your muscles are slightly working in the "wrong" direction.

Never tried any experiments along these lines, but thought it was an interesting concept.

Interesting idea Fuzz. I guess I never thought to try that because it is so much easier to build a (small) speargun that is muzzle heavy, vs. on that is muzzle buyoant. But on a slightly larger gun, where there is enough wood or other material to provide that forward buoyancy, it could be an interesting concept.

I like muzzle heavy. As noted if perfectly balanced, the muzzle tends to float up and down when aiming. Also, when I start my dive, if the gun is muzzle heavy it wants to point down, if the gun is neutral or muzzle light I find myself with one more thing to deal with in getting the gun pointed down.

Don't know if it's a big deal, but wouldn't a muzzle heavy gun also tend to have less muzzle flip?

Handling is also affected. The more the weight is to the rear the easier it is to swing. You can make a "solid" gun but tracking will be difficult.

It's all a trade off and everybody prefers a different solution.

Quote from Tin Man

Interesting idea Fuzz. I guess I never thought to try that because it is so much easier to build a (small) speargun that is muzzle heavy, vs. on that is muzzle buyoant. But on a slightly larger gun, where there is enough wood or other material to provide that forward buoyancy, it could be an interesting concept.

Quote from griswold

I like muzzle heavy. As noted if perfectly balanced, the muzzle tends to float up and down when aiming. Also, when I start my dive, if the gun is muzzle heavy it wants to point down, if the gun is neutral or muzzle light I find myself with one more thing to deal with in getting the gun pointed down.

Don't know if it's a big deal, but wouldn't a muzzle heavy gun also tend to have less muzzle flip?

For the record, I prefer slightly muzzle heavy myself... something I've gotten used to over the years for all the reasons Chad listed above.

The light muzzle just seemed like an interesting concept based on direction you'd be flexing/torquing your hand/forearm muscles. As you both know, on a fine tuned gun... the difference between slightly muzzle-heavy & slightly muzzle-light could be as little as an ounce -or- just ballasting the gun farther back.

I agree the muzzle-heavy gun should have less muzzle flip with all else being equal, but curious if the flex/torque direction would make a more/less/negligible difference. All conceptual based, but something I've wondered for a while.

my thing is safety...a muzzle heavy gun is less likely to point at me or the boat or another spearo on the surface...i find that my attention is focused down so I can deal with the gun pointing that way as well....

the point about counter pressure is huge, it is like when you set down something very delicate, you want to use you hand to feel the surface you are putting it on and rather than put it down, you are decreasing your lifting force until it is at rest...wierd analogy, if you dont get it , ignore it