Sample pneumatic speargun

I was thinking of adding pneumatic spearguns to the Speardiver line, so I ordered a sample speargun. These pneumatic spearguns are the very same as Pipin Fererra's Persistent line Stunner guns, and I'm pretty sure also the Seacsub Asso. They are meant to be economically priced functional pneumatic spearguns.

I asked a few specific questions and when I learned that the spear is not stainless steel and only comes with a screw on point, I asked for the gun to be sent without a shaft and only the hardware. My first speargun was a Mares Cyrano which came with a rusting shaft, I have memories of sanding that thing down before every dive and didn't want to relive them.

I went with a 110 because I figured that's the maximum length I can load without using an assist bar or a ladder. I was right, with the overhang I like the spear to have I'm just barely able to load it.

First impressions. The pump, loader, spring, sliding ring, and piston adapter were exactly the same as any other I've seen, which is a good thing. The shooting line was a joke, just like what you see in the pic. The plastic slider which is the shooting line attachment point, although at first glance looks identical to others, has very thin walls and is not adequate.

I was surprised by the safety, it's very simple and you can just pull it right out of the gun, it stays in there with friction. This is perfect by me because the first thing I do is remove the safety. The only real safety is loose bands, well not in this case.. just don't point the gun at anybody.

The trigger, line release, and other plastic pieces on my gun were ugly fluorescent yellow colored. Doesn't matter I suppose, when it comes to ordering quantity they'll make it any color I want, as well as the handle.

One small detail that I liked was that the water ejection holes on the muzzle were cut on an angle, this is something that with other pneumatic guns you have to modify yourself. Overall the muzzle is well made.

I prefer a side line release on a pneumatic, the bottom line release makes the shooting line stick out too far away from the gun, but it's simple and it works.

I had a 7mm stainless steel shaft for a pneumatic from before, as well as a nice ss slider for shooting line attachment. I also had a sliding ring for a 7mm diameter shaft but with an outer diameter to fit a 13mm pneumatic. This allows a 7mm shaft to be centered in a pneumatic speargun muzzle meant for an 8mm shaft. The piston adapter threaded on to my single flopper shaft without a problem. So as far as the shaft goes I was set. I like to use a bungee with a quick disconnect for the shooting line, this makes the spring on the shaft unnecessary as the bungee provides the stretch necessary to hook the shooting line over the line release, and then keep it there.

Next thing I did was cut of that little tab you see sticking up over the back of the gun (with the little hole in it). I don't know what it's for, maybe attachment of a float line, but I found it really messes up the sight picture, and I'm an instinctive shooter so you can imagine how high that sticks up. Then I cut off the same thing off the front end which gave me the same problem. Now the gun was more streamlined.

The next little annoyance was the trigger guard. The slot in it that's meant to accommodate the line release is cut unnecessarily far towards the handle. The edges of this slot are kinda' sharp and cut into the finger that grips just under the trigger guard. This was easily solved by grinding down the edges with a Dremmel.

Now I disassembled the gun and took some pics. The parts are the same from quality of material standpoint to other pneumatics that I've seen. The outer barrel has the same wall thickness, as does the inner barrel. O rings are in all the same places. The piston was nice and robust.

One thing that happens when you disassemble a pneumatic is all the oil drains out. You can catch most of it, but I wanted to put in my own good oil. So I did and put the gun back together. Now came the tedious part of pressurizing it with the hand pump. The way I pressurize a pneumatic this size is go to 400 pumps, then start loading the shaft every 100 pumps. I get it to the point where I can barely load the shaft and then it's good. In this case the gun took about 600 pumps.

I took it to the pool, Alan was visiting and came along to watch. I fired the gun a few times. As hard as it was to load I didn't feel I was getting too much power from it. Both Alan and myself could follow the shaft fly. I then decided to remove the power reducer since I wouldn't want to reduce power any further.

Along the way I discovered that the gun was leaking air through the trigger pin whenever I pulled the trigger. This problem was solved by tightening down the pin valve a little more, which compressed the pin O ring and sealed around the pin. This small fix was done after I let the air out of the gun and disassembled it again to remove the reducer. If you attempt to remove the trigger from a pressurized gun, it will shoot out the pin and all the air and oil through that little pin hole. Ask me how I know..

The reducer is the barrel like part that is in front of the handle. The movement of the power selector lever either closes it off or opens it to allow extra volume of air to act on the piston. The reducer itself takes up a certain volume of air, which means that when it's removed more pressurized air can fit inside the gun which makes it more powerful. I believe the power down is an option on the longer guns, in which case if I ever order them I will do so without it. In this case after removing the reducer I had to plug the lever hole, otherwise the air would escape from there. I did this using two part epoxy putty, packing it deep into the hole.

EDIT - I found out having these guns made without a power reducer is not an option. All lengths come with a power reducer. If you want to get rid of it you will have to do it yourself.

After doing this I assembled the gun again not forgetting to add oil. This time the gun took about 800 pumps before I felt it had good pressure. It was late in the evening when I finished the work and I didn't get a chance to shoot it. I will do so tomorrow and take some more pics, maybe a vid of the shot. The nice thing is that even at this higher pressure the gun is not leaking air from the trigger pin.

Greekdiver, I disagree. Pressurizing with compressed air is much quicker and easier, but there's no point to pressurizing a pneumatic speargun to where you can't comfortably load it, or bend the shaft while loading. I pressurized the gun using the hand pump to the point where I can barely load it, that's the end of the story. Maybe you just got tired of pumping? I don't believe your loading form and strength would be significantly better than mine.

Marco, these guns are made by the same manufacturer for Persistent, and probably Seacsub. You said:

Quote from Marco

Persistent air guns are made by Seac Sub. Are the same with different colors.

Obviously there's a difference. While these spearguns may be the same as Seacsub, they are not made by Seacsub.

EDIT - The company that manufactures these guns does not make the Seacsub guns.

What makes you think the piston will rust? Being hermetically sealed with no water intrusion, and well oiled, I can't see this happening regardless of what material the metal part of the piston is made of. Still to me the piston doesn't look any less well made in terms of construction or materials than any other pneumatic speargun piston.

Here are pics of the gun as I rigged it. I shot it in the pool and it is now significantly faster. There's very little recoil and the spear release is smooth. I'll take it out next time diving and make a video taking a fish with it. Overall, without having tested its durability, I think it's a decent pneumatic. These guns are really simple and I don't believe there's going to be much improvement to the power of a production oleo pneumatic speargun between this gun and some of the higher priced versions. With the exception maybe of an 11mm inner barrel speargun. Modification to increase power such as dry kits are of course possible, but here I'm considering a production speargun. Improvements to me would be in the other details, perhaps a different/more ergonomic handle shape, a side line release, and a good float line attachment point. Still, some pneumatic speargun users would consider this gun the Cadillac of spearguns

Pantoja and I went diving with Rolo today. I took the opportunity to ask Pantoja to use/test this pneumatic speargun. As I mentioned before this gun is a 110 with about 13" of shaft overhang, which makes it the maximum length pneumatic I can load without any aids. Pantoja has less reach than me, so he used a simple but ingenious contraption to load the gun; a loop in the float line hooked over the heel. Here's a vid demonstrating his loading technique, very fast and efficient, as well as the accuracy and reach of the gun.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qU75oeRYD4A

Here's a pic of a mangrove snapper he shot which demonstrates the accuracy of the gun. Notice the fish was top shot, under any conditions this is a difficult shot, and the mangroves today were very skittish.

A decent size amberjack that Pantoja shot, this shows a little of the punching power of the gun.

Anyone that tried to shoot bonito knows how fast these fish move and how hard they are to hit. I think I missed about 10 of them today. A successful shot on one of these fish shows the maneuverability and speed of the gun, as well as the skill of the shooter.

In conclusion I have to say that this is a good economical pneumatic speargun. Initially I was going to have it used for a year to see it's durability, but these guns are so simply built using all the same materials that I don't see the point. I'd have no hesitation adding this pneumatic speargun to the Pursuit line, and may do so in the future.

I don't use pneumatics myself so I'm selling this new gun for $150.

Pneumatic spearguns are not hard to load. It is truly a case where technique is more important than strength. Loading a pneumatic you're using your ab and bicep muscles in a sort of crunching motion. It's a very powerful combination of muscles. The trick is: 1. To be able to give the back of the gun something to push against like your foot, or your knee with short guns. 2. To keep the shaft and gun aligned in a straight line, otherwise the shaft will bend rather than pushing in the piston. The more pressurized the gun, the better the technique needs to be.

To be able to load a long gun without aids the distance between the diver's foot arch and hand has to be slightly greater than the distance from the handle of the gun to the tip of the spear as it sits in the piston (with the piston being at it's most forward location right at the muzzle). The handle of the gun goes on the foot arch and the hand goes over the loader which sits on the spear tip. The other hand holds muzzle and shaft aligned. Then you crunch and push the shaft in until the piston locks back at the trigger.

This pic I scanned from the gun's manual.

Gun has been sold.

Marco, Greek, I have the final info on these guns. They are not Seac Sub, they're not made by Seac Sub, and they're not made for Seac Sub. Internally they're an exact copy of the Seac Sub Asso. There are slight differences in the muzzle and handle. For example the handle here is TPR coated, TPR is a nice grippy substance. I'm not sure whether the Seac Sub Asso speargun has this.

I'm curious, does anyone know what the name Asso means?