Guns of the legends Collection

S.M.G 4 barrel

S.M.G 1 barrel

S.M.G 2 barrel

Quote from Don Paul

Like Xmas for me..:thumbsup2: Merci beaucoup.

Don

Thank you DON!
I continue????:)

SPANISH TOY!

nemrod speargun

ISLAND PACIFIC SPEARGUN

WOOD SPEARGUN

SPEARGUN MEPPS

FUSIDO SPEARGUN

shes so cute ... BTW guys ..this is by far the best thread ever

Quote from fusilancien

a baby Jack Prodonavich :laughing:

http://i40.tinypic.com/20awkgk.jpg

I have this model to be exchanged if somebody is interested....
pelletier co2 FRANCE

Great thread!

Please keep the pictures coming.

amazing DOn...you have the best toys!!

I have this photo of a Pirelli "Aries" to contribute. This pneumatic gun is 1960 vintage and invented by Draganti, I found his patent long before I received the gun. The "Aries" was owned by a true legend, Jack Prodanovich, he was given lots of guns to try out by well-wishers, but he never used this one, nor do I imagine did anyone else as one "O" ring was in the incorrect position and the wrong size "O" ring was fitted to the piston (it only uses the one piston seal). Jack gave his entire "other people's guns" collection to Ron Mullins for the instruction of other divers via Ron's spearfishing museum and web-site. This "Aries" gun he gave to me via John Warren after I sent Jack some historical material and worked up a mathematical analysis of his "balanced sear" speargun (the one with the jiggle pin safety in the tip of the trigger). Jack figured it all out empirically while I merely confirmed why it worked as it did, I was not telling him anything that he did not already know. The "Aries" uses the inner barrel as a hand pump, the spear has a socket on one end to operate the rear inner valve "switch" from pump to shooting action and a female thread on the other end to screw it onto the threaded piston nose for pumping. The pump breathes air by the single "O" ring sliding back and forth on a tapered cone seat on the piston, forward it seals and back it loosens up and air can flow around it. The "Aries" is an amalgam of strange ideas, but not really practical, these old guns disappear for good reason as later and better guns just stuck to the "plain vanilla" solutions. The "Sten" and its pneumatic speargun clones got rid of everything that went before as that gun and subsequent design offshoots are built around the inner barrel tube as a structural element and can be made to float like a cork once discharged. The "Sten" gun has been around since the late sixties and has had very little changed in all that time. My old "Sten" uses a cup seal on the power regulator piston, once it tore that was it and I retired it. (photos to follow, once I have worked out how!)

Quote from Don Paul

That is a cool gun Peter. It used to hang on the right side wall of Jack's workshop, I have a hour of footage I shot of Jack in his element. I'm waiting to get a larger computer to edit it, will see if your gun is in the footage.

Cheers, Don

Thanks Don, John sent me a photo of him and Jack with the gun before it was sent, but it is on my old computer which is now kaput. Here are some more images, the gun has original everything, shooting line and speartip. The only thing missing is the rear rubber passive line clip that had disintegrated over the decades. I have fixed the gun so it can now be pressurized, but it is not the sort of gun to shoot anything decent with, note the small floppers on the tip. One line wrap only, plus the butt is nearly in your face when aiming along the barrel.

This is Dante Draganti's US patent drawing which shows that the final gun marketed by Pirelli as the "Aries" did not undergo many changes from the layout as originally proposed. You can see the missing rubber line clip fitting that encircled the butt section (part number 19). The gun is not absolutely airtight, hence the built-in pump feature to top it up.

The Italian priority date for the Pirelli "Aries" gun patent is September 22 1956, hence the gun may have been produced there not long afterwards, but as you can see February 2 1960 is the US patent publication date.