Guns of the legends Collection

Kramarenko's spring gun used a single-piece trigger, hence the large horizontal biasing spring behind the trigger has to balance the torque on the trigger or it will shoot without you pulling the trigger! This was fixed in the next model and Charles Wilen, his American associate, patented that new gun in the USA. Of course everyone then copied it!

The grip handle is made from aluminium and wood as an internal spacer. Wilen said movement in the grip made the gun unreliable, but it was better than nothing and opened up the sport of spearfishing with mechanical weapons.

I thought that some images of the Undersee "Reefmaster" should go here. After the "Bazooka" the "Reefmaster" was Undersee Products' most iconic gun, it was the big gun of the Undersee range and bowled over many large Groupers and Cods in the old days. A large piece of timber was needed to craft each "Reefmaster" speargun, the only separate piece of wood used in its construction was inset into the chin of the muzzle, you can just see the timber join which is opening up on this forty year old plus example. This gun no doubt inspired Jay Riffe to build his own spearguns after his visit to "downunder", a careful inspection of the "Reefmaster" will reveal the similarities, including the vertical saw cut in the front of the muzzle to wind the shooting line. An even larger piece of wood was required for the darker colored gun (not an Undersee factory gun) as that chin mount for the 12 gauge powerhead is the same piece of wood as the stock, only the wooden muzzle guide on top is a separate piece of timber. These guns were built in the days when quality seasoned, straight grain timber was in plentiful supply and much of the stuff that we use today would have been burnt along with the off-cuts and scrap. The Undersee mortise mechanism on both guns (the powerhead equipped gun has been completely restored) has stood the test of time and seen service in thousands of guns, having been designed by Denny Wells and placed into volume production by Don Linklater who founded and owned "Undersee Novelties", later renamed as "Undersee Products". Those two names certainly merit "Legends" status as we live with their legacy today which is embodied in the modern arsenal of "Underwater Arms".

Thanks Don, that is exactly what I needed to see. The two-stage loading involved dragging the grip back after initially inserting the spear into the muzzle and partially loading the gun. So the operator had normal muzzle loading followed by using their feet on the foot pegs to haul the propulsion spring back to full compression. Now we can see the slot in the barrel tube where the sear tooth travels back and the catch to secure the grip in position.

This is a great thread. Some great history in these posts.

For those wondering about the ferrule on the section of thread behind the handgrip catch on the "Cernia Velox" it is a joining system for the front and rear sections of barrel. You unscrew it to pull the rear section of barrel free from the grip section and then fold the gun on the coil spring acting as a sort of hinge. This halves the length of the spring gun for transport. Note that the spear is slightly longer than half the length of the gun. Some models the ferrule connection is in front of the grip and in others it is behind it. When you have a six foot long gun to transport the folding system is very handy.

Quote from joe acevedo

... Btw guys ..this is by far the best thread ever

x2

mn

Pretty rare and amazing thirties pics showing a spearo loading a spring gun and a nice capture made.:rolleyes1:
Pics from a very rare book written by Dr Pulvenis in 1940 about spearfishing. Complete Gogler from Guy Gilpatric has been published in 1934. At the time action took place on the same spots/ French Riviera...
First speargun has been made there in the early thirties from a DIY bicycle pump.

The Pulvenis speargun was the spring power "Waterless". It was a forward latching gun with a sealed barrel tube holding the metal coil spring and with no grip handle as such, it being held like a handspear or a lance to fire at fish. Called the "Waterless" as an air bubble was retained in the barrel tube so that the coil spring compressed (during loading) and expanded (during the shot) while still operating in air. Some water pushed up into the open mouthed barrel at depth due to increased ambient pressure, the "dry spring" aspect working like an open bottomed diving bell. The gun either had to be cocked on shore, as seen in the photos, or the water tipped out or drained out by lifting the gun clear of the water if it was cocked in the water. A rear screw cap could be temporarily opened up to help drain the water out of the barrel tube by eliminating any suction, but had to be closed before lowering the gun back into the water. Ron Mullins bought one of these "Waterless" guns and it should be on his "skin-diving history" web-site, but may have no details beyond the photo.

The French "Hurricane" spring guns are another form of "air bubble" dry spring gun which are more "speargun-like" in appearance, but similar to the "Waterless" need the muzzle to be always kept pointed downwards to stop water entering the barrel and the captive air bubbling out during the dive. There are photos of "Hurricane" spring guns earlier in this thread, the spearguns were developed by Pierre Martineau in the forties.

Here is the patent drawing for the "Hurricane" dry spring gun showing the trigger seal (the corrugated rubber gaiter shown in the diagram was replaced by a packing type seal in production) and the spring loaded water draining valve in the grip handle butt. That allowed water to be tipped out of the gun as otherwise water will not come out rapidly if air cannot get in to replace it, such as when tipping water from an inverted full bottle which tends to come out in "glugs". With an air bubble trapped inside the "Hurricane" there was some offsetting buoyancy to the gun's apparent weight in the water, in fact that was the main reason for the design which is otherwise bulky for a spring gun. The propulsion spring rubbing on the interior wall of the barrel tube robs compression spring guns of power, so operating the spring in air was not such a big improvement for either it or the "Waterless". Once air-tight sealing of a speargun was complete it was much easier to eliminate the spring and use compressed air instead for the energy storage medium. The "Hurricane" dry spring gun could never have been a pneumatic speargun as the sear tooth is located in front of the piston with the gun cocked to shoot, it is in that position in the "Hurricane" as the sear tooth also holds the spear in the gun by holding the spear tail against the front of the piston. In a pneumatic speargun the sear tooth must be behind the piston where it is inside the compressed air chamber. If the sear tooth is outside the compressed air chamber then it has to be at the muzzle making the gun a forward latching type as the Technisub "Drago" was. Forward latching guns use annular notched spears at the front end of the shaft which inherently weakens the spear.

Quote from virgili

Pretty rare and amazing thirties pics showing a spearo loading a spring gun and a nice capture made.:rolleyes1:
Pics from a very rare book written by Dr Pulvenis in 1940 about spearfishing. Complete Gogler from Guy Gilpatric has been published in 1934. At the time action took place on the same spots/ French Riviera...
First speargun has been made there in the early thirties from a DIY bicycle pump.

What are those ears on the mask for?

Quote

What are those ears on the mask for?

pic could be used as an amazing avatar...;)