First gun build underway

    Quote from Wishihadgills

    Is there a reason that people dont just rotate the gun 90 when they carry it?

    If the gun is wider than it is tall, when the bands are stretched it makes the gun even wider. Vice versa the stretched bands will make for a rounded profile which is easier to grip.


    The finish on your gun is great :crazy: :)

    Makes sense.

    Thanks Dan but Im never going to be happy with the dust in it. I plan on making a paint booth in my shower, complete with filters and everything, for my next gun. I know :crazy: but for what I have planned I really want it to be perfect.


    Also if your looking for another way to square a blank you can make it extra large and run it through a table saw. This may waste a lot of material but it would work.

    I think my horizontal lam will be on the bottom, I will plane it to get the desired specs when its all glued.


    WishIhadgills - found out today the table saw is inop. had to come up with an alternate means of squaring and it worked surprisingly well

    Well its been well over a month and this thing hasn't changed at all. I have acquired a Mori slip-tip, big thanks goes out to John Hanson, and trigger mech. Shaft is on its way handle frame will be picked up with the shaft. I have drawn the outline for the handle to begin shaping it but that's all. Despite a recommendation or 2 I am still trying to achieve the 1890mm total length. I think this will make a good bluewater gun although I've never made one before. My measurements tell me I should have about 54" of band stretch and will shoot a 63"x5/16" shaft plus sliptip. Despite my initial wanting to make it hip loading I decided to say screw it and make it chest loading, it allows me to make a bigger gun and stay at my 189cm total length mark. I can chest load my reef gun fine why not KISS and make my bluewater gun a chest loader as well.

    189 with the shaft? or 189 total wood length? I was working on a 17O today and that is already a really Long gun. At 189, you would need really long arms to load the gun anywhere..


    I have a few Bluewater guns that are @ 19O total length including the 25-3Ocm of Shaft overhang. That's a nice size for a 4 band Bluewater Mid Handle. Not too big at all.

    [quote='behslayer','http://spearfishing.world/forums/index.php?thread/&postID=60305#post60305']189 with the shaft? or 189 total wood length? I was working on a 17O today and that is already a really Long gun. At 189, you would need really long arms to load the gun anywhere..


    You got that right. My first Teak/foam/6160-Alm gun was 183cm of barrel with 300% elongation rubber...
    needless to say it was no hip loader, and by the time the sun set loading was a bitch. Yes I have the ape arms or loading would have been impossible.:D


    Cheers, Don

    "Great mother ocean brought forth all life, it is my eternal home'' Don Berry from Blue Water Hunters.


    Spearfishing Store the freediving and spearfishing equipment specialists.

    Today was my day off, I have a cold, but it's nice weather to be outdoors soooooo:




    I took a block of wood I sawed off my blank, split it down the center and made some progress on the one side. So far I've sanded as far as 320 grit, but most of the rough work was done with a dremel.

    Nice looking handle plate Mike. With a coating I'm sure that grain will look delicious. Make sure it's not too fat to grip.


    Khalel, the only real safety is loose bands, and even then you have to be careful where the gun is pointing. As such safeties are useless, except to protect that once in a lifetime fish swimming by as you futilely squeeze the locked trigger having forgotten to remove the safety.

    Don I believe the wood is Heart Pine, but I'm not 100% sure.


    I never aim my gun at anybody so by practicing smart technique I avoid needing a safety. Like Dan said safeties save fish.


    Dan this wood looks awesome when coated, I first noticed it when coating the lams. I need to make the other side and see if anymore material needs to come off I think it will be pretty good where it's at but I didn't want to make it too thin.

    Today I cut the blank to length(63"), it will be 189cm tip to tip; again trying to tie the 1890 theme into it a bit. It will be big, but I think it will be perfect for BW hunting. I ordered a full length UHMW track, so when that arrives I will cut the dovetail for it and install it. I believe I have everything gathered or on the way to finish this up and will hopefully have it ready for summer dolphin season!



    I think I will try to roundover the bottom and ends this week, I want to leave the top square until I can cut the groove for the track and the hole for the mech. To start I'm going to try three small ID 16mm bands but will enlarge the band slot and add a fourth if it seems underpowered. Band stretch will be ~51" from the rear band to the rear tab.

    Edited 2 times, last by mrmike ().

    Thank you. I just ordered the router bit to cut the dovetail to install the neptonics enclosed track. I went that route rather than trying to cut and pour epoxy. I might be overdoing this whole thing but the current plan is to cut all of the holes/grooves/pockets/etc in the wood a little oversized. Seal the entire thing up with epoxy and then re-cut all of the holes/grooves/pockets/etc the correct size and install the components. That should ensure that all of the wood is completely encapsulated in epoxy and wont absorb any water.:crazy:

    very nice buddy...there is nothing better than the feeling of making a really big, cant-take-anything-back, cut in a project and then doing the test fit and....perfect

    i like to spear fish

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