Vintage speargun photos

nice collection!!!! exceptional wood carvings, i wish i was that talented.

Nice close ups:thumbsup2: The wood carved gun is one of my all time favorites.

Cheers, Don

For those wondering the two forward prongs on the "Desco" band gun are for wrapping the shooting line from side to side. The transverse line loops pull off as the spear departs.

Quote from popgun pete

For those wondering the two forward prongs on the "Desco" band gun are for wrapping the shooting line from side to side. The transverse line loops pull off as the spear departs.

I would like to find one of the Desco guns the looks like a Thompson machine gun. The US Navy used them to shoot lines ship to ship. I have a image but my scanner is down for now.

Cheers, Don

Quote from Don Paul

I would like to find one of the Desco guns the looks like a Thompson machine gun. The US Navy used them to shoot lines ship to ship. I have a image but my scanner is down for now.

Cheers, Don

Just checked the Desco web-site DESCO Sporting Goods

the rifle stock is exceptional..is that a racheting power mech?

the last one looks in full working order, is it functional?

very cool collection Dan

Quote from LunkerBuster

the rifle stock is exceptional..is that a racheting power mech?

the last one looks in full working order, is it functional?

very cool collection Dan

The side slotted barrel speargun with "cremaillere" rack lever loading was patented by Paul Bellan in France in 1941 when he lodged his application on 3rd May of that year. The toothed rack underneath the stock is cranked by the lever which pushes the band anchor position mounted on the front end of the rack forwards to stretch the bands out to the "cocked to shoot" position. The French patent was published on 14th October 1943, having been granted on 5th July in that same year. Another version was proposed with rollers at the muzzle and a "chariot" moving in the reverse direction to cock the bands (or coil springs [ressorts] as that was an alternative to rubber bands which were then made of rather poor stuff). Divers soon discovered that you did not need a rack and lever system to load a band powered speargun. Once the "Arbalete" appeared in 1943 the days of the cumbersome rifle based spearguns were finished.

The "Airmatic" is a US version of the "Sallematic" French pneumatic guns. John Salles made the US guns, Rene Salles was his brother who patented his version in France in 1946. The US Patent Office sat on brother John's pneumatic speargun patent until 1960!

Florida Reef Rifle (or something like it) on what looks like Cyril's tile floor. Note the trigger safety!

thanks for the info Pete...a wealth of knowledge.

The "Airmatic", like many early pneumatic spearguns, was not completely airtight, so such guns often contained a "built-in" hand pump to enable the gun's pressure to be topped up from time to time. The fitting of modern seals can cure many of these problems, but when the guns were produced tight press or interference fits of tubes into body castings or screw threaded connections with washers placed at strategic positions kept the air pressure in the gun at the necessary construction joints in the gun body. Attached is the John Salles patent for his "Airmatic". Like the French "Sallematic" the spear only inserts as far as the handgrip where the sear for the piston is located. The trigger is of the "outrigger" type and pivots out one side of the grip. This makes for easier sealing of the trigger where it penetrates the gun's pressurized area and was relatively easy to make, but improved ideas were to follow in the next generation of pneumatic spearguns.

Nice collection Dan! That last one you posted looks like a reloading nightmare

Quote from Dan

https://spearfishing.world/image/WoodSpearugn2.jpg

https://spearfishing.world/image/2o.jpg

https://spearfishing.world/image/2n.jpg

https://spearfishing.world/image/2m.jpg

https://spearfishing.world/image/2l.jpg

https://spearfishing.world/image/2k.jpg

https://spearfishing.world/image/2j.jpg

https://spearfishing.world/image/2i.jpg

https://spearfishing.world/image/2h.jpg

https://spearfishing.world/image/2r.jpg

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Is there a name anywhere on this gun? We know who invented it, but does it have a name as such? Most spearguns have an identifying tag or model number, or a serial number.

This is the gun's trigger mechanism. Note that it is somewhat like a rearranged "Sea Hornet" mech if you turn the levers around through 90 degrees and rearrange some of the features, the "Sea Hornet" mech being invented totally independently some decades later. Both are "cam lock" trigger mechanisms. The relatching action is different, spring 30 biasing the sear lever in the opposite direction to that in the "Sea Hornet" which moves downwards after the shot.

nice "antiques"...
at that time a lot of creativity!

Quote from Dan

Not vintage judging by the trigger mech but a rustic bamboo speargun.

https://spearfishing.world/image/BambooSpeargun01.jpghttps://spearfishing.world/image/BambooSpeargun02.jpg

That is so cool! I bought some bamboo several months ago in hopes of building a hybrid with it.

Any ideas on this?