Custom Spearguns

Hey everyone.

As a few of you know last summer I built my first speargun and it turned out amazing. It is a 55" enclosed track with Neptonics hardware and a Tinman grip. It was a great experience and I really enjoyed building it. Shortly after finishing the gun I told myself I wouldnt build another one for a long time but only a few months later I had the itch.

I started thinking about a design for a new gun. Thinking about the things I liked, didnt like, what worked well etc. I also started comparing what I built to the other custom and production guns on the market. To make a long story short I wanted to build another gun. The thing is I dont have a good justification for another to finance another build but I was wondering if it would be possible to build a couple and possibly sell one or two to cover the cost of one for me. I know I have no reputation and I know there are many custom gun builders out there that make excellent guns so my biggest hurdle is why would anyone trust what I make.

Here is an overview of what I would like to build and why I think it is different and or better than what it available.

From what I have seen there are 5 main types of spearguns, pipe guns, wooden ("euro" and "american"), hybrids, and mid-handles. There are other variations of these and different classifications but these are what I consider the basics. Now, I have not seen a single "custom" pipe gun. Probably because there isnt much that can be done and its much cheaper to buy a mass produced one. What I do see a lot of is wooden guns and most of these are very big and fairly bulky. They often use multiple types of exotic wood and can be very stylized and artistic. The other common custom gun is the hybrid, with a carbon or more recently titanium barrel and a bulky back section. The goal of the hybrid is to combine some of the characteristics of the wood guns with those of the pipe gun. This is the classification of gun that my design most readily fits into, however it is unlike any of the conventional hybrids on the market.

The first speargun I shot was a Riffe comp 2, the first gun I bought was a Riffe Euro 90x. What I like about the Riffe euro series is how well it tracks, how well they are made and their function first design. My first design goal was to have a thin gun. I wanted the handling characteristics of a pipe gun. There are a couple limitations that had to be overcome. First, was stiffness. One of the qualms with the longer Riffe euros is how much they flex. In order to keep my design rigid enough I decided to incorporate a carbon fiber stringer. The carbon will make the gun stiff enough to support multiple bands and prevent the gun from flexing. Now carbon fiber is considered light weight when compared to steel but underwater it is still heavy. In a pipe gun this is overcome by sealing the barrel but Im not making a barrel so I needed enough wood to float the carbon as well as all the hardware. The other limitation was the height of available trigger mechanisms. The Neptonics mech that I plan to use has a height of 1". After playing with the buoyancy numbers I came to a minimum height of 1.125" and a width of 1.6" without having to create an air cavity. When you compare this to a Riffe euro you will find this is slightly smaller in both dimensions and because of the carbon fiber it will be significantly stiffer.

Now for the fun part. I like a simple shaped gun that Im not worried to shoot daily. Some of the more elaborate custom guns look more at home in a display case than in the water. Here is a picture of a cross section of the gun. The red has is the carbon fiber and the yellow has is wood. You will notice in the design that there is room to have either a deep open track or an enclosed track depending on your preference.

There were a couple of thoughts on wood choice. The most common being teak. I wanted to add a little flare and ran across a type of wood called curly maple. Here is an idea what it looks like.

The stripes reminded me of three specific fish. A tiger shark, a wahoo and a kingfish. I want to stain the wood gray so that it it would look similar to the shark pattern. I think this in combination with all black neptonics hardware would look really nice. As for the finish to protect the wood and because of the carbon fiber I plan on using a clear epoxy.

I think this design will provide excellent mobility durability and with a little shaping will look really nice. It is capable of supporting 2-3 16mm bands and if someone was particularly interested in a very long gun with extreme range I could bump the height a bit and add more carbon fiber, use an enclosed track and support 4 or more bands. The limitation on the band number is more of a product of excessive recoil. The design is very strong but because of the lack of mass a lot of bands will put a lot of force on the shooter.

Now for any of you still reading, Im trying to figure out what lengths would be most likely to sell. Im also interested in any feedback anyone is willing to give on the design, appearance, marketability or even simple encouragement.

Thanks for your time.

Here is a link to my first build if anyone was interested in the results:

http://spearfishing.world/spea…8-my-first-gun-build.html

I was thinking in the 120cm range. I expected 130 to be a little longer than most people would want but it would not be hard to do if requested. I was planning to make the gun a hip loader but for a longer gun like a 130 or if someone wanted a chest loader the conversion would be easy enough.

It would be extremely easy to use a euro shaft as Neptonics makes a euro mech that is the exact dimensions of their standard mech.

It would be really hard to come up with even a rough number. The only thing that is a set price is the neptonics hardware. The rest will vary with how many guns get built and what sizes.

As for the finishing booth all I have right now is my shower. I have a couple ideas on how to improve that but it wont be anything crazy. The teak is actually more expensive than the maple but I would more than likely use an epoxy coat for that as well. The reason for this is if the wood is not sealed it could run into de-lamination issues with the carbon fiber. When I was first researching the wood I consulted Phil Herranen to see what he knew about the wood. He replied that the density and strength of the woods (teak and curly maple) were comparable with the maple being only marginally softer and the only concern being that the maple isn't as water resistant as teak.

The teak has a specific gravity of about .63-.64 where the maps is in the range of .64-.65. This is almost insignificant when it comes to buoyancy. As a comparison carbon fiber has a specific gravity of 1.5-1.6. Ulusub does make a "hybrid" speargun that incorporates a similar concept. The main difference in the designs is the overall size/shape and the application of the cf. The ulusub guns are very well made and very nice but a little "bulky" in my opinion.

Im not exactly sure how ulusub incorporates the carbon fiber but as the cross-section at the bottom of that picture suggests they have to pieces that are fairly high up in the gun. The advantage of my design is that it has the majority of the carbon fiber below the centerline of the gun. The reason this is important is that carbon fiber is just that, a fiber. Just like any other fiber it is considerably stronger in tension than in compression. For example if you hung a book from a piece of fishing line it would be very easy but if you tried to support the book from below with line it would be almost impossible. By placing the carbon fiber along the bottom of the gun I can achieve maximum stiffness with minimum material. It also makes the carbon fiber visible which I think adds to the aesthetics.

Just an update.

Ive decided to make 3 guns total. The first gun will be a true 120 with an enclosed track. This will be my personal gun and my first step into blue water hunting and may see some use on some spooky snapper.

The second gun has been claimed. It will be a 130 with a Speardiver Euro Mech.

The last gun is still available. I plan on making the blank to be a 140 rear handle plus, that way I can shorten it to any desired length or configuration. I also plan on using a Speardiver mech on this gun as well but it will be up to the buyer which variation they would like.