Reefchief's oceanic adventures

Thanks guys,

Marco, is your concern with the shaft bending and not fitting in the track? I think the gun and the shaft will be short enough to really take a beating without much risk of bending. And If I do shoot something in a hole big enough for that to happen ill be happy it did its job and fix the shaft at home.

Quote from LunkerBuster

No, if the spear hits while still in the track it is bad news for the track

At that point it would become an open track gun lol :laughing: In reality I think with the kind of shots im expecting to do It should be fine. But I will keep it in mind.

Quote from hank

A hole gun is a pretty good tool to have on the boat. About two months ago I shot a nice black that tore off and got in a hole. I could see it but there was a coral head outside the hole that prevented me from being able to line up my 55 for a shot and I couldn't get to it with a knife or anything else I had. I didn't get the fish, which really sucks.

Exactly hank, the last red grouper I got was hiding in a hole and I had to get a mostly lucky upside-down handle behind the head with a light in the other hand shot on him.

Due to the crappy forecast I worked on my gun and a set of flashers Instead of getting the boat ready for Saturday. :(:)

I got the handle cut of out this insanely hard wood Dan gave me (cant recall the name) and shaped its profile with the dermel. Next step dremel rounding. Then the mortise and tenon, and the pocket for the trigger mech (yikes!).

The flashers are going to be 6 6"x2.5" double sided mirrors with reflective vinyl colored stipes strung between some mono to be about 12 feet total in length. Got some cheap acrylic mirror from a pastic supply place and cut out 12 6"x2.5" pieces and epoxied them back to back. Tomorrow im gonna drill holes, add snap swivels and mono. and apply some fishy color.

Quote from Dan

A roundover with a router will be much easier. You need to pick up the pins anyways, we can do it then.

Thanks Dan, that would be awesome. Will save me quite a bit of time and asymmetry. I was also wondering, what did you use to cut the tenon on your handle?

Edit: Nevermind I found this thread of yours I was looking for: http://spearfishing.world/spea…handle-wood-speargun.html

It looks like you left the wood full thickness for an easy tenon. However this gun isnt so wide so somthing is going to have to be made smaller.

Thanks Jose,

With more major help from Dan I made significant progress on the handle. We used his router to round the profile of the handle, and his band saw to cut the tenon. Later I finished it off with a dremel sanding drum and some sandpaper/elbow grease.

Then I cut out the pocket for the Trigger Mech and a hole for the trigger.

Now its time to get a spear and Pin it in. Then I can install the handle.

I also finished my flashers over the weekend. They are cheap acrylic mirror epoxied back to back with some strips of vinyl. strung with swivels and mono. about 12 feet long.

The real test will be to see how they flutter in the water, and how many fish they attract.

Thanks,

Yes it was a pretty slow process. But I love woodworking and even enjoy the sanding part. Dan offering up his router and round bits saved me a tremendous amount of time too. No trigger guard yet. I plan to use a small length of stainless steel with one side mortised into the handle and the other side screwed into the stock.

You are very right about the holes. My new motto will be no hole left behind. Im always looking in holes during lobster season anyways.

Ive also recently set up my flashlight in a way thats really conducive to hunting holes. I put my light on a retractable scuba lanyard that goes on my belt. That way its always useable and out of the way at the same time. I used to just clip it to my belt and it was too often a pain in the ass.

Quote from Dude george

I had the exact same project in mind for flashers glad to see it in reality, was going to use stiff wire on the sides of my flasher rig to offer some stability and structure so the mirrors could spin easily but its all in my head have not built one as yet so maybe what your doing is the better way...Got the idea after seeing guys using old CD's as flashers.
Great work on the stock and handle, very cool so far :cool2:

Thanks If you look closely, mine aren't done in a ladder style as I believe you are thinking about. They are just strung vertically with 2 feet of mono and swivels in-between. I thought about doing a ladder style flasher with wires for the sides but In the end I realize it would likely be too cumbersome and prone to tangles. And it would be much smaller target depth wise. The configuration I used I don't think will produce tons of spinning effect, but I think the bobbing of the float and the weight on the bottom will cause them to flutter pretty heavily. Atleast thats the idea Ill be sure to take a video of them in action when I get out again. If they don't work well, I may consider the ladder.

My last light had a clip that allowed it to go right on my weight belt. But it wasnt bright enough. I got this one feeling that I might be annoyed by it dangling since it had no clip but I found that to not be the case. I think with so many exits for an entanglement (unclip it, ucut it, unclip my belt, pulling hard enough to break it) I should be fine if its at all awkward I'm definitely ditching it though.

Visited Dan again to get set up with a 7mm shaft. We chopped it with a 13" overhang, sharpened it, and polished the tip. Then Dan used his awesome flopper pin jig to re-do the flopper.

Late last night I did the mortise pocket for the handle. Realized I would need a recess for it to fit flat because the gun wasn't wide enough. I cut the recess with a dremel, shortened the tenon a bit, and got the handle fitted. I will most likely extend the recess past the trigger guard. But I made a mistake with the trigger last night (made a too big hole bigger) and I may want to plug and recut it. I also cut the recess for the line anchor. Now I need to figure out what I'm gonna do with the trigger and then pin and install the mech.

Quote from LunkerBuster

Looking Great!!!! Very excited to see it finished and killing

Happening soon hopefully! I was hoping for this weekend but it doesn't look like ill be finished.

Had a bit of a mishap with drilling the trigger too wide. In the end I decided to plug it. Plugging was fun to say the least. But it turned out well. Also glued the handle in.

I also drilled the band slot and cut a line guide.

Built a trigger guard out of some measuring cups from the kitchen (dans idea) And at the same time gave the gun a name lol.

Drilled the pins out aswell.

Once I coat the handle and the gun I should be ready to assemble.

Today was a good time but not very productive. Went out fishing early, started the day with a postcard sunrise. But also a clean ocean and not much action. We hit a school of blackfins and picked one up. Tuna tataki tonight.

On the way back in we found a bit of flotsam holding bait so I jumped in. Flashers worked well (although they need some improvements) and brought some schoolie dolphins in. But nothing large ever showed up so we headed to the reef.

Jumping in i smashed my finger in dive ladder, at first thought I had cut it off, so I slowly peeled off the glove and luckily it was only completely purple. So I put the glove back on and carried on. Viz was horrific everywhere. About 15 feet or so. And there was a tricky current that kept taking me off the reef. Still managed a few good snappers for the grill tonight.

Dan, the new spearing vest worked incredibly well.