Pitch pine speargun build

thanks Dude George , i made it to take 3 because i was following Riffe specs but i could always just use 2 .:)

i agree , i may go with 2 , i like having the option of loading only one band if i know i would be shooting close range or if there is hard structure behind the fish .

the handle is just made from a scrap piece of pitch pine . it was only used to fit the trigger the real one will be made of teak and will have all the proper angles .

hey guys i bought some 5/8 bulk band today and did the some dry test shots of the speargun today , i decided to go with 2 5/8 bands and i am following the 300% rule although i will admit it does take some strength to pull 5/8 bands until they stop stretching . because i basically made a euro style pistol grip with virtually no loading butt it has to be chest loaded , it is impossible for me to pull the 5/8 to full length that far down to my hip because there is no loading butt to add length away from my hip . however the test shots were great but more importantly the ER119 tool steel that i am using for the spear shafts hit a 1'' ply board covered with cloth at a distance of 6 feet at full power and there was no bending of the shaft at all [ good news ]. when i went to the dive shop i also played with some JBL and RIFFE shafts and i have to say the ER119 5/16 shaft had the same amount of hardness and spring of the RIFFE and JBL spring stainless shafts . i will also say that Wishihadgills was right in that the purple heart does has some weight out of the water but i am hoping that it will trade off into a low recoil .:)

forgot to say that the main reason for the dry fire was to feel the trigger pull which felt around 8-10 lbs which is a little heavy but it is what i wanted and the stroke of the trigger is around 5/8 '' .

hey guys the speargun is basically finished , i tested it yesterday but the beaches was filled with tourist because of the carnival time so i had to go to the surfing beaches where the water was so rough and current was so strong that it was very difficult to stand in three feet of water , so i was only able to test fire it . i went with 3 5/8 band which was awesome [ a lot of power ] the shaft and gun body handled it well with no flexing from either . because of the solid purple heart body the gun is negatively buoyant with the shaft loaded and slightly positively buoyant with the shaft unloaded . surprisingly though the gun is rather perfectly balanced in the water because i kept it bulky and because of the purple heart's total weight there is VERY LOW recoil and it is extremely quiet , all you hear under water is the movement of the band trough the water , the density and weight of the purple heart also aids in noise reduction , my father actually said the noise level is VERY close to that of his old Nemrod pneumatic gun which is what i was aiming for . the ER119 tool steel shaft performs very well although the corrosion is a slight issue , i can always go with the locally available stainless which will work just as well but for right now i treated the steel with a rust proofer that makes a black oxide layer on the steel . there is a double wrap of 300lb test 3/32 nylon braid for the shooting line but with the 3 bands it needs to be extended to 3 wraps , also the blue line is Dyneema wishbone cord and the white is nylon cord that i am trying as a wishbone material , all i have to do next is apply a wood sealer ,neaten it up a bit and test it properly .

hey guys just wanted to ask what do you think is a good length for a blue water gun and how long should the butt extension be from the trigger for hip loading a long gun because the 100cm purple heart gun feels kind of long to reach when chest loading also what is the best way to load a long gun . thanks

thanks don , yeah that is the safety it is a half round type safety and i actually just finished polishing all the hardware which looks far better polished than unpolished . i will put up some pics when i am finished sealing the wood and thanks for telling me how to load it , will try that method next .