Speargun designs I can't stand

yeah , i have seen guys use these before but i think there only good for multi band guns like 6 bands or like the slim line build where you don't have room for band slots but i still prefer a normal slotted gun.

ps [ sorry about your 5 feet of bands ]:)

Strange, nates big gun he built is set up like that and I used it yesterday in jupiter with no issues with loading it.

Drew. How many bands are on nates gun?

Quote from LunkerBuster

Drew. How many bands are on nates gun?

3 x 5/8ths, all cut for each sharkfin tab. They all lay flat on top of the gun when its loaded. Im saving up for the parts now, gonna build pretty much the exact same gun.

Heinrich rigging is also not just annoying but expensive as well. Just one nice pull of a medium dized fish and the thing wont fit again on the speargun.

Quote from Dan

(...) Having wasted about 5ft of Speardiver small ID 16mm rubber in the process, hence the frustration.
(...)

those bands can be used on smaller euro guns... (with the adapters) or:
Speargun rubber! 100 lbs slingshot. - YouTube

Quote from monster slayer

Heinrich rigging is also not just annoying but expensive as well. Just one nice pull of a medium dized fish and the thing wont fit again on the speargun.

That is because Larry's guns had cable.;)

Cheers, Don

My grampa used to say "If we all thought the same, we'd all drive a Chevy." That said, I drive a Jeep.:D It's all about preference, what pleases one person may not please another. The loss of band stretch with tie in ferule bands is undeniable. The tradeoff for me is the band profile when loaded, as well as aesthetic difference.. I just plain like it. I haven't had a problem with the bands tangling with each other thus far. They float vertically when I'm loading it so it's easy to just grab one. One thing about it that has annoyed me so far is a single "arm" of the band will rotate sometimes, twisting the wishbone into a clump.. then you've got to untwist it . I can live with it on a gun that I don't have to load all day, however I don't think I'd go the ferule route on a reef gun that will be loaded repeatedly. Here's a quick video of loading my ferule'd gun, watch the third band.. that's the problem I'm talking about. If anybody knows a fix for that, I'd love to be enlightened.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GTgnb_6bbY

The only real speargun style caveat that I have is over extended butts without a remote trigger and pushrod. I understand the whole hip load preference, but some guns are made with literally 8-10 inches of completely wasted wood in the rear of the gun. Then there's rigging that bothers me too, excessive shaft overhang, double floppers, closed muzzles, the super sharp euro metal wishbones..etc However people tend to kill fish just fine with all of the above, and if that's what they're used to and comfortable with.. then who am I to question.

Quote from Nate

My grampa used to say "If we all thought the same, we'd all drive a Chevy." That said, I drive a Jeep.:D It's all about preference, what pleases one person may not please another. The loss of band stretch with tie in ferule bands is undeniable. The tradeoff for me is the band profile when loaded, as well as aesthetic difference.. I just plain like it. I haven't had a problem with the bands tangling with each other thus far. They float vertically when I'm loading it so it's easy to just grab one. One thing about it that has annoyed me so far is a single "arm" of the band will rotate sometimes, twisting the wishbone into a clump.. then you've got to untwist it . I can live with it on a gun that I don't have to load all day, however I don't think I'd go the ferule route on a reef gun that will be loaded repeatedly. Here's a quick video of loading my ferule'd gun, watch the third band.. that's the problem I'm talking about. If anybody knows a fix for that, I'd love to be enlightened.
ngload - YouTube

The only real speargun style caveat that I have is over extended butts without a remote trigger and pushrod. I understand the whole hip load preference, but some guns are made with literally 8-10 inches of completely wasted wood in the rear of the gun. Then there's rigging that bothers me too, excessive shaft overhang, double floppers, closed muzzles, the super sharp euro metal wishbones..etc However people tend to kill fish just fine with all of the above, and if that's what they're used to and comfortable with.. then who am I to question.

When that clip was almost over I realized you werent going to shoot anything and that it was for demonstration purposes

That gun really is a beauty, I wish I had shot it that day we took it out on the reef.

I agree too that excessive shaft over hang and the riffe/jbl style double floppers are not something I prefer.
I dont know why I dont like excessive shaft overhang, though. From diving with Hau I developed a preference to have the flopper literally too close to the muzzle to close, but I've seen a lot of ppl take nice shots with that extra length.

The Abellan and Dapiran both have trigger gaurds that dont connect with the handle and leave a gap. thats something I couldnt live with.. But both are dream guns for me ( keep on playin them scratch off tickets, thats how you get ahead)

I'm not gonna try to convince anyone otherwise, but rather just speak of my own preferences.

I don't like ferule/tie-in systems for euro or smaller guns, but I do like them for bigger guns. On my seasniper pro 60, I love how the three bands lay on the deck and create a flat aiming plane. Shoots great, super accurate (to me), and losing an inch of band stretch doesn't matter to me since I could easily add another band or shorten if needed. Given the size, it may be underpowered, but I can shoot it one-handed when the situation calls. I have never missed a shot with either of my pro60's, ever.

The floppy bands may seem a pain, but doesn't affect me... all what you're used to. I do completely agree with MonsterSlayer - the heinrich can be a royal pain if you're using mono since it stretches on big fish. For that reason, a lot of SS big guns are rigged with cable or coated cable, since no stretch. I still use mono, but that's because I'm a big dummy.

Different strokes for different folks.

Quote from sdeisen

That gun really is a beauty, I wish I had shot it that day we took it out on the reef.

shoots smooth as silk. I pulled the trigger once on sunday and nailed a nice rainbow runner with it.

Im not a fan of midhandles when it comes to gun designs. Also dont like euros with the single band and the finger chopper wishbone. had an omer 100cm that felt like it was going to blow up in my face whenever i pulled the trigger on it. Im also not a fan of any shaft with notches, just personal preference. had alot of guns with them on it and didnt like loading them . I like the ease of yanking back to a tab that you can catch it on easily.

I have to agree with you on the "floppy" bands with the tie in bands Dan. When I built my first two guns I used the tie in method. When I finally got around to getting out with the gun I hated it. After the first trip I came home and cut off the bands and reconfigured the muzzle to hold the bands in a standard band slot. I would never build another gun with tie in bands-I just don't like them. I just noticed it is the gun in my avatar (this was the day I decided to never put tie-ins on again).

Funny you bring that design up as an example. I just designed a 140cm 3 band Euro style gun with a ferruled muzzle. The shape I made the gun didn't allow for a conventional band slot, so the ferrules allowed for a more extreme design... I'll post pics once the gun is done...

I personally like the tied in band style. If you tie shorter loops for the tie in, the bands might be more manageable.

MN

I thought and researched a lot on this issue when building my big gun. In the end I decided that despite the advantages a horizontal band stretch and unbunched rubber gives I would probably hate how tie-in bands acted between being loaded.

Loading is already waaay too much of a factor in how many fish I am going put on the boat with this 4 band bluewater gun. I feel like adding in a twisted sausage tangle would only worsen a significant bottleneck of the gun. Hopefully im only pulling the trigger a few times a day on monster fish. But realistically I know ill run into plenty of situations where nothing is huge, but I cant reload the damn thing fast enough.

Another issue is powering down. If im shooting schoolies 5 feet away id like to load 2 bands to save time. Normal rubbers give you a nice hole to see through whereas tie in bands go straight up. Can also remove a band in 20 seconds undoing the wishbone knot.

Well see how it turns out soon enough. Most of my decision was based on reading other peoples opinions and speculating. But the way nates rubbers were a bit twisty and tangled and floated like kelp is what I'd read and imagined and wanted to avoid.

Quote from Reefchief

Another issue is powering down. If im shooting schoolies 5 feet away id like to load 2 bands to save time. Normal rubbers give you a nice hole to see through whereas tie in bands go straight up. Can also remove a band in 20 seconds undoing the wishbone knot.

That is when you leave the big gun on the boat, and use a single band euro.... Just saying

I agree if I know it's going to just be schoolies I won't be using the big gun. But I find that's so seldom the case diving on floatsam and weedlines. I never know whats going to show up. I ran into many situations last year where I could shoot the schoolies just fine with my pipegun but schools of wahoo and larger dolphin would come in and never get close enough for my 120 euro.

This gun was made in response to using a long euro gun and wishing so badly it was just a little longer and more powerful too many times. Maybe one day when I'm a better hunter and can get hoos closer a single band euro might be all I need but until then I'd rather put less schoolies on the boat and be prepared for everything.