55inch custom wood gun

    A few weeks ago Japsw put up his blanks for sale and I said jokingly to Nate "hey I should buy this blank and you can make me a gun". He agreed and we set about getting the parts. I had my mind set on everything being black. In the end I wound up with a black handle, shaft, reel, reeline, line guide and nametag.
    The lineguide wound up being not as nice as the stainless version so we opted for the S.S instead.
    The entire gun was shaped, mech pocket gouged and recesses recessed with a hand full of tools;
    basically a nightstand-router table, dremel tool, screwdriver and a small wood chissel.


    Over the last 2 weeks Nate poured a few dozen hours into shaping the gun and peicing it together.
    In payment he recieved one can of Grizzley pouches, and they were out of wintergreen.
    The gun is 55 inches with 127cm band stretch.
    I got a shaft from Dan that has the fins right at the mech
    Here are some pics I took real quick before work the last couple days.

    Quote from Teaspoon shallow

    Looks great.:thumbsup2:


    Are you going to install a butt pad and if so what material are you going to use?


    Not sure sdeisen needs a butt pad. Sedeisen is one of the few spearos I know of, who shoots enough times a week to have calluses on his chest from loading his gun so many times. :)


    sdeisen and nate;
    That is a VERY NICE gun. Congratulations :toast:

    Quote from hau

    Not sure sdeisen needs a butt pad. Sedeisen is one of the few spearos I know of, who shoots enough times a week to have calluses on his chest from loading his gun so many times. :)


    sdeisen and nate;
    That is a VERY NICE gun. Congratulations :toast:


    Hau not sure if you are calling me a bad shot or saying I shoot a lot of fish :laughing:


    Thanks for input and kind words, im going to take more pics soon.
    About a butt pad, we tried doing g-flex with a piece of flip flop to the wood and it didn't adhere correctly.

    Scupper Pro Gives You Wings!

    Find one of the harder flip flop soles, 1" thick would be nice (not to mention black). Shape a piece to the stock butt. Use a couple of SS screws with good size washers, to screw it into the butt (together with 5200). Sink the screws/washers deep into the rubber, I'd form the space with a dremel and some kind of grinding bit. Then you can plug the holes with a rubber dowel shaped from the same material on a belt sander. You can use my belt sander. If you don't mind the dog :D


    An aside, I wonder how much leverage that skinny/slippery AR handle will allow you to exert on the gun. I'll be interested to know your unbiased observations.

    Exactly what I was thinking, as soon as I realized the epoxy didn't bind well to the flip flop.. but all I had was white 5200. Going to get some in black, along with a couple countersunk screws it should be good to go.

    Yep, I meant sunk/recessed into the buttpad, not actual countersinking screws, bad word choice.
    Edit: How far in should I sink them? I don't want Steven to be able to feel the screws while loading, the flip flop sole will compress a bit when the bands are pulled. Think 3/8" clearance over the head of the screw is enough?

    I don't know why in the USA you love to use those ugly handles. :confused1:


    Take a look to European handles. They are by far more ergonomic (and nicer looking).











    Marco Melis

    A bad day fishing is ALWAYS better than a good day at work.

    Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. If Steven wanted an Abellan handle on it, I would have gladly done it, but he wanted the AR handle. I understand how the angle, ergonomics, and all that good stuff can help with accuracy and recoil.. but at the same time, I first started diving with Steven when he was using the atrocious mako predator handle. He still got fish, every time. This was my first time playing with the AR handle, and to be honest the look kind of grew on me. Then again, I'm an American with inherent bad taste.

    Referring to handles posted above..


    I don't like an overly sculpted handle, it's good for a conventional shooting position, but poor for shooting from any other angle, like taking a hole shot with the gun extended back.


    The relief on the back of some of those handle definitely doesn't add to comfort of loading, as it will press against your abdomen.


    A wooden trigger guard (incorporated with the handle) is a weak point and an absolute no no. Guys who can have such a trigger guard on their guns and not break it, do not dive and abuse guns like we do.


    The open trigger guard design is a line tangling accident waiting to happen.

    Marco I like the style of the handle I chose. When you grab it from any angle it naturally straightens out in your hand. The handles you posted, while ergonomic and attractive have to be grabbed correctly and kept lined up in the hand. When diving a lot of times I aspetto and let go of the gun and then grab it sideways to swing around. Unlike where you are from, here we usually only have shootable fish coming in from one direction, not surrounding us like you have :D:D Like Dan said, though, because the gun is a bit more robust I'm eager to see if the handle provides enough leverage, I think it will. If not I will get Hogue grips.

    Scupper Pro Gives You Wings!

    Shoot the handle that feels most comfortable to you, and fits your type of shooting, and don't apologize for it. What everyone else likes or dislikes doesn't matter. It's YOUR gun, and you should rig it the way YOU want to. I'm sure everyone wants to help, but at the end of the day, it's your gun so rig it the way you want, shoot it, and if you're not happy with it, change it until you get it the way you want it.

    Me gusta la idea general del diseño. me recuerda un poco ulusub.


    asociaba ar15 handle a spearguns mid handle, pero , los neúmaticos tienen estilo parecido.


    Disfruta tu fusil, buena pesca. :thumbsup2:

    Un Hombre tiene que creer en algo.......
    Creo que me iré de pesca!!!

    Since posting up about this gun I have only used it about 4 times before shelving it because it has a huge flaw, it sinks with the shaft out. I am not familiar with the properties of wood and ballasting but I would like to make the gun usable instead of relinquishing it to the closet. The blank itself was heavy. When I hold my Abellan (which has a larger stock) in one hand and this gun in the other, the latter is noticeably heavier. The only solution I could come up with is to drill several approx 1" holes into the stock (i guess as the bottom), fill them with some type of foam, cover with wood putty and then epoxy the gun once I have ballasted it correctly. I didn't want to epoxy the gun as I like the look of oil much better but I imagine I cannot leave wood putty exposed.
    I should add I am not too worried about risk of the gun bending due to drilling into the laminates because for one the wood is apparently dense as hell and I doubt I'll ever use more than two bands on it.


    So basically I am looking for advice or ideas because I am not too keen on on the subject but would like this gun to have a future.

    Scupper Pro Gives You Wings!

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