DIY Aimrite Roller

Like I've been saying, what long shots on what tough fish? You act like south east Florida is easy to fish. I'd call you a liar if you were. South Florida is getting closer to Hawaii in the sense of less fish and more pressure.. which means it requires more skill. I dive more often than most people, and I don't get too many instances of schools of fish like you may see on YouTube or vimeo. So don't jump in on a conversation when you don't know where I'm coming from... my original argument holds the same, what reef fish requires 3 x 16mm bands? Get your skills up and pop him accurately with 2 x 16mm which is plenty for ANY reef fish..

And back to the original topic...

If makoa' s setup and is so great with the 3 x 16mm bands then why does he enjoy the single banded roller better? Because it has less recoil and more accuracy.. which boils down to his current rig he has may be over powered for him, whether anyone will admit that, it is the truth and you cannot argue that. If his setup was superior he wouldn't want to change it, period.

I'd say Steven knows where you're coming from Chase. I think he may have put in more spearfishing time in Broward county in the last 5 years than anyone I know of. I'll bet if you drop him off underwater anywhere on the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd reef he'll know exactly where he's at before surfacing :@ You're just picking up where he left

OK chill out kids.

Quote from Chase

Like I've been saying, what long shots on what tough fish? You act like south east Florida is easy to fish. I'd call you a liar if you were. South Florida is getting closer to Hawaii in the sense of less fish and more pressure.. which means it requires more skill. I dive more often than most people, and I don't get too many instances of schools of fish like you may see on YouTube or vimeo. So don't jump in on a conversation when you don't know where I'm coming from... my original argument holds the same, what reef fish requires 3 x 16mm bands? Get your skills up and pop him accurately with 2 x 16mm which is plenty for ANY reef fish..

What I'm sayin is your definition of reef diving doesn't cover everything. Big cuberas and dogtooth tuna are reef fish. Skiddish black grouper are reef fish.

The example that comes to mind is Harry (greekdiver) told me a few weeks or months or whatever back how he took a ong shot on a large gag and it didn't penetrate. His gun has two very short 16mm bands and he's as good a shot as I know and it didnt penetrate a "reef fish"

What I'm saying is maybe there's a world of spearfishing out there your not fully aware of. I bet every fish youve seen could be taken with two bands at any distance. 90% of the fish I've taken have been with a one band 120 railgun and a lot of people scoffed at my choice for using one band. That said there are a TON of reef fish that due to there size (toughness) and distance due to being skiddish (try " getting your skills up" enough to get close to a large cubera. You won't ) that push the limits of a 2 band gun.

Quote from Dan

I'd say Steven knows where you're coming from Chase. I think he may have put in more spearfishing time in Broward county in the last 5 years than anyone I know of. I'll bet if you drop him off underwater anywhere on the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd reef he'll know exactly where he's at before surfacing :@ You're just picking up where he left

OK chill out kids.

Thank you Dan I should shut up. I think I'm home sick,,,,, and I should look back at my early posts for some humility :rolleyes1:
Furthermore I've never shot a roller gun or done much shooting with 3 bands

I don't mean any disrespect but-

"South Florida is getting closer to Hawaii"

Have you ever dove in Hawaii? And if you did, have you killed fish?

And what takes a lot of range to shoot on the reef? Everything decent unless you exceptionally lucky that day. Don't let videos fool you. That's a lot of watertime before that opportunity came around.

Quote from sdeisen

What I'm sayin is your definition of reef diving doesn't cover everything. Big cuberas and dogtooth tuna are reef fish. Skiddish black grouper are reef fish.

The example that comes to mind is Harry (greekdiver) told me a few weeks or months or whatever back how he took a ong shot on a large gag and it didn't penetrate. His gun has two very short 16mm bands and he's as good a shot as I know and it didnt penetrate a "reef fish"

What I'm saying is maybe there's a world of spearfishing out there your not fully aware of. I bet every fish youve seen could be taken with two bands at any distance. 90% of the fish I've taken have been with a one band 120 railgun and a lot of people scoffed at my choice for using one band. That said there are a TON of reef fish that due to there size (toughness) and distance due to being skiddish (try " getting your skills up" enough to get close to a large cubera. You won't ) that push the limits of a 2 band gun.

Perfectly said, I went to three band big gun which I said earlier exactly because of a monster snapper head shot shaking it off and swimming away. YOU show the humility that goes with experience, others are yet to learn it would seem. More you dive the more humble the fish and ocean make you... Always have nuff respect for the great water hunters, I know I will never be in that rarefied air, but that doesn't stop me from figuring out how to poke fish however I can [emoji6]. Don't know why yall putting so much down to water time, if you spend time in a pool its water time [emoji1] , it's what you expose yourself to that builds experience. Peace everyone.

Quote from sdeisen

Thank you Dan I should shut up. I think I'm home sick,,,,, and I should look back at my early posts for some humility :rolleyes1:
Furthermore I've never shot a roller gun or done much shooting with 3 bands

Where are you now Steven?

Quote from makoa

Again I say, ITS THE HUNTER THAT MAKES THE GUN, THE GUN DOESNT MAKE THE HUNTER:thumbsup2:

My respect to the elders and pioneers of our sport who landed fish without the luxury of choosing between band types, muzzle types, shaft thickness, fin length, or even wetsuit rubber! These Kumu, masters/teachers, taught us more than we're teaching each other here on this thread. At the end of the dive, it's about what is on the kui, the stringer, that matters...and they got em!

Respect to all you guys. I'm glad to be a part of a great community of spearos. We are blessed to have the variety of gear choices we have available today. Go to a distant reef somewhere else in the world and see how local villagers put food on the table with home-made rusty gear. You'll never look at your gun the same way after that. Big Mahalo'z to you for sharing your opinions...all of them valuable because they are dveloped(hopefully) by time in the water and you have adapted to your own style and method of hunting.:)

Aloha!
Makoa

Display More

I don't dive much anymore but I can certainly talk with a certain amount of authority on what it was like in the ancient start of spear fishing in the late 40's early 50's. Our gear WAS primitive but boy o boy did we kill some big ass fish. Of course we had more fish than now and fish didn't really fear us BUT let me try to explain our gear.

Most of us used the early French double or four banded French Arbolets. The bands were shit compared to today. Shafts were ALWAYS bent. They were very soft and we would normaly end up on shore or boat straightening out our shafts over our knees after practically every nice fish. We mostly used nylon parachute cord for shooting line. Many of us used a bright yellow nylon ski rope (only color available) tied to our guns with a Clorox bottle as a float. I tried the Italian Spring Spearguns when they first came out - heavy thick shafts and I couldn't load them underwater.

Our guns all used metal wishbones and we have scars from when they snapped. Spear tips? Mostly standard double barbs which was normal in those early days. But, not sure, may have come from east or west cost - but one of our best spearos was in Panama working as a machinest (he was from Finland -Jon Bock). And he made slip tips for us (still have one of the originals somewhere).

Wetsuits? Haha my first Free diveswetsuit was bought just 3 years ago (I did buy a one piece surf suit in 2000). Water in Panama would drop into the 60's and even upper 50's when the upwelling brought in the cold water from Humbolt current. We would jump in and shiver and tried to get a fish quickly to get the hell out of the water and warm up. The cold upwelling brought in cold nutrient rich water and some really great fish. Jewfish would be stacked like train cars, so many Red Snappers the ocean would turn red, giant Broomtaol Groupers, it was amazing. Lobsters would go lethargic in the cold water and I could catch 3-4 a dive. Brought them up in my swimsuit, under my arms - yes Spiny Lobsters (who said kids were smart another me).

Jellyfish? Damn they hurt! Sea snakes - no problem, mouths too small to bite us. Men in Grey - mostly Bulls, Tigers, Dusky's and zillions of smaller black & white tip reef shars. If we dove without seeing a shark - it meant the water was really murky.

Fish: not what I would do today for sure, but we killed jewfish up to 400 pounds, Big Sawfish, giant Pargos/Cuberas to 100 pounds. Groupers as long as we were, giant Snook, Amberjeack that would go 80 plus pounds. Not many Wahoo, Dorados as the Sharks mostly kept us Reef divers. A big no no today, but I shot Jewfish 600-700 pounds (no never landed one that size), once speared an 18 foot Sawfish trying to win the biggest fish pool (no didn't land that one - in fact he took everything including an 80 got ski rope and two Clorox bottles (damn near cut me too).

When I needed money for a date - easy, go catch 50 plus pounds of lobster to sell. Amador Causeway along the Pacific entrance to the Canal was my "bank.". Corvina, snook and lots of lobsters for the picking but almost always in dirty murky water (and yes lots of sharks). We would dive for lobsters during the day and fish for sharks same place at night.

We lost a lot of gear. Shafts, guns, ski ropes, but we never lost a spearo but boy we have some great Shark stories. Sadly, we seldom took photos. I have a few but nothing to show the take and size of fish we routinely took with our primitive gear.

Masks - early ovals used for swimming pool then better French Ovals - wish I had kept a few. Fins? Ha ha, short ugly heavy fins. Hell, I used my "latest" fins - short heavy rubber Cressi full pockets (still have them) until my first long Omer plastics in 2000. Snorkels haven't changed much simple J's. Weight belts? Old surplus army canvas belts with whatever we could add to them - we did make our own weights eventually with molds and molten lead.

This was before long lines killed all the sharks and so many of our fishery. We were a small band, probably only 12 speros in the early days growing into the 50's with more U.S. military guys joining us few local divers.

But boy did we kill some fish :laughing

Quote from Oscar

I don't dive much anymore but I can certainly talk with a certain amount of authority on what it was like in the ancient start of spear fishing in the late 40's early 50's. Our gear WAS primitive but boy o boy did we kill some big ass fish. Of course we had more fish than now and fish didn't really fear us BUT let me try to explain our gear.

Most of us used the early French double or four banded French Arbolets. The bands were shit compared to today. Shafts were ALWAYS bent. They were very soft and we would normaly end up on shore or boat straightening out our shafts over our knees after practically every nice fish. We mostly used nylon parachute cord for shooting line. Many of us used a bright yellow nylon ski rope (only color available) tied to our guns with a Clorox bottle as a float. I tried the Italian Spring Spearguns when they first came out - heavy thick shafts and I couldn't load them underwater.

Our guns all used metal wishbones and we have scars from when they snapped. Spear tips? Mostly standard double barbs which was normal in those early days. But, not sure, may have come from east or west cost - but one of our best spearos was in Panama working as a machinest (he was from Finland -Jon Bock). And he made slip tips for us (still have one of the originals somewhere).

Wetsuits? Haha my first Free diveswetsuit was bought just 3 years ago (I did buy a one piece surf suit in 2000). Water in Panama would drop into the 60's and even upper 50's when the upwelling brought in the cold water from Humbolt current. We would jump in and shiver and tried to get a fish quickly to get the hell out of the water and warm up. The cold upwelling brought in cold nutrient rich water and some really great fish. Jewfish would be stacked like train cars, so many Red Snappers the ocean would turn red, giant Broomtaol Groupers, it was amazing. Lobsters would go lethargic in the cold water and I could catch 3-4 a dive. Brought them up in my swimsuit, under my arms - yes Spiny Lobsters (who said kids were smart another me).

Jellyfish? Damn they hurt! Sea snakes - no problem, mouths too small to bite us. Men in Grey - mostly Bulls, Tigers, Dusky's and zillions of smaller black & white tip reef shars. If we dove without seeing a shark - it meant the water was really murky.

Fish: not what I would do today for sure, but we killed jewfish up to 400 pounds, Big Sawfish, giant Pargos/Cuberas to 100 pounds. Groupers as long as we were, giant Snook, Amberjeack that would go 80 plus pounds. Not many Wahoo, Dorados as the Sharks mostly kept us Reef divers. A big no no today, but I shot Jewfish 600-700 pounds (no never landed one that size), once speared an 18 foot Sawfish trying to win the biggest fish pool (no didn't land that one - in fact he took everything including an 80 got ski rope and two Clorox bottles (damn near cut me too).

When I needed money for a date - easy, go catch 50 plus pounds of lobster to sell. Amador Causeway along the Pacific entrance to the Canal was my "bank.". Corvina, snook and lots of lobsters for the picking but almost always in dirty murky water (and yes lots of sharks). We would dive for lobsters during the day and fish for sharks same place at night.

We lost a lot of gear. Shafts, guns, ski ropes, but we never lost a spearo but boy we have some great Shark stories. Sadly, we seldom took photos. I have a few but nothing to show the take and size of fish we routinely took with our primitive gear.

Masks - early ovals used for swimming pool then better French Ovals - wish I had kept a few. Fins? Ha ha, short ugly heavy fins. Hell, I used my "latest" fins - short heavy rubber Cressi full pockets (still have them) until my first long Omer plastics in 2000. Snorkels haven't changed much simple J's. Weight belts? Old surplus army canvas belts with whatever we could add to them - we did make our own weights eventually with molds and molten lead.

This was before long lines killed all the sharks and so many of our fishery. We were a small band, probably only 12 speros in the early days growing into the 50's with more U.S. military guys joining us few local divers.

But boy did we kill some fish :laughing

Display More

Yeah yeah, you may be cool as shit but your still color blind

Makoa how's the range of your 110 roller compared to when it was 140 standard? I've read that one of the benefits of the shorter roller is not only power, but supposedly the range as well.

Quote from Chase

Makoa how's the range of your 110 roller compared to when it was 140 standard? I've read that one of the benefits of the shorter roller is not only power, but supposedly the range as well.

Range and power are the same thing in this application. You can't have more of one without more of the other.

Marco you said you bought a roller kit and we're gonna take pics, what's the deal?

Quote from sdeisen

Marco you said you bought a roller kit and we're gonna take pics, what's the deal?

The deal is that I've just moved to another country and my new home is full of boxes :rolleyes1:

I have been unpacking since my stuff arrived and could ONLY take the Sunday off to go spearfishing to Taboga and find out that the visibility was like 2 ft.

According to my friends, they never found the water SO murky. And they never got back without killing at least one fish. I did not take a single shot. :(:@

Well, I did take a shot from my friends 90 cm roller and I was quite impressed on the recoil (or the lack of it). It is a very well made one from this manufacturer in Spain: ROLLERGUNS
I didn't see where the shot went, but it took two wraps of mono and some reel line too.

He swears by it and he says there's nothing here in Panama (including large goliaths, which are legal to take) that cannot be taken with that gun. It has a 7 mm x 130 shaft and x350 Cressi S45 (17.5 mm) bands.

Let me take some time and will post a couple pictures. But I'm not assembling the gun yet since it takes some re-work to do so.

Thanks for asking.

Quote from Marco

:

I have been unpacking since my stuff arrived and could ONLY take the Sunday off to go spearfishing to Taboga and find out that the visibility was like 2 ft.

According to my friends, they never found the water SO murky. And they never got back without killing at least one fish. I did not take a single shot. :(:@

He swears by it and he says there's nothing here in Panama (including large goliaths, which are legal to take) that cannot be taken with that gun. It has a 7 mm x 130 shaft and x350 Cressi S45 (17.5 mm) bands.

Thanks for asking.

Display More

Marco - was the water cold? Can be in the 60's at this time of year and murky but I don't think I ever found 2 foot viz around Taboga. Did you dive the back side or along the side facing Tabogia? The Jewfish are easily found during the dry season (now) up to 700 plus pounds but too easy to spear - the smaller ones 60-80 pounds are good to eat. In dirty murky water you can hear the BIG BOOM when they take off. Did you hear any corvina croaking? I know the waters around Taboga like the back of my hand. There is a brain coral not far from the anchorage/beach that I ALWAYS could take 2-3 lobsters and another point that I could always find Corvina - hope that hadn't changed. Stay off my Spotzs! :laughing:

Was 69F in the surface according to my Aeris. A couple less in the bottom.

If it drops to 60° I will need a 5 mm wetsuit for sure! :@:snorkel1::old2:

Saw a couple shades in the dark. Didn't hear anything. It was a day to forget, since Ale lost his weightbelt with a brand new knife on it. :nono::(

But this thread is about rollerguns, isn't it? :rolleyes1:
:hijack1:

makoa--sorry for the late entry to your thread. In an effort to help with your conversion project I would like to suggest what I did years ago when I converted a 120 RA Tuna (with an ET) to a roller. Anchoring the bottom of the roller bands is easily done on the RA and your Aimrite looks like it could be just as easy. Please to look at the handle/barrel anchoring screws on the RA. There are 2 screws on opposing sides of the barrel that attaches the barrel to the handle. I simply removed those two screws, took a drill and drilled all the way through one side of the barrel, through the handle and out the other side of the barrel where the other screw hole was. I bought a SS bolt that was long enough to go all the way through the barrel and leave enough on the head and nut end to hook the bottom end of the roller band to. Done
Want to be able to adjust your bottom band length? Just make the loops on the bottom bands 6''or whatever long and tie a knot 1inch from the end of the rubber. Now you can hook each bottom band on said bolt at the end of the loop OR at the 1" knot.
Hope this is clear enough to be helpful