Best speargun 90cm ?

Euro or US? With reel or without?

I use 1x19mm shaft 6.5 / 7 mm for fishing in coral, cave, muddy water.
I use reel.
with 90 shots are very short and one band is more accurate
for big snappers can be little
It 90 in blue is not very useful
see snappers and strings Caribbean http://mantarraya-subpesca.blogspot.com/

Buena pesca.
José.

Curve ball coming in, can't help it;-)
But a 90cm vacuum-muzzled pneumatic is a sweet gun, small, very easy to handle but shoots super fast and precise. You can even go 15-20cm up in size and have something more the size of a banded 90 as airguns are measured differently.
With a power regulator you have a low power shot option for shooting into holes or near rock.

But I know you asked specifically for band guns, so will shut up now:)

One day, I will get to test my airguns against some good bandguns and share. We need that:-).

Quote from Deeper

I'm not a real hunter like you guy's... I live in Montreal... so no sea near my home:-(....
Dan, let's say in US. I will hunt in lakes most of the time, and twice a year in ocean. I don't want to pay more than 250$. I want easy access for parts.
No wood, no carbon, juste a good classic gun for pleasure. Good quality ( I hate Beuchat) and I'm really not sure about Mako ?
Cressi, Omer, Sporasub...??...

Right up your alley with great customer service

Speardiver Phantom Speargun

At your price range Speardiver Phantom with 7mm carbon steel shaft. Send a message through the site to get a shipping quote to Canada.

Rob Allens are very durable and good quality, you can't really go wrong with them - just chucking it in there

Quote from Deeper

What would be the best spear gun 90cm with 2 x 14mm or 16mm band.... like if it was to be the last gun of your life!!??
(For the Caribbean) and spear ( 6.5mm or 7mm?)

last gun of your life hmm? Gotta go with JBL explorer:laughing3:

Make a franken gun, choose parts that you find to be most comfortable for your style of shooting. (also considering durability)

Id go with a durable handle, with an all ss trigger mechanism, and housing.
Carbon tube (i personally like carbon) but ive shot ali pipe guns for a while with no problems (except aimrites....way too heavy) (my 90cm aimrite would sink without the shaft because of the reel tipping the scales)
Carbon steel is the way to go for shafts..especially when fishing rocky areas. Just gotta make sure to rinse it off and oil it (I use pam)
just go with a muzzle that isnt a peice of crap ie omer cayman open....all jbl....
(speardiver muzzle is nice with a very low profile)

Id like to have said to get a c4, bleutec, or sporasub sk40. all really nice carbon monoblock..ish guns. but why buy a production gun when you can make your own custom to your needs?
good luck,
Josh

Quote from Dan

At your price range Speardiver Phantom with 7mm carbon steel shaft. Send a message through the site to get a shipping quote to Canada.

That or a Pneumatic gun. I just got a 100 cm Cyrano EVO HF for murky water big fish. It is shorter than a 90 Euro and shots like a 110 double banded. This is an expensive gun, but for your budget, a Sten 11 is a very nice gun.

I live in belize and dive the Caribbean at least 3-4 times a week. I started with a 95cm cressi Geronimo elite and still love that gun to this day. A couple mods need to be done to make in an effective killing machine but it will not fail you..

Quote from Marco

That or a Pneumatic gun. I just got a 100 cm Cyrano EVO HF for murky water big fish. It is shorter than a 90 Euro and shots like a 110 double banded. This is an expensive gun, but for your budget, a Sten 11 is a very nice gun.

Exactly, but I didn't feel good saying it, as I don't have much experience with bandguns but I love hearing it from the guys who do;-)

[Below, I let myself loose with my thoughts on airguns - just skip it all if you don't care;-)]

Marco is right, Stens are proper work horses and they have no known ailments. They are almost impossible to kill;-). Except for a few cosmetic changes and a thinner trigger pin, the design and interior has not changed for at least 20-30 years.
The Evo HF is a new design but can be viewed as a face-lifted Sten with a more hydrodynamic tank, nicer handle, an inner barrel which sits higher in the gun and one tiny change on the inside (bigger transfer port in the power regulator bulkhead). The Evo HF has more bling and may track a bit better but they should be very comparable in power.
The Evo HF has had a few cases reported with line releases seizing (Hope Marco's will stay good).

The Sten will come with a shitty galvanized shaft in shorter sizes and an OK/good SS shaft in larger sizes, but I can't recall exactly at what size the change happens. But you can get nice 6.5 - 8mm shafts in 17-4ph SS from Sigalsub complete with slide rings and sliding washer to suit oleos without any need for modifications. (BTW, "oleo" is short hand for pneumatics in their Italian mother tongue).

The Sten itself is often for sale at good prices.
Marco mentions the Sten 11 which refers to the inner diameter of the barrel vs. 13mm which used to be the standard. Stens come in both 11 and 13mm.
11mm is an advantage unless you want to upgrade the guns with a vacuum muzzle. A vac muzzle has a seal at the muzzle barring water from entering the shooting barrel but without a vac muzzle, an 11mm will be more efficient than a 13mm as there is less room around the shaft for water. This water will need to be expelled during the shot, so less water means less power lost, resulting in a more powerful shot.

But for the ultimate in power, I would definitely recommend a vacuum muzzle. Supposedly, you get a 15% or so increase in power, I never tested it and all my airguns have vac muzzles now. Or stick to the same power as you have now, with 15% less loading effort.
If you go with a vacuum muzzle, 13mm has a very slight theoretical advantage but I would just make the choice based on which one I could get cheaper.
Vac muzzles are made for both 11mm and 13mm barreled guns.

It's an easy modification to undertake as Salvimar now produces them and many online stores carry them. Only thing is that the seal in the vac muzzle will wear out, so those you have to change once in a while. But you can do that without depressurizing the gun. The install of the vac muzzle itself is easy: depressurize gun, unscrew original muzzle, put new one on and pump gun.
There are a handful more vac muzzle options available and I can elaborate on that if needed.

BTW, Marco, Salvimar now makes the vac muzzles for your Evo gun, too;-). Or get a custom one from the dad and son team in Croatia (Tomi and Marko). I can PM you contact info, they make beautiful stuff!

Some people think oleos break down more often than band guns but I think if you stick with a known design and don't tamper too much with the insides, then that's not true. I hear plenty of stories of oleos never having been serviced working impeccably for five, ten, twenty years.

Even if they need servicing, it is fairly easy to do yourself if you are just a tad technical. And a new set of o-rings costs 5 bucks. In the long run, I am pretty sure oleos are cheaper than bandguns - no new bands needed:-)

I have a 90cm oleo (and a few others). It fits in a fin bag and is a perfect travel gun. Except, that if you empty it before flying (which I stopped doing) you have to pump it again at the destination. For smaller guns it's OK, for bigger ones it can be a chore.

The only thing is that if they do leak, or break down, then you have to take them apart to service them and that can be annoying if traveling. But again, if you stick to a proven design without too many crazy mods, then in all likelihood it wont break down on you.

An alternative to the Sten, the Seac Asso is another golden oldie but I like the Stens more. The Stens have softer trigger pulls and better pistons.
Also, Salvimar has a cool looking gun called the Predathor Vuoto. These are very nicely priced, comes with the vacuum muzzle already and in large sizes a reel, too. The handle looks better than the Sten, but I haven't tried one yet. The trigger pull will be slightly heavier. It's a new design and they seemed to have gotten most of it right out of the box, except for the slider which is too brittle and has broken on occasion, but sliders can be had from other companies fairly easy - And Salvimar may have rectified this issue quietly.

Shorter pneumatics can be slightly (nose) heavy in the water, though they still float after shooting. I am very allergic to even the slightest nose heaviness, but others are not. Depends, also, on your type of diving. If you do long days, long dives in shallow water you are likely to be holding the gun horizontally for longer than if you are in deeper water. But when you start getting to 90cm, the oleos should be quite well balanced with 7mm spears. Obviously, if you go to 6.5 or 6.75mm, you get some help in that department.
Also, to come back to the vac muzzle - that makes a gun a bit more buoyant since it will restrict water from entering the shooting barrel.

If you had lived in Europe or have friends heading there once in a while, I would tell you to hit the Italian forums and buy secondhand. Very good guns go on sale there, bandguns, too and the length you are after is what they shoot, too. Google Translate have helped me buy two guns in Italy now (shipped to Denmark, still in the EU/EC, but maybe Canada would be a stretch).

No carbon steel shafts for oleos though. You don't want rust or corrosion in your barrel messing with your piston's seal. That said, I was silly enough to just order a RA shaft to try it out myself, but the odds are against me. While on the topic of stuff in the barrel, shore dives should be fine. People do it all the time in Denmark.

OK, end of story;-)

Ah, not completely - I'll throw some approximate numbers at you:
Salvimar Vac Muzzle (aftermarket upgrade): Euro 40
Three spare seals for above: Euro 9
Shaft, app: Euro 20

Quote from Marco

That or a Pneumatic gun. I just got a 100 cm Cyrano EVO HF for murky water big fish. It is shorter than a 90 Euro and shots like a 110 double banded. This is an expensive gun, but for your budget, a Sten 11 is a very nice gun.

Hey Marco,
One thing I always wondered about is the handling in the water. How would you say your air weapon tracks and handles compared to, say, a 110-120 rail gun?
(I know, since you have an Evo HF, you are a bit "spoiled" with the slimmer nose - traditional airguns are 40mm in diameter all the way to the muzzle).

Also, in case you are curious about the vacuum muzzle, I am attaching pics of Salvimar's vac muzzle for Evo HF and some swank images from a Danish spearo who had Marko/Tomi make him a custom muzzle.
(Photo credit to Povlsen for the rigged Evo HF with Tomba muzzle)

BTW, the slider is from Marko, too. Very nice and low profile.
BTW_2, Don Paul, don't you have a Tomba for your Airbalete...?

Hi Gecko!

My 100 tracks better than 90 band gun. I have had no chance to try it in the sea, but pool tests look promising. I did some footage

I've pumped it to 24 Atm and it shots very nice with very little recoil.

Actually, I'm not interested in messing with vacuum kits. That's why I got the best available standard "oleo".

Quote from Marco

Hi Gecko!

My 100 tracks better than 90 band gun. I have had no chance to try it in the sea, but pool tests look promising. I did some footage

I've pumped it to 24 Atm and it shots very nice with very little recoil.

Actually, I'm not interested in messing with vacuum kits. That's why I got the best available standard "oleo".

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Gotcha,
Thanks for the comparison:-)

Also, I think I understand your hesitation on the vac muzzles. I know that you are great at getting big fish on nice little railguns and also, that you live in a place a bit far from "mainstream spear gear shopping". So, first, you don't need it. Second, you want something that just works.

But personally, I don't mind all the help I can get, haha. And I actually really like taking long, and precise shots plus the nerdy quest of optimizing my guns suits my personality.

Though the vac systems are pretty sturdy and some of them even use completely regular and easily obtainable o-rings there is actually a risk of some other issues stemming from their use.
Eg. you risk busted pistons and shock absorbers because on higher pressures with a vac muzzle they just take more of a beating than, I suppose, the manufacturers estimated when they designed them.

For the safest use of vac muzzles it would probably be smart to split the gain you get from it by lowering the pressure a bit. You would still get a more powerful shot, and you then get an easier loading effort on top.

I have run into problems with my Mirage which is not only vac-muzzled but also loaded at higher pressures than normal oleos. I have cracked pistons (STC) and shock absorbers (STC & Vuoto) in that gun. As a result, I no longer use the optimized and trimmed down 3rd party pistons (such as the one from STC). I have gone back to the standard sturdier Mirage pistons.

I may still have an issue with the shock absorber but for now, will just run my gun a little lower than I could - around 28 bar (equivalent to 39 bar in an 11mm gun like the Evo HF). That's still 10 bar or 55% more than I can load a regular oleo at...;-)

BTW_2, Don Paul, don't you have a Tomba for your Airbalete...? Quote: Diving gecko.
Attached Images

Sorry, just caught this question. Yes. I have one of Tromic (on here) early dry barrel kits that I running at 26bar on my Airbalete.

Cheers, Don

Here is his lightened Tomba 650X for the Sten 11

Quote from Deeper

What would be the best spear gun 90cm with 2 x 14mm or 16mm band.... like if it was to be the last gun of your life!!??
(For the Caribbean) and spear ( 6.5mm or 7mm?)

You will need at least two of all gear used for spearfishing. Three if its made in China.

Depends on who is making it in China;-).
It's a bit of a recurring theme for me these years, as I live here, and know a lot of people in production. Yeah, they have shit here, but they can also make world class stuff here. If the client pays for it (and pays for good QC, too).
A lot of the Italian spearo brands seem to produce out here and whether that's the reason my Omer suit is falling apart faster than I can glue it or not, I don't know. But I think it is fair to say that it's a bit more hit and miss these years. Brands that used to be good, aren't always these days.
Oh, btw - I think a brand very close to this website has some of their stuff made out here, at least I think I saw that mentioned;). And that shit holds up, right?
So, again, make sure you are on top of the manufacturers and pay them enough that they don't wanna cut corners on you (some still do, though) and you should be fine with it quality-wise.

Well said gecko, diligent QC is where good bits can go bad fast, ''expect what you inspect'' is my go to phrase.

Cheers, Don