RA Rollergun Review

  • Rob Allen is one of the Big names on spearfishing no doubt about it. Most of their products are excellent products that are a good choice and they generally offer a fair cost/quality ratio.

    One of the hottest products available is the so called RA rollergun. The advertising claims that this guns are super powerful, super accurate and negate the need for the usage of multiband guns for bluewater.


    These guns come with some pros and cons, here are some of my thoughts bout it.


    The gun is a RA roller 130, factory made


    Cons:

    The gun is super expensive for what it is.

    The loading process is a major hassle, it depends on a loading aid in the form of a mini band that you must carry with you all the time. It's super difficult to load, the loading aid is prone to be lost at sea and render your gun partially useless, and to top it off the hook on the mini aid can and will scratch your barrel.

    The gun is not suitable for hunting near rocks. It kill fishes but not in a more efficient or better way than a standard railgun.

    It's a bit tip heavy

    The plastic that is made out of doesn't look very durable, nor the rollers by themselves.

    It does have some recoil that goes with a very odd "thump"

    It doesn't reach the advertised 6 times the length of the barrel, that's just horeshit, it has a bit more if not the same reach of a standard two banded railgun of the same size.


    Pros:


    It looks super cool and it's a great conversation starter

    It's a bit more powerful than a standard twin banded railgun

    It's fairly accurate.



    Bottomline / conclusion


    It's not worth it...


    It shoots almost the same of a railgun of it's same length , it's so difficult and slow to load and its expensive AF...


    I hope you find it useful


    Here are some fishes speared with my Wong hybrid, none was caught with the Roller, but was placed among them for illustration purposes...

    I'm a Speardiver, not a freediver

  • Gracias Monstruo por compartir, bien objetiva y concluyente tu opinión. Buenos pargos.:thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:


    Todo un arsenal para los wahoos:trident:=O


    Saludos.

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

  • By the way, Rob Allen himself says that the longer the Roller the less advantage it takes from the set up. That the max length advisable for a Rollergun is 110, still he offers rollers in the 120's and 130's range. But there's no difference in performance between a 130 roller and a 130 standard railgun. According to him a 110 roller shoots equally to a 130 standard railgun, following that logic I'll cut my 130 roller to 110 so it shoots as a 130 back again lol... X/

    I'm a Speardiver, not a freediver

  • Nice review Monster.


    I've reached the same conclusions about roller spearguns. I recommend you sell that roller rather than cut it. There are always more guys looking to experience the "magic" so it should sell well.

  • Nice review Monster.


    I've reached the same conclusions about roller spearguns. I recommend you sell that roller rather than cut it. There are always more guys looking to experience the "magic" so it should sell well.

    Dan, you don't even know how much I appreciate your practical and keen common sense and your logical based wisdom. I was thinking about switching the set up with a shorter gun that I have, but probably I'll stick with standard guns and sell the roller...


    Thanks

    I'm a Speardiver, not a freediver

  • Nice review Monster.


    I've reached the same conclusions about roller spearguns. I recommend you sell that roller rather than cut it. There are always more guys looking to experience the "magic" so it should sell well.

    Dan, very interesting, you can expand the concept.


    Saludos.

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

  • Today I lost several fishes and missed a lot more with the 130 roller, that's it, I wanted to change the configuration so I could save/recover something from my original investment ... But...To top it off, Rob Allen factory put the screw on the roller head so tight, that is impossible to unscrew it without the use of a vice or power tools. That's a shame because I f...ng hate the 130 and I wanted to switch heads with my other RA. But they do it in a way that is impossible to achieve with regular tools, so you cannot use their precious "prototype " ... I think RA is betraying with this their "user friendliness " , which was the flagship of their company.



    Great! Now I should spend even more money just to switch the head and use it the way me a customer wants... :cursing:




    I'm a Speardiver, not a freediver

  • Well, I have to say that I have one of the first prototypes rollerguns Rob Allen made. It's a 110 carbon. And I absolutely love that thing! I bought it directly from a South African that came to Panama for tunas. And he got a 100 pounder with it!

    I would say, it has some more power than a twin banded 110 but without noticeable recoil, which in my opinion makes it more accurate. I made a loader myself (I also lost the original one) but when is time to change the bands, I'll put a double wishbone with one being longer than the other. That's how I rig the other rollers I have and I load them faster than a double banded.

    I have a chronic wirst injury and shooting a powerful standard band speargun is very painful to me. Now I prefer to use either pneumatics or rollers.


    Here's that gun in action:



    Marco Melis

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

  • Marco, I think the longer rollers are not as efficient, mine shoots way too low , even at short distances, but I'm going to switch the roller set up into a shorter gun to see if I improve my luck with it.


    What is your band pretension by the way?

    I'm a Speardiver, not a freediver

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