DIY Toweling carry bag for pneumatic spearguns and band tube guns

  • When travelling to and from a dive site or out on a boat you can keep your pneumatic gun cool and dry by placing it inside a toweling bag not unlike that used to hold a samurai sword, only the latter are made from silk cloth. The toweling has the advantage that a wet gun can be put into it and keep draining water from messing up and rusting out your vehicle boot when driving back from a dive site. Also although you do not want sand getting into the bag if it does then it will not sandpaper your gun as the cloth cannot grip the sand particles like say vinyl does in a plastic carry case. The bags can be made using cheap towels of the bath size which are folded lengthwise and then stitched along the bottom and one edge leaving an opening at the top. The bag is made slightly longer than the gun so that the end can be folded back on itself and then a thick cord permanently attached by its middle to the bag is used to tie it up. This type of thick cord is called beach bag cord and you can buy it in drapers and handicraft shops.

    On a blazing hot day you can keep your gun cool by wetting the toweling bag and using it as an evaporative cooler for your gun when no shade is available. To a limited degree the bag will protect your gun from rubbing wear and bumps, but not from gouges inflicted by sharp objects, so some care is still required when handling and storing your gun.

    After unpacking the toweling bag can be turned inside out and then washed in a washing machine or simply rinsed out in a bucket to remove the salt and any sand before being hung out to dry in the sunlight.

    These cheap toweling bags can also be used as a liner inside your regular gun bag or hard carry case. The spelling varies "towelling" or "toweling", my Word spellchecker prefers the former rather than the latter, but the web-site is vice versa.

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    One of my home-made gun bags can be seen on my dive wash-up table.

  • This type of bag can also be used for band guns too, in particular band powered alloy tube guns. My Riffe Metaltech has its own royal blue toweling soft bag and I have an even bigger bag for the "Ultimate Double" to stop it draining saltwater into my vehicle on the way home. Not that it gets much use to do that, but is there when I need it. Also stops the bands getting cooked in the direct sunlight on a stinking hot day if there is no available shade.

  • The use of toweling is for its water absorbing properties. You want the cover to hold any water draining from the gun even though it may only be drips and surface water as on a cooler day the gun may not dry off as quickly as say on a blazing hot day. Some pneumatic guns had soft grip handle covers and even though they had a draining slot in the handle butt they tended to hold water. Not a huge amount, but it spilled out on the way home in the trunk of the car and over a few years this would rust your car by blistering the paint concealed under the lining mats by finding its way through the mat joins. The toweling makes the water spread through the fabric and hold it whereas say a plastic bag just acts as a funnel and pipes the water to the lowest point where it can then spill out. Pneumatic guns are often sold in a thin polyethylene bag with heat welded handles at the top opening, the best place for these flimsy bags is the trash can as they are useless. Toweling also washes and dries easily on a clothesline which is what you want as the bags get cleaned by washing every time you wash your dive gear after a dive.

  • Those Farlon fins were the best for shore and working dives.


    Cheers, Don

    They have been used for both as I have checked a few moorings in pretty dirty water using scuba where diving is much by feel as visibility is next to nothing. A drop line anchored by a chunk of ballast is your only means to hold station in the water. When current flow began to run just after slack water you wanted your fins to stay on as you flew like a pennant from the drop line as you made your way up from the job.

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