Omer have dropped their pneumatic speargun line and the same will apply to the Sporasub versions. Thus owners of Airbalete and One Air guns might be wise to buy any spares that they may need in the foreseeable future. The 2020 catalog only lists pneumatic gun accessories such as spears and loading handles.
The Airbalete and One Air use pistons with angled face mushroom tails, so they will be difficult to replace with anything else.
Omer discontinue their pneumatic guns
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Thanks for posting this Pete. I guess sales were too low. So what are pneumatic options going forward? Mares Cyrano and Seac Asso other than the small scale manufacturers like Palengas.
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The usual suspects Mares, Cressi-Sub, Salvimar, Seac-Sub and possibly Tigullio from Italy will still be around. Omer often sold new pneumatic designs without fully sorting them out, then had to make revisions on the run or just let the owners work out a fix. Parts made in China often were not quite up to standard being made somewhat perfunctory in fit and finish.
Pelengas are moving in leaps and bounds, they have released more new models in a couple of years than the Italians have done in a couple of decades. They make everything themselves as Chinese parts would be anathema to their buyers who are critical of Italian guns that arrived with Chinese parts. -
Omer used a two-piece trigger mechanism in their Airbalete family of spearguns. Unlike most pneumatic spearguns which use a rocking sear lever that is in a sense a flattened out single-piece trigger operated by an external trigger using a small transmission pin that crosses the gun's pressure boundary, the Omer Airbalete family use an angled tooth, unstable sear lever (orange item) caught at the tail end by a sliding column (blue item) with a catch step in it. An annular rib pressed into the outer tubing/tank limits how far the sear lever can tilt once the gun shoots. Rather ingenious, but the mechanism is not actually locked, it relies on the sear lever tail which revolves away from the catching step not being able to press the step forwards without you doing so by pulling the external trigger which propels a thin control shaft (yellow item) that presses the sliding column forwards. The angled face on the piston mushroom tail (green item) creates a vector component from the longitudinal force on the piston that causes a rotating action on the sear lever thus forcing it open.
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I recently had a look at an Omer "AIR XII" brand new in its shipping box and noticed that in very tiny letters on the end of the white cardboard box it said "Made in Taiwan". So assumedly are the "Airbalete" and the Sporasub "One Air" which all share the same rear handle and internal trigger mechanism which is shown above. Thus they are not made in Italy out of shipped in parts, they come ready to go from Taiwan.
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Is that Putin spearfishing?
Cheers, Don
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Is that Putin spearfishing?
Cheers, Don
Yes, he has just bagged a Pike. Omer gear from head to foot by the look of it. Guns used in lake and river fishing tend to be short and some years ago anything over 80 cm in length would be unusual. Visibility tends to be low and weedy obstructions in the water column and reed thickets near the shallow bank areas make for glimpse it and then shoot it spearfishing.
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Thais cool Pete. What stud.
Cheers, Prost
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Anyone with one of these Omer/Sporasub guns needs to periodically check what is going on under that removable rear handle. These photos explain why and were taken by Diving Gecko.
That corroded pin is the trigger transmission pin and when you pull the trigger it is pushed forwards through a seal to operate the internal slide and sear lever. Now in pneumatic spearguns these pins are always stainless steel so that they remain smooth and don't damage the seal, you don't use plated parts like brass rod with either nickel or chrome that can blister and break off. But as we can see here the Taiwanese who make these guns evidently have not thought about that. If the outer rubber seal damages it does not depressurize the gun, but it allows saltwater to access the region of the shaft much further in which once it corrodes it will damage the inner pressure seal and then you have big problems as pressurized air will escape from the gun.
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Definitely a gun that needs to have the handle soak in a bucket of fresh water, I agree the parts should have been SS on such a expensive gun.
Cheers, Don
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The firing at the completion of muzzle loading must have given Omer, or more likely the Taiwanese, the heebie-jeebies as not only did you have warnings in the operating manual and red stickers festooning the gun, they also put this hieroglyphic on the muzzle of the gun. I did not notice it at first and was gobsmacked when I saw it. This has to be a first!
The matt black finish on the tank looks more like paint than anodizing, maybe another short cut. If you know what the sign is saying it is kind of funny as it is completely over the top. Omer must have been embarrassed when they saw it as I am sure it was not on earlier models.
This gun is the Sporasub "One Air", but is really an Omer as Omer acquired Sporasub from Mares and launched this triple tube tank gun using most of the "Airbalete" innards. Unfortunately this heavier gun was still equipped with the feeble 11 mm inner barrel, so I don't know what they were thinking. Only the central tank held pressure, the two crescent shaped side tanks only served as buoyancy floats.
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New acquisition?
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Yes, going cheap as they are looking to get rid of them. Curiosity only as not a gun that I would normally buy, but a chance to check out its construction and flaws. The working course of the piston is shortened by the handle hanging on the back and the front tied spear is not a great idea as it can affect accuracy. Omer made good guns back in the Master days, but they dropped the ball in recent years.
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Right Peter, looks like the Air One no longer ships to the US.
Cheers, Don
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This is the red warning sticking that wrapped the "One Air" gun just forwards of the detachable rear handle. I had to stick it back together as it tears when you remove it, hence the slight misalignment.
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Interestingly at one time early "Airbalete" guns had a return spring on the line release lever, but it was later deleted. Possibly the spring was weak and useless, or too strong, particularly as with the "One Air" with its front tied spear as soon as the spear moves it pulls on the line release lever.
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Interesting to look at the pumping tables, especially as all these "Airbalete" rear handle guns use the same hand pump.
The larger the tank volume is in a gun then the more pump strokes are needed to reach a given pressure. The "Airbalete" must have a bigger tank than the “One Air” as for the 100 cm guns it is 1270 vs 961. The "Air XII" 100 cm requires 1135 for the same pressure of 30 atm. This explains why the "One Air" stayed with the 11 mm diameter inner barrel as a smaller tank makes the compression ratio go up. It would have been a different matter if the entire "One Air" gun body was a tank as then it could have used a 13 mm diameter inner barrel as the compression ratio would be much lower.
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Very reliable documentation
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Removing the rear handle frequently for post dive cleaning may do in the tight fit on the big pin that has to be removed and replaced each time.
After studying the rear handle I think the best way to allow water in and out is to drill down either side of the boss inside the handle so the holes emerge in front of the trigger. That way the cup created inside the rear handle will drain if you place the gun muzzle up for a while before standing the gun on its nose. Small holes in the barrel cup section would allow it to drain, but water would still stay in the inlet valve opening and as you need to up end the gun to let the water out of there the drain holes are better placed in the handle section. You could drill below the boss, but the hole would pass through the location that the fixing pin is located and that would prevent the area draining. The holes only need to be small, so don't drill holes any larger than they need to be.
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