Posts by Dan

  • 19mm band stretch ratio

    I don't use 3/4" (19mm) bands myself, and have rigged only a couple of spearguns with this rubber, those were long guns in the 120cm range. I was finishing building a 90cm gun today, and it was time to cut the bands. Being such a short gun I wanted it to have some pop. So I figured I'll start with a conservative ratio of 1-3, in other words %300. I measured the distance from the muzzle to the furthest tab at 91cm, so I cut the band to 30cm. If this sounds way short it's because I'm using the Meandros muzzle, so there are two of these bands.



    I tapered the bands, tied them to the muzzle, and fortunately before continuing on to tying the wishbones, decided to try and pull them as they looked damn short. I folded up a towel and put it on my chest, grabbed the bands and pulled hard.. At this point I started laughing out loud <img src= " class="smiley" srcset="https://spearfishing.world/forum/images/smilies/emojione/1f606@2x.png 2x" height="23" width="23" loading="eager" data-tooltip="biggrin" aria-label="biggrin"> there was no way in hell I'd be able to load this gun. Wasted rubber, wasted time, I had to do everything over. I guesstimated that 36cm would be doable, and went with it. I can now just barely load this gun. I have good upper body strength, and have loaded many guns. I don't know the person who's going to own this gun, I hope he can load it. I can say for sure though that if he can, this gun is going to zzzing.


    So the stretch ratio ended up being 1-2.5 or %250. Keep in mind this is the Speardiver small ID rubber. Is this a normal stretch ratio for a 19 mm band? The fact that the bands are tied into the muzzle and missing the little extra that would thread through a conventional band slot is another factor to consider.

  • From the Belly of the Deep...to the Deep of my Belly

    I noticed the loaded gun from the beginning, but avoided saying anything about it because I'm tired of these kinds of remarks putting the member on the defensive and ruining the tone of the thread. Besides I believe it's no one's business but his how to do his thing. I was taken aback by George's post as I knew there would be an inevitable reaction. But reading your response Khalel, I feel compelled to say this. You may not fully appreciate the risk you're taking. Not only is the gun loaded, it's also haphazardly placed on the boat. This is evident by the second gun stacked on top of it, where you must have placed it shortly after entering the boat as the shooting line is still in the fish. I can't imagine after the excitement of getting the fish and having your mind on taking the photo, that you carefully chose where to put the second gun. In any case it gives the impression like it was tossed on top the other one. Just not good practice all around. If I was there and saw it I would run from the boat.


    Your actions may be due to your trust in Riffe guns. I'll have you know that a friend of mines (a very experienced spearo) brand new Riffe misfired on the boat under much "gentler" handling. The spear came back and stuck in his head. The mechanism subsequently misfire one more time in the water. At that time I wasn't experienced enough with mechs to take it apart and figure out what went wrong, and we were more focused on diving and having fun. So my friend just had the mech replaced by Riffe. Now this was a brand new mech that was faulty, we know because the replacement mech functioned properly in the same gun with the same shaft afterwards. But mechs deteriorate with use, so a well used mechs poses almost as much of a risk as a faulty one. Unless inspected regularly, and you know what to look for, you'll just never know %100 if the mech is safe. That's why it's better to have the backup safety of not loading the gun out of the water.

  • Wong vs Tinman Handle

    The thing to remember when comparing hand gun grips and speargun grips, is that a handgun is much shorter and you don't need to move it against water resistance. A handle without an angle (sometimes referred to as rake) offers no leverage on the speargun. You can easily verify this out of the water, by holding a moderately heavy speargun out with your arm fully extended. It will be hard with the angled grip, but impossible with a straight grip. BTW I'm not saying this to convince you makoa. I just want this information out there.


    So the Pelaj handle no good.



    Cressi handle good.



    And while we're on the subject of handles. The Aimrite / Merou handle, while robust it too is not well angled, and when swinging a long gun tends to rotate in the hand forcing the diver to exert a lot of grip pressure to stop it from doing so.


  • Wong vs Tinman Handle

    Aimrite handle has a very poor shape for a speargun application. The AR handle is much more ergonomic and correct. The angle allows good leverage on the gun for tracking up/down and left/right. To the contrary of what you said the AR handle allows for a more natural grip when the arm is fully extended before the shot.