Posts by Dan

I'm no more from Yugoslavia than you are from Azerbaijan. Looks like you don't know much about air rifles either, otherwise you'd have recommended one.

You can pump the air guns more than once?

I'd like to buy a good air rifle, and don't know anything about air rifles. What's a really good one?

Are they fruits or a vegetables?

How's the speargun working out for you?

OK here's one.

Amazing pics

Thanks for the compliments guys. I really didn't expect it because it's such a simple stick, albeit purposefully made that way.

LB, this is meant to be my go to gun for hunting our waters (I don't go anywhere else doh..). If it works as well as I think it should

Thanks Bill.

Quote from Wood Guy

I like my guns to just barely sink with the shaft in, and be as buoyant as possible with the shaft out.

What is the rationale behind this? I thought the idea is to put as much weight as the gun can handle without sinking (with the shaft out) to control recoil?

http://spearfishing.world/foru…-members-forum-usage.html

Try pm now.

Thanks guys.

Cost breakdown:
Wood - $20
Guy at wood store to Joint 2 sides - $15 I figured out that to do this right the jointer has to be loooong and I don't have room for this machine nor a few grand to spend on it. Took him exactly two minutes and he did it by eye. I brought a straight edge along to confirm and it was perfect.
Davie (seaweed) to plane the wood to final dimensions, and rout the track and rounding - priceless I have a router bit for the track, and a router, but no router table which is a must to do this right. I'd like to own a planer too..
Pursuit TLR (top line release) mech for US shaft - $60
Pursuit pigtail corkscrew swivel - $5
5ft of Pursuit 16mm small ID band material - $21.50
Kitchen utensil with a SS arm from Publix - $5
Can of Herculiner - $30 obviously it's way more than I could ever use on spearguns. I had half of an old can dry up on me after 2 years, that's the problem with this buy.
That stainless steel piece from West marine - $15
Quick release locking snap, to attach gun to float line - $5
Pursuit 72" 7mm shaft with full size sharkfin tabs cut down to 66" - $61

There are odds and ends in the way of little SS plates and rods, cordage, mono, epoxy, SS screws, lead etc. that I had lying around, which would bump up the price some if I had to buy it again. But adding that to the total I might as well add the price of the tools too..

I forgot to say this gun is a true 120cm i.e. the band stretch from band hole to tab.

Stock dimensions are 1.15" wide x 1.575" high x 6.15" long.

My objectives in building this gun were; to make the slimmest wood stock possible, because I grip a gun in the middle and can't seem to get used to swimming with a beefier gun, and to make the gun as cheaply as I can using the fewest specialized speargun parts possible.

The stock, a one piece of teak which looked almost the same when I found it in the wood store, turned out to have dimensions very close to the Riffe competitor series, mine is not quite as tall but a hair wider. It has 3 applications of penetrating epoxy, sanded down lightly for a mat finish.

For these pics I used a shorter shaft than I like, I'll replace it with a shaft that will have 13" of overhang.

I used two little SS plates for track protection since it's easier for me to do than install a short Derlin track, mine may even be stronger. I didn't cut a line guide across the muzzle, routing the line around the spike seems to work fine.

Since I'll be using 1.5 wraps of line I didn't need a specialized line anchor, and simply pinned the bungee into the stock.

I'm using a Heinrich line release, something I wanted to do for a long time. It releases perfectly and routing the line is easy once you get used to it. Modifying the shaft involved drilling a hole and hammering a pin into it.

The trigger guard is from a SS kitchen utensil that was like $5 at Publix. The handle is made out of Ipe wood and is set into the sock with a mortise tenon joint and epoxy. It's coated with Herculiner.

As an afterthought I bought this very expensive $15 SS plate from West Marine and screwed it on one side. The wood was thin around the mech and the plate made me feel better. Maybe I'll have something engraved on it.

EDIT- Changed the trigger mech and Heinrich line release system to a Pursuit top line release mech.

Got rid of the wishbone inserts and rigged the bands with Pursuit wishbone Dyneema.

How much weight should I add to my speargun? I figured I'll ask about balance in a separate thread.

I'm used to having guns that sink with the shaft in / float with the shaft out, and that's the way I prefer it. But I haven't paid much thought to how quickly I want the gun to float (without the shaft). My understanding of ballasting as far as weight is; to keep adding weight until the gun starts to sink (shaft out) then take off just enough weight to make it float again. I built a gun with a stock that has similar dimensions to a Riffe competitor series stock. I was surprised to see that adding 11oz still is not sinking the gun (maybe because it's a solid piece of teak and has no epoxy). I'm not even sure I have room to put 11oz, I will have to drill many holes as the stock is slim. How do I figure out how much weight should I add?

Make sure you're equalizing properly, before you feel the pressure build up. You may have to resort to using your fingers to do this. You may be putting too much pressure on your tubes without being aware, or what seems normal to you at this point is too much, with a delayed reaction and symptoms appearing the next day as a result of the previous day's exertions.

4.5" is a little wide. Your foot is 1.5cm wider than mine but I'm a size 11. I'm sure that a 44-46 H Dessault footpocket will fit you fine without a sock or with a thin sock. Now you have to account for a thicker sock in cold water and may go to the next size up which is 46-48.

With regards to sock thickness/warmth for California diving, you should start a thread in the Cali section.

Your last question is the shore diver's conundrum. Personally I'd rather have more water time, and a poor fin choice due to insisting on wearing booties goes against that. I'd rather tow a float and store thin flip flops on it, or if I know my point of exit will be the same as my entry I'd stash an unattractive pair of shoes/sandals somewhere.

XP, you want to avoid wearing booties, you lose in the power transfer from your legs to the blades, this means you will get tired faster. If you need to wear something on your feet make it as thin as possible while still keeping you warm enough. Sometimes it's necessary to buy footpockets a size larger to account for thick dive socks. I don't know what EEE means but size 12 is not that difficult to find footpockets for.

What about every other pipe gun that has an aluminum barrel, including your dear Rob Allen?

c'mon Marco, probably Don's thread is not the place, but we've all heard your omer stories many times. I even made you this special no homer avatar remember <img src= " height="23" srcset="https://spearfishing.world/forum/images/smilies/emojione/1f606@2x.png 2x"> All of a sudden you've grown a politically correct conscience?

For my part omer has a few things that are good; masks, footpockets etc. Check out their new enclosed track pipe gun, innovative..

You should be OK now.

Those are some beautiful well thought out spearguns. It is a sad to lose such a creative mind. RIP