Posts by Dan

  • Homemade Pneumatic speargun?

    Quote from FREEK

    You'd be surprised to see what can be with whatever you have. I saw a documentary on Cuba, one of the persons they did it on had his auto shop in the back of his house.(Technically it belonged to el commandante:rolleyes:) The cars were Russian from the 50's, this dude would make his own brake pads:eek:.

    I've seen it there, a professional mechanic in Cuba will have a hole made of cement over which you'd drive the car. One time I saw the ball joints that they invent, unbelievable. I love that kind of ingenuity. It is a product of a place where the time of the individual is worth very little.


    As far as pneumatics; I've always seen them use a premade handle and trigger, usually a very old mares, the rest was home made. The best shafts I believe were made from some kind of car spring. Pantoja knows more about this. The inner and outer barrel are no big deal really, all you need is a lathe. The pipes you can scrounge from another industry.


    My interest in pneumatics is mostly nostalgic. I think band guns are better. The nice thing about pneumatics is that every part is made in large runs so they are cheap to produce and therefore cheap to buy. They will do an adequate job putting fish on the table.

  • Plastic trigger mech

    Marco, all the problems appear to be with the trigger mech and they are serious ones. Another example of what I said before that a trigger mech is not the place to try and save a couple of $$.


    To really understand what you mean by difficulties inserting and locking the shaft I'd have to try it myself. I have seen this before and it is most annoying. On one occasion I found the problem to be a bent shaft, bent close to the back/notch. What shaft came with your Aimrite, original? On the other hand with my guns I never felt resistance locking the shaft into place nor had misfires and I still check by pulling on the shaft every time I load.


    I have a preference to the square notch tabbed shafts. The insertion of the shooting line into the trigger mech along with the back of the shaft is not logical to me. It requires more space in the housing which in turn can create space for the shaft to skip over the sear. The line can also deteriorate from friction against the housing and be difficult to insert if the tolerance is not perfect or if the diameter of the mono varies past this tolerance. Also you lose some toggle/slip tip type effect when getting a complete pass through on a fish.


    Not saying euro style spears don't work, but it's all about the little things for personal preference. While the euro spear is a solution that works I think that in the quest for the ideal setup the American system comes out ahead.

  • So I met some spearos

    Davie, pardon me for questioning you but I don't remember a depth finder on the jon boat. Was it a portable one and if so did you remove the transducer too?

  • Pantoja's accident

    We talked about this too. The conclusion was no speargun racks with the exception being when the rack can be right up against a wall or console. If it's lying on the boat deck the worst it can do is put a hole in your foot. Messing around with tip protectors is not a viable alternative.

  • So I met some spearos

    Good meeting you Jim. That's a nice looking boat :thumbup: I'm game to explore what the Fort Lauderdale waters have to offer as my experience here is only beach diving to the second reef. Davie is a good diver and spearfisher, I believe he knows the area. Let's put something together as soon as conditions permit.

  • Ciguatera

    Quote from straight shaft

    Went out a little late today but still managed lunch/dinner.:;


    The schoolmaster measured 22 inches!!!:eek:


    Man that's just the kind of diving I like to do, on a moments notice. Can the schoolmasters carry ciguatera over there?

  • Pantoja's accident

    We did discuss the taking out of the spear on the spot. Considering it was choppy, there was no way to secure the spear from moving, and any rescue effort would have made it move excessively including the ride back to shore, I think taking it out was the right decision.

  • Pneumatic speargun mods

    That's some good info. I know Harry and seen his gun. He did say it had a mamba kit at the time. It's hard to keep track of everything that's becoming available. When you get the karayo kit I'll be interested to get your impressions. Ease of loading, increase in power, decrease in sound if any and of course accuracy.


    I like the mods with the float and reshaping the handle. I had to carry the gun in ready to shoot position a couple of days ago and it really tired my wrist. The float would counter the muzzle's tendency to sink and reshaping the handle will provide leverage and decrease the stress on the wrist. I'd like to do a prettier job with the float once I find the right material, maybe make a cylindrical cut out that will allow it to snap around the barrel without needing zip ties. For the handle I will use the two part epoxy that you knead together.

  • Pantoja's accident

    It's been a couple of months now since the accident. It's been on my mind a lot as I regularly dive with pantoja and he's been out of commission since and will continue to be for a few more months. I wanted to talk about the accident publicly for a while now but held back because I felt that it was inappropriate. A couple of days ago Pantoja told me that he doesn't mind. This is for divers to take a lesson and be careful, and understand why we insist on some safety procedures.


    I pulled out of that trip the night before due to not feeling rested. Pantoja took three divers out on his boat. They hit a school of mangroves but wend back to the dock because one of the divers who wasn't feeling well. After dropping him off they returned to the same spot, anchored and Pantoja proceeded to put up the dive flag. Unknown to him one of the divers placed a speargun in the fin bucket. This is a square plastic trash can that we fastened to the back of the seat and is supposed to be for fins only.


    The speargun was a Rob Allen with a tricut point spear, and was placed with the spear pointing up and sideways. Pantoja was standing on the seat raising the dive flag over the canopy. After raising the flag he jumped down and onto the spear. The spear struck the lower ribs on the right side, traveled upwards along them and penetrated between the upper ribs going into the lung. Sergio made an instant decision to remove it. The spear was embedded past the flopper so to remove it he had to twist it the same way we do to get it out of a fish. Then they sped back to the dock which was two or three miles away. It is my understanding that Sergio had to drive the boat himself at some point and also dock it. During all this emergency assistance was called and he was air lifted by helicopter from Haulover park to Jackson hospital.


    The spear penetrated the lung and the lung collapsed. Sergio had a tube put into the lung which was sucking out the blood accumulating there. I went to visit him the next day and it was obvious he was in a lot of pain. He was in a hospital bed with very limited movement and a tube in his chest for a week.


    I see him pretty normal now except for the psychological strain of not being able to do what he loves. There is little information about the time it takes for a lung to recuperate fully from such a thing. The affects of diving and pressure could possibly cause it to collapse again and make things even worse than the effects of the accident in the first place. Common sense dictates to wait as long as possible before putting the lung through the exertions of deep diving.


    Everybody was really great through this and there was a lot of support from those who know Pantoja in the spearfishing community which was great to see. Some of you really came through, you know who you are. Best wishes Sergio and I want to see you in the water soon because that's what you're all about.

  • Cuba spearfishing

    Yes, this is one of the things I miss about Cuba. Nothing goes to waste there and people appreciate everything, even the fish heads, here I throw them away. Here they see you with a barracuda and they scoff at you. I don't eat fish all the time but I like to hunt all time. I don't like to kill things for no reason and if nobody wants the fish I can't justify taking it.