Posts by fuzz

Cool stuff, got that book stowed away in my library somewhere too.

Holy crap, you expanded quite a bit from that old trailer! :@

Quote from Tin Man

In particular, I would like to see how the top line release and his silencer work. I made a silencing screw for an Alexander trigger a while back, but I don't know which of Chad's guns it ended up in, or whether he is still using it. It was just a stainless machine screw, with a hole drilled through the middle and a small piece of rubber inserted, but it seemed to do the trick. I was just wondering if the Nile-tec works similarly, or uses a different approach.

On a more general note, I'm just curious if your overall impression is of a well made mech, especially the pieced together housing. Is everything really polished as it is in his photos?

Everything is polished & seems to be pretty solid. I'll take a more scrutinizing look later; however, the line release/silencer is rivetted in and flush, so I can't dissect it. Will shoot you a PM when I get to it.

Quote from Tin Man

Ihab's Nile-tec trigger has the spring positioned higher, very similar to my Neptonics mod. He has recently been working with Kitto to tune the design, and the test data for trigger pull vs. band load is pretty good.

http://niledivers.com/shop/pro…b09f5d2e3d48325960bf9a54f

He says The Nile-Tec trigger casing is 0.52" wide x 1.18" high x 2.83 " long, so it would NOT be a drop in replacement for other mechs. I just thought I would add it here since it accomplishes the same end result as my modified Neptonics trigger, with far less effort. However I have NOT tried one of these trigger mechs myself, so I would be interested to hear an evaluation from anyone who has.

I have one of the Nile-Tec mechs, but not sure what you're looking for exactly as far as evaluation. :confused1:

Let me know, I'll try to oblige.

Quote from 808

yah we became a state a few years ago. & yep grass huts is the way to go out here.

:thumbsup2:

Is Hawaii even a state? Do y'all live in grass huts over there? :confused1:

Iya's setup was an inflatable co2 parachute... but still attached to the Riffe reel on his gun.

This one is basically a breakaway popper float setup. Convenience of a reel gun, fighting power of a float, and potential pitfalls of both! Can't imagine using anything like this. With the convenience of carrying a spare popper float on my back, this design seems unreasonably risky. Progressive for its time, but slightly obsolete now. If anything, I'd attach a popper float to the end of my reel gun in case of reel failure.

Cool find ladiver, you've got some awesome archives.

Common, but frustrating problem. I don't believe that side or bottom releases have much to do with the problem, since the vast majority of time, it's the line on the top that hitches around the band(s). Seems to happen with euros/railguns with greater frequency than bigger wooden guns (fouls per shot average).

I have some hole guns up here in NorCal that foul up almost every other shot!!! :@ Like Mr.Hanson said, it's often shooting fish close up. On video (plug for TinMan mounts), you can see the shooting line slightly arc up above thes shaft during shot, then hitch around the band on the way out. Any kinks in the line exacerbate the problem. I've also been a fan of tight loops on all crimped ends to reduce drag, but in my anecdotal experience, have found that bigger loops mitigate the fouling somewhat since the line flips over a lot easier.

Here's another oddity - my Omer Cayman HF75 will foul up regularly, but my Sporasub One80 with strikingly similar design... has yet to foul up once! Both rigged with 200# Hi Seas mono, single band, & almost identical shaft. :crazy:

On the flip side, before I started to use them, I've always thought my Sea Sniper guns would foul with the odd band design and all that loose line/rubber... but they've never fouled once. I think the fact that all the bands are loose and end up pointing forward after the shot doesn't really give the shooting line anything to hitch onto.

Interesting to see what people come up with on this subject, I'll dig around a bit too.

Quote from Don Paul

I use my trimmings after I smoke them with Wasabi lased brine, I can then store it in a jar till I use it.
I then make a shatoki mushroom omelet and fold in the YFT, fish protein in the AM is like a Red Bull.
Cheers, Don

Ah, that's what I was wondering - I've only used smoked fish for omelets, thought you were using fresh fish somehow.

When you jar it, do you can it? How long do you keep it in there? Fridge?
Always curious about different fish prep/storage methods.

Quote from Don Paul

Man....mussel fritters with Guinness batter to go with my YFT omelet.:D
Hey mike what slip tip on your PS?
Don

How do you make a YFT omelet? :confused1:

Quote from ladvr

That must have been a hella stringer!

Not really, it was mostly the extras... abalone, urchins, mussels, etc. :crazy:

Quote from ladvr

Cardiac Hill will take care of anyone! My aorta hurts just thinking about it.

Hey Mike, welcome! :thumbsup2:
Good intelligent dive conversations here, except for the occasional rants about SB and questions surrounding Rolo's sexual orientation.

Training for PV up here in Norcal... got a full harvest last weekend and had to stop about 20 times on the way back to the car!

On a flopper shaft, I just use the tip of the shaft to brain the fish. Most often, I slip in under the upper gill portion and brain it discretely through the underside. But that's mainly so it looks cleaner and prettier in pictures.

I grew up eatin cuda in hawaii... haven't eaten it in recent years now that ciguateria is so prevalent.

Only thing I can't stand about em - the damn stinky slime.

Quote from Tin Man

If you had the foresight to make a "dummy" piece the same width as the stock (while planing or routing it to final dimensions), then you could cut a groove in the dummy piece while cutting the groove in the real stock. Insert the thin strip in the groove in the dummy piece, flip it over (end for end, not side to side), and it would be perfectly centered without moving the router fence. And would give you something much safter to hold.

:cool2:

Glad you mentioned it! I was thinking the same thing.
(usually my wood-working thoughts end up with near missing fingers)

Quote from Tin Man

I have a thought that's probably crap, but here goes.

I think that one advantage to a hybrid design is that it "potentially" allows more freedom of distribution for the gun's mass. I think that a gun will experience less muzzle jump if there is weight concentrated in the muzzle. It's the old pricipal of the ice skater spinning slowly with her arms extended, and spinning faster with her arms tucked close.

For a typical wood gun, both the buoyancy and the mass of the gun are uniformly distributed throughout the wood. If you try to add more weight up front, it gets muzzle heavy unless you add additional buoyancy. With a hybrid, it is possible to provide buoyancy using a lightweight air filled tube in the middle, and independently position ballast in the muzzle and / or butt. That is one of the main reasons that I am playing around with the hollow carbon fiber construction.

As John (seacrecher) also mentioned in that thread I quoted - what Chad (& you) come up with... really shouldn't be considered normal for a hybrid. Your mad scientist concoctions are far removed from commercially available hybrids.

Taken from another thread from another board from another time:

Quote from seacrecher

In my experienced honest opinion, it really depends on the length of the gun, the size shaft intended for said gun, and how much power is on the gun.

If you are going with a mid-handled gun over 55" that is designed to shoot a 9/32 shaft or bigger with 3 9/16" bands or more, there is absolutely no advantage over a solid wood gun that is built or fabricated to similar dimensions. In fact, I feel that there is more of a disadvantage as the front-end of the gun is usually negative, making it difficult to carry the gun for extended periods of time. If the bands are not tuned tuned correctly, there will be issues with muzzle flip, unless a longer shaft is used, or unless enough wood to tubing ratio is used in the fabrication of the gun. I feel that a 1:1 ratio is right. That meaning, that the wood portion of the gun is of equal length to the carbon portion of the gun, and the gun is then ballasted and balanced correctly, with the shaft taken into consideration.

The difference is less noticeable on a mid-handle gun than it is on a rear-handles gun. But, it has been my experience that there is indeed, a noticeable differeance. Some may not agree, but that is my experience.

As for hybrids, I really like the concept for guns under 55", as long as they are mid-handle. Any length over that, calls for a different gun design. usually consisiting of a heavy, extremely well balanced gun, capable of handling extreme recoil by means of heavy ballasting.

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Quote from fuzz

I agree with what John has said, with a few additions.

Hybrids are often touted as the best of both worlds:

• more mass(less recoil) than a pipe gun
• smaller cross-section(more maneuverable) than a wooden speargun

The flip side - hybrids also have the negatives of both worlds:

• more muzzle flip(recoil) than a beefier wooden gun
• more mass(less maneuverability) than a pipe gun *

*decrease in maneuverability as purely a mass issue and not a debate between rear/mid handles.

As John stated, there are many advantages/disadvantages of styles and it's a personal preference issue; however, there are a few circumstances that maximize the advantages of the hybrid design. As he mentions, the proper ratio of wood to pipe helps the balance quite a bit. The hybrid also shines in shorter lengths like the 50" model.

Another key factor not discussed is shaft diameter. 9/32" is a good match with this style of speargun. When trying to throw a bigger shaft(i.e. 5/16"), the increased recoil just exacerbates the disadvantages. Even with the magnum models, the 9/32" shaft provides a much smoother and more accurate shot. Of course big fish can be and are frequently taken with bigger shafts, but to me, 9/32' seems to be a sweeter spot.

Everyone has their visions of what's ideal in a speargun. For hunting in the kelp for big fish, my personal priorities are good balance and the ballast to throw a heavy shaft. For others, maneuverability may be their top priority. Different strokes for different folks.

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"2 minute men"

Quote from Don Paul

Dan I had to check my dive notes, it was 60# on a un-certified spring scale.This was the fattest Pargo
I have seen, if you look at his scales you can see the rock marks from our battle. This fish is a pup
compared to the 80.9 World Record.
Don

Should've been an easy battle - it's only got half a tail.

Great tutorial Steve - well written & pictures are great. One question on the process - how did you align the bottom radius on that .5" plug strip? Just eyeball it? Guess it's not that crucial to be lined up perfectly center. Just never tried to route a strip that narrow myself.

Good point on having the track/pocket all aligned when doing it this way. Nice to not have to re-center the router table. I'm assuming the plug is epoxied in with the barrel at the same time, flush cut to remove the extra plug portion sticking up, then track routed after? :confused1: