Posts by popgun pete

Alpinasub is a company that has a long history of building the spearguns most often encountered in Russia before the arrival of models from companies such as Pelengas (Ukraine). The forward latching design has been used by many companies because there are no pressure boundaries in the gun which are traversed by sliding pins, the trigger pulling an external rod that controls the release mechanism mounted in the muzzle.

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Sp…ksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649

The Dolphin gun is a more ambitious design which uses three balls to act as the sear lever, a sliding collar either holds them onto the shank of the piston or withdraws to allow the balls to be pushed outwards thus releasing the piston. When the balls move outwards a sliding bush moves forwards to replace the departed piston tail and keeps the balls from falling out of position. This gun floats after the shot which is a big advantage as years ago such mid-handle guns were always sinkers.

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Sp…ksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649

For interest here is the 1942 design that inventors Dedieu and Foglia patented before they produced the metal body "Espadon" shown above. The common element is the line release system which frees multiple line wraps when the gun shoots. Here the gun has a timber body, a winged spear tail rides in an enclosed track which is opened out at the front to aid spear insertion. When you pull the trigger the spear and line release lever are fired simultaneously. Short shafts were abandoned once long shafts were found to have better stability in flight when towing a shooting line and they had more damaging impact on the target.

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.

Quote from Don Paul

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.

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.

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.

Too many big sharks around these days, especially with the full recovery of their food stocks such as seals and sea lions. They need to be managed by thinning out, safer waters of decades past were the unintended but beneficial by-product of sealing that had massively crunched the food supply consisting of marine mammals in the distant past. Now marine mammals are back so are their big predators in large numbers.

It is the end of an era, no person can have been more instrumental in making the sport what it is today, it is a tremendous loss. My condolences to his family and friends, I know that they will be heart-broken. RIP.

A couple of tiny drilled holes also work as the area floods when you stick the gun in a wash tub and can then drain and dry out. On some guns you can take screws out occasionally if they are threaded and not self-tappers.

I have written on this subject elsewhere, although I kept the comments general, as I saw the rise of Rabitech and then it’s later swamping by other copyists. The real reason for this state of affairs is the rise of China/Taiwan as a manufacturer to the “first world”. In the old days Italian and French companies made rebranded products, but only for sale in other overseas markets. For example Beuchat made spearguns for Healthways in the USA, but the concept was bar private imports the two brands did not clash, they did not compete or undercut each other. The other brand, e.g. Healthways, was essentially for the distributor in that country, i.e. the USA.

Now when China went into producing spearguns, after a few worthless efforts, they used their manufacturing capability to lure Rabitech having their handles made in China, these handles being based on a discontinued Sporasub handle and the Cavalero ARC2000 handle which were revised with new stainless steel innards. Cavalero had been taken over by Beuchat, so the ARC 2000 guns had been phased out. Things went well until the Chinese wanted to move more product, so they offered these handles to others, including Mako. Because China controlled the molds they had Rabitech over a barrel and they could do what they wanted.

The other aspect is the subcontracting in China, you the customer may specify alloy A, but the Chinese may think we can make it out of alloy B instead which will do the same job, make more profit for ourselves and no one will notice. As someone said earlier in this thread if you don't keep checking then they will pull substitutions on you. I had a Mares Spark/Sporasub Stealth mostly made in China, but passed off as Italian, where the anodizing on the alloy muzzle nearly wiped off as it was too soft. This is because in their wisdom the Chinese used a lower anodizing quality. Once you pass control to China they will do what suits them and if the opportunity arises will sell to anybody else if they stump up the cash for a large enough order. They are now doing it with watches, put your logo here.

China is capable of producing very good stuff, but you have to check what you get continually, plus they may cut you out if they think they can get better sales and distribution elsewhere. Intellectual property is a “how to” rather than something that they have to pay for. Eventually this will change when they want to protect their own ideas, but it has not happened to any degree yet. Plus try taking legal action in China if you are a foreigner, so contracts can be meaningless.

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.

Advert for the new gun.

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.

LG-Sub have announced another gun based on the Manilu Revolution which is called the "Supreme". Unlike the previous gun which has a 12 mm diameter inner barrel this one has a 14 mm diameter inner barrel. This larger bore size was available years ago in the GSD pneumatic spearguns and today in the "Alpha C1" pneumatic from Greece. The new gun is available in the longer barrel lengths from 117 cm and up.

Other sizes are 124 cm and 132 cm.

Great video displaying all the qualities of a true reef spearfisherman; quiet watchfulness, patience for the shot, fish confidence winning (I am not really a threat), murderous intent.

Great shot took out helm control and put the big Tuna into limp home mode. Just as well no sharks around, but with no jitter dance then dinner gong was not sounded and even the first Tuna was disposed of pretty quickly.

Now all in the one diagram.

The next two images show the gun body being moved back for the operator to grab the two “Dreamloader” handles that are now located just behind the pulley equipped hooks that are holding onto the cord wishbone. Once these handles are grasped they offer a two-to-one advantage in drawing the wishbone back. Knots strategically placed in the “Dreamloader” cords allow the handles to be slid forwards and engage the next set of knots so that the handles pull from further up the gun barrel each time. By working your way up the "ladder" of knots the wishbone can be drawn back to the rear shaft tab with a reduced pull effort, however the work done is still the same, but proceeds in stages to spread the effort. The pulleys in the hooks lock the cords and hold position while you slide the handles on the cords.

If like me you have been wondering what the round object is on top of the "Dreamair Unreal" gun's rear butt it is a horizontal pulley that can anchor the Dreamloader cable as shown below.

No, but given the use of more than two carbon fiber sub-components it will be expensive! There is the cylindrical central carbon fiber tube, the two flanking tapered side tank tubes (think of an oversize fishing rod butt end) and the body outer shell with muzzle and rear grip handle, all of which are aligned and bonded together in a monobloc construction. Compare that with a C4 Carbon that is just one component, although that component is cooked under pressure in a very expensive external mold. Then there are all the metal components, the CNC machined winding drums, of which there are three, and keyway axle and ball bearings and seals with their threaded mounts it is all going to add up.