Posts by Don Paul

  • New guy here

    Welcome mate, ...... oh the Reading airport.;) I'm sure some guys from the area will jump in. Your right fresh
    hand caught fish can not be beat.


    Cheers, Don Paul

  • Coming clean.

    Quote from LunkerBuster

    Zing! ouch <img src= " height="23" srcset="https://spearfishing.world/forum/images/smilies/emojione/1f606@2x.png 2x">


    <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">


    Quote from Dan

    My love for this sport is so deep that I don't consider it a sport ;)



    What I have to say has zero to do with competitive freediving... I have never had a interest in competitive
    spearfishing personalty so maybe some can call that a sport. I am just a subsistence ocean swimming hunter
    that sometimes likes to bring the best tasting (for me) and biggest pelagic fish back to my cave and chick.....
    no sport in what I do, Taking the life of a beautiful fast moving game fish is a hunt and a kill... followed by a prayer of thanks to Mother Ocean for her gracious gift.


    Competition can bring out the best and worst from people. My walls are full of records and awards of the killing of game fish at a time my ego helped motivate my hunts almost as much as my quest for fresh meat and fish for the winter. In my early years I would always gut them and lay them on ice as I drove to a store or landing with a certified scale to document the catch along with a Neptune witness . Many times my friend would say; you just gave up two Lbs gutting that fish and I would tell him that the fresh and clean quality of the meat was first on my list. Later came a very skilled deep diver named Ron up through the ranks. Now I found my self cutting short a morning dive after I speared a big fish, captaining my boat to Avalon and the certified weigh-master on the pier, giving the fish a wash in the sea and a extra gram of water for the scale. Long gone was the hunter that gutted fish before hitting the cooler or the scale. Yes competition and ego can change you if you let it. But I dive for pleasure now and not a piece of bronze and wood, for me it's a better place.
    Cheers, Don

  • Omer Airbalete 110

    Quote from bajabound

    Like I said, I'm busy this next year and well into 2137...


    As far as doing the camo thing, I've been looking at the liquid film applications that are ready made to wrap around anything, but I want to see how adding some protection in the form of a thick coat of Envirotex makes it past the gun bucket. The Sporasub One I have is done this way and it's pretty sweet.


    I looked into the liquid film shops last two years ago, and the cost was still pretty high for a fart gun I didn't know if I would use much. I'm just doing this for fun, and now my barrel doesn't go Twang when I shoot it. and the finish isn't as thin as black shoe polish.


    The new Omer, barrel looks nice for a production gun, along with the Sporasub One.


    Cheers, Don

  • Omer Airbalete 110

    Quote from LunkerBuster

    nice Don...i like the shaft setup for your beach entrys...very elegant little simple setup...any concern about sand etc entering the barrell?


    Thanks LunkerBuster, No big worries about sand on the way in through the surf zone as I have a small rubber
    plug on a sting that goes in the end cap. The gun will get a fresh water rinse when the gear gets stowed however. I have a Mares 140 World Spearfish Team gun that got a lot of use over 5 years and still gets the shaft out very well on the original barrel, it has killed a lot of fish.
    Cheers, Don

  • Omer Airbalete 110

    Quote from Marco

    The Tomba kit looks nice, but I have a question: The o-ring in the slide seems that could be broken if it touches a fish spine. Any thoughs? It also looks that could come off when shooting. Did it happened to you?


    I'm glad you're liking your fartgun! :thumbup:


    Thanks Marco, Time will tell on the slide ring to bone damage, I've only taken a couple small fish at this point.
    If the O-ring gets a cut or nick it would not be the end of the dive with the inner barrel taking a slight amount of water. The O-rings are cheap and I have one stashed in the gun handle that I could slip on in the water.


    The O-ring has not come off and I don't believe that it will for the ring lies deep in the ring land (groove).


    Only time and dead fish will tell.;)^^ Little by little the gun will be less Omer and more custom tuned to by hand and shooting style, but never a replacement for my other two guns of choice


    Cheers, Don.

  • Big guns for Yellowtail?

    Amberjack will almost nudge you. I've killed 4 in my life time for the wrong reasons ( looking for a 100 + lb'er)
    I would shoot a small one now if I was trying get some meat for the camp. The big ones are wormy, but if not stoned will rake you for a ride or trash your gear.


    Cheers, Don

  • Omer Airbalete 110

    Quote from Dan

    I meant the gun pics but that one's cool too.


    Did you already talk about the Tomba muzzle? What does it do?


    I testing the prototype Tomba made for the airbalete, it is a vacuum barrel conversion with a very hydrodynamic slide ring. I need to find a nice warm pool so I can set up my targets, oh I almost forgot the 5mil
    Pursuit suit is as warm as toast and super comfortable in the water.


    Cheers, Don

  • Omer Airbalete 110

    Here are some images of the rigged gun for a local hunt in poor 12' Vis.


    Image# 1.non leaking barrel hand pumped to 20 Bar @ 70 degrees
    # 2. shaft tail with 400# outrigger mono.
    #3 Tomba Muzzel with protective film to quite line crimp rattles while tracking.
    #4.Gun rigged for shaft storage on surf entry. Point is positioned into top of reel line with slide ring loom securing shaft tail at muzzle In Image # 5.


    Sorry on dead fish pictures as I had no one to wait for me at the beach,
    but happy to report the gun is just deadly even at 20 bar on 2 kg bass
    12 feet from the tip.

  • Omer Airbalete 110

    I am very pleased with the balance of the gun with the Tomba system and 7mm shaft..With one finger in the trigger hole the tip of the gun just hovers out there without any effort. The spot I chose to dive last Sunday had Vis in the 10 to 12' range on the outside reef. Conditions inside were too surgey near the beach for target shooting so I kicked out to a reef 1/8 off shore with deep wary Calico bass in the 2 kg range. These fish are very smart in this are as they are targeted weekly by the locals. Many times the fish will face a stealthy diver head on as long as they feel they are just out of range. Several times I have pulled the trigger on fish that have dogged the shaft or hit the departing fish in the side as they bolted to the sound of the gun.


    That was not the case with the Tomba Airbalete @ just 20Bar. I aimed at the head of the first dinner sized bass on the edge of visibility(12' from the tip) before he could respond to the slight clink of the shaft,was impaled through the head, flopper toggling a pectoral fin. After loading the gun this summer @ 30Bar I had the feeling now I was cocking a beefed up pole spear and not a spear gun. This gun would make a nice camera gun for the complete lack of felt recoil even with unlocked elbow.


    Two more 3 to 5lb Calico bass were taken, one broadside at 10' off the tip and another right at the end of the 13' outstretched 400# Mono. I do have the line latch spring removed from this gun, and shots were spot on at distance. The hydrodynamic slide ring assembly did not steer the tail in any way. I am confident this gun will brake the spines of 40 lb White Sea Bass at 28Bar when I seek them out next year.


    Give me a hr on the pictures it Martini time.;)
    Cheers, Don

  • Enlosed Track

    [quote='bajabound','http://spearfishing.world/forums/index.php?thread/&postID=42086#post42086']I'm a believer that the whole using graphite because it's slick-thing is over thought. In a VERY close tolerance application where you want a bearing surface, yeah, but a shaft traveling along a track isn't it. With the as accurate as you can do on a routertable tolerances and the need to have the track a few thou oversize the water between the track and the shaft are what's doing the work of keeping everything straight. If you have a close tolerance track with whatever forming it, it's the water that's the lubricant. That's why a enclosed wood track will do the same thing as one with graphite applied. A milled track of whatever, ie Delrin, UHMW, polyethylene/styrene is just a degree of tolerance closer because you can't control what the wood does. That's why I was saying that for all intents and purposes, you could do a pour with a high density filler like 404 and leave the graphite out completely, sexy as it sounds.


    I'm in your camp on the water/shaft interface once the shaft is in motion. I don't remember your profession when you were in So Cal but your composites background applied to gun dynamics is sound in my book. This is a great informative post mate, good to have you here. :thumbup:


    Cheers, Don

  • Omer Airbalete 110

    Quote from Dan

    <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"> the avatar Don :thumbup:


    Thanks brother you are a great source8)


    Cheers, Don

  • Omer Airbalete 110

    Quote from psychobilly

    Hey Don you said that wood is mango? Do you know wich species in particular? The reason I'm asking is because I have chopped many a mango tree but never noticed that wood grain. But then again I never cut it into planks and varnished.



    I do not know but I remember it came from White Bros Lumber in Northern Cali, I have had it 20 years. I bet Phil would know he has much more knowledge of hardwoods than I.



    Cheers, Don

  • Omer Airbalete 110

    [quote='LunkerBuster','http://spearfishing.world/forums/index.php?thread/&postID=42030#post42030']first of all, can we talk about that tiny little riffe please? with three bands you are going to have a lot of recoil and muzzle flip <img src= " height="23" srcset="https://spearfishing.world/forum/images/smilies/emojione/1f606@2x.png 2x">
    seriously, that is the ultimate lionfish killer hahaha



    the table is beautiful...promptly cut it into strips please[/QUOTE}



    Jay and Julie built the tiny gun it in 99 for my boys christening party gift ....he out grew it as fast as his baby shoes as he now wears a 9.5 men's wide. :@


    Cheers, Don