Posts by Diving gecko

Quote from Mighty kc

I love the pneumatic speargun shots. Used one a lot when my shoulder was messed up. Still use my Sten and MACO2 ocasionally.

Good video, thanks.

Thanks:-).
I love them, too, for sure. And I even considered stating that the video was in no way sped up - as you know, the vaccum-muzzled guns just shoot that fast, haha.

Good to hear your shoulder is working again.
I think the very first time I came across the Maco guns it was because of your posts about it.

Honestly, I have a few shoulder issues myself. It's on/off, though. Perhaps, some rotator cuff stuff but what's interesting is that the movements I have to do to load a pneumatic, don't bother me. But give me a band gun, and I risk messing up my shoulders.

This is a recent discovery, though. I fell in love with pneumatics for the power in a smaller package and since I am nerdy;-).

I just edited a quick video of the four rainbow catches I have video of.
Now, since I only show the successful shots, they will look like turkey shots, haha. And the video do make them look a lot less skittish - even docile!. But as I mentioned, often they don't even come in but you just see them out in the distance or they just come in for a quick glance.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mM45z6FtwC0

A few notes:
Shot #2: I had missed on a fish moments earlier, so hurried my reload and had forgotten to flick the power regulator on my Mares Mirage to full power, so the shot is extremely weak. It's not even a low power shot - it is a setting only meant to be used for loading.

Shot #3, notice the runners mixing with small jacks as has been pointed out by others.

The first three shots were on my 40 year old Mares Mirage 84 upgraded with an STC vacuum muzzle.
The last shot was on my Sporasub One Air 120.

Yeah, in the over fished waters of Thailand and Philippines, I have to say they were a real pleasant surprise.

I just reviewed some video I had of a few of my shots on them and they aren't actually that skittish. It seems like that they either come in close enough in small schools or they stay quiet far out.
Also, the ones I have encountered behaved very much like what's been pointed out before. They don't hang around for long and once you've let the spear fly, they are gone, so you better get one the first time around.
And most of the ones I have seen also cruised around 50 or so meters from the edge of the reef towards deeper water - but they were rarely more than a few meters under the surface.

Old, old post - but I am reading through the archives these days;-)

Rainbow Runners are amazing for ceviche, kinilaw or any other kind of raw fish salad - so, I am not surprised they are good for sashimi as well.

In the Philippines and Thailand I have taken some small to medium sized ones and they haven't really been skittish as eg. the groupers there are. I'd place them somewhere between grouper and the small trevallys (stupid fish, as I call the latter for always being so suicidal:)).

Actually, thinking of it, sometimes the runners are just too curious for their own good. I took one on the lowest possibly power setting (by mistake) on my short Mirage which kinda just spits the spear out and then it starts dropping. So, that fish was certainly close.

I have yet to eat a non-raw Runner as they have all been made into cerviche. They are just that good. Firm and white flesh and still juicy. Yummy fish. Don't pass them by;)

Nice fish, nice shot placements:)

I took a nice red snapper (in Thailand) which swam right out it front of me from under a boulder. Wasn't even about to look under that one and I don't think I had spooked him. Our paths just crossed by coincidence:D

Weather wise, here in Shanghai the PM2.5 Air Quality Index has been above 200 lately, which is considered as "Heavy Pollution". People wearing masks outside:-(.

I can't wait to get out of here and get to an ocean holding some fish!

Quote from Luca bo

Hi, thanks for the welcome.:)
I use a oleos Mares Sten 100 with STC Italia wacuum head, a good mix for my target but the most fishermans use the arbalete. The oleos are too noisy, but I love them!! :laughing:

I love it! My first gun was an oleo and the rest are as well;-). All with vacuum muzzles.

I have an STC muzzle on an old Mirage I bought second hand from a guy in... Italia;-)
But I am waiting for some spare parts as the shock absorber broke. I have Evo Air and Salvimar Vuoto muzzles on the other guns.

Welcome again!

Quote from Don Paul

Hey Gecko, that's a cool project. I would love to see this images and story with it's own ''Miarage'' title in guns.
That way my self and other Mirage disciples around the world will find their way to it via the net.
Nice work mate.

Cheers, Don

Will do, promise.
I have it going over on deeperblue, as I was a long time member there before I found this great place.
I was thinking to put most of it up here, too once I am closer to completion.

As you can tell by now, I don't know how to keep posts short though, so instead of just c+p'ing all my babbling from over there, I wanted to condense it a bit before posting here.

Give me a few days to figure out how to best go about this;-)

Hi Luca,
Welcome!

I live in Shanghai and have to travel to other countries to spear, so I can fully understand how you feel.

Tell me, with you being in the motherland of oleos - you hunt with oleos or arbaletes?;-)

(Oleo is Italian shorthand for pneumatics;-))

Quote from Akira dkt

If strong and light is what you're looking for, CF is the way to go. It is by no means the perfect, fix all, material many manufacturers are pushing. It has its positives and negatives.

I personally do like the look of carbon weave... that said i like the look of nicely finished timber equally as well.

You wont even know the handle is there. :laughing: I'm interested to see how you're incorporating the handle into the pneumatic mech. should be sweet:thumbsup2:

Sorry, wrong choice of words. I should have said "grip" and not "handle".
I'd love to try to make a whole handle one day, but that's way more tricky and potentially dangerous, so for now, I am just reshaping the grip.

Truth is, I have no idea as to how to work in wood. I basically suck at it. Wish I didn't...:-(
But somehow, I can kinda work in composites better.

Since this is way off the original topic, I'll just leave you with a few teaser pics. Actually, Tin Man's thread about the lost wax process he used for his CF barrel led me down this path.
As promised, I will do a proper thread here once I actually have a working grip;-). A few more weeks and I should be there.

In short, I chopped of the grip of an original Mirage handle. Then built up a custom grip onto the amputated handle. Took a silicone mold off of that. Poured molten wax into the mold and eventually, laid up CF onto the wax handle. I will then tear down the custom handle and mount the new CF one instead.

There's this video on youtube of, I think, commercial (?) divers shooting AJs with bangsticks/powerheads (or whatvever those cartridge loaded spears are called). Dude just sits on the edge of a wreck blowing bubbles and blowing up AJs. Shitty viz too, if I recall correctly.

Not sure, it is fair to link those two stories but I wouldn't put it beyond an eager diver in shitty viz to fire towards an AJ and not looking behind it to see the buddy.

I've spear/freedived with some local dudes in Thailand where I was afraid to turn the corner on a boulder in shitty viz cuz the guys behaved in the water like strung out tuk tuk drivers in Bangkok traffic.
(That said, I have also dived with a lot of other cool and amazing local spearos).

PS. For the before mentioned video, if the dude really is a commercial fisherman, I guess powerheads beat seine purse nets or all the other indiscriminate fishing methods.

Quote from Don Paul

You will have the fastest handle in the sea.:D

Cheers, Don

Still working on some mods to the old Mirage;-). But it's slow progress. I do have a build log of sorts over on deeperblue, but will post here once I have some real progress.

Quote from Akira dkt

Unless youre putting un-necessary load on the rollers, nylon on the ss roller shaft/pin should hold up for a long time, and with negligible friction. Not sure why guys like bb's on their rollers, just another thing to get jammed up with sand IMO. Not to mention the price difference between solid and bb sheaves.

Yeah, I reckoned it could just be the old sales trick. It's what happens when more products come to market. Some vendor adds bling to differentiate their product and make us believe it is better.
For instance, we all know that carbon fiber makes everything better. Everything. I think my next buy should be a carbon fiber toothbrush;-)
But the point is good. Even if roller bearings are slightly smoother, they wont be once they have a bit of sand or corrosion in them.

PS. In regards to carbon fiber, I am actually working on some CF handles for my pneumatic guns, haha. I am sure, it will make the gun soooo much better.

I guess, it's fiber reinforced nylon? That seems to be the go-to plastic for high strength use these days. If they can make rifles and handguns and what do I know out of it, I think it's all good;-)

But you opted for no ball bearings? I guess nylon on nylon has very little friction and takes out a part that might need to be serviced or changed? Just that since others have it, I would be worried it could impact sales and make your version look less advanced?

But I know by now, you are not one for bling and if bearings are more bling than real advantage I get you.

True, I mean, it's sad how much stigma there still is when it comes to depression (and deep depression can be a suicide trigger) or other illnesses of the mind.

No one would think twice about cancer treatment, or popping pills for strep throat but there are still way too many people who think that taking meds for depression is for "the weak" and they should just learn to deal with life...

I am beginning to think that depressions are a fact of life, as . Very few people go through life without taking some hard hits and sometimes that can lead to depression. And if it is debilitating of putting your life or relationship at risk, then why not take all the help you can get? Sometimes that means anti-depressives and that should be cool.

Back home, in Denmark, where I am from, there's been a bit of a movement in recent years - to try to make people finally respect that mental illnesses are just that - illnesses that can often be treated and that stigma has no place in this.

But for the guy in this tragic story - it seems like he was out of options, he had tried before and his family decided he should be allowed to go. Must be the hardest thing making that decision.

Peace and love, guys and hope the upcoming holidays will treat you all well.

Quote from monster slayer

Ok, you Americans have some really manly ways to deal with depression!

Around here pills are the treatment of choice for both ailments

What?! You can get pills for being an American?
Or did I read this wrong - did you mean, pills for being a man...?:@

That slip-tip is beautiful!
And the book looks it, too.

For the pricing of the book, USD 250 sounds like a lot - but the only one I have seen recently was USD 650;-)

Quote from Marco

Hi Antonio! Good to see you around!

I have been using a Roller gun lately and cannot be more pleased. I had a wrist injury that probably will eventually need surgery and shooting my double band gun had become a painful experience. The day after every spearfishing trip was a nightmare in terms of pain in my wrist. Now it's not anymore. Recoil is almost non existent, loading is faster and power is pretty much the same as a double banded gun.

A single roller muzzle won't shoot stronger than a double band speargun, but will load faster and have less recoil, thus increasing accurancy.

I have two more videos from two days ago. Water was shitty, but I managed to get our dinner.

http://youtu.be/pwN6aYOOhxI

http://youtu.be/x4i4N5JcS_E

Display More

Hey Marco,
Hope your wrist becomes better, but good to hear the roller has helped.

I have some on/off issues with my shoulder, I think the rotator cuffs:-(
As a side note, that's also why I am working hard on making two old Mares Mirage pneumatic guns work since they have a loading system where you divide the loading effort into smaller parts.
Last time, I messed up my shoulder was actually loading a regular bandgun. But it doesn't happen when loading pneumatics, at least.

Nice dinner cudas - I didn't know they respond to grunt sounds. I will try that someday:-)

Quote from seal

I dont agree with the difficult loading and bad manuverability.The newest pulley rollers dont need massive bodies due to the absolute lack of recoil,so they can be verry verry thin and hydrodynamic

Couldn't agree more. When you compare regular band guns to rollers, you don't gain much recoil control, but you do gain power but that comes with a bulky nose. But with pulley guns you get both better maneuverability than a roller and an increase in power.

That gun could very well be the most beautiful gun I have ever seen. It's stunning! Who made it?

But yeah, this is a roller gun thread. Maybe in a few years we will actually see a designated pulley roller thread;-)

Quote from Akira dkt

Amazing work! How did you get the carbon fiber to lay so evenly? Fabric/or sleeve? Vacuum bag?
Nice job on the handle as well, for a second I thought it was an old OMER cobra handle/mech assembly.:thumbsup2:

It's been a while since Teaspoon posted, but if I recall correctly one of the other posts says he vac bags his guns.

Hey Teaspoon (and others).
I know this post is old, but I just went through a ton of your stunning guns. Well done!

Have a quick question in regards to the handles. How do you do them?
I'm guessing silicone smeared on? Two-component or just the stuff out of a tube?
Any tricks on the the smearing part itself?
Eg. back in the day when I did a bit of small boat repair, soapy water on the finger tip was a pretty rock'n roll trick for making/shaping epoxy glue lines smooth fast.