Posts by Akira dkt

Pullbuoy, hows the diving in the Philippines? What kind of fish are you targeting?

Quote from Dan

All things considered, I can't think of better way to go than SWB. This of course after I've lived my life to the fullest, done my best for my family and friends, and can no longer do so. Dive alone? **** yeah!

BTW and completely unrelated.. I sometimes wonder if the walking dead could possibly float or walk over the seafloor to an island :thinking:

In WWZ (the book not the movie) Zombies walk the seafloor and climb up anchors and are fought by Marines in submersable armor.:thumbsup2::thumbsup2: I enjoy Walking Dead, but i love WWZ (the book not the movie)

Quote from sdeisen

After spending a couple months in Hawaii (over the course of a few trips) I'd have to say that's much easier there than on the mainland. Wayyyy different spearfishing culture & culture in general. I may just be cynical of most people but living in south Florida and diving with a lot of different people I more often than not never picked up the phone by choice before heading to the beach. It's been a few years since then though and spearfishing has become a lot more "mainstream".

I can see that. Most divers here have basically grown up in and around water, so i can see how my opinion is a bit biased. But the fact is, no matter what youre doing, whether diving, fishing, hunting, opihi picking (especially) you dont go alone, or at least let someone know where youre going. I have classmates and friends who've passed away, doing what they love, things they've done all their lives.

Pullboy, sorry for pushing this subject, I think its important though. If you gotta dive alone, know your limits, and dont make it a habit, cuz its a bad one.

Quote from pullbouy

I don't know.

This is the limit I set myself. I always dive alone so I gotta watch out for myself. But I feel I can go past 65 ft. and wanna do it, but I FEAR the BO.

I feel that the FEAR limits my potential.

I can't get a buddy because there's only about 50 freedivers (that know what to do incase of BO and I don't know them) out of 100 million people in my country.

Basically, I'm just asking from your experience. Is hovering around 65 ft safe enough? Can I go deeper? I just have so many doubts because of the FEAR.

Thanks!

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Make a friend who dives, or train a friend to spearfish with you. Diving alone may result in 49 freedivers.

If you need to dive alone, which I dont think anyone needs to dive alone. Stay shallower than 1atm around 30 ft. and do not push past your limit, dont even get near your limit of breathholds. (and thats no fun) With that said accidents can always happen in any depth of water, so if you choose to dive alone, nobody here to stop you, or save you. (sorry to be blunt but it needs to be said)

Im not familiar with game fish off of florida beaches....really at all. But In HI I use a simple graphit/fiberglass 3 prong. These are cheap (easy to make and to buy), fast, and reliable for small game fish. If youre into tinkering I feel like making your own spear would be the best route. Just copy a big brand pole spear, they really arent that technologically advanced.

Anywho, id start cheap with graphite, and when you build up your shooting and stalking skills, then look into a higher end spear or building a custom DIY spear.

IMO, DIY spearfishing equipment will give you way more satisfaction.

Quote from hank

I think he was being sarcastic Dan. Meaning the tether is a pretty unsafe idea.

definite sarcasm. Lol. I dont know any competent diver who would ever think about teathering a gun to their person, let alone buy a device that you could make for a few bucks... (other than a belt reel). With that said, when i started diving I dropped my very first speargun, losing it in white water after getting smashed by waves....I thought about using a leash, but then I thought, maybe I should just tag up to a float, and be safe and LEGAL.

I agree, Mako should discontinue this device, even with the disclaimer, "hunting small game" i hunt small game in 80-100ft of water, if one of these small game fish were to hole up, and i was at the end of my breath hold....Id be screwed or in the best case scenario, at risk of SWB.

No speargun or fish, is worth a divers life.

Very nice!!! I like the wooden drag knob on the reel.

I personally liked the idea of the AR15 handle frame and grip on a railgun handle....with a strong all metal trigger mech like Neptonics, Niletec, and Speardiver.
Mako stopped offering the "American" etrs tho. Maybe it was too much hassle to produce them??
Ive tried to fabricate a handle out of ABS, but I lack the machine tools to make a both functional and asthetically pleasing handle....so far I have a block of ABS that looks like a rat has chewed an amorphous hole into it... that happens to fit a trigger mechanism inside.:laughing3::laughing:

In my experience with grouper (only one invasive spp. in HI) they are living Ass h&les..ahem...Anchors.
I wonder if a flopper tip would have been a better choice?? I can see the upside to a slip tip (fish has no leverage on the spear, much stronger connection..etc. ) but at the same time, with a flopper you have more control over the fish as well. Ive shot (comparatively small) grouper in cracks and they pretty much just flare their opercular plates and hunker down. Sometimes they are just too large to fit through the crack you shot them in, and unless you can break the coral (which i try to avoid) the fish is gonna be lost.

Awesome story btw. Shitty deals!! Youll get your trophy one day bro. :thumbsup2::thumbsup2:

Quote from Dan

I don't know why your pics keep disappearing. I fixed your post earlier now they're gone again. How are you uploading them?

Not sure I uploaded them as attachments.

Thanks Grouper, start small, my first gun build was only 50cm eventually got scrapped for the trigger mech.
Dan, not sure on the exact power of the gun, but it shoots a 140 cm 17/64" shaft that will be powered by twin 20 inch, 5/8" bands. I measured 110cm from the mech to the end of the barrel. Band stretch will be about 30". Built the gun for a friend for reef hunting with mainly parrot fish and goatfish in mind. It should have plenty of power for these species and perhaps the odd GT and Blue fin trevally.

Thought I'd Post a hybrid build ive been working on for the past couple of weeks.

Purchased these Mahogany 1/2 x 3 from local Home depot. 3.45 per foot.
Laminated them using Fiberglass Hawaii Marine Laminating epoxy, and fast hardener.
I dont own a thickness planer so I let the boards sit for a few months, then laminated them together with opposing grains. I chose the pieces based on grain, density and straightness.
I used my router to straighten and square the blank as best as I could manage, using a top bearing flush trim bit, and aluminum straight edge and some superglue. (sorry lack of pics)

I cut the mech pocket, and track using a 1/2 in strait bit, and a 5/16 cove bit.
This is actually a carbon crossbow bolt from walmart, Ill simply epoxy this into the track when the track is fully cut.
Ive also cut a 1 inch cove to insert a G10 rod which will act as my connection to the barrel. I chose to do this rather than insert the barrel due to the length of barrel I had available, as well as my success using this style of barrel attachment with a takedown hybrid I made earlier.

This is the 1' G10 rod inserted 8" into the stock, epoxied in using another piece of mahogany cut to hold the rod into place.

I definitely used many builds on this forum as a reference in this build, including Steve Veros' hybrid thread, and many more.:D

After the rod was securely glued into the stock, I cleaned up the excess epoxy, and sanded the spigot.
I then cut the groove for the carbon tube into the remaining mahogany.
Glued the tube into place.
cut the fin track out using a 1/4" straight bit.

next I used a simple 1" radius round over bit to shape the stock
Then I aligned the enclosed track with the carbon barrel.
Epoxied the barrel on to the G10 spigot.
Filled any space between the barrel and the stock.

After this all that was left to do was attach the Tin Man frame and a1 handle
and sand a muzzle spigot (speardiver/HH) Bought at a local sporting goods store who carries hammerhead (everyone does in HI)
Filed the muzzle track to align with the barrel.

Then I coated the stock with the same marine epoxy using a microfiber cloth. 4 good coats to seal the deal.

I also glued a rubber slipper to the butt as a loading pad. Shaped it using a flush trim bit.

Also forgot to mention
THe handle recess was cut before all other cuts and shaping.

The barrel is a 24" speardiver carbon barrel, sanded and swirl dipped, the coated with 5 coats of clear enamel, i believe used for metal rim finishing.

The line release is a heinrich system. I did not recieve a line release with the mech ( an old neptonics reef mech with the protrusion under the mech.

Quote from Dan

How do I say this delicately.. the Mako ETR speargun, I had it in my hands, it's a heavy difficult to maneuver piece of junk. It makes no sense to me whatsoever. It doesn't solve any problems, has no benefits, and takes away everything from a euro speargun that makes it.. a euro speargun. For a purpose made enclosed track gun best go with wood, or an Omer Cayman ET still heavy and less maneuverable but at least you'll have some style.

I hear you on the elaborate "development" claims, they regularly make me want to puke. Personally I can't bring myself to do it, even if %99 of potential buyers will never know any better. Being aware that of the %1 that do know some are spearos I respect, would be enough to make me feel embarrassed. I think you will not find a more impartial and accurate description of this speargun Spearfishing Store- Speardiver Phantom Speargun

Hammerhead takes the lead in pure fabrication about the development of products. But Mako takes the cake in over the top drooly emotional appeal, with statements like the one quoted below sprinkled throughout their product descriptions. I can't figure out if I dislike Dano more for the shit products or his arse licking promotional material.

LoL!! with that kind of sales pitch he could probably sell his own spit as mask defog.

Thanks for your opinion Dan. Ive heard mako stuff is generally heavy... I personally use carbon railgun/roller guns now, (speardiver barrel) and It would be hard going back to heavy ali. I figured itd be fun to build a hybrid BW gun using the barrel. I figure an etr rail gun would be negative without any wood to add some buoyancy.

Found this gem of a thread. I gotta say, i am looking into buying a mako etr barrel for a build...(i believe its their only redeeming product). Seems like Mako and Hammerhead are in the same boat. Their stuff works....but I hate un-originality, (no offense to the speardiver products, phantom handle etc...) I just dislike companies BSing about how they "develope" these products, and then finding out that they were also "developed" by other companies (HH, Spetton as an example). I was turned off Aimrite after finding a Merou handle. I guess thats marketing though ey? Probably why I haven't bought a complete branded speargun in years. Just parts for new builds.

Quote from Don Paul

Last ones.

Do you ever have problems with this style of muzzle using shark fins? I was using a ss style tie on muzzle on a 120 custom carbon gun. I believe it was spear diver/meandros/ mvd stainless muzzle, similar configuration to your c4. For some reason I was missing shots that I normally wouldn't, using a conventional circular band muzzle. After the dive I noticed my bands (only 5/8") had wear near the muzzle from the shark fins. The v where the shaft rests also was getting hit by the fins. Hopefully you don't have this problem using articulated wishbones keeping the band tension equal, but I personally would only use notched shafts to avoid the afformentioned problem.

Quote from Don Paul

I just noticed something I should comment on: Some of you may notice the excessive wrapping of shoe makers twine on my wish bone. When I use these ''finger remover'' :@ type wishbones, I found I can get better purchase/grip on the band set with this method. I use acetone and a tooth brush to remove the wax after the band is tied.

What is the advantage of using "finger removers" with sharkfins? Line of sight?

Quote from hank

I may be overlooking something here. But why would this flopper act any different than an external flopper, or conventional? The flopper on my shafts hangs down while swimming but when fired, it pins down against the shaft. After impact and passing through the fish, the sudden stop opens the flopper. Would this one be any different? And if so, why? We don't need an o ring on conventional floppers.
Again, sorry for my ignorance if I'm missing something here.

It looks as if the Sigal shaft/flopper design eliminates any drag created by a traditional flopper. I think it would act as you said like a traditional flopper, and open up when forward motion ceases. But because of its reduced mass, and surface area it may not engage as readily as a traditional flopper, and without the spring to help engage the flopper, there would be an increased number of pull outs due to the floppers thin design not catching water, like a traditional cocave flopper. (It would close)

Also any slight bend or compression on the groove section would render the flopper useless pinning it to the shaft. Cool idea tho....for small fish....not in a rocky environment.....

Quote from Dude george

Sound idea, we have never had our wind ons fail and they have held decent fish, it does take a fair amount of bury though to get it right. Personally I avoid mono like the plague for shooting line, it just fails to much and hollow spectra works so much better for me.

Ive had problems with spectra getting tangled in my bands before probably due to the line being so limp (generally when I had to tie reel line straight to the shaft after my mono cut) but I can see how a bury almost the complete length of the shooting line would keep hollow spectra stiffer, kind of like cored dyneema.

Right now I use 400lb mono on all my guns (85cm - 140cm) Never had any breaks,
J-Line 400lb mono is about the same diameter as 300lb Ande.

Quote from Brendon

Setup would be spear to spectra to mono, to spectra. I don'tthink ill run a reel 80%+ of the time.
George kind of my thoughts. I really didn't think straight spectra was Eben an option. Again wroth no reel, if I miss, I need a little cushion at the end of the rope

Brendon, I feel like that setup would work, but the mono would have to be buried so far into the spectra you might as well just go strait braid.....

For the cushion you could use hollow Dacron instead.

Quote from Brendon

Along the same lines as making wind on leaders, I was thinking of using jerry brown 16 strand hollow core spectra hollow spliced to my 300lb mono where it attaches to the spear. I feel like it would reduce drag, reduce reef chafe near the spear and just be a better option than a crimp. Any opinions?

So, shaft to spectra to mono ? Or shaft to mono to spectra?
U thinking of using a deep bury to connect the mono to the spectra?
Is the jb on ur reel?
Are u using the spectra as your crimp?
Lol. Sorry bu jus tryna understand the setup.