Posts by phil herranen

  • Koah Spearguns

    Quote from Gruper reeper

    Hey Everyone, My name is John and I am the owner/builder of KOAH spearguns. First off let me say I really like the forum, seems to have more contribution with minimal drama. Sad to say I didn't know it existed until George pointed it out to me, and I would like to contribute with fish posts, gun builds, sponsorship and whatever else I can if that works for everyone else.
    Now as for the guns, to make a long story short, I never really intended to sell spearguns years ago. I own a dive/spearfishing charter and I constantly experimented with gun builds for years and when I finally got one the way that I wanted it, I used it for some time. Well, one person on a charter would use it and would ask me to build him one and over time another and so on. Eventually I gave it a website, went to a few expos and sold a few. I will be the first to admit the first series were not pretty, and over time they evolved in shape, performance,ballasting, coatings ext. to the gun they are today. But two things all series of Koah guns accomplished was tracking and accuracy. They look better today and I do recess the wood for the length of the handle mainly to utilize the auto-return on Josh's mechs while keeping a thinner profile (pic). I also like how the lines run with the gun on a side profile.I started doing this 60-70 guns ago, but I have to admit I really like some of the DIY uhmw handles posted on this thread. My only question is how do they work on a standard rear handle where the mech sits above the handle and a push rod isn't used, while keeping the integrity of the handle strength? I just need to know if the mech is cut into the handle or are they strictly built for remote trigger applications.


    The good news is only one handle out of many guns has come close to sheering off and this was due to the user shooting a grouper with three bands at a range of about 3 feet in a hole, with nothing but rock behind the grouper. I did use #8 screws for some time in both 3/4 and 1in, but as of late I have moved to #10 1in, with both alexander and neptonics handles. As for linghunts gun, it was before i did any countersinking and it is regrettable. I would be happy to rout out and countersink the handle (either style seeing as its not an auto-return mech) while upgrading the screws if he can get the gun in my hands for no charge. As for the saftey, Josh has refined his euro style saftey and I think he has it looking pretty good. I plan on offering it as an option starting with the next mech order, which will be in a couple months. I'm open to any questions/opinions and I look forward to putting fish reports ext. on the board.


    the uhmw mortised in handle is only really suited for midhandles way too much would have to be gutted out on thin gun like yours . on rear handles i use a through bolted stainless frame handle with a cast grip .

  • Koah Spearguns

    Quote from dustyyoungblood

    We should start a new thread. Best handle design!!!!
    A pinned handle in a pocket has a big advantage.... NO SCREWS!
    I was working on this Pinned Aluminum handle receiver, when I finished one and found of that several others had already been making pinned handles.


    @Phil, do you get credit as the first to make a pinned handle?
    ]


    no way i would claim i was first , i remember when i would bring guns to the club when i first joined and i thought i had something new and scott merlo and joe tobin would tell me the history of who used to do it that way( my handle was one of them i had never seen scotts guns and didnt even own a computer back then ) . one of my first handles i made myself in high school metal shop looked just like yours , i stole the ar grip off my tippman SLl-68 paintball gun .
    phil

  • Koah Spearguns

    Quote from Don Paul

    Terry Mass and I were doing muzzles and capture guides (sectioned ET) in UHMW for a long time. I never used it for a handle, but Terry Tuna had one before switching to Steve A's handles later in the late eights. Mass used to use black marker to kill the white color, I would dye mine. Some of the Ti comp guns I built for Ernst in 85 used the material well. When did Scott first build guns in the US?... love his work.


    Cheers, Don


    i will ask when i see him this weekend , scott is a California boy , he has been between sf and socal most or all of his life . hopefully he starts doing guns again when his kids get a older .
    phil

  • Koah Spearguns

    Quote from mike n

    Yes I built them, they are not my idea though. I think the first place I saw them was at neptonics. :D They are standard in some spear gun building worlds.


    MN


    the first place couldnt have been at at neptonics the only uhmw handles he has ever sold were mine, my guess would be in rich's shop .( they were never on josh's site ,and he only ever had a couple ) . i think scott merlo was first to use uhmw for handles and enclosed tracks
    phil

  • Speargun with safety or without

    i have build around 400-500 guns and only 1 guy has ever wanted a safety . a spear gun is nothing like a firearm the shaft can still fire with a safety on and without the trigger pulled (tail of the shaft breaking off , i have seen it happen 3 times now ,and i saw fracture before it happened one other time where the shaft would have broken the next time it was loaded . )

  • Koah Spearguns

    i have seen screwed in handles tear out the very first shot . if you have to use a screwed in handle it should be minimum 1"x #8 screws and #10 are better , i dont care what the math says ,real world rarelly cares about what the math was . but personally you are better off getting rid of the screws all together and doing a mortised in handle .


    on the saftey topic i have build around 400-500 guns and only 1 guy has ever wanted a safety . a spear gun is nothing like a firearm the shaft can still fire with a safety on and without the trigger pulled (tail of the shaft breaking off , i have seen it happen 3 times now ,and i saw fracture before it happened one other time where the shaft would have broken the next time it was loaded . )

  • awesome new floatline/bungee

    Quote from Dan

    What kind of float lines does it work with, only the tube style or any rope? What should be the min/max diameter of the float line?


    it will work with any type line(very slick rope slips a little ) , and dia from about 1/4" to a little under 5/8" , but it can be custom made for any dia line, 3/8"- 9/16" works best
    phil

  • awesome new floatline/bungee

    Quote from Don Paul

    :toast::toast: Cheers to you Phil, Josh never had time to tell me who invented it. I have two clutchs from Josh, one on my 75'Norprine bungie linked to my tube type float line, the other on board with a back up line. I'm most likely not building my own float lines any more as Josh's quiality is as good as mine...I have baseball games to attend.;)


    Cheers, Don


    it was a team effort , josh has always used those stainless wire strain supports to hold one end of a floatline while you are working on it ,and i was trying to come up with a non damaging cam system ,and i have bad carpel tunnel so i cant do the clip and pull thing for long . i made a proto just before one of his baja gear test trips and it worked , then there were a couple years of refining it to a sell-able product with improvements made by both josh and myself . you can come up with a lot of cool stuff siting around a workshop drinking beer bouncing ideas off someone . i will post a pic of my setup in a couple days


    the other cool thing you can do with the cluch is if you shoot a fish that holes up you can pull a bunch of tension on the bungi and just wait . as soon as the fish relaxes it will get yanked 20' out of the hole and wont be able to get back to the bottom .
    phil

  • awesome new floatline/bungee

    Quote from red tide

    Hey Dude George, Yellowfin Tuna is a very specific fish to hunt. Depending on the size of the fish you are hunting will depend on the type of gear needed. Are you targeting fish over 200 lbs, Over 300Lbs? A basic set up for me would consist of a Riffe 100 ft bungee connected to a Rob Allen 11 Litre Hard Float which would be connected to a Riffe 25 foot bungee, which would be connected to another Rob Allen Hard Float, which would be connected to another 25 foot Riffe Bungee, that would be connected to a Riffe 2 Atmosphere float.
    If you want to save some money you can buy the DIY stuff from craigsfloatline.com and make your own bungees. You can get an extra heavy duty bungee from Bill Kitto as well. This is what I would use if I was hunting bluefins.
    Do not try and reinvent the floats!! You can use a big Aimrite float as the last float in place of the Riffe if you want but the set up I am recomending is first choice.
    The South African guys shoot a lot of smaller yellowfins and they like their tuna boards. I have seen guys shoot 300 lb tuna with the tuna boards and the drag of the board is too much and causes the rig to break at the weakest point. I have seen the 480 lb cable break, I have seen the cable and spectra break on the slip tips too. Tuna boards are definitely for smaller fish.
    The system I recomend is what I have landed 20+ tuna over 200 lbs with no failure. If you are targeting fish under 200 lbs you could take off one of the 25 ft bungees and one of the Rob Allen Hard Floats.
    Keep us posted on your YFT trips :toast::toast:


    i agree , the worst thin you can do is shock load the system on a big fish it will just snap , you want a small float the fish has to work against. to tire it out and a stopper float at the end just so it cant take your chain away from you . the one thing i would add to the above is one of these Floatline Clutch attached to the two floats this lets you work the first float to the fish so it has to fight the float more and more, and then lets you pull up the dead weight of a big fish with your big float .i came up with this 3-4 years ago and when a friend saw my first proto type of this in baja a couple years back he was so impressed by it he patented it as a gift .
    phil

  • how much epoxy do I mix up?

    i mix about 3-4 oz per gun per coat but the brush sucks up a little so when doing one gun you use more per gun than when coating 2-3 like i do ,so you ma need more like 5 oz the first coat will take more than the later coats
    phil

  • JBL Shark Fin Shafts

    Quote from Dan

    Fungineer, looks like you're getting into all kinds of upgrades/modifications with this gun. I suggest you leave it as is for now and get a better gun when you can. Trying to make this gun better is not going to get you anywhere.


    you are right dan he would be better off with a better gun ,but ,if it was me i would still modify the gun its how you learn what helps or hurts a gun and with a few tweaks and changes , that gun will shoot as good as any euro on the market (if you put 3 5/8" bands on most euros the trigger pull will jam up also and will fail quickly). as long as he dosent overload the trigger by using more than 2 bands . you cant compare a stock jbl with a 5/16" shaft with a euro with a 1/4" shaft and have a fair comparison of performance, rig then the same and performance will be dam near the same. after all a speargun is just a stick with a couple rubber bands on it that flings a stick at fish
    phil

  • JBL Shark Fin Shafts

    a riffe shaft will fit in a old jbl handle but you will have to grind off the last shark fin . the new elites will take any style 5/16" dia shaft ,and a jbl 9/32" shaft . it will also take a abbiller shaft if you cut off the last 1/4" of the tail of the shaft . guy left the top of the mech round so the mech is more versatile to what shafts you can use, and the shafts are much stronger since there is more meat above the notch on the shaft .


    here is a good how to on how to modify a older jbl
    Freediving and Spearfishing Technical Tips
    phil

  • First Spear Project

    Quote from Dan

    Can you please post a link to it. If the other properties are correct it would make for neat carbon fin color.


    white,red ,yellow ,or blue "carbon fiber" is just aluminum coated fiberglass ,same property's as glass .if its not black its not cf. it looks really cool as fins i made a set out of silver (white) textlum a couple weeks ago.
    phil

  • Mid-handle guns

    heres what i normally tell people about where rear handles and midhandles are best


    rear handle : best where the water is clear and you can fully extend your arm and gun to aim and fish arent huge (i know on the right day you can shoot any fish with any gun ,but for most people its a bad idea to go after a 100# fish with a thin shaft and flopper, and 1-2 bands )


    mid handles are best in poor vis, around obstructions ,kelp , and for large guns where you want to shoot a heavy shaft 30' threw a 400# fish . the handle placement give you leverage to control a gun that large ,and on a small hole gun you get the handle to muzzle power of about a 20cm longer euro , in a much more usable package .