Gun Weight

[junior]

How many of you put lead weight in the open portion of your guns handle? It was recommended to me as a way to make my 52" Biller negatively buoyant. How much weight do you guess would be required to acheive this?

[johnnydinx]

Junior, I've taped the center section of a 2 or 3 lb dive weight to the butt section of my sea hornets. What this does is make the gun, without any shafts, sit straight up and down on the bottom.

[SpearDiverTampa]

Spare Shaft works, except when youre shooting it.
-Chris

[richhermes]

Get a PauLope Comm. Spearfishing Specialties Gun.

Mine sinks when there is NO shaft in the gun.

Real men shoot a PauLope!:D

[SpearDiverTampa]

It takes a real man to drag a paulope with spare shaft around with them all day. :D

[richhermes]

Originally posted by SpearDiverTampa
It takes a real man to drag a paulope with spare shaft around with them all day. :D

Damn straight!!

[fernandezh]

Sharpshooter had a good hint on this issue.

My JBL Magnum is neutrally bouyant with the shaft in but will float up to the surface when the shaft is out. To prevent this from happenning while freeshafting, he weighed my shaft and recommended I add the equivilent of lead into my speargun. It should work once I get the chance to sit down to do it.

[Screen Name]

Would put lead in your gun and make it harder to move underwater. Once you train yourself to put your arm through the bands after shooting, that weight will be nothing but a nuisance. If you put your arm through the band, the gun will float above you, out of the way. It will be right there when you are ready to reload.

If you set your gun down after you shoot, then you have to go back and find it before you can even load it..........and I promise, someday.......in bad vis when theres lots of fish........you will lose your gun when you set it down. :D

Just tryin to keep you guys out of trouble...:D

[Reefrat]

Originally posted by fernandezh
Sharpshooter had a good hint on this issue.

My JBL Magnum is neutrally bouyant with the shaft in but will float up to the surface when the shaft is out. To prevent this from happenning while freeshafting, he weighed my shaft and recommended I add the equivilent of lead into my speargun. It should work once I get the chance to sit down to do it.


Yea I found that out my first trip with my JBL Sawed-Off Mag. when I layed it down to string my fish. I just drilled two small holes in the body for water to enter and drain out when out.
The boat capt. said it looked like a missile being shot off when it broke the surface.:D

[f94gator]

In the words of Spear One, "SHOULDER YOUR GUN"

[one_lucky_shot]

i tried putting steel shot in my handle. mind you this was the very first time i was ever in the water with a gun. (it is a rino classic 52") shot my hog and my gun wanted to float off... i did not let go of it but when i moved my hand to the line, i noticed it wanted to float... so through the band my arm went. no big deal, did not sink like i wanted it to but hey it is a learning prosess. i desided to take the steel out when i got home. well i put the gun across the tail gate of my truck as i unloaded the rest of the suv, all of a sudden i hear this noise... the wax plug holding in the shot fell out.... could it be a sign....:D

things learned on that first trip out....
1)don't forget gloves
2)figure out a place to clip off fish so they don't rub up on you when diving in just a bathing suit
3)Glad i read around on what to do with gun after the shot
4)damn i have good aim... no gut shot ...this time:)
5)hog fish chage color when they get shot.... cool


dive safe folks.

[f94gator]

My paulope is a great gun, but yeah, diving with the spare in it makes it pretty damn heavy. Its new name is "The Rock"

[Reef Raider]

I could see having two spare shafts but the lead I think not too.

[junior]

I have not put any lead into the handle as of yet. Just added a spare shaft and found that on a longer dive my shooting arm will get pretty tired trying to hold the gun at the ready. Don't think I'm gonna add any lead just yet, just gonna do the arm through the bands thing if I shoot more than one fish in a row, leaving my gun positively buoyant.

[FredT]

a. JBL XHD trigger
b. Bandito muzzle
c. As short a butt stock as I could cock. About 4" overall.
d. Tube length cut to just provide enough room past the muzzle on a 60" shaft for the slide ring to fit between the tip and the muzzle.
e. Tubing was 1.25" diameter x .032 wall DOM 316L Stainless steel
f. 3 bands of the heaviest rubber we could get, trimmed so they could just be cocked.
g. Tubing interior was sealed with custom designed double O-ring seal plugs each end. This provided enough buoyancy to make the assembly manageable

They weere really easy to shoot as long as we shooting down, or had the gun supported on a horizontal cross member for a passing cobia.

Power out the wazoo, but they NEVER floated even when unloaded, nor could you buckle the tube with up to 5 magnum bands. Screw up and hit steel, the tip stayed at depth embedded about 3/4" into the piling or hull steel.

FT