Wrong band rigging or am I a whimp?

[Tedbudion]

I've a 6 ft. Odor pole spear. The band was (it broke this morning) the standard Ray rigs his poles, apparently 7/8 OD (?) (1/4 hole?) and 27" long [Please, someone correct me if measurements are wrong]. When mounted the full 6 ft. the thing is extremely heavy (perhaps normal) but I cannot load the rubber longer than 1/2 half of the way. I didn't have much chance to shoot like this, because I removed one section and am using 4 ft with a JBL 3-prong. Like this, I can load almost to 4 ft. But the shot is iffy (the whole thing seems too heavy for the power of the band).

Am I doing something wrong or am I a wimp and the rubber is OK? I'm not shooting big fish (yet, hopefully), only fish to 5 lb at close quarters. What are you thoughts on rubber widths and length in relation to pole length/mass?

You'll notice in this post a lot of it seems and perhaps. Eventhought I started with a pole spear it has been decades since I used one seriously. The nice horse-eye jacks and big-eyes I shot in Ascension woke me up to them again.

[Man-O-War]

Just PM Ray, I think you got the wrong wall thickness band, or the wrong ID (hole) size. He will be able to suggest proper band for lenght of spear

[OceanEd]

Ray makes a very sturdy pole spear. It can easily handle a 1/2" band. Buy the rubber with the very small hole in the center (thick wall diameter). Basically, it would be the 1/2" band material used in spear guns. If you do not have enough length to the band so that when you have it fully cocked it is AT LEAST 1/2 the length of the pole, then you will not be efficient with the amount of mass you are talking about. It would be better if you could size your rubber so that when fully cocked you were somewhere between 1/2 and 2/3 of the way up the pole.

If you are using a 4' pole (I call this a "putter") then you will not get much distance. We use a putter like this for digging a fish out of a hole, where no real distance from the fish is required because you will not get much range.