Sling float line?

[maverick]

i have a sling and i am looking at putting a float line on it but i am not sure how to attach it or what to use. does anyone have any suggestions? i am a life guard and my boss said that she would give me one of the old lifeguard tubes to use as my float.

[takowill]

Are you trying to attach a float line to the shaft, or to the sling? If you are trying to put a float line on the shaft, it would not work very well. The float line would literally stop the shaft from flying.

[maverick]

i was thinking of attaching the float line to the shaft because we dont have very good visibillity here so i dont want to be loosing a bunch of shafts

[kjflyfish]

You could use a heavy mono section about 8 feet long, with a crimped loop that you clip your floatline to. When you load the sling, make sure the mono (attached to the back of the shaft) runs through the sling. This way, the shaft will travel beyond the sling by as far as you pull it back before the line goes taunt. You won't get the same range, but you should always be connected.

[maverick]

ok thanks i was thinking of doing something simmilar to that. i was thinking of attaching the mono toward the front of the shaft and then winding it up so it lays flat on the shaft so when i shoot it just unspools

[kjflyfish]

What would you wind it up on? How would it lay flat if it was spooled up? Not trying to be hatin', but that sounds like a mess. It would be best if everything was in a strait line.

Edit: I think I've figured out what you were describing - I think we are talking about two different "shafts". I'm talking about the spear [shaft] and I think you are talking about the sling [wood part]. Still, a strait-line approch would be far less troublesome and would not affect loading time at all.

[maverick]

i am talking about the shaft also i am talking about wrapping the line around the shaft like a coil so that when i shoot it un winds.

i like your idea though of running a straight line. do you know where i might beable to find pictures of it? i know what you are talking about i just cant really picture it in my head.

[seahunter49]

What you want to do is simple, I've used this before in the Bahamas. Attach the float line to the sling with a knot and attach the spear to the sling with mono. The mono loop hangs loose as you swim.

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s170/da4095/Sling03.jpg http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s170/da4095/Sling02.jpg

[kjflyfish]

That's not a bad idea ^. Any trouble with the shooting line snagging on the bottom? I could see that popping up on occasion, especially if you're doing an aspetto.

I was thinking more along the lines of this exaggerated drawing: It's the Hawaiian sling breakaway :D.

[seahunter49]

No, never had a problem.

I think with your setup the float line will pull on the spear because it's always tight and you'll have less range.

[kjflyfish]

That's true, kind of - the line will be tight from the sling, but you will get up to two shaft lengths of range, depending on how far you pull the band back.

[seahunter49]

I used to get some good range and penetration, almost like a speargun. I did put 3 bands on the sling though and used to exercise pulling it.

[maverick]

thanks seahunter49 that was what i was looking for. i have another question now for you how do you attach 2 or 3 bands to your sling? i have a single band right now and it does the job when im really close but not when im a little further out.

[seahunter49]

Now you're getting into building a sling, there's not much to it. When I say I used 3 bands what I mean is that I count the normal band as two, but it's one length of rubber. The bands are tied around the sling and around the cup. You just need to learn the knot. It's the same for the sling and the cup. I don't know what that knot is called but it ends up neat with no loose ends as they are tucked under the wrap. Space the 3 bands around the sling and the cup equally. I couldn't pull 4 bands.