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All About Guns What's your weapon of choice, and why? Discuss the beloved speargun here!

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Old 07-19-2019, 08:09 AM   #16
2fishin2
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Re: Setup for Pathos Laser Open Carbon

Salvimar Hero right out of the box
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Old 07-19-2019, 10:55 AM   #17
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Re: Setup for Pathos Laser Open Carbon

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Originally Posted by SJSpear5 View Post
I was able to buy this Pathos Laser Open Carbon on sale for $310. With the other upgrades ($70 for mech, $40 for shaft, and I already have the band rubber), the total will put me just north of $400. If you can find me a better gun for less than that, I'm all ears (not being sarcastic either)!
In Europe you get several models from different brands ready to kill fish for far less than that.

For that measure (90 cm) carbon is nice, but it makes almost zero difference with a good alluminum barrell.

To Brandon: As far as Michael Jutt, I don't know who he is, but Yardsale Yosh I think he's sponsorized by the brand, so his opinion is driven by that. However, there's divers that would get fish with a fork.

I just don't get how a speargun with that cost (because it is not cheap even in Europe) needs to be totally modified.

I tried a Salvimar Hero and it is nice, but for me is too "beefy" to be used in murky water. You need something to be moved fast and with power enough to slay big fish. I have my personal prefference for those conditions, but is totally different from what we have been discussing here.
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Old 07-19-2019, 02:08 PM   #18
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Re: Setup for Pathos Laser Open Carbon

Go check out the new Mantis Railguns. They are badass.
https://www.mantisspearfishing.com/spearguns
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Old 07-19-2019, 07:11 PM   #19
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Re: Setup for Pathos Laser Open Carbon

If you want the best deal on a 90cm gun just get the Pathos Pro (aluminium) with the Dangelo 1 handle. You don't need to mod anything and it will shoot well as is. Of course you can improve performance by going with small ID bands and a better shaft … but gun wise the Dangelo 1 is a much better handle with a much better trigger that works without having to modify anything.

As for the D2 handle … I still don't recommend the Dangelo 2 double roller trigger from Ermessub. I actually worked a lot on that trigger design and spent a lot of money trying to get it to work well as I wanted quite a few of them for myself. Unfortunately it is still not reliable as the boxes are just not getting the tolerances required to work on the very limited 7mm space required. The D2 DR trigger has really been frustrating! The double roller for the D1 from Ermessub on the other hand, works really well and is just as good as the normal full DR trigger. As for the D2 DR … I would wait a little more until the box tolerances get ironed out.
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Old 07-19-2019, 07:26 PM   #20
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Re: Setup for Pathos Laser Open Carbon

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Well, don't get me wrong. I was just trying to point out that there's better spearguns out there than those Pathos for the money. They came with a design failure in the mechanism that makes it hard after several shots.

Besides, have you tried the handle? It looks sweet, but is very uncomfortable (to my hand at least).

The person that shares more tests/reviews on this forum does a lot of pool shooting. I have not seen many actual fish from him. In real world, you shot your speargun VERY different than in a pool. Specially with murky water.

You can assemble your own "Frankenstein" with the components you like better, spending less money than buying a speargun and changing 75% of it. Specially if you know that the rail is not part of the barrell (which is one of the parts you're keeping, with the muzzle), but glued-on and there's much better muzzles out there that keep the bands in-line with the shaft.

But again, it's your money and I hope you take lots of fish with it.

You obviously have not shot your speargun in a pool and I think in one pool session you will learn more about your speargun than you did in your entire lifetime shooting fish. I have witnessed many people with the same idea as you completely change their mind after one hour in the pool. Give it a try and I think you will find it very sobering. I spearfished for more than 35 years before I ever took a shot in a swimming pool. I make the videos to help people improve their setup because not many people have the opportunity to do that type of testing for themselves, as pool access is not always available for many. It seemed like a waste to keep all the information to myself. I don't put many videos of me shooting fish as there is plenty of that online and I don't feel it gives much useful data about the speargun as a tool. Now with regards to spearfishing being different than shooting in a pool … absolutely wrong. The speargun performs EXACTLY in the sea as it does in the pool. The only thing I find that is different is that when spearfishing, the shaft drop is slightly less as most of the time when you shoot fish you are shooting in a downward angle and thus gravity has less of an effect on shaft drop. I also disagree with the idea that for murky water you don't need an accurate gun. If you want to stone your fish or hit it near enough where it incapacitates the fish … that target is a pretty small area, and to hit it consistently you need accuracy.

I do agree though that the Pathos is not the best gun for the money and that there are better choices out there if you use a D2 handle. But with the D1 handle the gun is by far the best option if you don't want to spend a lot of money. You can get a Pathos 90cm gun with D1 handle complete for about $110.

Last edited by spearq8; 07-19-2019 at 07:37 PM.
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Old 07-19-2019, 07:34 PM   #21
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Re: Setup for Pathos Laser Open Carbon

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Originally Posted by 2fishin2 View Post
Salvimar Hero right out of the box

I just got a bunch of the Hero guns to try out. They have a new one which is Hero Storm … I think the same but Blue Camo color. I took apart the trigger and it looks much improved over the Salvimar Metal roller trigger. I did finally manage to get my Salvimar Metal trigger to shoot well but I had to change out the sear pins to thicker pins and ream out the sears and box to correct tolerances … not something that is easy to do. The Hero trigger looks like they have sorted out their tolerance issue. I do wish that the shape of the gun would have gotten thinner at muzzle. As it is the cross section is the same all the way to the muzzle and does feel chunky. They do look gorgeous though and look forward to giving them a try and seeing how they perform. I also like the new Salvimar Pacific shafts with laser welded shark fins. They don't have cones but that should be easy to sort out.
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Old 07-20-2019, 12:33 PM   #22
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Re: Setup for Pathos Laser Open Carbon

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Originally Posted by spearq8 View Post
But with the D1 handle the gun is by far the best option if you don't want to spend a lot of money. You can get a Pathos 90cm gun with D1 handle complete for about $110.
Not that I'm in the market for another gun right now, but out of curiosity, where would one find such a gun at that price? I looked online but couldn't find anything like that at that price.
Thanks,
Ron.
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Old 07-20-2019, 01:37 PM   #23
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Re: Setup for Pathos Laser Open Carbon

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Originally Posted by spearq8 View Post
You obviously have not shot your speargun in a pool and I think in one pool session you will learn more about your speargun than you did in your entire lifetime shooting fish. I have witnessed many people with the same idea as you completely change their mind after one hour in the pool. Give it a try and I think you will find it very sobering. I spearfished for more than 35 years before I ever took a shot in a swimming pool. I make the videos to help people improve their setup because not many people have the opportunity to do that type of testing for themselves, as pool access is not always available for many. It seemed like a waste to keep all the information to myself. I don't put many videos of me shooting fish as there is plenty of that online and I don't feel it gives much useful data about the speargun as a tool. Now with regards to spearfishing being different than shooting in a pool … absolutely wrong. The speargun performs EXACTLY in the sea as it does in the pool. The only thing I find that is different is that when spearfishing, the shaft drop is slightly less as most of the time when you shoot fish you are shooting in a downward angle and thus gravity has less of an effect on shaft drop. I also disagree with the idea that for murky water you don't need an accurate gun. If you want to stone your fish or hit it near enough where it incapacitates the fish … that target is a pretty small area, and to hit it consistently you need accuracy.

I do agree though that the Pathos is not the best gun for the money and that there are better choices out there if you use a D2 handle. But with the D1 handle the gun is by far the best option if you don't want to spend a lot of money. You can get a Pathos 90cm gun with D1 handle complete for about $110.
Well, I do test my guns in the pool when I change something. And it works wonders. Just I don't like to do it too much. I rather spend my time in the sea.

As performance of the gun in the sea, if course it is the same. What's not the same is the time we have to aim. Especially in murky water. And I didn't say that accuracy is not important. I said that you take short shots and you need to be fast.
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Old 07-20-2019, 01:40 PM   #24
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Re: Setup for Pathos Laser Open Carbon

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Not that I'm in the market for another gun right now, but out of curiosity, where would one find such a gun at that price? I looked online but couldn't find anything like that at that price.
Thanks,
Ron.

Not in the USA for sure. Prices here are exageratelly inflated. But I haven't seen that price even in Europe. Around 200-250 bucks you'll find it.
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Old 07-20-2019, 07:10 PM   #25
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Re: Setup for Pathos Laser Open Carbon

I just checked on Diveinn and they don't have the D1 guns on sale anymore. But you can get a 90cm gun with the D2 handle and more expensive Stainless Steel trigger for around $155 here

https://www.scubastore.com/scuba-div...90/137080787/p

You could then remove that handle with the SS trigger and maybe someone will buy it off you and then just get the Dangelo 1 handle with trigger for around $45 here

https://www.scubastore.com/scuba-div...astic/629623/p


It does seem that they are Pathos are phasing out all the guns with the older D1 handles … which is a shame as they are much better fitting on the hand and they don't have the trigger problem that is on the D2 handle.

In the US things do seem to be way too expensive at the moment due to higher recent value of the dollar. Things were reversed just a few years ago.
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Old 07-20-2019, 08:27 PM   #26
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Re: Setup for Pathos Laser Open Carbon

Looks rather like the Aimrite handle, maybe check out one of those guns. Recently the alloy guns were selling for under 150 bucks.


Last edited by popgun pete; 07-21-2019 at 01:19 AM. Reason: changed to a better photo
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Old 07-21-2019, 08:55 PM   #27
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Re: Setup for Pathos Laser Open Carbon

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Originally Posted by spearq8 View Post
I just got a bunch of the Hero guns to try out. They have a new one which is Hero Storm … I think the same but Blue Camo color. I took apart the trigger and it looks much improved over the Salvimar Metal roller trigger. I did finally manage to get my Salvimar Metal trigger to shoot well but I had to change out the sear pins to thicker pins and ream out the sears and box to correct tolerances … not something that is easy to do. The Hero trigger looks like they have sorted out their tolerance issue. I do wish that the shape of the gun would have gotten thinner at muzzle. As it is the cross section is the same all the way to the muzzle and does feel chunky. They do look gorgeous though and look forward to giving them a try and seeing how they perform. I also like the new Salvimar Pacific shafts with laser welded shark fins. They don't have cones but that should be easy to sort out.
Looking forward to the "testing" and "best set up" videos. I've had my eye on the hero 115 for a while now. Another nice mech/handle that fits the pathos barrel is the newish Meandros leader b28. It also has a roller in the mech and reels really smooth.

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Old 07-22-2019, 03:05 AM   #28
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Re: Setup for Pathos Laser Open Carbon

Actually a pipe gun is basically putting 3 parts together to form a speargun. In many cases the parts are interchangeable via brands. The Pathos gun works well because design wise it is good as it has a reverse trigger which allows a very high handle placement that allows the gun to perform better than low handled guns. But certainly many other gun manufacturers have caught on and almost all the speargun companies have updated their designs. One weakness with pipe guns is the trigger. The reverse trigger puts a lot of stress on the sears and thus this can cause many problems as galling or scratching of the trigger sear surfaces can occur. If that happens then the gun become impossible to shoot accurately. That is why with the Pathos it is better to stay with the older "plastic" trigger than the newer upgraded metal trigger. Many guns have the trigger problem including probably one of the best "pipe" speargun designs the Sporasub One. Unfortunately that gun is no longer being manufactured even though the fix for the trigger would have been rather simple.

Going back to your choices … I still think the Pathos with D1 handle is best for low price range. You could also decide to put a gun together out of parts. For example you could go with the D1 handle I put a link for @$45 and then go with a much better muzzle from Salvimar or Epsealon … and then choose one of the cuttle shape carbon fiber barrels I have seen some people here online showing. All you would need then would be some bands (couple of feet of 14mm or 14.5mm small ID bands) and a good shaft (the new Salvimar Pacific shafts look very very good). Just remember that you need compatibility with the pipe diameter which for the Pathos I think is 25.6mm. The price would still be within your budget but you would have a high end carbon fiber gun which usually costs much more.

Last edited by spearq8; 07-22-2019 at 03:15 AM.
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Old 07-22-2019, 03:50 PM   #29
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Re: Setup for Pathos Laser Open Carbon

I just looked at both links to scubastore and neither item can be shipped to the US
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Old 07-23-2019, 06:02 AM   #30
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Re: Setup for Pathos Laser Open Carbon

Monopoly...

Try EBay. Some sellers bypass "the system" through it.
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