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All About Pole Spears & Slings What is it about that traditional method of the early hunter/gatherers under the water? These devices are indeed interesting and effective.

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Old 12-10-2018, 05:52 AM   #1
Manny_aus
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Roller Polespear worth it?

I'm after a new polespear and came across the Billfish Republic roller.as Anybody used a roller? Is it that much different from a standard? Also is BR still trading? I send them an email and fb msg over a week ago with no reply.

Cheers Manny
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Old 12-10-2018, 07:41 PM   #2
StukNotAnchored
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Re: Roller Polespear worth it?

Head Hunter also makes a roller spear pole.
https://www.headhunterspearfishing.c...ons/polespears

I got a cool sling that works like a small compound bow from them. I think they were prototyping it or something. I saw one of the videos here with a guy using it and he put me in touch with them. I still don;t see it in their regular inventory.
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Old 01-04-2019, 02:52 PM   #3
popgun pete
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Re: Roller Polespear worth it?

Patent diagram for the first roller polespear developed by Yves Le Prieur. One of the greatest figures in early diving and famous for his many developments in underwater hunting with his "Nautilus" gun, multi-rubber band gun and multi-snorkel full face dive mask which carried over from his commercial diving inventions. The rubber used in his roller spear was of square cross-section and was sourced from rubber moldings used for other purposes as spearfishing using mechanical underwater weapons was just being invented.
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Old 01-08-2019, 12:34 PM   #4
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Re: Roller Polespear worth it?

The Headhunter Nomad Roller is arguably the best roller on the market. The Billfish are great but they are very slow because they're so heavy. But they do have a lot of hitting power. The Neritic Roller is very good too but it is aluminum so there is that chance of bending it. The Headhunter Nomad Roller is weighted perfectly for speed and hitting power. It also has the perfect amount of give so it won't stay bent when you bend it.
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Old 05-06-2019, 03:34 PM   #5
isibrigade
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Re: Roller Polespear worth it?

FOOD FOR THOUGHT-
Aaron Crist and I have been messing around with 'roller poler' ideas since 2007. Conceptually, they have almost everything. Speed, band pull, power, comfort, mass, etc. There is one drawback, however, that most don't consider when crossing over to a roller for the longer shots:
They don't shoot any further than a traditional spear.
When rigged for bluewater, a traditional pole can leave your hand and continue travel. See this video at 1:40 and 5:10, Ryan extending the shot 5' beyond his hand by completely releasing the spear. He is using the big-game bungee system to create less drag on the spear and continue travel without dragging against the floatline.
With a roller spear, the end of the band is the end of the road because it is attached to your shooting hand. As soon as the band pull is spent, the polespear comes to an abrupt stop. For skilled hunters needing that extras shooting distance and closing the gap on species like wahoo, this is a deal-breaker.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rhTTbo7zXY&t=242s
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Old 05-06-2019, 03:52 PM   #6
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Re: Roller Polespear worth it?

Quote:
Originally Posted by isibrigade View Post
FOOD FOR THOUGHT-
Aaron Crist and I have been messing around with 'roller poler' ideas since 2007. Conceptually, they have almost everything. Speed, band pull, power, comfort, mass, etc. There is one drawback, however, that most don't consider when crossing over to a roller for the longer shots:
They don't shoot any further than a traditional spear.
When rigged for bluewater, a traditional pole can leave your hand and continue travel. See this video at 1:40 and 5:10, Ryan extending the shot 5' beyond his hand by completely releasing the spear. He is using the big-game bungee system to create less drag on the spear and continue travel without dragging against the floatline.
With a roller spear, the end of the band is the end of the road because it is attached to your shooting hand. As soon as the band pull is spent, the polespear comes to an abrupt stop. For skilled hunters needing that extras shooting distance and closing the gap on species like wahoo, this is a deal-breaker.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rhTTbo7zXY&t=242s
Yes, you would have to let the whole thing go and have a second running line connected to the polespear butt. My polespear is tubular stainless steel, so has a lot of momentum when you let it go. Half inch rubber formed into a hand loop with the rear end connected to a short nylon cord, so one rubber strand running rearwards after the rubber hand loop to the polespear butt. A spiral wound line slide each end forms the rubber loops after the rubber is pulled through them (with some difficulty).
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Old 05-06-2019, 04:35 PM   #7
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Re: Roller Polespear worth it?

Quote:
Originally Posted by popgun pete View Post
Yes, you would have to let the whole thing go and have a second running line connected to the polespear butt. My polespear is tubular stainless steel, so has a lot of momentum when you let it go. Half inch rubber formed into a hand loop with the rear end connected to a short nylon cord, so one rubber strand running rearwards after the rubber hand loop to the polespear butt. A spiral wound line slide each end forms the rubber loops after the rubber is pulled through them (with some difficulty).
Pete,
Is yours a roller? With all the roller designs I've seen, 'letting the whole thing go' isn't an option because there is a tether around your hand.
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Old 05-06-2019, 05:50 PM   #8
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Re: Roller Polespear worth it?

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Originally Posted by isibrigade View Post
Pete,
Is yours a roller? With all the roller designs I've seen, 'letting the whole thing go' isn't an option because there is a tether around your hand.
No, it is not a roller, but if you hang onto the rubber on my polespear it hurls forwards until the rubber starts to restretch. With the roller spear the rubber retracts and shortens your reach by gathering some of the rubber back into the polespear before it stretches again at the end of travel, so your reach is shortened by that much. On the original rollerspear the piece that you hold onto is a sort of hook and to let the rollerspear travel you have to let it go once the band starts to pull. Naturally you still need to control the spear with another line which could be attached to that hook. Once my buddy smacked a big yellowtail and before he could stop it the fish took off with the polespear hanging out of its side like a CB antenna. We spent some time searching for it but the fish had enough horsepower to escape at full throttle, but turning in a big circle and probably succumbed miles away. We never saw that polespear again which was tough because it was brand new.
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Old 05-07-2019, 07:23 PM   #9
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Re: Roller Polespear worth it?

Looking at the stored energy and throw of standard polespear and rollerspear.
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Last edited by popgun pete; 05-10-2019 at 03:00 PM. Reason: revised diagram showing two alternatives
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Old 05-08-2019, 05:25 AM   #10
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Re: Roller Polespear worth it?

Note that the spearfisherman releases the hand hook and keeps connected to the rollerspear by a tethering line connected to the hand hook which can just be seen at the rear end of the projectile. While swimming with the weapon cocked the small hook under the hand hook or grip can be temporarily snagged on the shoulder of the pole spear. 1939 vintage makes this a very early spearfishing weapon given that the first ever speargun patent is in 1937.
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Last edited by popgun pete; 05-08-2019 at 10:51 PM. Reason: revision
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Old 05-09-2019, 05:40 PM   #11
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Re: Roller Polespear worth it?

The rollerspear is a more powerful weapon, but needs to be thought out as to how you rig it. For most spearfishing of small to medium size fish the standard polespear is adequate and in my first years of spearfishing that is what I mainly used as beginners were seldom trusted with a gun as the senior men made you serve your "apprenticeship" if you dived with them.
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Old 07-17-2019, 08:02 PM   #12
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Re: Roller Polespear worth it?

One I made back in April 2014 based off LePrieur's design. Uses a 3/8" band, the knot can adjust the tension or pre-tension of the band for shooting at close or distant.
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Old 10-29-2019, 07:21 AM   #13
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Re: Roller Polespear worth it?

Here is a rollerspear from Russia.

https://keltvic.ecwid.com/%E2%80%8B%...%9A-p152288121
"Roller Hawaiian, carbon 3K OD14
By using the "block" significantly removes the load from the brush compared to the classic version, and also allows to establish a more powerful thrust providing high punching ability.
The length of the equipped Hawaiian with a tip of 207 cm. Weight 870 grams.
Convenient to transport as it is laid out in three parts 64-55-64 cm"
Price per set. USD 250
Seems to be good value for the price.

Last edited by popgun pete; 11-06-2019 at 02:29 PM.
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Old 11-05-2019, 10:20 PM   #14
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Re: Roller Polespear worth it?

Another rollerspear at over 600 bucks.
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Neritic-....c100008.m2219


https://neriticdiving.com/products/msd-roller-polespear save 50 bucks

Last edited by popgun pete; 11-05-2019 at 10:29 PM.
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