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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 05-18-2012, 10:21 PM   #16
phil herranen
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Re: Light tuna gun

the 3#to 4# per band guideline is gun only no shaft ,but remember it is a guideline and everything in life is a compromise .

a heavyer gun will have more range with a heavy shaft and cable shooting line , and will be a stable shooting platform , and will have range ,power to go threw a tuna and accuracy out to 30',but will be more work to dive with .

a light gun will be ez to dive with and swing but wont be able to handle a 3/8" shaft and cable without major recoil ,and can only handle lighter shafts and will have shorter range because they just dont have the mass to carry energy down range.

it all depends on where your priority's are . for me i only get 1-2 bluewater trips per year so i cant to pass on fish because they dont want to come in closer than 30' so i use a big heavy gun and can and do shoot fish at the end of my shooting line .
but if you are fortunate enuff to live close to where big fish are and dont mind passing on fish those days that they dont want to come in then use whatever size gun you want .


one comment on your shaft whip limiters ,i would make them level with the top of the wood track so the top deck of the gun is smooth with no bumps

phil
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Last edited by phil herranen; 05-18-2012 at 10:42 PM.
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Old 05-20-2012, 06:09 PM   #17
Ric.Fallu
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Re: Light tuna gun

Phil

Thanks for your response.

There’s something I’d like to learn: its your use of the # symbol. Its been while since we converted from pounds and ounces etc in Australia, and I am not all that familiar with the shorthand terminology. I have been assuming # is short for pounds weight. Am I correct?

Reading your posting, it seems the suggested rule of thumb is for guns with heavy, 3/8 inch, shafts. It would seem to me that lighter shafts wouldn’t require a quite so heavy launching platform. The build described in this thread is a gun that will shoot a 5/16 inch spear. Could a gun with a lighter spear be less massive?

I take your point about there being a trade-off between manoeuvrability and long distance shooting. And that it’s a personal choice. This is pretty much true for all spear guns.

You mentioned you only do a tuna trip once or twice a year. Its been over forty years since I last encountered southern blue fin tuna in my home State of Victoria, so you are doing a lot better than me. (I do hope to rectify the problem soon though).

Whip limiters – there are several potential problems, one of them being a collision with the bridles. The height if the bridles is mainly determined by the junction of the shark fin tags and the top of the spear. This means the tops/roof of the limiters has to be slim, and this weakens them. If the bridles are lifted by sides of the spear channel which are higher, they won’t hit, but there will be friction along the top of the stock.

I will just have to build a few guns, shoot them, and play around with the idea to see how it works.

I liked Spearq8 terminology though – I might call them “wave collapsers”.


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Old 05-20-2012, 10:59 PM   #18
phil herranen
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Re: Light tuna gun

# ,and lb = pounds .
personally i use the guideline for all shaft dia just with lighter shafts you can move more towards the light end of the scale , the vast majority of guns i build use a 9/32" or 5/16" interchangeably , only maybe 1 in 15 or 20 are 11/32" or 3/8".
for example a 65" 4 band 5/16" shaft gun that is 12# to 15# will be a tack driver and you can shoot it with one hand ,and will also be safer since there is very little stress from recoil going into the handle .

a wider top deck and short wishbones ,will prevent the wishbones from ever contacting the top deck of the gun no matter how deep it is .

i wish i went on one or 2 tuna trips a year . when i say blue water that means offshore so cal , Florida ,or Hawaii not dedicated tuna trips.
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Old 05-21-2012, 06:35 PM   #19
Ric.Fallu
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Re: Light tuna gun

Thanks Phil. I appreciate your voice of experience.

This gun is obviously on the light end of the scale. (Even though its heavier than most guns I build). At 1.3 metre its also a little shorter than the guns you seem to favour. We will see what we will see about how it shoots when I get to shoot it. (Water is still rough - I might just go and shoot it and not worry about targets till the conditions clear up).

The next iteration will be heavier, but otherwise similar, so I can compare. It takes a little thought on how to efficiently pack in more mass to the gun, and end up with an easthetically pleasing shape (but beer meditation helps).

Ric
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Old 05-31-2012, 07:30 PM   #20
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Re: Light tuna gun

Test firing

Have been waiting for clear still water to do a test firing of the gun, but clear water hasn't been around for a while. I decided to go in the dirtier water for a test firing but to put off target shooting till conditions improve.

When I walked down the beach to the water, I got the impression that this was a heavy gun, and awkward to carry over the rocks in the shallows. It also occured to me that the gun was unlikely to be used from the shore, but more likely from a boat, so this might not be too much of a problem.

In the water, the neutral bouyancy (well, just negative) gun was much easier to carry, dive with and move around than I expected. I forgot to try a fast swing (such as would be required to track moving tuna) so I can't comment on that.

It was not too hard to load, especially using the forward tab on the Riffe spear. Though I did note that a little thought/organisation would keep the bridles and rear ends of the rubbers neater. This is a little more important than otherwise might be as there are three shark fins, and four rubbers. The thickish bridles meant that whilst it was possible to stack two rubbers onto one shark fin, it was important to get the rubbers as flat and close to the stock as possible.

In the water, with the loaded gun, and with gloves on, the trigger felt a little too far forward - it sat near the tip of the my index finger. Some people suggest that this is the desirable fit, but I think I will shorten the push rod a tad to bring the trigger back just little.

When I fired the gun, there was a recoil shock, but nothing too onerous. I suspect I could have successfully shot it using one hand only (without the other hand on the butt) but didn't think to try at the time. Maybe next time.

The spear flew out apparently unimpeded, but after the first shot, when I examined the wave collapsers, the front one had about 1 to 1.5 millimetre, shaved off its left hand side - obviously due to collision with a shark fin. When I fired the gun the next time, no more plastic was removed. I would need to fire it many more times for more abrasion to occur I think. In the next gun, I may make the collapsers longer, with longer ramps (as indicated by Terry M in a previous posting). There were no apparent marks on the first two collapsers. It may be that alignment needs to be improved.

In the low viz (about 2 metres) I couldn't see how the spear flew, but after the shot, there was a slight tug on the gun, suggesting that the spear was stopped by the shooting line. I had two wraps of shooting line, which meant that the tip of the spear went about 8 metres from the muzzle of the gun, but probably would not have had much penetration power by the time the line ran out. It might just penetrate the wall of a gut cavity, but would be unlikely to smash through a gill plate or flesh and the spine. The line release worked OK.

Reloading was OK, with surprisingly little trouble to re-string the shooting line and no tangles. It does take a long time to load the four rubbers though.

I still need to shoot targets to determine accuracy and sight it in, but I would be happy enought to have a shot at a tuna with it now.

I have started building another gun with the same specs but more mass (Ming the Merciless), and will be able to compare how it shoots. Similarly I have a third gun (Dianetic) under construction that has a 5 cm longer stock (with a consequent shorter spear overhang) which I will also compare in due course.

Ric
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