Speargun History Question

["Yard-Sale Josh"]

I searched the board but I cannot find who was the first to ever build a hybrid style gun and in what year it was built.
Any help is much appreciated.

[deckhandmike]

Wow, that will start a winter battle.

[popgun pete]

If by "hybrid gun" you mean marrying a tube gun's muzzle (low drag) with a wooden gun's rear section (inertial mass and buoyancy) then that construction goes back a very long way. The A.T."Sharpshooter" was a rifle-like speargun with metal barrel and wooden rifle type stock, but built as a band gun (two bands). Ron Mullins has one on his Skindiving History web-site. They were made in the mid-fifties by the A.T. Company and advertised in "Skin Diver" as being an underwater speargun.

Today I think of a "hybrid gun" as a "pipe gun" such as the spearguns made by Daryl Wong, but in the long history of spearguns certain ideas get re-invented once the earlier ones are forgotten. By then they seem new all over again.

[chasintail]

What Popgun said! If I'm not mistaken Daryl got a bug in his brain for his hybrids from GR.Not that they claim the glory but the wongs are the staple of we think about with hybird spearguns.

[baja haha]

What is old is now new again...

In 1939 the "Bottom Scratcher Gun" was developed..It has a wood barrel and a metal handle..Hybrid?

SDM

[Daryl Wong]

Aloha Gang,

I'm not sure who made the first hybrids. I just called my "hybrid" that because that is what it was. Two different styles of guns blended into one with two different materials. In 1984 a few years after I got back from Dental school I started building guns again. Previously they were modifications of JBL's and Underseas guns. My original attempt at a hybid was a wood stock with the barrel on top. I made a dozen or so for friends. I got that idea from a gun I had seen in the late 70's that belonged to Terry Maas and some of his friends. Those type of guns were called "Maas" guns by the local divers in Hawaii. Later I realized that the "barrel" on top had it limitations and so I designed the hybrid to have the barrel in the stock . This enabled me to continue designing the hybrids to what I build now. A local guy who didn't dive later continued my early design and still has it on the market. Ironic that years later poeple say my guns look like those and now Terry is a good friend and has a few of my hybrids as his go to guns for WSB and Yellowtail.

The semi enclosed track hybrid was the reason I changed the design. Later when my guns started to become popular in the US, my friend GR asked me to build one for him and it became so popular among his friends in Florida who would ask for a "GR" gun, so I named that style after GR.

Nick, if you ever need any info on my guns ask me and I'll be happy to fill you in so you can chime in on my guns. I know you love the hybrids you have.

Many of my ideas have been from friends who ask me "what if". The loading tab is a classic example of it. Sheri Daye came up with that idea when I was trying t figure out a way to eliminate the loading tabs on her blue water shafts. This is how the reverse line anchor as a loading tab was born. Now you see it on other sites.

There are many excellent builders out there pushing the envelope and many more to come. That is what makes our sport so exciting in this time of Diving history. Materials have evolved to enable us to build spearguns that weren't possible years ago. My hats off to all who want to build the better mouse trap!

Yes it is amazing how things can be re invented as new. I don't claim to have anything new, just something thats worked for me and hopefully others who use my hybrids. There is no one gun that fits everyones needs. You just have to find what works for you. For the many who use my spearguns and all those that have set over 40 worlde records I thank you!
This "hobby"has enabled me to meet the neatest people from all over the world and dive places I would never have dreamed of.

If any of you have the time, get on over to the Blue wild dive expo. www.thebluewild.com You'll see the who's who of diving there and most of the major players in the dive industry showing the latest and greatest. There is something for everyone there. Stop by and say hello!


Aloha,Daryl

[Don Paul]

http://spearboard.com/showthread.php...t=early+hybrid

Here is a link to one I built in 1980, it's a Tahitian style.
Cheers, Don Paul

[baja haha]

In a pure sense of a hybrid gun, one that is constructed of metal and wood, the mid 1930s gun of Commander Le Prieur would qualify as the father of all hybrid spear guns.

His gun, christened the "Nautilus Gun" used a 38 caliber pistol cartridge to propel the arrow.

A long forgotten gun...

[popgun pete]

A loading tab to assist drawing the bands back was incorporated on the mid-fifties Champion "Requin Flottante" model. This was the familiar two band Rene Cavalero "Champion Arbalete" (rear handle) with the four socket, screw in band type muzzle, but with a total gun length of 195 cm! The claimed shooting range was 8 metres. This cannon was loaded by pulling the bands back to a disappearing hook activated by a simple mechanism installed in front of the centre grip handle used for manoeuvring these longer models around. Once you got both bands to that mid-way hook you then summoned your strength for the final pull of each band back to the rear wishbone notches. Releasing the mechanism allowed the hook to disappear into the barrel so that it would not obstruct the wishbones moving forwards during the shot. The patent was applied for in 1954 and published in 1956, so another example of an idea being reinvented years later.