Spearguns

[freedivernd]

I split this topic as I see it's going a different direction than the orginal.. it will be easier for people who browse the forums.
I can talk spearguns all day, so I think this is a good idea.

I would agree that pneumatics might be a bit more dangerous to load, but like all guns of all types.. they need respect and the knowledge to operate them, and then, like all guns, they are very safe.

Some of the blue water hunters load up their pneu's so much that they can't load them in the water but have to get back into the boat to push the spear into the gun against a wall or floor.. so, not so easy to load.  the people I spear with set the pneus up with about 65#'s of loading force, which seems to work out for most.  At that.. I've lost my spear tip (I still have a shaft that uses a screw on tip, but not for long) and still taken big carp at fair range with no tip, just a dull threaded shaft, and sent the spear half way through the fish in the bone.  With the mods we've done to the guns.. as a friend of mine says, "the fish doesn't know what hit them until they look down see the line going through them." 

Even my little mini-mini sten gun has more power now than my double banded gun.  I won't go back to a banded gun because with the right modifications, power to size there is no comparison.

If you hit a fish in the soft, with all the thrashing they end up tearing on the line.  Not like when you stone them.  The best size shaft, through all the homework, is a 7mm.  8's being to heavy and 6's or 6.5's being to susceptible to bending or breaking.  The 8's may have their place though.. I have my mini-mini setup to shoot the original 8mm shaft and a longer 7mm shaft.  An efficient upgrade is to throw the screw on tip away, sharpen the end of the shaft, drill a hole a bit back from the tip and add a single flopper.  This will really streamline the shaft.. throw the braided shaft line away and replace with 200# test mono and your good to go.
Fred