bought my first speargun today

[pescador775]

Good gracious! Maybe you should check with the preeminent designers of underwater hunting gear, like Riffe. What the flock next? BTW, all these underwater designers like Jay Riffe, Fred Biller, Jack Prodanovich (JBL design), Wally Potts (scubapro design) (deceased) are old friends of mine. The old timers like Jack and Wally used heavy shafts, a holdover from earlier times before spring hardened steel. Every respected designer has converted over to 5/16 or 9/32 except for their very biggest blue water guns which have 500 pounds of traction or more.

The sawed off magnum should have the 3/8" dia shaft.

I prefer the momentum of a heavier shaft to the alledged increased speed of a smaller diameter shaft. Water is 700 times thicker than air and drag is a huge factor. Parasitic drag increases as the square of the velocity so the relatively small increase in muzzle velocity and energy that you achieve with a smaller shaft is offset by the extra drag which eliminates any speed or energy advantage in the first few feet. So if the conditions are such that you are shooting fairly long shots, a heavier shaft will serve you better and provide more impact and penetration when the spear arrives on target.

I'd stay with 3 bands for the extra power and the keep the heavier shaft.

 

[pescador775]

Halibut don't move very fast so that 3/8 shaft should do fine.
Pesky

I am going to catalina island for three days starting the 22nd and plan on giving it a good test run based on some of the halibut I saw this weekend so I'll let you guys know

[
QUOTE=CBulla]Tell ya what.. shoot that gun stock for a few dives and figure it out.. then think about some little additional things. Personally.. I'm still shooting stock, and maybe I'm a bit of a fish magnet, but I can get quite close to shoot and with 2 stock bands loaded tend to really make fish look like epileptics with a spear in their heads. Something I did this weekend, just for giggles, is practiced stalking while on a drift dive (no guns on this ride.. had some really new divers on the boat and errored on the side of safety) and really found myself VERY close to many good types of fish. I also paid attention to behaviors to see reactions as other divers went by and what it was like with only myself near the fish. I learned a few things

[/QUOTE]

 

[MATTKINZ]

I have pneumatics, good for dumb red snapper as they are fast to reload but suffer from ability to hit at a distance. The snapper just school around and came quite close.

Grouper around here and black snapper in nw fl are too wary and seem to stay just outside of range. The Biller 48 special reaches out well. The Pro spearfishers all end up eventually with riffe guns no matter what gun they started with.,

My daughter couldn't cock the 48 and has a sawed off magnum. I like how the bands hold in place and don't get snarled up. It is new to us with limited experience. she hit an amberjack this weekend though.

 

[JustinW]

SaintsFan,
We have a unique hunting style here in California. We not only have low visibility often times, but we also have kelp and smaller fish. We are not hunting groupers and blue water with 80 foot visibility. Consequently our shots are often closer and at smaller fish than our friends on the east coast. There are instances where we might go for halibut but for the most part, we won't have opportunities for fish much over 10 pounds very often. many of the east coast guys around here will tell you all the hype about changing shafts, adding bands, changing line and adding reels and all kinds of crazy stuff. Just get out and shoot it. The closer you stay to stock the better off you will be for most of the game you will be hunting.
Assuming the "sawed-off magnum" you got is the "custom" model, item #4D33, you should get that third band off of there. That gun is optimized with the two bands that it already has. I have used that gun along side my xhd 38 special and I like them both, the smaller gun actually being better for much of the diving I do in California, particularly the north coast where visibility can be down to just a couple of feet.

 

[arkansasrednek spearo]

SaintsFan,
We have a unique hunting style here in California. We not only have low visibility often times, but we also have kelp and smaller fish. We are not hunting groupers and blue water with 80 foot visibility. Consequently our shots are often closer and at smaller fish than our friends on the east coast. There are instances where we might go for halibut but for the most part, we won't have opportunities for fish much over 10 pounds very often. many of the east coast guys around here will tell you all the hype about changing shafts, adding bands, changing line and adding reels and all kinds of crazy stuff. Just get out and shoot it. The closer you stay to stock the better off you will be for most of the game you will be hunting.
Assuming the "sawed-off magnum" you got is the "custom" model, item #4D33, you should get that third band off of there. That gun is optimized with the two bands that it already has. I have used that gun along side my xhd 38 special and I like them both, the smaller gun actually being better for much of the diving I do in California, particularly the north coast where visibility can be down to just a couple of feet.

I dive freshwater here in arkansas and hope to dive bluewater someday. Personally around here bandguns suck. I bought a jbl carbine then an explorer 20. I got the 20 cause vis can be as low as 6ft at times. I replaced the 2 stock bands with 2 smaller bands. The bands are good and the tip is sharp but I have had many nice bass pull off. I have also had many swim off with plugs missin out their sides. It just aint cuttin it. I shot a small redhorse from about three feet and hit it square in its side and it didnt go through just knocked scales off. My uncle having the same prob with his band gun orded a sporasub stealth. I also ordered one. Mine hasnt came in yet but he already tried his and it worked excellent. Not quite pumped to 20bar he shot clear through all the bass he shot at and even through a 4ft gar on low pressure setting. Cant wait till my gun arrives. Glad I havent found the big catfish im huntin with my band gun. So here in freshwater pneumatics are the ticket!

 

[Florabama]

I went against the general consensus of this board and went with an aluminum jbl sawed off magnum,then added a 3rd band.I decided on this one mainly because of cost and the fact I dont know how into it I will be.I have used a mechanical pole spear but didnt care for it so for 159.00 I at least have one and worst case I can use it as a spare or lend it to buddys if I get another.I figured I will be spearing mostly on scuba so I figured a little extra noise wouldnt hurt.well what do you think of that logic??

Nothing wrong with that gun. I shot a lot of fish with a little old vintage Voit gun until I moved up to a 42 AB Biller. It's not so much about the gun as it is the ability to stalk the fish. That's kind of hard to do sometimes if you're on a site with a bunch of divers, but if you can get away from the crowd, you'll have better success.

Good luck and happy hunting.

 

[BadLatitude]

everyone down here in FL atleast winds up going to single band freeshaft with in their 1st few jumps.

my 1st gun was a jbl you will dive one day and be shopping for a hornet or a biller. They are 100% right about JBL triggers. even when my JBL new and stock the 2 stock bands caused trigger lock up more then a few times. i wouldnt buy one again at all.

 

[Hank49]

Something I did this weekend, just for giggles, is practiced stalking while on a drift dive (no guns on this ride.. had some really new divers on the boat and errored on the side of safety) and really found myself VERY close to many good types of fish.

Ain't that always the case though? When I'm on scuba with no gun....BIG snappers, BIG groupers...BIG hogfish.....so close....when I'm free diving with a gun.... they just seem to know....no matter how nonchalant and sneaky I try to be.

 

[saintsfan]

Boy some threads come back to life,My original post was almost a year ago.almost a year and I have only used it twice how pathetic huh!! later this month I will blow the dust off and try again. Thanks for all the advice

 

[seaman]

hey budd congratulations, i got a sawed off my self, and despite the opinions of seasoned spearos, I love it, i had landed more fish with that gun than any other brand, and by the way I have trhee bands on it too ..