Popgun Pete
Contributor
In my youth I made my own copy of the Sea Hornet 12 gauge powerhead and used my Dad's lathe to turn it up out of bronze and then had it all chrome plated. The only difference was the knurling as I used a parallel line knurl, not a crosshatch as used on the Sea Hornet. These were heavy gadgets to tote around and you went through ammo quite quickly as you knew it leaked. More shells were tossed away than fired, despite nail varnish and paraffin wax poured on the front crimp. The Farallon Shark Dart was something I only read about in magazines like Skin Diver and had the advantage of being lightweight, but the disadvantage of not being propelled by other than a lance. The stop disk on the needle would have surely detonated the carbon dioxide cartridge if the dart was fired from a gun, but we never had them sold here. St George Underwater Centre in Sydney advertised shark darts, but the name Farallon was never mentioned so may have been a local effort. Not hard to make judging by the look of them, but the CO2 cartridges were not cheap and we often only had one for our CO2 vest inflators if we were wearing them, especially on scuba. At times wearing almost everything but the kitchen sink the shark deterrent was the first to go.
Recently found my original powerhead drawing, so have scanned it and here it is. Note the larger diameter screw safety wheel on the early devices.
Recently found my original powerhead drawing, so have scanned it and here it is. Note the larger diameter screw safety wheel on the early devices.
