snorkeling spear fishing

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Anybody do much spear-fishing while snorkeling? I used to do it all the time in college, just with a hand spear & some surgical tubing though, not a spear gun.

What's the trick to aiming the spear gun?
 
I do. There are lots of different guns with varying effective shooting ranges. Depending on the range or your gun, you may have to aim higher or dead on, depending on how far the shot is. Or lead a fish that's moving past. Shoot your gun at a target underwater and learn its range. If you want, you can power it up larger bands.
 
is there any other kind of spearfishing? (oops... this is a scuba board... here comes the mob!)


I still find myself going back to a polespear from time to time, they are loads of fun! check out the link in my sigline to find more snorkle hunters like yourself :D
 
Scubamazing, it's called "freediving". We used to call it skin diving, same thing. Yes, it was all about hunting. Scuba came along and the rest is history but spearfishing while freediving remains extremely popular and, in fact, is mandated by law in the Bahamas and much of Europe, etc. The gun is not aimed like a rifle. There is a kind of sighting, but it is done over and above the barrel, what they tell rifle or shotgun shooters to never do. This type of aiming is similar to what archers call "gap shooting". That is, the diver practices with the gun, begins to understand the sight picture and it's relation to the range and speed of the arrow in relation to the target. With rear grip guns, the arm is extended and the diver gets a sense of the arrow and it's travel. The range is proportionate to the power of the rubber bands. If the arrow shows a drop of more than an inch at typical distance to target, then a more powerful gun may be needed. There is a category of divers who use guns without shooting line, called "freeshafters". These people will sometime "lob" a spear at long distance and hope the trajectory will hit the fish. This is similar to artillery ranging. A typical straight line range for a medium size gun with three bands and employing a line is 18 feet. However, the practical range, insuring good penetration, may be less.
 
There are pneumatic spear guns also. They offer good power in a relatively short gun. I like the Mares Cyrano. Mares also makes a smaller gun, the Sten (16"). A friend of mine uses that one successfully, for small to medium size fish within a range of approx. 10-12 ft. The Cyrano at 28" has a slightly better range maybe 14-15 ft. Cyrano guns are up to 42" long. Bizrate.com will direct you to the cheapest prices on the net. Good luck:wink:
 
I freedive with a pole spear. I don't have a spear gun yet, but when I do I will probably use that. Its lots of fun and nice to have the speed you just don't have when geared down with scuba gear.
 
Well sooy there is a forum for all us snorklers. I do a bit of spearfishing, just cant get the time to go up north where the water is warmer. Any way good to know i 'm not the "black sheep of the family"
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/teric/

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