Longer Bands?

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jsmith89

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Raleigh/Morehead City, NC
I have a riffe competitor #2xs. Riffe says it should used 3 20" 9/16" bands. These bands are a real pain to load underwater. I was wondering if anyone knew how the gun would react if I used 3 24" 9/16" bands? FYI I have the 5/16" threaded shaft.
 
Less power, I think I'd go with larger diameter band and fewer of them. You just don't want to over power the shaft or it will lose accuracy and will wobble through the water.
 
That is alot less power.

I'm willing to bet its more about technique that you may need to perfect, you will probably just need to practice and develop the muscle memory used to load the gun. How are you loading it? I use 20" 5/8 diameter bands on my 52" Spearfishing specialties gun and 22" 24" 26" 5/8 on my 55" Wong. I am 5'11" and weigh in at 140#, a powerhouse I am not. I hip load the Spearfishing specialties and chest load the mid handled Wong.
 
I always chest load my competitors, it's alot easier than trying to hip load them. Yea, I know, Riffe claims the the butt extension on the XS makes them easy to load on the hip, but it's still alot easier to load them on the chest. I have a #1 and a #3xs and I load both of them with my chest. If you have not chest loaded a gun before it will feel awkward at first, but don't worry that feeling will go away with practice and soon it will just become second nature and you will be able to load that way just as quickly.

The Rob Allen website has a nice tutorial (in the spearfishing tips-articles section) for chest loading, here's the link:
Rob Allen spearguns, railguns and other spearfishing and freediving accessories.

Let us know how things work out...

Chirs :crafty:
 
I have a lot more power pulling down to my hip than to my chest. You can include your back and abs more curling your body into the hip pull. But I think PatMyGreen is right. Technique. I can't possibly chest load my Riffe Baja and have to really stretch to reach the bands to even start loading it down to my hip. But you will lose a lot of power lengthening the bands. Notice that it's that last inch or so that's hard to get when cocking it?: That's where the power comes when shooting it. I think anyway....
 
I have a lot more power pulling down to my hip than to my chest.

Then you are doing it wrong.

You can include your back and abs more curling your body into the hip pull. But I think PatMyGreen is right. Technique.

Cocking a gun is like lifting heavy things, you should never have to use your back.

I can't possibly chest load my Riffe Baja and have to really stretch to reach the bands to even start loading it down to my hip. But you will lose a lot of power lengthening the bands. Notice that it's that last inch or so that's hard to get when cocking it?

You won't have a problem with the last couple inches when you learn to chest load properly :D.

FYI, if I could hip load either of my Competitors I would shorten the bands until I couldn't hip load anymore.

Chris :crafty:
 
Cocking a gun is like lifting heavy things, you should never have to use your back.



You won't have a problem with the last couple inches when you learn to chest load properly :D.

FYI, if I could hip load either of my Competitors I would shorten the bands until I couldn't hip load anymore.

Chris :crafty:

If I put the butt of my Baja in my chest, I can't reach the bands. I also have a Comp 3xs with 5/8" bands and don't have any problems hip loading either one of them.
Also, whether you're hip loading, or chest loading, you're using your back muscles. Kind of like pullups.
 
If I put the butt of my Baja in my chest, I can't reach the bands.

If you are chest loading the gun properly you don't have to "reach" the band. Lots of Railguns, Euroguns, and Mid-Handles are MUCH longer than your Baja, all are chest loaded. Your "reach the bands" issue is a non-problem with proper technique. Ya know... I did link a tutorial on my first post...

Chris :crafty:
 
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If you are chest loading the gun properly you don't have to "reach" the band. Lots of Railguns, Euroguns, and Mid-Handles are MUCH longer than your Baja, all are chest loaded. Your "reach the bands" issue is a non-problem with proper technique. Ya know... I did link a tutorial on my first post...

Chris :crafty:

Thanks for the tip.
 
I looked at that tip, and there is no way in hell I could load my 4Xs like that. I am 5'6" tall and can barley reach the bands now.I hip load with no problem except a long stretch. I don't use the rest tab, better to just load in one fast motion.My 4Xs Is a one shot one kill gun. The 3Xs is an easy gun to load I can string up fish quite easy.I have great upper body strength and it's not my arms or chest hurting it's my back mucles after a day of hunting.Maybe I use different mucles the way I load my guns.My 4Xs has 3- 5/8" X 26" bands and a 65" 3/8" shaft with an icepick tip.That gun will blow thru anything in it's path no problem.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/

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