Riffe spearguns--I must be missing something!

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White Knight

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Lompoc, CA
OK, I went to the local SCUBA shop and checked out the Riffe spear guns and now I am more confused than ever. I really like the look and feel of the guns and I am looking for something capable of bagging a yellowfin or white seabass. Questions: It appears that the spear heads don't "latch" down so that you can pull it out of the fish? You don't actually have to disconnect the spear from the gun and run it all the way through do you? Next, the bands were so tight that I couldn't pull them back far enough to cock the gun--I'm 6' 1" and 200lbs? Does that make sense?

Any words of wisdom regarding Riffe spearguns would be most helpful!!!

Thanks,

Bruce
 
I shoot a Riffe Competitor 3x (54") and love it. Assuming you are talking about the flopper tip it is not that hard to get out. You just close it and twist and pull back through. A lot of times it will go all the way through the fish and you can just send it back through point first.
I did get the tip stuck in the head of a big grouper once and had to go to the boat to cut it out but who cares 23# gag in the boat.
Loading chest or hip load spearguns is all about technique. It is also much easier in the water than on land because on land you are also supporting the weight of the gun.
Spearguns are typically very low tech. Generally the harder they are to load to more powerful they will shoot.
 
I use double flopper, threaded heads when line shafting and unscrew them before pulling the shaft back through the fish. When free shafting with single floppers, I just pull the spear all the way through.
 
If perhaps you are talking about their Icepick tip, the one with the small line that you tuck behind one of the bands, you just fold the tip back, slide the small ring over the tip. The tip then pulls right through.
 
OK, I went to the local SCUBA shop and checked out the Riffe spear guns and now I am more confused than ever. I really like the look and feel of the guns and I am looking for something capable of bagging a yellowfin or white seabass. Questions: It appears that the spear heads don't "latch" down so that you can pull it out of the fish? You don't actually have to disconnect the spear from the gun and run it all the way through do you? Next, the bands were so tight that I couldn't pull them back far enough to cock the gun--I'm 6' 1" and 200lbs? Does that make sense?

Any words of wisdom regarding Riffe spearguns would be most helpful!!!

Thanks,

Bruce


Hey Bruce, If you are mainly looking to hunt yellowtail and WSB then I would definitely recommend getting a slip-tip and not using a flopper shaft. A slip-tip is the type Zieg mentioned, which is sometimes called an ice-pick, and the big difference is that it slips onto the end of an adapter on the shaft and it has a cable or spectra line that connects to the middle of the 3" to 5" tip. This way when you shoot a fish with soft flesh (YT & WSB) the tip will toggle sideways on the other side of the fish and only the cable will attach to the shaft. This way the fish cant use the shaft as leverage as it fights against it and tries it's best to rip off the shaft.

I have a 120" Euro gun with a single Tahitian flopper and I lost 2 nice YT in an hour that were well placed shots... both fish wrapped up in kelp and were able to rip off the shaft before I could get down to cut them out of the kelp. I will not use a single flopper to shoot YT anymore, it's too heartbreaking to lose a nice fish like that.
 
Thanks to everyone for the help regarding Riffe spearguns! Just an FYI, I purcased a Riffe 2XS. Looking forward to hunting with it. This Saturday will be it's initiation. Bruce
 
If you find it is still hard to pull the bands you may want to try different size bands. Just an FYI I keep all my new bands in the fridge in a plastic bag, it keeps them from not drying out.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/peregrine/

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