Leash, Handle, or Nothing on Spear Gun

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Michael Guerrero

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I'm totally new to spearfishing and plan on doing it on scuba.

Looking at my gun (JBL Woody Sawed-Off Magnum), it has a lanyard slot to hook to something (I'm assuming normally this would be a float) and I'm trying to decide if I want to put a leash on it, a wrist strap, or nothing. I'll primarily be diving off a dive boat and don't expect to have my own float. I'll probably also be in doubles (possibly with scooter) most of the time given the depths 100+. My main concern is not having the gun pulled away from me or dropped and lost


My thinking is that if I put a leash on it and hook it to a hip d-ring, I can avoid having the gun pulled away from me if I lose contact with the line while pulling in a fish. Using a wrist strap seems like it would interfere with pulling in the fish to brain/string it, but maybe not.

I supposed I could also not put anything on it, but I'm worried I'll just end up donating the gun to the bottom or someone else.

Here's what I have right now.
spear gun leash.jpg

Thoughts?
 
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Trust me. Leash it.
 
New spearfisherman loose guns all the time. Losing a mask would probably be a bigger problem than loosing a speargun, yet we don't tie black 500 lb cord to it and then clip to our D-ring. Why not.. risk versus reward.

My advice is to put a clip on the end of the handle and if and only if the gun is long enough so that you can't impale yourself, you can clip it to a D-ring on your chest. Only do that for an unloaded gun. If a loaded gun goes off from there it could knock you out and kill you, literally. You are gonna have to make sure the tip doesn't end up in the scooter.

Scoooter diving while spearfishing is a lot of task loading. I can do it, but never really mastered it.

Your gun should sink, so if you drop it, it should be where you left it...

Also, who dives with doubles to spear fish?
 
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The gun is 46". So are you guys saying to keep a short leash on it and only clip it off after I've made the shot, but don't keep it clipped to me when loaded because it could hit me in the face/head?

The length of the leash right now is long enough for me to have my arm extended to make a shot with it clipped to my hip. The thought was to have it clipped to the hip, make the shot, grab the line and drop the spear (potentially in 200+ ft of water, so sinking would be bad), close distance with fish, brain, string, grab gun, reload...wash, rinse, repeat.
 
Ok.. I almost never clip the gun off, except maybe when ascending and the hunting is over. If you put a clip on it, it should be directly attached to the bottom of the handle... no leash, no lanyard..

Where are you gonna be spearing in 200 ft of water? With doubles and a scooter....

When you shoot a fish the last thing you want is the gun clipped to you. your gun will float above you and somewhay out of the way after a shot.

You need to watch spearfishing for a while I think. Hell this video i shot yesterday shows my son shooting little fish and you can see how he drop the gun and allows it to float above him when dealing with the fish.


[video=youtube_share;InWRO0lPzuc]http://youtu.be/InWRO0lPzuc[/video]
 
Do the wooden guns float?

What if the fish pulls away and I lose the line? I don't really want to wrap it around my hands and if my gun is free floating/sinking it will go with the fish.

You guys are close to the bottom there and I can see that it's not much of an issue. I may not be close to the bottom.
 
Do the wooden guns float?

What if the fish pulls away and I lose the line? I don't really want to wrap it around my hands and if my gun is free floating/sinking it will go with the fish.

You guys are close to the bottom there and I can see that it's not much of an issue. I may not be close to the bottom.


You didn't answer where you are going to be diving in 200 ft of water. That was an important question.
 
Ok on a wreck, You do not want to be tied to the gun.. What happens if a shark or jewfish snatches your recently shot fish and drags you off into the wreck? you shoot the fish and hang onto the gun. If it rips out of your hand and you can't catch up with a scooter and kicking .. then you made a crappy shot and you need a new gun.. Big deal.

After shooting a fish, you work your way down the line, grab the fish by the throat and stab it in the brain with a knife or use a metal stringer. The gun will float above your head.

Your gun will float without a shaft and sink with it in. If not, add some lead in the handle.

I would suggest leaving the scooter while you learn to use a speargun. BTW, that is a small gun and probably undersized for some of the fish you might see on that wreck. Start with small fish.
 
For clarification, the scooter is just to get to different parts of the wreck, not to shoot "on the fly". Most of the fish I've seen on my few dives to the O are around the flight deck (140' - 150'), away from most of the divers. And the sand is 215'. I'm thinking I'd be tough to pull around, even for an AJ, with doubles, small scooter, and probably a deco bottle.

A shark or Goliath Grouper would probably be a different story.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/peregrine/

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