kaborkian:
I would agree with most of this, it's not way important to get caught up in spending all kinds of money. We do tend to shoot big fish, hence the "bigger is better". I've seen too many divers with smaller guns not get the penetration to keep a fish.
However, I stand by what I said above. Riffe is more expensive initially, but well worth it. The JBL I mentioned above happens to be sitting here next to my desk because I had to repair it for my friend after our last trip. He's only been out on about 5 trips this summer, and his JBL is showing MUCH wear.
I can't say anything bad about the JBLs, I've been using them for 25yrs now.
My first gun was a Voit AMF gun, same as JBL but manufactured 25 yrs ago, I used that gun for more than 15 yrs and only replaced tips and a couple of shafts.
I lost that gun due to a break-in to my college apt. (shame it wasn't a big fish). If that gun wasn't stolen, I'd probably still have it!
When I updated about 8yrs ago, I found out that JBL was manufacturing the same guns with a couple of improovements, like the tru-glide, sealed stocks and the carbide reinforced trigger mechanism on the XHD models. One step back, in my opinion is the plastic muzzle over the metal one (probably for boyancy), so I bought one for spare and I still wait for it to break, no sign of failure in the near future.
The plastic muzzle, tend to open when using 3 bands (the outer band comes off the gun when you take a shot), but the fix came with the speargun, a tie wrap around the muzzle in each side between the outer and middle band so the muzzle won't spread and let the band out.
That gun is modified a bit:
Longer butt, 48" 5/16 shaft, 12' shock line, spinner head rockpoint or break away rock point, lanyard, 3 bands 5/8" dia 20" long.
Works great, may not be the best gun out there, but to me is exactly what I need, very little maintenance and catch the big fish too.
Me on the right and my brother on the left after a Monito dive 3NM NW of Mona Island. You can see the gun in the floor between my legs.
Bottom line, it isn't the arrow, it's the indian what counts!!