[Mr. X]

Well...when I changed the bands, I was surprised to find that there was a some water inside them (is that normal?) but it hardly seemed enough to make such a difference. Although the additional weight of the 20mm bands might be about the same.

I did try shaking the gun before but could hear no slosh. To be sure, I just tried again and ... a piece of grit came out of the trigger mech & there is darn big piece /small rock/pebble stuck behind my trigger. Had one causing loading problems on hols. (sometimes spear wouldn't go in or wouldn't engage, sometimes line release stuck inside) - thought I had managed to get that out mid-dive maybe, maybe not. Another piece of grit just came out. The big one doesn't want to come out. Got it! Well that should help (surprised it could work at all with that little lot inside!). No slosh though.

Interesting Miles. Is 6mm strong enough? I actually, tried to order a 6.3mm spear (as I notice that is an option on the Scorpia model in the UK 6.3 or 6.6) -- although I was a little concerned that it might not be tough enough. I suspect I will end up with a 6.6mm, probably the more common choice here. I notice the competition spearos like UKSpearo & spearoMatt favour slim spears - presumably faster.

Although I whined about the 20mm bands (& had grit in my mech)- I was unusually successful with them last week [see: South Devon 2007 thread]. I reckon that was mainly the good weather & time of season, but you never know!

Image below: 20mm loading technique reminders! (This was after 4 days of spearing & 2 days of rest -- speared for another 2 days after this. Bruises blackened later but are fading fast now!). Probably at least partially due to not ensuring both ends of the band were the same length ... even'm up after a couple of days, just tweaked them again to get them perfectly even.