[Mr. X]

Really, what's causing the noise - the hollow barrel? I don't paid much attention to sound-level as I figure my loading/dispatching sounds are likely to be far more noticeable.

Macnaughty, the HF2 sounds like a good bet. For a gun to grow into, that muzzle covers most/all options. The XXV has that too & the Gold model has a track which is a nice feature (but probably increases lateral drag by adding ~3mm to the side profile) as tracks are more tolerant of different spear lengths (stop spear droop) if you wanted to try different ones. If you get either gun with the reel, that opens up additional possibilities. The extra cost of the reel when buying the gun is sometimes quite small & quite a bit lower than buying it afterwards (worth checking). Reels are primarily used when dealing with large/holed up fish & a few of us said we think the XXV is probably better suited to smaller fish - so maybe that sounds like an odd combination but an XXV can no doubt be used for the occasional larger fish.