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#1
February 24th, 2003
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i've seen rollerguns used before and spoken to their very proud makers and owners, but i want to hear what the general opinion is good and bad before i fabricate my own. what is the perfect application for a rollergun and what are its limitations.
some good stories and anecdotes involving rollerguns would be great! maybe some pictures of the guns and the fish they have landed, too. humour about any homemade freedive/spearfishing equipement and their trials and errors is also invited.     Last edited by gitano; February 28th, 2003 at 00:11. 
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rollergun & other homemade stuff
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#2
February 24th, 2003
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hi
I think if you go to Jack prodavanich's site there is a link to a few roller gun web pages and stuff about them. Only problem is I forgot what the web page is maybe try using yahoo and typing Super guns or something cos there was articles about a super gun as well, bu tmaybe someone else knows the link. cheers
__________________
andrew down under
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#3
February 24th, 2003
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http://rocknfish.com/Rollergun.html
I built my own a while back. it weighed a ton but threw a spear about 20m under water. out of the water its range was about 40m but serious bending of the shaft was a common result. 
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#4
February 24th, 2003
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Quote:
Woooo ! ! ! This was the most amaizing thing that i ever heard about spearfishing.(except those local young speros who expect 7 meter range from 75 cm euro guns) .Hey Shadow what is this gun looks like???
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#5
February 24th, 2003
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Maybe I should qualify that 20m. that was without shooting line and in about 3m of water. i was about 1m off the bottom. so 20 total distance, with a 2m drop. my guess is that its real range might be 5-6m but its is only a 80cm gun with a single 18mm rubber.
the rubber are attached at the trigger mech, below the barrel obviously. its a pain to load and has since rusted solid. thats what you get for using metal rollers.
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#6
February 26th, 2003
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__________________
Deeper Blue Forum Mentor
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#7
February 26th, 2003
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the links are great and have given me yet more ideas of my own. i have my gun already half built and when finished will post some photos. again any homemade gun stories or photos of any type are wanted funny or not!
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#9
February 26th, 2003
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go straight to your local sailing or boat shop and get some rollers from there. hardware shops often dont have marine grade rollers and they rust solid after a while..
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#10
February 27th, 2003
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 O.K. to preface this I was only twelve... I was visiting the Pacific Northwest for the first time and was suffering from culture shock. I brought a 3mm suit with me, ah yes the advantages of pre-pubesence, but no gun. Discouraged with what my Portuguese money could buy, I devised to make my own polespear. First a trip to the junkyard/recycler was in order. Some aluminum tubing, rusty spring steel, a steering wheel(don't ask I was twelve it looked cool and went on my bedroom wall) and a stray dog later and I was ready. A previous trip to the hobby store and hardware store yeilded JB Weld, some cord, elastics, a double mill bastard file and sharpening stone. I had already done some diving and noted that the fish were deeper here than in much of Western Europe. What was my answer, a super long polespear of course, just that much less depth to swim! Yes this was to be a near 3 metre super shaft out of you guessed it aluminum tubing . At each end there was a nice glob of JB Weld, one with three very sharp rusty barbed tongs fashioned into a paralyzer the other held a loop of cord to hold the elastics. Certainly it floated and had no travel, much less hitting power, so i drilled a very small hole to fill the tube with water. I nailed a few rockfish with it(even though it wobbled like a hurtling javelin), but I was getting board with the small stuff... I swam out to the edge of the kelp beds looking for cabezon. After multiple dives I found it "the one". I knew that this would be the crowning moment for my new polespear and if I landed this fish with it my uncle would be forced to stop calling my super spear "lo spaghetto volante(the flying noodle)" I dove down and started to stretch the band and take aim when the tubing bowed dramaticly, in the excitement I streched the band farther than ever before. I looked back to see it quiver and shake. Did I let go to avoid impending doom, GOD NO I froze I watched the pole buckle, yes you guessed it right at the drilled hole near the butt end. Still frozen I watched the JB Weld plug pull loose and leave a nice scar on my elbow and ignite my funny bone for the rest of the day.Now my fabrication skills are much better and so is my reaction time.  I still have the scar it is just hidden under others, but that is another story. Let's hear some of your stories!!! Last edited by gitano; February 27th, 2003 at 17:30.
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stuff that makes you wonder god why
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#11
February 27th, 2003
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Had a friend who buckled a pole spear. It was his dad's old spear and he had been using it for a couple of years. We were night diving and he happened to find a sleeping parrotfish. Yeah I know, not very sporting but he is not a good diver and has never shot a parrotfish during the day. All jazzed, he loads both rubbers on his three prong when he said he felt something very different. Apparently, two rubbers on the old alluminum tube was too much and the spear buckled. If I think back, I can still hear him yelling in the dark for me. I thought he saw a shark and was freaking out so I swam up to him only to find him standing on the reef begging me to use my spear. I loaned him mine and proceded to try and bend his spear back into shape. It turned into a mini z shape in the middle of the spear.
After getting the parrotfish, I gave him his three prong and we continued the dive. We happened upon some mangroves and were swimming side by side when I saw his light hit something big and silver. It was a Mu or porgy. He proceded to try and shoot the fish with his crooked spear. Obviously, it didn't work and the fish got off. He chases the thing deeper into the mangroves when it turns around and heads for the channel. Just so happens that I am floating in the channel watching the whole thing unfold. The Mu swims right at me but my friend is now blinding me with his dive light. Out of instinct, I extend my spear and the fish swims right into it. After turning my back on my partner, I pull the spear back and let it fly. Lucky shot as my spear barely penetrates but just enough to stone it. I figured my partner would be happy but he wasn't. He thought I was going to keep it and was kinda pissed that I shot it. I explained that I put in a back up shot and that it was his fish. We argued on it until I told him that it was his but he had to call me when he cooked it. He did and it tasted pretty good. We weren't very good divers then so spearing sleeping parrotfish was just about the only way we could get them. I hardly shoot them during the day, and never at night now. Still, if I see mu, kumu, or moi at night while bug hunting, I'll shoot em! They are nocturnal and besides, they taste too good to pass up. Brad 
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#14
March 13th, 2003
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Hey Bom Dia Gitano,
I took my instructor training for scuba diving in Lisboa, in Saldanha to be exact. Lived in the Azores for 3 years, great spearfishing and diving. My backyard was a vineyard then the ocean. Sure miss spearfishing everyday. Ate Logo, Marcos
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