Metal wishbones

[Alison]

Ive been using dyneema wishbones for a while now but last week on holiday I broke one and had none spare, so out came the spares kit and I screwed on an articulated one I had only used a couple of times I checked the pins and they looked fine so off I went woohoo!
Couple of days later while reloading, just got the thing located and whilst pulling my fingers out from between the bands and the gun, BANG!! I felt some pain in my fingers, thankfully just a bruise and a ruined glove. What happend was one of the metal washers inside the screw on caps that holds one of the crimped ends of the wishbone had given up and snapped allowing the end to pull through the plastic OUCH!!
Those of you who use articulated wishbones may want to unscrew them and give those washers a once over once in a while

[donmoore]

Allison, what type of gun and shafts do you use? I use American shafts with shark fins and cheap nylon wishbones and have never had one fail. You must be using European guns with cutouts in the shaft?
don

[Alison]

Yes it was with the cutouts in the shaft, the wishbone was a standard Omer articulated. I certainly wont be using them again (Metal wishbones not Omer products that is) well I dont have another anyway

[Huan]

I have often found that euro wishbones are secured by two nuts tightened against each other.Routine servicing shows that they undo allowing a situation like Alison encountered.
My solution was to buy a few 4mm stainless Nyloc nuts and use them instead of the normal nuts.
Nyloc nuts are the ones with a little blue ring in the end.

[donmoore]

So if you were using dyneema wishbones the bands must be hollow and you inserted a knotted wishbone end into the band hole and tied the outside of the tube with waxed line. Is that the way it is?
don

[Huan]

Don
You can use the caps that come with articulated wishbones to make your own dyneema Euro wishbones.
You put the cord through the hole and tie a stopper knot.
I tried these in the past but found that they chafed very fast.

[donmoore]

Huan,
Thanks. How does stainless cable work for wishbones in European guns? Does it chafed too?
don

[Huan]

I have not seen a reliable way of connecting stainless cable to Euro screw on caps, I have tried using motorcycle barrel terminations , the type that you put the cable through whack the end of the wire so that it splays out and then solder.
However I don't trust all those different metals in seawater and at high tension.
I prefer to use the Screw in Euro adaptors and the Rob Allen wire wishbones.
But after a little use the broken strands make loading a little hazardous, I prefer to use the articulated wishbones much as some despise them I have never really had any problems with them.
I must add that I am using Euro shafts not the RA shafts which have nicely polished line slots.

[Alison]

Colin has polished the line slots on our shafts using some grinding paste and nylon cord, it has reduced the chaffing loads but the outer case of the dyneema still wears but the inner strands are fine for ages afterwards so generally no problem. The dyneema whishbones are made up just like Huan explained except we reuse the small washers as well (not sure if it is any advantage or not). Anyway the point I was trying to make was to check these washers out if you use articulated wishbones as an extra bit of kit check that might not usually be looked at.

[miles]

Hiya

The fraying of either dyneema or cable wishbones is due to the notch's in the spear not being smooth. I've had my Picasso's and Omer's and Beuchat's notchs polished smooth and not even the outer core of my dyneema wish-bones show any sign of damage.

Just a side note: both my 90 and 110cm Picasso's hole at the end of the spear (where your shooting line is attached) were quite rough. You could actually see how it was damaging the shooting line. A quick polish to remove all the sharp edges and no more problems!!!

Regards
miles

[czspearfisher]

miles how did you polish it? btw how doea the rob allen vecta compare to all the other euro guns you have used? thanks, ryan

[Alison]

I can answer that for Miles if you dont mind a woman doing it
You'll need a round needle file and either a few grades of wet or dry sand paper or some nylon line and some grinding paste (the sort used for fixing car engine valves). First file the edges of the slot with the needle file, you should aim to just round off all the edges that the wishbone will come into contact with, there's no need to go mad and create new side slots. Then use the wet or dry sand paper or the line and grinding paste to polish the surface of the slot; actually the grinding paste is a lot easier than the sandpaper and only takes a few seconds

[czspearfisher]

thanks alison