8 mm shaft on Meandros Argo BW

[BradleyAM]

Hi all,

I’m on a spearing trip in the Yucatán. I had some issues with a gun so I had to pick a new one up locally. I got a 130 cm meandros Argo bw.

The local guy had it set up with an 8 mm shaft. I saw online the default is a 7 mm. Will this gun have ballasting issues with a shaft this heavy or power issues with a 3x13 mm band set up? I’ve also got access to a 7.5 mm rob allen drop barb I could likely shoot, but I’d have to find a way to get a third notch or switch the gun to 2x16. All thoughts are welcome.

 

[rollerGR]

3x13 for a long 8mm shaft is very weak. For comparison, 2x14,5mm are great for 6,5mm shafts (not even 7mm ones). 2x16mm for 6,75mm. 3x13 is roughly 100N of force (100kg), the rough equivalent of 2x16mm (assuming normal 3 to 3,1 stretch).

If the gun can handle the recoil I'd suggest 1x16mm + 1x17,5mm with a 7,25 shaft, or 7,5 if a lighter one is not available. For comparison a standard carbon setup here (Greece/Med) used by the late D. Kollias is 3x16mm with a short 7mm shaft.

 

[BradleyAM]

The meandros guns come with considerably higher stretch. It’s right around 350%. I should have also mentioned they are small ID.

I have a 95cm meandros gun that shoots a 7.5 mm shaft with two small id 14 mm bands at similar stretch and I string nearly ever fish. It’s a complete laser and the reason I chose this gun. I just didn’t realize it had a changed shaft.

Thank you for sharing your experience. I will definitely keep this in mind though and look to switch to a lighter shaft as I think it will perform better especially. I’ll post back on Sunday with my experiences with this gun.

 

[rollerGR]

350% is considerably better, a force at around 120kg in 13mm bands is comparable in energy (J) to 3x16mm bands at 300%. So it should work fine for a 7mm shaft assuming it's hard rubbers similar to Cetma/Sigal for example. Heavier than 7mm would be a bit slower, but: I mentioned the Med specifically for the reason of prey here. In larger, slower fish, it should work just fine (like you mentioned).

I'd personally still go for a lighter shaft if there's no danger of bending, due to lower recoil but that's just how I like to hunt. Looking forward to your info!

 

[rafav]

All guns are built around a specific shaft, I’d go back to manufacture‘s specs, 3x13mm (small IDs don’t make that much of a difference) will not work with the 7.5mm shaft. If you need an 8mm shaft (usually for large pelagics), I’d play with adding more mass and buoyancy and 16mm bands.

 

[BradleyAM]

I’ve taken the gun out twice now. I was able to pick up a 7.5 mm x 175 cm shaft.

The first time I had a good chance to shoot a king mackerel but I had muzzle wrap issues. Additional shots continued to muzzle wrap. I filed down the loading tab which allowed the band to lay better in the gun and fixed the muzzle wrap. I didn’t see any fish blue water today, but the recoils feels manageable and the gun feels like it has good power. I’ll need to actually hit something to be sure. I do think 14 mm bands would work better, but it’s definitely about the right power. A 8 mm shaft likely would have been sluggish and hard to aim. The gun is definitely negatively buoyant with a 7.5 but can still be aimed comfortably.

Unfortunately shafts are limited in this area and there aren’t any 7 mm x175 cm shafts available.