About 6 yrs ago, I moved to Spain, & being, "On my own", I started to "Snorkel", as apposed to "SCUBA" diving, like I had done "Back Home".I very soon decided to give "Hunting" a try, so I bought a Cressi SL pneumatic spear gun (I didn't know then,that it was the "smallest" in the range).The only problem, was that the Manual, was in Spanish, & that I, couldn't understand it."Oh well", I thought, look,s pretty straight forward, & it was, it worked well, great, for hunting amongst the rock,s, but just didn't have the "Power", to hit anything at a "Distance".The problem, I thought, was that the spear was too heavy, (I should say that I had had no "experience" with any type of spear gun, & that the simple solution, of course, would have been to have bought a "BIGGER" gun.Any way, I went about designing a lighter spear, but I needed to know how the gun held it, so, having completely (or so I thought) discharged the air, I started to mess with it, I loaded the shaft, but only pushed it down the barrel half way, where it stayed, I then (& don't ask me why) flipped the power control from half power, to it,s full power setting.... Yes, you,vie guest it,...BANG!.I didn't realize that you MUST have the selector on full power, "BEFORE" you discharge it, otherwise you will leave quite a lot of air in the gun.The spear shot through a cupboard, straight through an ironing board, & hit my Scuba bottle,s.After I changed my short,s, & composed myself, I carried on, thinking, "well, there must have been a little air left in it, but now it "MUST" be safe".......What was I thinking of, even now, I cant believe how incredibly "stupid" I was!.But I digress, Unscrewing the muzzle, I looked down into the barrel, to, "better see" how the end of the shaft, located in the piston, "bad idea",....BANG!!....BLOOD & PAIN!...DEADLY SILENCE!.........The only reason, why I, & my son, (Justin, yrs) are sitting hear, alive, & me with both eye,s, is that I used, "BOTH" eye,s, to look down the barrel.The piston, (still under pressure) had shot out, hitting me "Dead Center" between my eye,s, just above my nose, on my forehead."Oh F**k!" I thought, "I,m dead"!, I honestly thought I'd killed myself, shooting myself in the brain, & that, in a second or so, I would keel over, stone dead!. I sat there, in shock, blood running down my nose, dripping onto my lap....After 20 second,s or so, realizing that if I was still conscious, maybe, "I was'nt going to die", I nervously touched my forehead, was there anything sticking out of it?, no, nothing, only blood, & broken skin, Oh thank you, thank you.I got up, a bit unsteady, & went to look in the mirror, what damage had I done?, I new both my eye,s were OK, but had I split my forehead?.I slowly caught my image, first, my right eye, then slowly, oh so slowly, both eye,s,....relief!, nothing serious, but the impact of the piston had split the skin, & quite literally, "Dented" my forehead, (I still have the scar, but the "Dent" has disappeared).After cleaning my wound & applying a plaster, I went to my tool box, took out a hammer, & "SMASHED" the gun to pieces. You see, I had to stop myself from looking to see what had happened, & maybe, injuring myself, "Again".Also, I didn't want to throw the gun away if it was still serviceable, (maybe,it could be taken by a child).I nearly died that day, if I had used only one eye to look into the barrel, the piston most certainly would have entered my eye, going straight into my brain, probably killing me, at the very least, I would, most certainly, have "lost it". What I did that day, was, "Unbelievably stupid!", I messed with a lethal weapon, without fully understanding it .The gun, was in, "no way" at fault. I,m posting this account, to maybe stop some one, who, (like I did) think,s that they can mess with these guns without reading the instructions.If anyone think,s (after reading this) that I must be, a "fool", than that,s the price I,m willing to pay, to prevent this from happening to some one else......... keep safe... Geoff.
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