Alpinasub Pneumatic Speargun, ball sear operation

[popgun pete]

I found this auction when it appeared at the bottom of an eBay auction in the "people who were interested in this item also bought" section.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Alpinasub-F...f2a2c04&pid=100277&rk=1&rkt=4&sd=112335698471

Now this gun looks like the "Kayuk" speargun which was discussed here some years ago, that gun using a three ball sear where the balls move outwards to trap the piston rather than close in on it externally. The "Kayuk" was a floating after spear discharge gun, a relative rarity in the former USSR, but becoming more common today. Sinking guns have advantages as you don't need a search team down river trying to locate your dropped gun! However as most of us dive in the ocean we prefer a speargun to be a floater. The "Alpinasub" appears to be a badge engineering job and may have been created to access a different regional market.

 

[popgun pete]

Well it looks like "Alpinasub" is a distributor name as here a RPP-4 (РПП-4) is being offered under the same name, but it is an entirely different gun being a front latching type, similar to the RPB-1 and RPP-1.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Alpinasub-F...9113df1&pid=100009&rk=1&rkt=1&sd=252814274783

 

[popgun pete]

On checking back the "Kayuk" speargun received a mention in the "Airbalete 110" thread (page 8) and another thread about sourcing alloy barrel tubing. The "Kayuk" website can be found at: http://www.kayuk.ru/, however my virus checker "siteadvisor" has proclaimed it a no go area! Now as I have been there before I am not going to risk it, but it could be a false alarm.

Fortunately a European distributor has appeared at http://www.batiskaf.eu/ and you can see the "Kayuk" speargun there.