American Riffe Euro Series spearguns now available in UK

[Mr. X]

I just noticed that Apnea.co.uk are now selling American Riffe spearguns (on sale currently too): RIFFE Euro Series Speargun. Anybody bought one/using one or have thoughts on their suitability for the UK?
Apnea Online Store

 

[Pastor]

Cool! That means they will stock the shafts for my Wong

 

[Mr. X]

Wong?! So that's what the hip spearos are packing on the Welsh Rivera these days -- pretty fancy. Thought Alison used a Riffe sometimes.

 

[Pastor]

Yeah, that's right She had a tiny wooden "Bottom" midhandled gun, nice little thing. No idea what happened to that, I have a couple of her other guns now courtesy of her brother That's my Wong in my signature, the red dragon!

Nice piece of kit

 

[Mr. X]

Any chance of some pictures? Seems like Wongs are the ultimate US speargun - all made by the man himself last I heard and legendary after sales service.

What size do you normally use up there? I'm looking for a smaller gun for the poor vis. I often encounter - although something inexpensive would be more appropriate to my needs and budget. Was hoping to get a 70cm RA but it is proving difficult. Starting to look at other options (75/80cm) - Omer Excalibur or regular Cayman/Cressi Commanche/...

 

[Pastor]

Mine is a 50" gun which translates into a 110cm but the mid handle means it is only stuck out infront of you like an 80cm gun which is OK for middling to good vis. The good bit is that it moves very easily and smoothly.
This year we've been using short guns, the vis has been so bad but usually we use 90 or 100cm gunsfor general hunting and the 60 for the gullies and tight under the kelp. I have been impressed with the flexibility of the mid handled guns, I think if more of us Brits had a go with then they might become more popular over here.

 

[getawayFK]

I use a riffe euro (110cm) model and it's so far my prefered gun !

This gun is a lovely one... It's made of several laminated teak wood plaques, and comes with 2 standard 16mm bands and a 6.75mm shaft.... My setup is 3*16mm bands on a 7.1mm spear, and i rigged it with a modified reel and 30m dyneema line... It's accuracy is deadly too and still has perfect penetration at 6-7m average shots!

The only downside of this gun: bit pricy (well not too much for wooden guns), heavy; therefore harder to aim and control in area of strong currents....

One last piece of advise: I advise you to buy this gun mainly if you will be hunting in clear or deeper blue water, as it gets hard and irritating to use this gun in shallows (it's too long; remember a 110cm is around 135cm long gun (total) so it is very hard to aim/use in shallows or long viz conditions (the fish will probably be spoked by the tip of the gun b4 u get to it !), and you dont wanna shoot at rock even from a 3m distance coz that will still damage the tip of your shaft !

That's my 0.2cents about this gun !

Good luck and safe hunting !

 

[Pastor]

As requested: the muzzle

 

[Pastor]

The back end showing rail and enclosed track, Daye tab etc

 

[harpune1]

hi im a bit confused buy the sizing of these guns.....
a 110cm gun is 135cm long without spear???!!??
can some one clear the dimensions
thx

 

[Pastor]

There is a difference in the way European and American type gun makers classify the lengths of their guns. The Americans use the total length of the gun from butt to muzzle tips, whereas the Europeans use (with some variations) the effective length of the barrel, either the barrel itself or the total length of the bands stretched but excluding the bits behind the trigger etc

 

[getawayFK]

110 riffe euro refers to that when u stretch the most distal band to the most distal fin on the shaft, the total length will be 110cm (therefore, it excludes any distance behind the shaft fin/notch, and ahead of the bands....

 

[harpune1]

so that my be too long for my loading abilities.....
i read some where "three power bands" but do see only 2 (16mm??) bands in the pictures
i think riffe has some 13.8mm bands too. would triple bands work with 6.75mm (standard??) shaft?
also i read that the mono cannot be fixed at the hole in the end of the spear,
how do you fix it then and where? .Since the sharkfin option also seems to be denied by some forums members...
thx

 

[Mr. X]

Very striking Parson -- rock n roll! Is the barrel carbon fibre?

 

[Pastor]

Yes, it's extra thick carbon, much thicker than the norm. Apparently carbon is better suited to colder climes in the hybrid than titanium as it expands and contracts less with temperature changes

 

[Spaniard]

I just noticed that Apnea.co.uk are now selling American Riffe spearguns (on sale currently too): RIFFE Euro Series Speargun. Anybody bought one/using one or have thoughts on their suitability for the UK?
Apnea Online Store

About 8 years ago when I was importing under 'Silent Blue Ltd' I contacted Riffe to ask about UK distributorship, they were very friendly and offered full support. When I tried to 'push' the guns here in the UK I had zero response although at the time their cheapest gun was 3 times more expensive than the good Euro guns of the time. I told them the sad news so perhaps this led, in some part, to the Riffe Euro gun; in my dreams anyway. Foxfish has studied the gun closely but that man can build better wooden guns with his eyes shut, don't know if he has posted his opinions on DB?

 

[foxfish]

http://forums.deeperblue.net/euro-spearguns/70218-riffe-euro-style-speargun-series-mag-track.html
There you go!

 

[smaillaut]

hello,
About the sizes of the Riffe guns some mistakes were said:
For the competitors, standard, mid-handle and metal tech serie, the size Riffe write on their website is the entire gun.
For the Euro Series it's the distance between the hole of the power bands and the trigger.
Euro guns are delivered with 2 16mm power bands but it's possible to upgrade until 3 power bands of 14mm or 2 power bands of 18mm.
Bye

 

[getawayFK]

Euro guns are delivered with 2 16mm power bands but it's possible to upgrade until 3 power bands of 14mm or 2 power bands of 18mm.
Bye

Btw you can even mount 3 * 16mm bands on the euro riffe, and it can also accept the 5/16 (7.9mm) square notched riffe shaft (on riffe website they state that euro riffe series guns can accept 6.5, 6.75 and 7.1mm euro riffe shafts), but i found that even the 7.9mm safely mount in even loaded with 3*16mm bands !!! In that setup, this gun can do some serious damage to any fish from some great distances (more of a blue-water setup for a euro gun :ko )...

Regards !

 

[smaillaut]

it's working with 3 16mm but you kill the power bands very quickly....
Euro series accept Shaft from europe (Omer, Dessault,...)so you can go over the 7.10mm that Rife has at is catalog.
For next season Riffe is going to introduce a 7.94 shaft (5/16")