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Anybody using Greek MVD spearguns, e.g. MVD Predator?

Thread Status: Hello , There was no answer in this thread for more than 60 days.
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Mr. X

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Hi, has anybody on the forum used any MVD equipment? E.g. reels, roller muzzles or spearguns?

I came across the MVD Predator fitted with a neat mini-reel on youtube. There are several videos. I found their retail website. The design and construction looks good and prices seem reasonable: https://www.mvd-retail.gr/product-page/predator-zeso-open

5cf230_3929c68e52d6467ab101c88dd5af313f~mv2_d_5735_5735_s_4_2.jpg

Compact 55cm: https://www.mvd-retail.gr/product-page/predator-zeso-55-open
5cf230_edb7a003035143bda7189e990eadc7aa~mv2_d_6135_6135_s_4_2.jpg
 
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An interesting, reasonably priced 55cm roller speargun: https://www.mvd-retail.gr/product-page/zeso-55-roller

5cf230_9fb216661f8849a6add0ab534efb6497~mv2_d_5258_5258_s_4_2.jpg
82 quid plus shipping seems reasonable, about AUD 154 (body only). Well there is the short rollergun that you were (possibly) looking for.
  1. Body Only setup includes: body, free camera mounting kit
  2. Ready to use setup includes: body, reel Vertical Soft Touch Arrow Extra Small black, Line, Inox Shaft 6.5mm 90 SharkFin 1-FlopUp, 2x 40cm - 14mm rubber bands, free camera mounting kit
Also available as an inverted rollergun with a band battery.
 
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Do you like inverted rollers? Presumably more power but at the cost of 2 stage loading?
Looks very impressive in this French video (keep watching it gets better ;) ):


I watched the youtube video for setting up the inverted roller. It struck me as cluttered and complex esp. on such a small speargun - and it mentioned at least twice that you can add even more rubbers! Don't think I need that much power in a short-speargun, I'm not shooting huge sturgeon in bad Viz.

The regular roller interests me more (and the regular open muzzle band gun).
 
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Too good to be true: Oh dear. The price for body-only looks good but it only includes the items in point #1 I.e. "body" & camera mount - no spear, reel, rubbers, cords, wishbone, etc. The full thing is more than twice the price :( Also the shipping cost on top of that is significant: €45 or €65. We never did get USA-style low shipping costs in the EU :(. €260.80 :(
 
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US shipping costs can be high, I have bought used spearguns from the USA where the shipping costs as much as the gun, sometimes more! A small gun does not need to be an inverted roller, but the simple rollergun gives longer bands than a standard gun which would need to have very short bands otherwise.
 
The USA shipping I referred to is strictly within the continental USA and nearby islands (e.g. not inc. Hawaii, Alaska or abroad). USPS is/was great value. Although I feel I should mention that the term "going Postal" originated I the USA.

Tried to see how much it would cost for just major parts without assembly (e.g. body + reel + spear) but the site does not sell spears separately, pity as the videos suggest they often use 6.5mm Sandvik steel spears with 3 shark fins.
 
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Oh dear, it seems that MVD have some serious fit and finish quality problems too:
:(
 
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Oh dear, it seems that MVD have some serious fit and finish quality problems too:
:(

That is the special edition gun which is a different gun to the one being discussed earlier. Totally different grip and barrel which looks rather agricultural with the rough handle finish, but if it does the job who cares? Personally with the high mounted sear box that gun shown in the video would not interest me. This orange handle gun looks good and has an alloy barrel, you don't need carbon fiber in a short gun.
MVD 55 cm rollergun.jpg
 
The standard shaft on the "set up" gun is 6.5 mm, I would rather have a 7 mm or 8 mm shaft in a short gun for close-up work, plus a reel is unnecessary, hence the "body only" option would be OK for the 55 cm model. Different story for the longer models, but heavier shafts have more hitting power at distance as has been shown with instrumented tests as speed washes off the lighter shafts more rapidly and they will be overtaken by heavier shafts. Tests used guns with a marked shooting line that passed through a frequency counter to provide the spear velocity with distance travelled, the marks being dots at set spacing that generated pulses in an optical detector. Niko Brummer performed the tests many years ago in South Africa.
 
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Do you like inverted rollers? Presumably more power but at the cost of 2 stage loading?
Looks very impressive in this French video (keep watching it gets better ;) ):


I watched the youtube video for setting up the inverted roller. It struck me as cluttered and complex esp. on such a small speargun - and it mentioned at least twice that you can add even more rubbers! Don't think I need that much power in a short-speargun, I'm not shooting huge sturgeon in bad Viz.

The regular roller interests me more (and the regular open muzzle band gun).

Just looking at this gun with someone holding it, as against the gun only website photos, it looks pretty big for 55 cm. Now 55 cm is 21.7 inches and either this guy is a midget or that gun is a lot longer than 55 cm.

Looking back at the "set up" gun option it looks like the shaft is 90 cm and the bands are 40 cm (14 mm diameter). Now the inverted version has similar specs.
Ready to use setup includes: body, reel Vertical Soft Touch Arrow Extra Small black, Dyneema, Inox Shaft 6.5mm 90 SharkFin 1-FlopUp, 3x pairs of 14cm - 14mm rubber bands, free camera mounting kit,, 2x polymer pulleys
Except that it has a third pair of 14 mm bands. When inverted rollerguns are cocked the wishbone travels through double the draw on the bands, which in this case are 14 cm bands, the standard rollerguns were 40 cm. With 200 per cent elongation the bands are pulled to three times their length which would be 42 cm, but the gun in the inverted roller video appears to be cocked, yet the bands are some way back from the muzzle.
 
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Here are some of these MVD 55 rollerguns being sold on eBay, so you can see the all up cost.
 
I don't have it. It was a friend's gun. I think it was a 100, which means it was at least 140 cm with the shaft.

You saw the video of a snapper I stoned with it.
 
I must say, the French video above did cause me to re-appraise my thinking. It looks like a very handy size for poor/mixed viz. It might also be a good float-carried spare when using a longer speargun, e.g. 90-100cm, instead of a 75cm regular band gun. Perhaps a bit long and powerful for a cave gun.

Pete, I agree, a think a thicker spear would make more sense for a short, powerful gun. Although my thinking was for robustness and handling the increased power of a roller.
 
Thinking about the inverted roller vs. regular roller option, a few more possible advantages occurred to me:
- Reduced mass, profile, inertia, turning moment, hydrodynamic drag by not having bulky, heavy rubbers at muzzle.
- less muzzle heavy, better balanced.

Too complex and too many parts, esp. moving parts, for my tastes but the regular roller or non-roller version could be ok I think.
 
I don't have it. It was a friend's gun. I think it was a 100, which means it was at least 140 cm with the shaft.

You saw the video of a snapper I stoned with it.
Just trying to get a handle on the dimensions of the MVD 55 as manufacturers have different ideas on the sizes of their guns. For example I have a 70 cm band gun that looks shorter than that MVD 55. Compare the MVD 55 with this gun, they look about the same size. That "55" may be misleading.
Balco Sub Thunder 70.jpg

And a more direct comparison wrt length.
MVD 55 cf Balco Sub 70.jpg
 
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