As you some of you know, I don't have the privilege of living near the ocean - well, at least not one that is diveable.
Also, in China, where I live, I am not allowed to have spearguns, so I store my guns with a friend in Thailand and spear once or twice a year on vacations in that region.
I took up spearfishing only a few years back but decided for various practical and personal reasons to devote myself to pneumatics - I am a nerd at heart and love that they are intrinsically a bit more complicated and as I would travel with them to do any kind of spearing, I wanted the most powerful I could get in the smallest package.
Around New Years, I took some weeks off and headed back down to Thailand, picked up the guns and spent a bit more than a month on various islands in the south of the country.
Here is a list of the issues I ran into, some are not really related to the spearguns:
I think my bandgun friends' guns "broke" exactly as much as mine did, maybe more, but the difference was that their fixes were easier. There were many broken wishbones and a guy with an expensive Beuchat roller almost lost his whole intricate rubber setup when the wishbone broke and the rubbers tore off the gun. We spent 30 mins looking for the rubbers and luckily found them on the surface way down down current. As he didn't travel with extra rubbers - the gun was brand new - he would have been in a bad place had we not found them.
So, I am still a strong believer in oleos. For long trips away from tool boxes, spare parts and workshops we just have to plan a lot more ahead and be prepared to improvise. And had I kept my guns stock I would likely have had much less trouble. So, to me the pneumatics, even on long trips away from civilization are still my weapons of choice.
And specifically, after this latest trip, I have now made up my mind to simplify my travel setup. I will try to only travel with similar guns in different lengths and have as many parts as possible interchangeable between the guns. And I will always travel with extra pistons, shock absorbers, o-rings and possibly an extra pump and pump seals.
But I am also setting out to lightening my setup. I will save a bit of bulk by going from four to two guns (two Mares Mirages). And I will likely also get a 1.5mm suit instead of my 3mm which will enable me to drop some lead too.
Also, in China, where I live, I am not allowed to have spearguns, so I store my guns with a friend in Thailand and spear once or twice a year on vacations in that region.
I took up spearfishing only a few years back but decided for various practical and personal reasons to devote myself to pneumatics - I am a nerd at heart and love that they are intrinsically a bit more complicated and as I would travel with them to do any kind of spearing, I wanted the most powerful I could get in the smallest package.
Around New Years, I took some weeks off and headed back down to Thailand, picked up the guns and spent a bit more than a month on various islands in the south of the country.
Here is a list of the issues I ran into, some are not really related to the spearguns:
- Most guns leaked. My own fault as I used a custom made carbon fiber outer tank. I managed to fix them with copious amounts of teflon plumbing tape. Obviously not a long-term solution
- Line Release on One Air slipped. Again, it was already a non-perfect modification of mine that needed a bit of re-work. I added material to the part of the line release that was being held by the trigger as that part was too thin. I made a cement out of beach sand and super glue and sanded it down. I used a small piece of grinding stone that I carry for sharpening spears for the sanding. Worked a treat
- Seac Pump thread stripped! While pumping the old Mirage on the boat, I manage to cross thread the pump badly. It could have been the end of the Mirage on that trip as it later lost all its air through the pump valve. In the beginning, I kept it alive by using the Omer to Mares pressure gauge adapter as an adapter for the Omer pump. Later on, I managed to repair the pump by cutting off the damaged part with an angle-grinder. Near perfect, though rough, repair
- Mirage pump valve leaked. I changed the o-ring in it (for the second time) and it held air after that
- Fiber optic sights tore off the Mirage. I had made a pair of fiber optic sights and the front sights got torn off on my very fist shot. My attachment sleeve was badly designed, I suspect. Later on, I glued the sight in place on the tube with superglue and it seems solid now
- One Air pump seal disintegrated. The otherwise nicely made Omer pump lost its seal and:
- One Air gun leaked completely when pieces of the broken pump seal got jammed in its pump valve. I took apart the valve, cleaned out the rubber bit and then moved the seal from my other pump to the One Air pump and pumped the 120cm gun back up to 29 bar. Not a lot of fun
- STC Piston and Shock Absorber cracked on Mirage at 26-28 Bar. Not exactly sure what the pressure was at, perhaps even a tad lower, but I busted the piston as well as the shock absorber. I then cannibalized my MediSten for its Vuoto Muzzle and its Sten piston
- Vuoto Muzzle shock absorber o-rings busted. When I came back to Bangkok and took the Mirage apart I found that 3 out of 8 o-rings had cracked - one had disintegrated partly into small pieces
- Someone stepped on my One Air while it was in the bag and broke the cam mount. That can happen and I just mounted the cam on my mask for when I took that gun out
- I lost 3 out of 4 shaft protectors (I always loose those)
- And two pairs of flip flops…
- Cracked LCD on iPhone AND Sony pocket cam. I dropped the phone on a concrete floor while in an airport loo;-) and the Sony pocket cam took a beating when the three-wheeler motorcycle I was a passenger on decided to tip over into a ditch. I was lucky with the Sony as it is the only pocket cam with a built-in popup viewfinder so though the LCD was dead, I could still shoot through the viewfinder
- Got cuts, blisters and some reef cut allergy, so had to do antibiotics. Remember to always travel with meds and consider getting Crocs vs. flip flops to better protect your feet as cuts don’t heal when in the water the whole day
- Battery almost dead on Suunto D4 dive computer. It would have been OK as I traveled with a spare and I know how to change them myself. Point is, if you dive for hours every day for a month - it will drain the battery a lot
- Strap on D4 breaking, as they still do...:-( Supposedly, Suunto's last batch of the original straps are better... I'd say probably not much though this last strap did hold up a year more than the first one
- iPhone cable died which is worse than it sounds since I could not charge it nor log onto here until I found a new cable;-) (Though the screen was almost unreadable, I used the phone as a hotspot)
I think my bandgun friends' guns "broke" exactly as much as mine did, maybe more, but the difference was that their fixes were easier. There were many broken wishbones and a guy with an expensive Beuchat roller almost lost his whole intricate rubber setup when the wishbone broke and the rubbers tore off the gun. We spent 30 mins looking for the rubbers and luckily found them on the surface way down down current. As he didn't travel with extra rubbers - the gun was brand new - he would have been in a bad place had we not found them.
So, I am still a strong believer in oleos. For long trips away from tool boxes, spare parts and workshops we just have to plan a lot more ahead and be prepared to improvise. And had I kept my guns stock I would likely have had much less trouble. So, to me the pneumatics, even on long trips away from civilization are still my weapons of choice.
And specifically, after this latest trip, I have now made up my mind to simplify my travel setup. I will try to only travel with similar guns in different lengths and have as many parts as possible interchangeable between the guns. And I will always travel with extra pistons, shock absorbers, o-rings and possibly an extra pump and pump seals.
But I am also setting out to lightening my setup. I will save a bit of bulk by going from four to two guns (two Mares Mirages). And I will likely also get a 1.5mm suit instead of my 3mm which will enable me to drop some lead too.
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