Cressi Comanche or Picasso Century?

[aesop]

I want to buy a speargun and can't decide between the Comanche or the Century. The Comanche is cheaper, but only by $40 US.

Could you guys give me some good solid reviews?

And what about the Picasso Century Carbontitanio? Would it be worth it to fork the extra cash out for that?

Thanks,
Chris [FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]
[/FONT]

 

[Pav]

I have a Comanche standard 90cm gun (my first gun). I've been really pleased with it. I nearly always hit the target with the exception of rushed shots. In all the advice and ideas I've been given I've decided to get another Commanche.

Seems like a well respected gun. Other guns advised to me were the Omer guns, but I'm sure the more expereinced spearos will post here re. the guns mentioned. Also worth reading the thread on "euroguns qulity / cost." for some ideas.

 

[Huan]

I could post almost exactly the same as Pav but with a Century.
I have found the gun very good, robust and accurate. It is still the workhouse in my house
I believe Cressi to be a good gun as are Omer and Picasso.
One feature that I like is the fact that the handle comes with 2 grip thicknesses on the Century.

 

[aesop]

Well, this will also be my first gun and want to buy something that I can keep around for a while. It is VERY nice that the Century comes with two grips. I guess it just comes down to how much money I want to spend, sounds like they're both solid guns.

Thanks for the help,
Chris

 

[aesop]

As I said above, this will be my first gun so I hope you don't take this question as too stupid.

Does a Cressi Comanche come with a tip on it? Is the shaft threaded?

I'll be buying it from DB.

I've seen in another thread that you can thread your shaft to fit female tips on it, so that led me to ask the question.:hmm

 

[Huan]

AFAIK most Euroguns come with Tahiitian spear,
ie the shaft has a topmounted flopper attached directly to it.
Rob allens have a Hawaiian style with the flopper below the shaft.
But there is threaded shafts available too for people that want to use tridents/or multiprong heads.

 

[aesop]

Thanks Huan. Would there be any pros and cons for a threaded shaft vs. a "fixed" shaft? I would imagine it would be the same either way as long as something like lock tite was used, or something similar.

Cheers,
Chris

 

[Mr. X]

Thanks Huan. Would there be any pros and cons for a threaded shaft vs. a "fixed" shaft? I would imagine it would be the same either way as long as something like lock tite was used, or something similar.

Cheers,
Chris

On one side:
Saw a good thread on trident tips on the forum yesterday (summary: immoblize fish, so good where you want to reduce risk of tangles e.g. caves, weed, wrecks).

On the other:
Rob Allen site has a good justification for their use of the single flopper Taihitian spear (basically, it works and everybody comes back to it in the end).

Seems like trident tips might suit short range/confined applications & Taihitians more general use.

 

[Huan]

I have used Trident points before but they are very slow, and to be honest they aren't much use in the type of fishing that I do.
A Tahiitian wates less meat on the fish too, and as long as the flopper is tuned properly the holding power is pretty good.
That said some french spearos use a version of a trident with 1 long and 2 shorter tines and they seem to like them, although they are very expensive to buy.
I have a Beuchat Rockpoint shaft with a replaceable tip that threads on and I have never really found the need to use loctite on the tip. I would be careful with threaded tips as they will tend to corrode inside the threaded portion as the metals are usually dissimilar.

 

[Mr. X]

Trying to find that trident thread: http://forums.deeperblue.net/forum79/thread65136-2.html?highlight=Picasso+Trident

I came across this related link: http://forums.deeperblue.net/forum114/thread61285.html?highlight=Trident

 

[Huan]

Yeah I guess I was down that road before....
Thats the head I was on about though, MATC http://secure.oxatis.com/PBSCCatalog.asp?ActionID=67240448&PBMItemID=624610

 

[spaghetti]

For me the only real advantage of trident is for cave hunting purposes (except for groupers): if the cave has small room, the single point tahitian may bounce back, or have not enough room to pierce completely the fish (so the flopper can't open, and the fish can't be held). Furthermore, an in-cave fish hit by trident will be stoned and blocked, a tahitian will let the fish make a lot of shaking, thus scaring other fishes inside and around. A trident is almost necessary for eels (mooray, congers, or freshwater eel in lakes): the only way you can surely block an eel with a tahitian is shooting straight into his mouth, but if you miss by only half centimeter it will be a mess.
For any other purpose, tahitian is better: trident is less sporty on short shots (too easy), less accurate in long shots, and will ruin the fish (I have split many in two pieces with trident).
This is what I think from my personal experience. Feel free to tell my how I'm wrong.

 

[miles]

Hiya

(I have split many in two pieces with trident).

Same here!!! Very funny to hit a fish and not be able to find it!! Then, hit another fish.......which also dis-appears.........then you happen to look on the bottom and see 2 fish split into two peices!!rofl rofl

aesop, keep it simple. Tahitian or hawaian spears work very well for almost all spearing situations. I started with a 90cm Cressi Apache and also own a 90cm Picasso Century. Both are good guns and both will serve you well. Simply choose the one you like most!!

Happy shopping!!

miles

 

[spaghetti]

ciao miles, but oops! I went a bit off topic cause I forgot the main thing: I always carry at least two guns, and one is always a short Comanche 60 which I use for cave, armed with 6.5 mm threaded shaft and 4 prong mustad trident. I keep it hanging under my float and pick it when I check caves.
But there's an alternative choice between tahitian/threaded + trident: a third way. It is the "K4 extreme", produced by S-Dive: it's a threaded tahitian shaft!!!. You can put the trident directly on the tahitian, without changing shaft.
http://www.sdive.it/catalogo/default.asp?sub=Fiocine&pg=3
click on "fiocine k4 extreme" at the bottom of this page's list

 

[aesop]

Interesting points everybody is making(no pun intended). I was thinking of having a threaded shaft for attaching rock points, slip tips and double barbed points, maybe even paralyzers.

The only way for me to know what tips work or not is for me to experience it for myself.

In the case of paralyzer tips, maybe a barbed paralyzer would be better in caves than a 5 pronger. :hmm Don't take my thoughts as advice because I have yet to shoot a speargun, these things just make sense in MY head.

Off topic...just let you know how wierd Oregon is, it's snowing right now, in MARCH! It NEVER snows in my region of Oregon.rofl

I thank you all for your advice and wouldn't mind hearing more opinions, I'm always starving for information, speacially on DB.

Regards,
Chris

 

[Mr. X]

...I always carry at least two guns, and one is always a short Comanche 60 which I use for cave, armed with 6.5 mm threaded shaft and 4 prong mustad trident.

That's interesting Spaghetti. I have been thinking of perhaps getting a smaller gun for poor viz, gulley's, holes, flatties. Are you happy with that size (seems like smaller size guns go from 35cm-75cm)? I need to get some more dives in to figure out what I, if anything, I need though. Sounds like your set-up is quite close to what I have been thinking of though. Do you attach the second gun to your float ... or are you boat diving?

By the way, on the earlier thread (see links above), Pav included some links to trident heads. Thought this rather expensive one looked interesting: http://www.subprof.com/tienda/product_info.php?cPath=56_122&products_id=695

 

[aesop]

Hey, I was just looking at www.picassoamerica.com and found they make a century pacific usa railgun. So that got me to wondering, is the century i wanna get a railgun?

I'm gonna get the century i've decided, whether it's a railgun or not. If I like that gun I'll problably get the century pacific usa, or a RA railgun. We'll see waht happens.

I still want to know if the century is a railgun though.:t

Thanks all for helping me,
Chris

 

[Huan]

Century is not a railgun
Century Pacific is a railgun.

 

[aesop]

Thank you kind sure! I figured that it wasn't, just wanted to make sure. I wish scubastore had more of a selection, such good prices!



Cheers,
Chris

 

[spaghetti]

That's interesting Spaghetti. I have been thinking of perhaps getting a smaller gun for poor viz, gulley's, holes, flatties. Are you happy with that size (seems like smaller size guns go from 35cm-75cm)? I need to get some more dives in to figure out what I, if anything, I need though. Sounds like your set-up is quite close to what I have been thinking of though.

Sure, X, i'm satisfied with it. Almost every spearo I know carries a 50/60cm rubbergun, or a 50/70cm pneumatic. That's because we do a lot of cave hunting, but I also use shorts for open shots when viz is very poor (say 3-4 meters or even less). Don't go shorter than 55cm for bandguns or 50 for pneumatic: shorter ones have ridiculous shooting range.
About set-up's, for a short rubbergun use a 6,5/7mm threaded shaft and 16.5mm rubbers (maximum 18mm): that's a good band/shaft balance, as long as more powerful bands would be too much: if you're shooting in rocks, you might destroy your tips/shaft. I also use comanche 60 with tahitian (6,3mm) for lo-viz.
Notice that the world champion in charge, Stefano Bellani, won the world campionship in Chile 2004 using only a comanche 60 and a 75 all along the two days of competition: now say again that size matters...rofl
ciao.