Difficulty in Evenly Reaching Slings on Rob Allen 90cm

[freediver7]

The RA 90 is my reef gun of choice. Two bands provide plenty of power for most fish up to 20 lb. Have you tired putting longer band on your gun since you’re having problems loading the stock bands. Most people can’t load my RA 120 with a single 20 mil band. The only way of loading it is, get both hands on the bands, put the but on your chest, and tuck the tip of the gun under your fins to keep it from moving around, then pull with your back. Its easy once you get the gun under a fin.

 

[Blesum]

Well, I'll be damned if I didn't almost do a repeat performance this afternoon at the Scripps pier. Shot at a retreating Yellow Tail that was the same size as the one that I got the first time I ever shot this gun.

The YT had just gone of sight by time I had the gun aimed and pulled the trigger (4-10 ft visiblity). The spear went out of sight and there was no immediate "jerk" which would mean a missed shot and the spear getting to the end of it's shooting line. A split second later there were two strong jerks and then nothing. Fish pulled itself off of the spear. ARGH. I must have grazed it. :martial I hope it lives to become somebody else's catch.

Lots of jumbo herrings that gave me repeated false hopes every time they emerged out of the darkness with their yellow fins/tails. The usual bait fish were out on the prowl. Saw 5 turbots or halibuts tear away before I could notice them, size them up and take aim. One juvy WSB kept hanging out with me around the pilings.

Anways, loading is a non-issue now that I've taken many of your advice. I don't know why, but I had thought it would be impossible to adjust the bands once they were stretched. This isn't the case. Just grab one band, pull it a ways back, grab the other side with the other hand (uneven as hell) and then either 1) adjust bands, then load it up or 2) load it up and then adjust bands with the sling in the notch. Both methods work beautifully.

Also it's becoming much easier to load up both slings. No failures or "half-loading" anymore. Either I'm getting stronger or the slings are getting more stretchy. Probably a combination of both. Thanks everybody.

-Blesum

 

[JPPLAY]

Great to hear your success. Maybe your gifted with your diving to see such good fish and get an opportunity to shoot at them.

 

[Griff]

Hiya

Griff, HOW could you miss this!! http://forums.deeperblue.net/showthread.php?t=67407
GREAT first fish on the new gun!!

Jez is quite correct about the articulated wishbone. I bent my 110cm picasso's wishbone whilst loading it. TWICE!!

Regards
miles

hey miles. afterwards i did see the thread :duh
amazing fish! I was watching them bang 'tail on the new immersion 2 dvd. got my mouth watering. i heard that you sometimes get them down the south coast around this time of year. anyway, mamba cold front coming up and probably going to open all the rivers up so it'll be undivable for a while. cant wait for summer!

blesum, with the other thread you asked about the gun safety switch. when in the water i could never remember what was safety on and safety off. i got mine taken out after chasing a couta (king mack) for ages, lining up and......:head

 

[Blesum]

I've got the safety switch position memorized even though I have never been able to use it. Yesterday I found myself wishing I could use it actually. I got tangled up in my float line and wanted to drop my gun so that I could have both hands free to work the lines. However, I didn't want a loaded speargun bumping around in the water or on the bottom, and I still find it too damn hard to unload the bands manually. If I could've turned on the safety...

I ended up patiently untangling the mess with just one hand.

-Blesum

 

[Mr. X]

Had some problems (bruises mainly!:crutch) loading 20mm rubbers on a 90cm RA last week. I haven't perfected the correct technique for the upgraded rubbers - but here are a few things that helped me:

- use the fins to hold the barrel as mentioned above (as well as holding the barrel, it forces you to get into a favourable starting position).

- reduce the lube used inside the front of your wetsuit. Had several instances where the gun and loading pad all slid sideways -- causing bruises. The convex nature of the Elios pad probably exacerbated the problem.

- ensure that the rubbers on each side are of even length. Turns out this is a lot more important than I thought. Mine were out by an inch or more. It makes loading harder (I went for the short end first, hoping that would tend to move the band to a more even position over time), makes it more likely that the butt will slip off sideways (owch!). It also trashed my new Dyneems wishbone in short order (normally last me 18 months).

- just load to the first notch if that's all you can manage at first - save your energy, on a good day you might need to load many times.

- I found loading high, above the loading pad worked for me. The sternum is solid there (the end of the sternum & abs have a bit too much give, as somebody already mentioned) -- got wonder what this is doing to your body.

- focus, like in karate or when doing a single v. heavy rep. with weights. I found this made a difference. It was the only way I was able to load the 20mm bands to the 2nd notch. You actually don't need all that extra oomph that can generate but it certainly needed some of it.

- I'm looking at reviving the "designer flip-flop sole" loading pad I rigged up when I first started (after a week loading on an unpadded 2mm shortie wetsuit) as a supplementary loading pad. The sole is thicker & denser than a mouse pad (which I also tried). RA actually sell a strap-on loading pad, I think its reasonably priced (maybe 6 quid?) - might look into that too.

Like I said, I'm still working on it -- & open to other suggestions.

 

[Blesum]

Wow! It's been a little more than a year since I started this thread!


I'm happy to report that loading up the gun is now a snap and effortless.

'course I'm about 15-20 pounds heavier now from working out at the gym - lots of deadlifts and rowing. Plus I've loaded that gun up at least 1000 times by now. Check out 'em traps!

My most recent fish:

How I ate the fish:

I'm also moving to Hawaii in less than a month. :inlove

 

[Mr. X]

Fish tacos - great idea! There used to be a restaurant called Carlos Murphy's (authentic Irish Mexican cuisine probably a chain) in Schaumburg, IL that did fish tacos as a speciality.

...
- I'm looking at reviving the "designer flip-flop sole" loading pad I rigged up when I first started ...
Like I said, I'm still working on it -- & open to other suggestions.

Reinstated the sole pad this weekend to great effect. Managed to easily load to the second notch every time bar one (& soon corrected that). It did slip once, resulting in a big, black bruise (which I only noticed today). It must have improved my state of mind too as I had my most prolific spearing session yet.

I think it was probably more of a pain/technique issue than strength. Although I've lost around 7-10lb over the Summer I still weigh around 230lb and have been lifting heavier weights than ever.

Jez/Spaniard, I never realised that you could load, or partially load, against your belt buckle until I read your respective posts, although I saw this weekend that Omer show this as the recommended loading technique in their manuals. As my gun was slipped down during loading this Summer, I would be seriously concerned about "groining" myself.