Wavespin
What is the difference between an American and a Euro style gun? I know that American guns are wooden and Euro guns are typically aluminium or carbon. What other differences are there -- power, shaft weight, design elements, operational differences, etc., etc.? What are the pros and cons of each?
Hi Wavespin,
I read the other posts and I'd like to take a stab at this one. I am very biased and opinionated so for what it's worth here is the way I've seen the gun evolution unfold while trying to answer your question:
Until 5-7 years ago there were very few Euro style, or better explained- rear handle non mid-handle guns without an elongated butt extension that has been most commonly known in the United States. The few people that used the rear handle Euros were mostly the brotherhood of US competitors in the spearfishing circuit and other divers who needed the fast maneuverability and quick aim capability of a rear handle design that was also usually lighter. A few American companies like Riffe also adopted this design into one of their models,aptly named the "Competitor" series a while back.
Other companies who produced guns in the United States installed butt extensions behind the handle to facilitate hip-loading and the overall loading process. From this design it was easy to see where the "mid-handle" concept came from and for the same reason it was apreciated by the average diver shooting dumb big fish (the ones we all love) it was hated by the refined hunter pursuing elusive fast game or competing in a contest.
With most of the competition style diving being big in Europe the classic "arbalete design" was conceived in the 60's with the first "Champion Arbalete" from France which was also sold in the USA under the Voit brand name and many other brands followed and refined the design through the 70-90's. The second generation of high end Euro/Competition style guns came in the 80's and 90's after the airgun was beginning to loose steam, which used 8mm (5/16") shafts that were deemed only ideal for grouper and amberjacks, although not the rest of the fish divers were targeting. Simultaneous to this evolution taking place, the fish were getting smarter and faster and more agile and precise weapons were sought. This new generation of band guns were adept for the grouper and amberjacks found all over waters in Europe in the Atlantic side and Mediterranean but were also more ideal for the 1-10lb fish that the slower 8mm shafts of the airguns and heavier band guns were missing. I still have a picture of Renzo Mazzari somewhere in the 80's with a Spearfish, a member of the marlin family that he speared in the Med somewhere with his Cressi gun. Believe me, these guys shot plenty of 100lb amberjacks back then...
As spearfishing World Championships and tournament were held around the world this design spread and the likes of South African Champions Tommy Botha and US champion Bill Ernst and Terry Maas picked up on the use of these lighter rear handle guns for fast competition type shooting where a single band design was more efficient, faster and powerful than a multi band design. Today all over the world the classic "Euro" design is constantly being tweaked and refined to suit the needs of different divers who prefer them to heavier wooden, mid-handle, multi band models. The later has its advantages surely for the pursuit of large gamefish because the power cannot be replaced with ANY single band Euro style design no matter what any manufacturer claims.
But, the truth is that the type of application these true blue water guns with 5/16" (8mm) shaft and bigger are well suited for, albeit its almost a small sport of its own today called Blue water hunting-thanks to Terry Maas, these guns are suited only for a relatively small population of dedicated divers and therefore have a limited application and demand.
The so called still "Euro" style design, again nothing other than a rear handle with carbon/aluminum/wooden barrel and a single or double band muzzle with a 7mm shaft or less, is better suited for most divers and most applications especially as this sport grows and fish get SSS, smarter,smaller,shit scared.
We would all be kidding ourselves if we didn't think that as more and more humans entering the liquid dimension, fishing commercially, hook and line fishing and even our small highly selective and efficient sport called spearfishing, were helping the fish get bigger.
Have a good weekend,
regards, Mark Laboccetta