Help choosing a speargun (UK)

[Alison]

Guess its a bit like having a shock leader for beach fishing with a rod. Thick mono seens to last and last where as nylon has a fraction of the life, as its the first bit of the line that takes the wear and tear, it makes some sense to use a hard wearing material up front but once the spear is home in a absolutely humungus fish!! and it takes off, what you need is a flexible line on the reel to play the fish with I guess( no experience with this myself apart from one 50 yard tow from a Bass)

 

[miles]

Hiya portinfer

The RA and Picasso has the same trigger mech. Difference between the two is that the picasso has a 6.5mm SS spear and a single spear guide on the barrel. Also comes with screw-in 20mm rubbers and a articulated wish bone.

RA has a FULL rail, comes with either 6.5/6.6/7.0mm spear. Has a muzzle which accepts bulk rubber (much cheaper than your screw in types) and comes with a cable wishbone. (if possible change it to dyneema..........if you like your fingers!!!)

Between the two, the RA is the better option. The rail makes the gun more accurate and the bulk rubber muzzle make replacing rubbers easy and cheap. RA spears are well known for their durability. On a 100cm gun, you can look at a 6.5mm spear with a 16mm rubber or 7.0mm spear with a 20mm rubber. The 16mm rubber/6.5mm spear will be more accurate, easier to load and have enough power for fish under 10kg's. 20mm/7mm is for larger fish .

Check out defofthecrown's world record 83.5lb black drum taken on a standard 1.2m Rabitech (very similar to the RA)
http://forums.deeperblue.net/showthread.php?threadid=37803

Regards
miles

 

[miles]

Hiya Harpune

Using you line on the reel as your shooting line can be done. the problem comes in when you've got to reload your gun. Mono is very stiff and very easy to handle, dyneema or spectra dyneema which is the prefered line on reels is not as stiff as mono. Tangling is therefor a big concern. Besides, i rig my reelguns with a clip from the reel line to the shooting line. This way i can unclip the reel line from the shooting line should i be unable to get the spear back out of a fish. I then simply pull the spearline through the fish and attach to reel-line again.

Hope this helps

Regards
miles

 

[harpune1]

i understand thx to Alison and miles, always a pleasure to learn from helpfull and understandable people!!

big thx

 

[Alison]

No worries but me understandable?? Now there a first rofl Cheers mate
Thanks to Miles too!! Just had one of those huge DUH!!:duh moments cliping my shooting line to the gun instead of tieing it!! Then I could unclip my line and pull it through the fish instead of going through the rigmarole of pulling the spear through the fish and returning it through the hole to extract it!! How simple can that be? And why couldnt I come up with an idea like that? And if anyone answers that, you shall get a firm finger armed with a sharp fingernail squarely in your eye