Help with info on Mares EVO hf

Hey Rafter,
It's kinda tricky. It could be that people in general mostly post when things are not as they are supposed to be, but the fact is that the are some not so nice posts on the forum about that particular gun and some issues that some of them have had.

I don't know if you searched the forum before you asked or even just scrolled down, cuz it's there for the reading;-). There are actually two threads right here on the "front page" of the pneumatic section. But maybe people did not want to come out and bash a gun you might have fallen in love with.

But to me, the gun looks cool and you might never have issues with it. But if you are buying it from a proper, local shop I wouldn't mind asking them flat out how they would help you out with a line release issue if it happens. Shops tend to just say they have never heard of any issues and perhaps they haven't but online forums have.

Mares Stens are workhorses with no real issues. The new Salvimar Predathor series seem OK for now, except that the slider is brittle and breaks too easily.

Also, if you are serious about getting a pneumatic, then you will soon be looking into vacuum muzzles as a very worthy upgrade on your gun. And the Predathor comes with this already. Neither Stens nor Evos do.

No idea on the "Smu", could just be that retailers had c+p'ed from some Mares internal reference. On its own, it makes no sense and the description does not mention it any further and actually says you will receive the Evo HF (no Smu) gun.

Pure Instinct is Mares' name for their spearing gear subdivision. Just call Mares and ask for someone who knows their spearfishing gear.

If you are in Florida, maybe there's a physical shop you can check out - tell them you have read about line release failures and you wanna know where you stand (and how long you will be without a gun) in case it fails on you.

That said, as much as I like the design of the Evo HF some of its specs or so-called improvements are just bling. The tapered nose should be good for tracking but it seems like Mares might have removed too much volume as I know of at least one spearo who finds it nose-heavy. He put some cork on the muzzle to alleviate that.
But whether that's an issue for you or not depend on your type of diving. If you do mostly blue water you can let the gun hang downwards a lot of the time but others who hunt a lot of shallows/reefs tend to keep the gun horizontal more of the time, and then a heavy nose can start hurting your wrist.

The transfer port (hole) between the two chambers are larger on the Evo HF than on traditional guns which in theory means that the high power shot is less inhibited (air going from the front chamber to the rear chamber and to the piston less obstructed). Whether it serves up any real practical bump in power, I do not know.

I like the idea of the inner barrel sitting higher in the gun. I have that on my 40 year old Mares Mirage, so they finally came back to that idea...
You'll hit fish perfectly fine with a centered inner barrel as in most other pneumatics, but nonetheless, this is nice mentally;-)

The handle seems nice but you would be able to get a sense of that in a shop (wear gloves) and handles can be modified later on with Shapelock or FIMO clay in case you need to.

But as said, some of Evo HFs have had issues. Whether it is widespread or not, we don't know either. Mares will probably not admit to this, so even if they have silently gotten rid of the issue, we might not know and you might not know if you get your hands on an old batch or a new. But that's all speculative.

I am pretty sure you will get the basic package; gun, pump, spear and bag but perhaps the reel, too, right?
Even if you get the reel, there will probably not be any line on it, though.

Speaking of Tromic - if you decide to upgrade to a vacuum muzzle, then his son Marko can make you a really cool one. Consider specifying you'd like him to make it as lightweight as possible to help with any possible nose heaviness.

Also, I think Salvimar might actually just have extended their line of Vuoto muzzles to the Evo, too.