The other day I picked up a hunting magazine with an article on the new generation of high power, light riffles with recoil reducing mechanisms. It said these guns were sweeping the industry.
They were using various technologies to reduce the recoil that wouldn’t be applicable to spearguns, but the overall concept was what intrigued me. Could the next big advancement in spearguns be mechanical mechanisms to reduce recoil without adding weight and bulk?
Apparently it used to be an accepted fact that a high power hand gun or riffle had to be heavy to make recoil manageable. In the last few years, that theory has been discarded.
Two questions come to my mind. What makes a speargun have recoil and what, if any methods could be employed to reduce it without adding weight and bulk? I’m no engineer, but my simple mind says that one of the factors is the difference in weight of the shaft verses the rest of the gun. The less the shaft weights in comparison to the gun, the less recoil and the more it weighs in relationship to the gun, the more recoil. What is the term used to describe the energy it takes to get an object moving? Isn’t it the force of the initial movement of the shaft that makes most of the recoil?
My dive buddy, who is also a bow hunter, and I were discussing this and we theorized that if less force was initially applied to the shaft in the first inch or two of movement, and the force increased after that, it would lower recoil because the shaft would already be moving. As anyone knows who has loaded a band gun, it’s the last bit of band stretch that has the most force, which is exactly opposite of what might be ideal for reducing recoil.
Crossbows with their cams have done exactly what we were talking about, but not for recoil reasons. Instead it’s for ease in holding the string in the cocked position. Not exactly the same goal, but then again, wouldn’t be nice to put less force on the sheer of the trigger for high power guns?
Cams may not be practical because of their increase bulk, especially toward the front of the gun, which would reduce swinging ability. Any ideas or correction of theories? Maybe this was one of Jack Prodanovich’s goals.
don
They were using various technologies to reduce the recoil that wouldn’t be applicable to spearguns, but the overall concept was what intrigued me. Could the next big advancement in spearguns be mechanical mechanisms to reduce recoil without adding weight and bulk?
Apparently it used to be an accepted fact that a high power hand gun or riffle had to be heavy to make recoil manageable. In the last few years, that theory has been discarded.
Two questions come to my mind. What makes a speargun have recoil and what, if any methods could be employed to reduce it without adding weight and bulk? I’m no engineer, but my simple mind says that one of the factors is the difference in weight of the shaft verses the rest of the gun. The less the shaft weights in comparison to the gun, the less recoil and the more it weighs in relationship to the gun, the more recoil. What is the term used to describe the energy it takes to get an object moving? Isn’t it the force of the initial movement of the shaft that makes most of the recoil?
My dive buddy, who is also a bow hunter, and I were discussing this and we theorized that if less force was initially applied to the shaft in the first inch or two of movement, and the force increased after that, it would lower recoil because the shaft would already be moving. As anyone knows who has loaded a band gun, it’s the last bit of band stretch that has the most force, which is exactly opposite of what might be ideal for reducing recoil.
Crossbows with their cams have done exactly what we were talking about, but not for recoil reasons. Instead it’s for ease in holding the string in the cocked position. Not exactly the same goal, but then again, wouldn’t be nice to put less force on the sheer of the trigger for high power guns?
Cams may not be practical because of their increase bulk, especially toward the front of the gun, which would reduce swinging ability. Any ideas or correction of theories? Maybe this was one of Jack Prodanovich’s goals.
don