high tech gun for 15$

[Mark Laboccetta]

Weehoo-Clarified

Just wanted to let the concerned folks for the proliferation of mature gamefish know that the above fish was not actually speared. It was part of a prank to my spearfishing buddies. Once back at the dock on Sunday I saw a charter boat captain's catch that included a gut hooked wahoo that they could not release because it wouldn't have survived. The fish was given to me in good humor and I made a good prank of it with my friends who thought I had hidden it in the bottom of cooler of the boat until the end of the day because I was ashamed of shooting such a small wahoo.

I just wanted to clarify that I would not shoot a fish of that size (speared plenty of small ones already in my life) and don't even approve of it since it hasn't reached sexual and reproductive maturity.

Mark

ps- ICA-PACIFIST send me another e-mail please, you must have accidently gone through the recycle bin

 

[icarus pacific]

Ica wha?

pps... M. LABIACHEATER, done.

 

[Mark Laboccetta]

I will keep that in mind next time you need something

clown....

 

[icarus pacific]

guy's skinnier than the fish...

remember the old saying, "you only charge retail, the ones you love."

 

[Fish Tale]

Hello Deeper Blue members! I've been lurking off and on for a while now. Great forum you have here!

That $15. "mini gun" from the link above is my abomination. It's ok to laugh. I laugh at it all the time. Everyone laughs at it. It's been a great conversation piece. I still use it a bunch though. This summer I made a new tip for the shaft. A single flopper- tri cut tip from a stainless rod. Much cleaner hole than the old tip. It really is a deady little fish sticker. The primative trigger mechanism was actually inspired from "the Tahitian's" gun in the Terry Maas (sp.?) video - Blue Water Hunters.

Anyway I recently decided to try out an idea I had for a slightly more complex trigger mechanism. Dive conditions were crap due to winds so I whipped up a new, more powerfull gun over a couple of weekends using the new trigger mechanism and some of the ideas from the $15. mini gun. I got a bad case of cabin fever while waiting for better dive conditions.


Here's a link to the new guns web page.
http://flshoredives.nexuswebs.net/biggun.html
(pictures and more details)

I hope you find some entertainment in my speargun projects! I certainly do.

 

[GilbertG.]

Fish Tale,

F@%&#*$ awesome!! I'm glad you finally surfaced. Man, that's some pretty cool stuff you put together! Most people don't have your creativity. And like I said in my first post, you got some balls to be puttin stuff in the public eye that you know people will take pot shots at. Your work reminds me of some of the vintage homemade guns I've seen that have similar pin type trigger mechs. When I was 12 I remember making a crossbow with a pin release coupled to a trigger. Very similar to your minigun only with a pistol grip handle and a bow mounted to the front. You know the fiberglass bows you could find in the toy stores with the arrows that had suction cups on them. I used to peg my older brother on the forehead with that thing. He's never been the same.

Gil

 

[Wavespin]

Questions about the junkyard gun...

Fish Tale (and anyone else who has advice or opions),

First of all, thanks to you and to everyone who posts information and ideas about homebrew fishstickers.

Wondering if you might entertain a few questions about your projects.

-What kind of two part epoxy are you using to coat these guns...particularly interested in a thrifty way to protect the stock.

-Is there any saftey mech on your butterknife trigger?

I'm going to try and build a hole gun using a 24" aluminum I-beam level (Johnson brand). It was about $8. It even has a V-shaped groove on one side already to use as a track. It seems to have very good stiffness vertically and decent (but not super) stiffness horizontally. Hopefully the orientation that I mean to use it in is obvious. Not sure if you'd want to try this with a longer level but the 24" is pretty rigid. They didn't have 36", the next step up was 48" and it seemed a bit sketchy...Anyway, I'm planing to fit wood to the rear of it that will house a trigger mech (something like one of yours I think) and mount a handle on that. I'm going to build it so that some of the I-beam mates up with the wood for several inches and then put a few pins in it. Should be solid. I'm planning to do something similar on the front end. A bit of wood will be crafted to hold a single band and have an attachement point for a PVC closed muzzle.

(probably red oak, maybe some of my precious purpleheart) to the rear

FWIW, I'm stuck in Puerto Rico without a job (err, much money that is) and at the moment the vis is rotten due to all the hurricanes rolling by. I've been slowly embarking on a gun project. The materials I have available to me are pretty much what you can find at a poorly stocked Home Depot and a few things that I brought here with me--namely, some purpleheart, some UHMW polyethlyene, and my tools. I haven't checked out any boat supply shops but there might be some stuff there too but in Puerto Rico things seem to be more of the K-Mart quality and selection. The good news is that trimmers are really popular here so finding trimmer line of all sorts to use for shooting line is easy :duh.

Cheers,
Mike

 

[Fish Tale]

Thanks Gilbert! I like to inspire people to put their lazy brains to work. Sharing my gun building experiences on the web is a fun opportunity to wake up the lazy brains of our modern society.

I see you like to work on the puzzle of gun design and inspire people as well. I think that's cool!

As Alison suggested; it is very satisfying to put seafood on the dinner table using a tool of your own creation. Sort of adds more depth to my quality of life.

 

[Fish Tale]

Re: Questions about the junkyard gun...

Originally posted by Wavespin
-What kind of two part epoxy are you using to coat these guns...particularly interested in a thrifty way to protect the stock.

The two part epoxy that I've used to saturate and seal the wood is a type used in fiberglass boat building. It's a 3/1 mixture. 3 parts resin/ 1 part hardner. It goes "tack free" in 1 to 2 hours or so. Full cure in 24 hrs. This stuff's not cheap! It's about $70. (U.S.) per gallon. I had some left over from another project. Perhaps some of the new "brush on" polyurethane clear coats would offer an economical alternative for a sealer?

-Is there any saftey mech on your butterknife trigger?
Mike

Since creating the web page for my gun I've added a safety. I drilled a hole through the side of the pistol grip that intersects the "through hole" for the pushrod trigger extension. This new hole allows a stainless steel cotter pin to be inserted as a stop for the trigger so that the trigger cannot be pulled to the firing point. The cotter pin has a short lanyard which keeps it from getting lost. Having the cotter pin sticking out the side of the grip is a physical reminder that it's engaged. Have you ever squeezed the trigger after stalking a fish for the perfect shot and missed your opportunity because the safety was still on?

Your idea of using the frame of the level as a gun barrel is very creative! As long as you're going to put in the effort for a wood based muzzle and gun butt why not just make the entire gun barrel from hardwood? Wood is strong, cheap, beautiful, and easy to work with.

 

[Wavespin]

More questions to the builders and engineers out there...

yea, it does make sense to build the whole thing out of wood instead of using the aluminum level for the bulk of the stock/barrel. i just can't help but try and do something different...its my nature.

as for lower cost epoxy?? how about Bondo polyester resin from the autoparts store? would that stuff do the trick?

thanks,
Mike...in PR where the storms have made the water thick like tea with milk

 

[Fish Tale]

Wavespin:

The polyester resin would probably get the job done just fine! It could probably be used for laminating pieces of wood together as well. I wouldn't use it to build up a shiny finish coat for the gun though because polyester resin tends to flake away when it has no fiber structure to hold it together.

Turning the wood into something that won't soak up water is what's important.

I was thinking about the expense problem with epoxy and started wondering about the low cost syringe type epoxy kits. They make fast and slow cure types and since not much is needed for lamination and saturation I bet a thin, slow cure type could be used if it were thin enough to be brushed on. These can be purchased for about $3.50 per syringe.

The other day I was in the boat store and they had a "mini" epoxy kit for about $13. The kit was designed for saturating rotted wood to bring it's strength back.

I think there may be several options for sealing a wood gun or the wood components that you have planned.

I hope you'll share your gun building experience with us as your project progresses.



I hope your water clears up soon. Our vis locally is the worst its ever been. Two and a half feet as a result of Charlie, Francis, and Ivan. Problem is the areas that replenish the Gulf like yours are bad as well.