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Home Built American Spearguns.

Thread Status: Hello , There was no answer in this thread for more than 60 days.
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Fish Tale

New Member
Sep 12, 2004
64
6
0
Oh boy! let's see if I can create the first topic for the American Spearguns section.

Well my favorite topic when it comes to spearguns would be the design and modification of spearguns. They're an amazing tool for harvesting fish for the table. What could be more American than building and working on hunting weapons.

Show us your American ingenuity folks!

Here's my most recent home brew fish harvesting tool:
thegun.jpg

It shoots were I point it and it's holding up very well so far.

I have a web page devoted to it here:
http://flshoredives.nexuswebs.net/biggun.html

I think it may become a family heirloom some day. :)
 
Now that is American ingenuity at work. Butter knife and weedwacker line !!!! Just shows what a bit of thinking can turn out. Very nice web page and article!
 
thats Classic! nice gun. "Freezer Filling Machine" thats what I call my Rifle too, Speargun took the name of Penitrator, but thats another story.... :D
 
I know of at least one other gun that's recently been built using this trigger. They built a bigger gun, beefed up the barrel dimensions. beefed up the trigger by making it from titanium. It shoots a custom made 3/8' shaft powered by three 5/8 inch bands.

Today I purchased two more SST butter knives from the thrift store for my next generation of the gun. I've got some new ideas that I'd like to incorporate into a 48 inch version of the gun :D

Sooooo who else has a home made gun to share with us?
 
Fish Tale, I recently refurbished an old Sea Hunter midhandled gun that had the same basic trigger mech. Is this convergent or divergent evolution (your inspiration)? Still haven't had a chance to test it. Just thought you'd be happy to know that when that box from ebay arrived and I delved in w/ the flat head screwdriver and found myself surrounded by aluminium, plastic, and stainless steel parts; your gun was the first thing that came to mind.

Instead of a a hinged piece like your knife this mech had a SS cube that is pulled forward by the trigger allowing the round stock to slip down and release the shaft.
 
defofthecrown said:
Fish Tale, I recently refurbished an old Sea Hunter midhandled gun that had the same basic trigger mech. Is this convergent or divergent evolution (your inspiration)?
That's very interesting! I just did a search online and found nothing about that gun? I'd like to know more about it. Who made it?

Instead of a a hinged piece like your knife this mech had a SS cube that is pulled forward by the trigger allowing the round stock to slip down and release the shaft.

In my attempt to build the most simple trigger possible I tried something like that. My version eliminated the "block" you mention. I created a long "s" shaped trigger. When I pulled the trigger the back end of the "s" slid backwards allowing the seer to drop out of the shaft notch. It failed miserably. With just one band loaded the trigger locked up so solidly that the gun would not fire. I realized I needed a lever to overcome the friction created between the components. That's how I arrived at the butter knife trigger.

It seems that there are only a few ways to accomplish a speargun trigger. I would think logic would tend to guide people in the same directions. I'm probably not the first to make this design work. :)

It works really well. I figure the only reasons I've not seen it in modern guns is that it's not a self contained unit and it's intigrated right into the gun and trigger pull would need to be adjusted for the normal band load for each gun.
 
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It's made by US Divers. I've also looked on the web and have found no info on this gun. They do however show up on ebay from time to time. wish I could show you some pics, but I upload photos. If anyone knows of any sights I'd love a link.
 
I'm sorry, should have proof read that last post. I meant I can't upload photos b/c I don't have a camera, and if anyone knew of a sight w/ info on the gun.
 
I've owned a couple of the usd sea-hunters. One little shorty that had a couple of bands - and a 48 inch model with a 3/8 inch shaft. Both were nice guns - Very narrow grip though with kind of a sharp seam along the back that tended to hurt your hand when you fired it under load. I've seen them and the old nemrod mid-handle band guns on ebay occassionally. I was tempted by the nemrod but I think I'll save up for a riffe Mtech.
 
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Yeah, the handle is brutal. I fixed it by grinding it down a tad but it was still too thin. I ended up heating the thing with a propane torch for a few minutes and then molded it to my hand with a welding glove on (no thicker than 3mil neoprene). It worked great, however if someone is going to try this in the future, on any gun, put a scrap piece of wood or plastic inside the hollow of the handle to keep that space open. I took my about 2 hours includding a trip to the junkyard to rig up a new spring system for the trigger after the stock spring no longer fit in the handle! Live and learn I quess.
 
I think I recall another peculiarity - I could be wrong as it was awhile ago - but I think the roller shaft release in those sort of spins after release - making a funny noise. Very smooth though as I recall.
 
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