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Improvements for Pathos Sniper Roller 95

Thread Status: Hello , There was no answer in this thread for more than 60 days.
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Thank you for posting about the trigger upgrade. I have a Pathos Sniper Roller 85 with stock bands and the stock Pathos 7mm shaft. Have you made any changes to your bands or spear diameter that you recommend? I feel like the gun is very sensitive to which pins I use and if I load the booster band... I haven't found consistency with it. It's been erratic enough that I filed the tip to a pencil looking for accuracy. Any suggestions are appreciated.
 
I have no accuracy issues with the gun. It does shoot low at the end of its range but that is to be expected from a roller. I like the tri cut tip and use it on all my spears without accuracy problems. I have modified the handle recently and this helps me to turn my wrist slightly to eliminate left shift.

Keep in mind that with different power settings the spear trajectory will change slightly in the vertical plane.


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Being inspired by Spearq8 handle mods I set of to do my own. I wanted to decrease the distance to the trigger.
c16c4142f729c3af7f4cbc7fc45c12c4.jpg

I then shaped the handle to my hand removing material for the ball of my hand to rest. All this so I can intuitively align my arm with the speargun.
4f114baaf88b5f881b6a7b7f29cf5a44.jpg

You can see how I took it all the way back to where the frame started to show.
30540a85173de97ab702a1bc9ed745f4.jpg

After sanding I added texture by stippling the plastic.
2c3dd6fd66a35c18834f1ad98d71e766.jpg

I like the way it came out the grip is really positive.

Modding the roller head is next.


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Two more modifications. To the roller head this time.
Cut off the rest tab for the flopper and replaced it with a stainless steel one that is slightly longer than the original. Because of the new mechanism the spear moved forward slightly and the flopper didn’t rest anymore. I think it is a nice feature and wanted to make it useful again. Steel rest tab is epoxied in place.

Also adjusted the ramp for the wishbone slightly. Now the wishbone is slowed down just enough so the spear can leave the track before it gets lifted by the wishbone riding the ramp. Should increase accuracy. Have to put it to the test.

The only mod I can think of to increase performance would be to add ceramic bearings. It would be a huge project on its own to have them made and make new rollers to go with it. Not worth the effort at this point since this gun has been slaying plenty of fish.


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So I’ve run into another issue with the rollers the hex gold that holds the roller on the gun has sheared in half and one roller no longer remains on, the simple way would be to track down a new bolt but has anyone had any luck with bearings?
 
I have not been working on the idea I had with the needle roller bearings. At this point it doesn’t seem worth pursuing the idea.
A new part shouldn’t be too difficult to get a hold of.


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Buying in is not the problem for me. If I would consider it worthwhile I would do it nonetheless even if I was the only one interested.
However time is limited and because I am becoming less and less enthusiastic about roller guns and their performance I rather spend my time hunting fish.

I think inverted rollers are the future since they potentially overcome much of the problems.

To be honest personally I am moving back to a classic setup. Simplicity is king. In the end it is much more about the skills then it is about the tools.

The Pathos Sniper roller is still a nice well made gun but it still needs a lot of improvement. The same is true for a Rob Allen roller or similar. They all have their quirks that make them perform less than optimal.


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Like you said it will probably help for a limited short time. Not a structural solution though.


“I hate storms, but calms undermine my spirits”
 
We use it on the bucket latch on a rope shove, it has 100 ton of dirt wash past it every 30 seconds and it last two weeks. It would need less then a second of spray per roller. Another option might be a fine (1mm) graphite sleeve machined into the roller. I’ve never tried to machine or tried to find graphite round bar but it should be possible
 
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I guess it is worth trying and maybe it can improve the above setup but I hope a new version of this gun will come with ceramic bearings installed as a standard.

Pathos designers are you reading this?


“I hate storms, but calms undermine my spirits”
 
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Hey Kodama can I ask why you went the sniper instead of the laser? I’m looking at both and having trouble deciding on which one
 
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Hey Kodama can I ask why you went the sniper instead of the laser? I’m looking at both and having trouble deciding on which one

I have both and unless you need extra power and a little bit of extra range that you are willing to trade off with: more complicated setup, higher cost, more shaft drop (=lower accuracy) I would go with the laser.
Length I would compare as follows. A 95 Sniper roller is comparable to a Laser 110. I find that the extra length does not affect maneuverability and in that regard consider them the same.

My personal choice was based on the curiosity about rollers.

Where and what are you hunting?


“I hate storms, but calms undermine my spirits”
 
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Yeppoon, Queensland Australia. Hunting shallowish reef 5-15 meters and shore dives in murky water after barramundi. So I was leaning towards 1 meter tops roller gun and the kicker band would help with there hard heads. I was thinking I could unload the main band and just use the kicker for crays too
 
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I have a Sinper Roller 85, I hunt in similar conditions in Greece. No real blue water hunting, always shore diving, 5-15m with rocks, sand and grass. A few mahi mahi per year, seabass and skittish breams of many species... I can't say enough good things about the gun. I didn't notice the trigger issue that others have mentioned.

I have changed the spear to 6.75 and the bands to Blue Tec 14mm, and made both bands shorter than the 16mm specs. For me this seems to perform better as the fish are mostly right at a kilo on the big side and most closer to 500gr, nothing needs the womp of the 7mm stock spear that I hunt. Less kick, easy to load, flat fast firing. Ironically yesterday was the first time I couldn't swing the gun fast enough to catch up with a mahi moving left to right. I opted to wait for a second try that never materialized.

I love the closed track of the Sniper and the 6.75 is still big enough to keep the line from wedging in the track. My son hunts with a 95 Sniper (no roller) and the track is quite enough that I can't tell from any distance which gun he's shooting, his Sniper or Cressi Comanche (open track).

My 85 Sniper Roller is lighter than his 95 Sniper by a considerable amount, but as both were purchased used I can't be sure that that is production. I haven't been curious enough to investigate, just throwing that in as we hike to spots often and although minor, it is what it is.

Like Kodama I wanted to try a roller and I loved my son's 95 Sniper before I found mine.
 
I have considered changing the bands to 14.5mm small id. I am sure it would ease loading and might increase performance.
Interesting idea to change the spear to a 6.5 that will increase speed but I wonder how it affects trajectory?
I wish I had a pool or clear water in my vicinity to test these things.


“I hate storms, but calms undermine my spirits”
 
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There was someone on here that was going to run the kicker as a 18mm band and just use it as a normal single rubber gun and the roller band at 14mm to power it up but only when needed. No idea if it would work but a interesting idea to play with.
 
IMPORTANT NOTE:

After more testing I noted that you can increase accuracy, I mean less shaft drop, by DEcreasing the power.

I used to mainly load the gun to its maximum potential but have found that when I use the middle bottom tap on the roller band in combination with the first (of the three) back fins and then put the kicker band on the second last shark fin accuracy is much better.

Potentially you could then even decrease power by removing the kicker band and turning down the roller band another notch to shoot into holes.

Nothing new here really since it has been said before that rollers perform better on lower power settings but to me it’s just one more reason to question the whole system.
A lot of band stretch is waisted this way.
 
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