Indie/Minor Speargun Companies

[popgun pete]

Foxfish asked me to mention the Aquatech hydropneumatic speargun. Although they look like a production model, they are actually custom built in the Ukraine by Sergiy Kravchenko. The URL is http://www.aquatech1.narod.ru, the web-site being on a Russian server, hence the "ru" designation. These guns are very powerful in the "Black Sea" model which I have written about elsewhere on this forum. The guns may seem complex, but actually their operation is very simple once you see how few moving parts there are inside them. The web-site shows some schematics that illustrate the inner works very well. There is an English language version if you click on the Union Jack flag at the top of the index page, it is similar but not exactly the same in content as the Ukrainian version.

Attached are photos of my "Black Sea" gun and the gun that helped inspire it, the Alcedo "Hydra". The latter is one of the heaviest spearguns ever made!

 

[Don Paul]

Pete, I have a red Hydra did they come in two colors? Did you add the handle or was it a option?
Thanks, Don

 

[Phil Herranen]

Great guns Phil, I notice a rear handle gun is that your only one?

i make rear handles and euros fairly often .the the 2 multi gun pics are my personal guns those pics are around a year old ive added 4or 5 since then to my quiver . my current models are normally a couple generations ahead of the ones i make for myself due the the fact that my guns get pushed to the back of the line in favor of customer guns
the blue camo gun is my travel gun it has a center stringer with a "D" shaped cf chamber on each side and then is over wrapped with carbon this one is a 60" and weights 6# dry(without shaft or bands) but holds over 7 pounds of water (around 3 liters) .th 72" tuna gun is around 8.5# dry and well over 20 wet
phil

 

[popgun pete]

Pete, I have a red Hydra did they come in two colors? Did you add the handle or was it a option?
Thanks, Don

The stainless steel cross bar was fitted to the forward barrel of the "Hydra" by the original owner to assist pumping with the auxiliary hydropump situated on the top rear of the gun, the cross bar acted as a brace against the legs with the gun reversed and held between the knees. Not all Alcedo "Hydra" guns have the auxiliary hydropump fitted, it was not part of the original design (the inventor was Carlo Alinari) and was added by changing the central casting, but it blocks the sight line along the barrel. The "Hydra" was mainly a "point and shoot" gun for use against large Cod, Grouper, etc. in the days when such fish were still abundant.

The "Black Sea" speargun has a hydraulic trigger, as the "Hydra" does, but the latter is a forward flow design while the "Black Sea" requires the water to do a 180 degree turn inside the gun before it pushes the spear out. That and the forward compressed air reservoir makes the "Black Sea" speargun a more compact design.

Aquatech makes other models without the auxiliary hydropump, they are actually the original gun, the "Black Sea" is a later derivative. Latest model is called the "Dnieper", named after the river where Ukrainians often conduct their underwater hunting.

 

[Don Paul]

Thank you Peter, I haven't been to the black sea site in several years.
I can see they have been moving forward with new and longer models.
All the best, Don

 

[foxfish]

Dozens of band guns & only one company making specialist hydropneumatic guns, none making custom airguns!

 

[Don Paul]

Where are the Cuban's ?
Don

 

[popgun pete]

Producing custom pneumatic spearguns that offered an improvement on factory production models and at a reasonable price would be difficult to do in the West. Mass production has lowered the cost of factory pneumatic guns (most are made in Italy) as they have very long production runs before relatively minor changes are made (colour scheme, name stickers, grip handle shape, etc.).

To see custom pneumatics you have to find places that are, or were, starved of good factory pneumatic spearguns. That used to be the case in the former Soviet Union, the few factory produced pneumatic guns left a lot to be desired and were hard to obtain unless you had some contacts. So spearfishermen sourced their guns from custom builders, in the way that custom handguns and rifles are made by gunsmiths. These custom gun builders had access to precision metal turning and milling machinery, so imagination ran riot as complex designs were built in an informal competition to see whom could produce the most complex and intriguing speargun. Many of these guns had a production look to them, but were in fact made in small quantities to meet individual orders. This situation is changing as the Italian guns are making inroads into their market, but individual creativity is still finding an outlet.

Check out this "Perun" pneumatic speargun custom made in the Ukraine. The muzzle incorporates a reel, the gun uses its inner barrel as an air pump and the spear has longitudinal slots for the keyed line slide to track in on the shaft so that it does not rotate during flight. The rear of the gun has a rotating lever that controls the power regulator. Machining is of the highest standard and the gun is manufactured in titanium.

 

[Don Paul]

Wow, thanks Pete.
Don

 

[cubapnea]

Where are the Cuban's ?
Don

small example of what we had...with limited resources :martial

 

[popgun pete]

Another minor spearfishing equipment company is Mordem, founded by Demetrio Morabito (Mordem is derived from his name, "Mor"-"Dem"). An innovative Italian firm, Mordem supplied a full range of underwater weapons in the fifties and sixties, yet today they seem to be largely forgotten. When I last looked the company still manufactured a rear handled band gun with a target shooting derivative and a small spring gun, but in their heyday they manufactured the "Strale" hydropneumatic, the "Saturno" pneumatic (rear handle vaguely similar to a "Sten") and a Mordem cartridge powered gun that fired hollow shafts which were in a sense rocket propelled. Some of these older guns show up at times on eBay, but are usually missing their rubber muzzle parts (front sights and line wrap hooks) and grip handle covers which have perished. If Mordem are still going then they must be one of the longest lived of the small scale producers of dive equipment.

Just checked and Mordem still have a web-site! http://www.mordem.it/index.htm

 

[Yullis]

Check out this "Perun" pneumatic speargun custom made in the Ukraine.

In addition to the Ukrainian self-made guns
Ðóæüå Çåëèíñêîãî
Ðóæüÿ ñèñòåìû Çåëèíñêîãî
Çåëèíêà
+++ÇÀÃÎËÎÂÎÊ
Õðóñòàëüíûé Ãðîò
+++ÇÀÃÎËÎÂÎÊ

 

[popgun pete]

In addition to the Ukrainian self-made guns
Ðóæüå Çåëèíñêîãî
Ðóæüÿ ñèñòåìû Çåëèíñêîãî
Çåëèíêà
+++ÇÀÃÎËÎÂÎÊ
Õðóñòàëüíûé Ãðîò
+++ÇÀÃÎËÎÂÎÊ

The "Zelinka" pneumatic spearguns mentioned above are made in Kiev, capital of the Ukraine. They are interesting spearguns in that the gun fires by the trigger mechanism releasing the inner barrel which slides forwards in the gun and creates an annular valve opening at the rear of the gun. Opening this annular valve releases air (or water if the gun is a hydropneumatic, a number of gun manufacturers use this system) that had been transferred to the outer barrel reservoir by the loading action when the spear was inserted by pressing it down into the inner barrel. This mechanism is referred to as a "releasing valve" type. The sliding inner barrel valve action enables the inner barrel to serve as the hand pump body when the gun is pressurised at the start of the hunting season. For service as a hand pump the inner barrel is set to the pumping position and the muzzle relief ports then act as breather holes for the hand pump operation. Once the gun is fully pressurised the sliding inner barrel returns to its function as the trigger valve. So one valve does two jobs.

 

[spaghetti]

Talking of pneumatics, has any of you yet come to know that Pipin Ferreras has started a company of his own? It's called Persistent and it offers a full line of spearfishing gear: westuits, fins, et cetera, up to both band and pneumatic guns.
The pneumatics (up to 140 cm with foldable knee loader) look very similar to the Seac Asso (indeed, Pipin was working for italian brand Seac till a while ago) while the Persistent bandguns have some original features plus some that don't look very original at first glance, such as the Beuchat-lookalike muzzles.
They look beautiful anyway. Here's Persistent bandguns and airguns:

 

[Don Paul]

Thanks for the post, I was going to post this last week, but thought about the hate mail I would get :martial.
I wish Pipin well, Thanks.
Cheers, Don

 

[strangelove]

I am not going bash Pipin, just his gear. Very un-exciting gear compared to the other guns displayed on this thread. He is a fantastic freediver, but I am not sure about his spear fishing skills.
I have one of his videos, I was not that impressed.

 

[spaghetti]

Hold on lads, I'm not done yet with this thread.

From Greece here's Mythicon spearguns, probably the beefiest european guns I've ever seen. I'm told thay're made of wood covered with CF sheets. I like the artistic rendering of the "antiquated bronze" finish...

 

[spaghetti]

And here's a closer look to italian Huntechnology guns mentioned in post #2 of this thread. Some say they look like Trygons, but the Huntechnology are actually very slim guns, the main section being only 25 millimeters.

...to be continued...

 

[spaghetti]

Next is an italian creative bugger named Arbafan. The gun in display is his "Zero Attrito 83". Aside of the fine wood craft and the own made trigger/release, you will notice the pulleys in the track, conceptually intended to reduce attrition of the shaft.

 

[Phil Herranen]

Next is an italian creative bugger named Arbafan. The gun in display is his "Zero Attrito 83". Aside of the fine wood craft and the own made trigger/release, you will notice the pulleys in the track, conceptually intended to reduce attrition of the shaft.

is the line release on the wrong side in the pic? it looks like the were loop on the opposite side (from the release) is meant to be a line guide for the release to keep the shooting down and away from the bands. great finish on the gun
phil