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Just got my new Mares Sten 11!

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Brodraugen

Active Member
Mar 12, 2011
8
1
38
Hi guys!

I just got my new Mares Sten 11 70cm shipped from Italy today.
I will be taking it out in the freezing dark this weekend to test fire my first pneumatic!

I just wanted to let you guys know in case anybody else are considering buying this new gun and had any questions. I also wanted to highlight a possible issue with the hi/lo power valve. At least on my gun.

I have pumped it up to the maximum I believe I can comfortably load while underwater. This is just a little less than the pressure in the gun when it arrived. However, when I semi-load the gun with the power setting on low I can hear air escaping. I tried doing this while the bottom half of the gun was submerged in a bucket of water and I could still hear the same wheezing sound. But no bubbles were escaping. My theory is that the valve that seals off half the air volume on the low power setting is leaking air into the sealed off area. Hopefully this will not be a problem as I had not planned to use the low power setting much.

I can just add that while the build quality seems excellent it is a pity that the spear that is included is an aluminium one covered in black paint. Much of the paint is allready gone simply from me trying to remove the leftover glue from the price tag...

I'll be back with more after my first dive!
 
Hi Brodraugen,
welcome to db.
Here's a suggestion, take the gun apart, take out the power regulator, throw it away, put the gun back together.
Problem solved and a more powerful gun.
 
Welcome to db Brodraugen & even better add a Tromic Tomba kit & you will have a dream gun.
 
Hi Broudragen, I belive that you did not get aluminium spear, probably it is not top quality but I think it is not aluminium, it would be to weak material for spear.
 
You should not have such noises in a brand new gun. The gun is basically the "Spark" with a new name. If your gun has a problem then take it to a Mares dealer and have it fixed under warranty, you have already paid for that in the purchase price. You should use the repaired gun as is before undertaking modifications just to familiarize yourself with its performance as stock. I have used many pneumatic spearguns and in my opinion you should leave the power regulator in, but get it fixed first. If you find you really need a more powerful gun, then think about changes.
 
Pete could you explain your reasons for leaving the power regulator?
I know some people recommend binning it, but if a man of your vast experience says no, I would love to know why.
 
devondave said:
Pete could you explain your reasons for leaving the power regulator?
I know some people recommend binning it, but if a man of your vast experience says no, I would love to know why.
Click to expand...

Devondave, I would also leave the power regulator on the gun. It has some choking effect but you can just add same pressure more to compensate. I would just convert it to vaccum barrel.
 
Reactions: devondave
Wow! Thanks for your input everybody!

I'm really looking forward to tricking out the gun properly. But as Pete said, I should probably get some experience using it first.

Here's my wish list, though:
  1. Devoto tahitian single flopper spear (on order)
  2. Mono rigline with shark clip quick release (maybe go from 2 to 3 loops?)
  3. Tomba kit (As soon as I can figure out how to order one from Norway)
  4. Custom paint job!
 

Hi, you can send me PM if you are interested about Tomba kit.
 
devondave said:
Pete could you explain your reasons for leaving the power regulator?
I know some people recommend binning it, but if a man of your vast experience says no, I would love to know why.
Click to expand...

The easiest way to obtain more power from a pneumatic gun is to simply pump it up to a higher pressure, provided that you can still load it. The power regulator makes the gun more versatile so that it can be used under a wider variety of conditions. If you own a range of gun sizes then you can have certain guns for close in work and others for long range shots and are less likely to need the power regulator, but if you only have one gun then the regulator is a handy thing to have. The other aspect is the partitioning bulkhead for the regulator has a non-return valve, so if you put the gun on low power then you can limit the amount of air being released as only pressure is dumped from the pre-chamber and barrel, not the main reservoir in the front section of the gun. This allows a much finer adjustment of gun pressure than if the gun was set on high power or had no power regulator at all, plus you can do it during a dive when you are getting tired but need to make a few more shots. Even with the "easy load" feature with the regulator set on low power, the final push to latch has to oppose the same final pressure in the gun and sometimes you just cannot make it, like after 4 hours in the water, hence letting a bit of air out makes all the difference. Switching the gun back to full power, but only after reloading it, gives you a strong shot even though the gun was very easy to load with some air released at low power.

On very long guns the power regulator is often just there for the "easy load" feature, rather than any need for a low power shot, as "easy" or stepped loading requires that non-return valve, plus it is not always that easy in any case. The Mares "Bazooka" discussed recently has that feature so that the gun can be muzzle loaded even though it is so long. Ditto for the longer "Sten" guns. A low power shot would rarely be taken with those guns, so "low power" is really the "load" position on those models.
 
Reactions: devondave
Loading the Cyrano on Low/High power:

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/user/zmajmr#p/u/12/qwA5-V8xL0k"]YouTube - zmajmr's Channel[/ame]

Loading on "low" is actually more difficult if loading in continious motion than loading on "high".
 
Last edited:
tromic said:
Loading the Cyrano on Low/High power:

YouTube - zmajmr's Channel

Loading on "low" is actually more difficult if loading in continious motion than loading on "high".
Click to expand...

The key word is continuous, on a long gun you often find that you cannot do it in one push, especially if wave action is moving you around at the surface. On a short gun, which is relatively easy to load, you probably do not need the "easy load" feature, in fact most small guns were supplied without it. When the "Cyrano" type handle arrived all guns had the feature, on the ones that I saw sold here that is.
 
Right, good have on mind!
 
I dont like power regulators, the actual external lever, bolt, is a pain in the bum when you hunt in any weed & the power is always on low every time the fish of a life time appears.
 
The trick to loading pneumatics is one continuous motion. The secret is to also lift up with your leg much like an ab crunching machine to lock the spear. I can load a very high pressure 115cm. Although too high pressure it not good for accuracy and it really isnt much more powerful
 
Reactions: Don Paul
While the "Cyrano" was always supplied with the power regulator, that was not the case with the "Sten". I do not know the situation with the "Spark", but if like the "Sten" series it was offered with the power regulator omitted and the selector gate not incorporated in the moulding then why buy the model with the power regulator if you never intend to use it? I can understand removing the power regulator from the "Cyrano" as you had no option to buy one without the regulator, but the "Medisten" (70 cm) used to be available without it, as was the "Ministen" (58 cm). The parts lists show a single power handle for the "Sten 2001" series and the "Miniministen" (42 cm) always came as a single power gun. Why pay for something that you are going to remove, unless of course you have no option to buy one without the regulator.

The bore of the non-return valve is usually smaller than the transfer port for the power regulator, so that is why loading with the regulator on low power requires slightly more effort. On the Scubapro "Magnum" guns the power regulator port and the non-return valve are one and the same thing. The biasing springs on the non-return valves are not very strong, so it is the port size that is responsible for any difference.
 
If I remember correctly, my Nemrod Filibustero handbook recommends a maximum of something like 300 pumps.
But once you've been loading it every day for a couple of weeks & your right arm & shoulder is now quite a bit stronger than it was, you find that even that is fairly easy to load, & it's very tempting to put another 50 pumps worth in.
And so it goes...& I finished up with 500 psi in mine. Trouble is, within a month the plunger in the inner barrel (with the back-to-back seals) that receives the back end of the spear, starts to round-off as it hammers into the nose-cone stopper & cushion rubber, which means when you're trying to unload the spear, it won't come out easily, as the spear & the plunger are very firmly wedged together. A real PIA when trying to re-load on the surface.!
I used to then take off the nose-cone, take out the plunger & file it flat again, then re-pressurise to 500 pumps.
Rather 'high-maintenance' I know, but the range was over 20ft underwater & I had many long-distance kills.
I bought a job-lot of 'O'-rings, plungers & seals & spears from a closing down dive-shop in Johannesburg many years ago, so I have spares for life. I bought it in Lourenzo Marques in Mozambique, in 1973 for about 120 Rands, (now=£12.!) & it still works perfectly.!
Surely a Collectors Item by now.?
Jeff.
 

About 2 kg for Cyrano.
 
Hi everybody
I am new to spearfishing and i like to buy a pneumatic gun:
Cressi SL 70.
Can someone tell me which is the effective range of such a gun?
Regards and thanks in advance.
 
Bluemate said:
Hi everybody
I am new to spearfishing and i like to buy a pneumatic gun:
Cressi SL 70.
Can someone tell me which is the effective range of such a gun?
Regards and thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

2,5 - 3 m, with vacuum barrel, 7 mm shaft, harpoon.
 
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