Laser sights for spearguns

[Old Man Dave]

Has anyone out there tried this. Take a cheap laser pointer and waterproof it then strap it to the front of a speargun. At the relative short range of underwater guns even a cheap laser would only give a small spread and hence a small target dot. What about light disapation in water? What do you think? Am I nuts or is this a stoke of genius?
Old Man Dave

 

[Huan]

I saw an article in diver-girl or some such mag last summer.
Some Scandinavian with too much time on his hands had built a Pneumatic with a laser sight attached. cost was in the order of £300-400stg so I passed.
I suppose it is a good idea in theory, however I have the following questions,
1, How easy is it to waterproof a laser pointer to 30m?
2, How easy is it to fit a switch to the above mentioned and still have waterproofing?
3, What range would you zero the gun at?
4, What does plankton/marine snow do to the dot?
just a few ideas.

 

[defofthecrown]

Well first of all they do make an underwater laser sight in the neighborhood of $100. Secondly those don't work. I think the light gets readily absorbed/diffracted and scattered over a very short range due to particulate matter. Never tried one myself but someone I know has tried it and said it wasn't remotely worth bothering with. It would be great if they worked though. Especially w/ all the akward angles we sometimes shoot the guns in. I wonder if a very intense/expensive laser could ever work. Huan, any reviews from the above experiment?

 

[Huan]

I will try and dig out the article from the magazine.
No guarantees that I will find it though.
Diver-girl isn't a big read with me.

 

[takeshi]

i think it sounds brilliant. A quick google survey gives that laser pointer for scuba use are readily available at around 30 usd. I am definitely going to try this. You the man!

http://www.island-scuba.com/page/001/PROD/sublights/ACCDL70
http://shop.divebooty.com/3010.html

zeroing the gun on a range is not an issue when the maximum range is what 5m and the alternative is to aim along the gun barrel. The laser might even attract some fish in aspetto, like "heeeeeey maaan..what is that red spot....WHACK!!"

 

[Huan]

What is it with you scandinavians and laser sights? I just don't get it?

 

[Freediver81]

Hello Takeshi!

Thanks for finding it! Tell us how it goes if you decide to purchase it! It sounds interesting!


said

 

[Amphibious]

if you need a laser sight to spearfish you don't belong in the water. a the ranges it would be usefull you should really be able to hit your target with a little practice.

useless gizmo, but I'm sure some rookie will get sucked into buying one

 

[Ntrik]

An underwater laser would only be useful in the absence of light or night dives if you prefer. Beyond the refraction of the beam due to underwater particles, the color RED is the first color lost from the spectrum as you descend. Havent you noticed when shooting fish at depth that their blood is green?

Lets try a little experiment with a cheap laser

1) Fill a bathtub with water
2) Point laser at bottom of bathtub
3)Try to see the red dot
4)Switch off the light and try again
5)Post Results

Needless to say if one is having trouble seeing the dot in the bathtub OPERATION LASER SCOPE stops there.

 

[efattah]

This would work great if you use a GREEN LASER POINTER.

Red is useless underwater. Green laser pointers are also way more expensive than red ones.

If there's a market for a water proof green laser pointer then I'll manufacture one!

 

[FreediveSniper]

I agree with the camel jockey. If you need a laser sight to shoot a fish you might want to try another sport.

 

[persiko]

sorry, but I think is not corrected (no-sport) use laser pointer.
ciao

 

[Per]

Hi,

ok, so using a red laser rointer underwater might not be that efficient, and I guess green lasers aren't that common... but what about fitting the gun with som sort of scope like the military issue AimPoint (http://www.aimpoint.com/o.o.i.s/67)?

Ok, I admit it, it's a bit Arnold, but what the heck... Cost aside, might it just work?

//Per

 

[takeshi]

hey, another swede! I thought about aimpoint as well when this thread came up. Definitely a bit arnold, would make a great impression with a camo suit though hehehe. However I can see some drawbacks:

The waterproofness seems not so good.

I have never used an aimpoint but judging from an ordinary sight I think one needs to get closer to the sight with the eye than might be practical under water.

It wouldn't work when shooting at an angle. And then there is the cost, I havn't seen a price but I can guess that one could get a nice railgun for the price of an aimpoint. sight.

 

[miles]

Ok, story-time!!!!

I belonged to a small spearfishing club a while back. The South African Airforce Spearfing club to be precise. Every wednesday we'd have a small comp. usually diving in cold 10-12degrees water shooting fish generally under 2kg's. Was more of a training session really. After each dive, we'd go for the "DEBRIEFING" at the nearest pub/resturant/etc. After a couple of pints, time seems to fly and in-evitably you end up going home quite late. One of my mates overdid it and passed out. Waking up a while later he returns home at pass 12 the evening. His wife is FURIOUS and demands to know where he's been. The reply ..... honey, i was out spearing!! Obviously the wife doesn't believe him and he gets whacked over the head with his own speargun!!! Wife retorts after whacking him..... "you think i'm stupid?? you left your night vision goggles at home!!!!"

Can now see how a laser sighted gun would have helped my afore-mentioned buddy!!!!

Regards
miles

 

[Per]

Great story miles! Good thing he didn't bring home a baseball bat instead of a gun...

Tak - the sights work fine even though your eye is pretty far away - the angle issue is a problem though... and the price. Maybe I should pop by and ask them for an evaluation copy...? They claim it can sustain a depth of 25 m - good enough for the Baltic! Ah, well, fun idea anyway.

//Per

 

[Huan]

For me if you want to get technical , the thing to do would be to fit a small white LED into the muzzle of a gun and have a waterproof switch on the handle.
THis would allow you to illuminate whatever you wanted to see under overhangs/caves etc . it would also be a lot easier than a laser sight to make -no zeroing.
also the applications would interest IMHO a lot more people than laser sights.
I can shoot accurately up to the end of my shooting line with 1 or 2 wraps thats all the accuracy I need.
What I find a pain is to hold a torch and a speargun.

 

[paddythefrog]

hmmmmmmz indeed, can you get sniper scopes for spearguns too?
Honestly, if you need laser sighting to shoot a fish that's close you need to improve your aim, not look for ways to cheat :hmm

I suppose by 2010 we'll all have laser sights and sniper scopes on our spearguns. rofl

 

[Alison]

I suppose by 2010 we'll all have laser sights and sniper scopes on our spearguns. rofl

What?? You dont use them?? rofl
Does anyone remeber the gun in Beverly Hills cop 3? rofl
On a serious note, I belive if you cant aim a gun without having to resort to aides then you shouldnt be holding the thing; after all the only time it would be of any use is on a stationary fish 3-4m away and if you cant hit that, well I think you need glasses or some practice! Right Shane

 

[Per]

In a way, I fully agree - poor skills should'nt be replaced by technical aids, but on the other hand we constantly strive for better equipment. Ruling sights out by default seems a bit harsh to me.

If nothing else, I think the idea is fun!

//Per