Laser sights for spearguns

speaking of sporting and unsporting, does anyone think that the Picasso Century Twin is unsporting?
seems odd to need two spears for something that is as small as a reef gun? it might make more sense on a bluewater setup with dual enclosed rails to finish an otherwise sloppy shot to a strong fish.
if you add a lasersight to a speargun with two shots does that make it unsporting?

where I live, many of the fish are over harvested, primarily by Line fishing, and commercial trawling from Japan, however spearfishing is increasing in popularity, and it would seem that a reef gun with double spears might compound over fishing in many areas if everyone used it to catch two fish per dive.

I wonder why man feels the necessity to improve on a method (such as a pole spear) that is oftentimes in its own right highly successful with the right knowledge.

I used a polespear for 6 months straight while waiting for the speargun, and I learned alot about stalking and swimming. getting close is not a problem, getting the one I want sometimes is. seeing a giant trevally in the 70lb range with nothing but a polespear is a humbling experience. maby we should mount a laser sight on a freeshaft hawaiian sling for more accuracy and call it more sporting than with a speargun?

as for laser sights in general, I think it is un necessary for successful fish hunting, or big game hunting of any kind, for the same reasons Spaghetti, Foxfish, Oldsarge, and sickbugs have mentioned, I agree. thanks for killing some time with me on a foolish project.

TBGSUB
American Spearo in CNMI Islands

The issue of aiming with the laser mounted below the axis of the shaft is nt a problem if it is adjusted for paralax at the correct distance or you can estimate it the same as we have to estimate spear drop at distance now I think you would be surprised if you new how much the spear actually drops that you automatically adjust for without a sight of any kind.
Peter

poacher said:

The issue of aiming with the laser mounted below the axis of the shaft is nt a problem if it is adjusted for paralaw at the correct distance or you can estimate it the same as we have to estimate spear drop at distance now I think you would be surprised if you new how much the spear actually drops that you automatically adjust for without a sight of any kind.
Peter

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I know about spear drop, Peter. But that's one more reason to be skeptical about laser pointers. I think I'd rather wait for attraction beams to hit the market. (for the newbies, "a. beams" are those gamma rays that may trap the fishes in a magnetic field, so they can not run away while you're aiming...)

rofl only joking :rcard

spaghetti said:

I know about spear drop

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Yeah me too, I bought some pills for it that I saw advertised in one of one of those spam post we get here. Worked a treat rofl

The Russian Military came up with a powerful laser for their Sea Bear gun. The whole package was about $1000. The lasers stay dry about half the time and work well. The red laser is quite visible and projects a discreet beam well beyond the range of most spearguns. Very bright days close to the surface is the most difficult condition but it's still useful. The biggest problem is finding the european batteries for the units. A Russian was selling the lasers but he seems to have disappeared off the face of the earth. Used to have a phone number for him but he never picked up. National Dive used to carry the units. They are very useful for a dive master pointing stuff out to their clients as well. They work, their accuracy is remarkable, and there's probably a place for them.

New Guy :blackeye

mm lots of worrys about ethics and sporting ????????????????????

Could be argued an unfair advantage in a competition but they dont seem Ethical to me i only hunt for Food on land or Sea (then i know little about modern Comps in Spearfishing so my view maybe out of date on that) that would be covered by the Rules i would guess

seems a little odd due to the massive advantage rendered by Technology already considered sporting and pure ??

Face mask So you can see under water
Wet suit So you dont freeze and have some camoflage
Weight belt So you can get underwater easily
Fins large or small So you can actually swim at resonable speed/ distance / Depth

and finally
Speargun and spear it self so you can actually catch the prey

all the above give you an advantage or allow you do do something you cant do the addition of a lazer seems Minor

would seen the tru and only Sporting and ethical thing is to go in Butt naked (speedos could give a streamlining thats an artifical boost rofl) and get em in your teeth or hands

red light is filtered out thru Water but its the distance it passes thru that counts so sun light looses red at the shallow depth (10-15ft) which is a pain to Photograghy etc BUT if you turn on a Red light it donst disapear it you only wont see it if it has to travel away to the object and bounce back further than the 10- 15 ft
A torch at depth shows the full colour of coral etc as it only has the few ft or so to travel to your Eye

mounting would eb better on top of the gun like a Rifle sight this would give a better match to the trajectory of the spear (assuming its simier to a rifle bullet ie drops the further it goes )

ATB

Duncan

:crutch:friday

However it is interesting that - although lasers dont appeal to every one, lots of people are interested in lasers!?

I have a laser that is waterproof to 60M, it is red, would rather have blue or green but that is 200.00US upgrade for green and 700.00+ US for BLUE, (I am not going to pay anymore for this idea) it is mostly the cost of the diode with exotic materials than installation.

I believe that it is a waste of time actually, the range of even a bad gun is 10feet, a good gun 19-20 feet.

You would most likely need a laser during dusk and early morning, in which case it may be ok, but a flashlight is more practical.

however, if fishing in a cave, better to swap out the laser for a flashlight that will actually get you a large ULUA or Napoleon Wrasse.

Myself I dont shoot Napoleons.

If you shoot for Dinner for small family, Laser is pretty useless, and money could be spent on better gun, or bouy for stringer.

I dont imagine after 2.5 years of fishing every weekend, that a Laser would help much at all, it is just an excuse to have some high tech piece of crap under water and feel cool about it. camo suits dont get you much closer than good technique, I have seen better fisher men in swim trunks and t-shirts where I live, but the tech gear seems to get noticed and purchased as if it is necessary even by locals. I believe that proper skills aquired from fishing and learning from elder spearos is worth more than any tech products dreamed up from any spearing company.

I also previously mounted an Omer Cobra with the laser, and estimated the drop at 15 feet for the dot to be level with the gun at 12. wasnt such a useful thing in bright sunlight, couldnt see the dot at 10ft or even 5ft, at dusk may be different story.

set up looks kind of stoopid when you youre getting in the water with a laser mount and cammo suit next to a kid with a sling in shorts and a t-shirt, and your getting out with one or two decent fish, and he has a full cooler of reef fish!! (kid in t-shirt with sling feeds his family, tech nerd geets a couple fish and not because of the laser.)

of course we are fishing very differently, so it may be apples and oranges, but I guess that means I am picky.

in all I think laser on speargun is a waste of time, better to use high power LED flashlight on small backup gun, and fish with medium to long reef gun most of the time.

current gun is a Riffe 110 Euro, no reel, on riffe 70ft float bungie and 2Atm float bouy with flag in 40-60ft of water, or in mixed drop off reef areas looking for Doggies at 50-70ft.

fast fish in bluewater may mean that a laser is a waste of time and one more thing to think about over just lining up the shot and letting instinct take over. if it is a long distance shot, you should have the drop shot technique down, otherwise you probably shouldnt be shooting large game in open water. shooting reef fish is easy without a laser, so shame on you if you kill reef fish at night with a laser, when you can do it with a flashlight faster and better.

good luck and safe hunting.
"Conserve da resources, only take mature fish, no juveniles"

TBGSUB
in Saipan.

really what good is a laser again?

how about a high powered sonar paralysis device.
using an Underwater speaker, an amplifier, some lithium ion batterys, and a voice modulator to mimic dolphin hunting signals, so you can literaly stun your prey and take the easy shot!

that way you dont even have to have your eyes open because that would be too easy.

the highest tech item, is the speargun that shoots straight underwater and still penetrates out to 18 feet, and is still small enough to be a reef gun, but almost powerful enough to be Blue water. we shoud all be grateful for that and for stoopid fish.

TBGSUB

To sum up my experiments with green laser and speargun. I mount 5 mW green laser on my 60" Wong using the rail mounting pad (nice touch Mr Wong!). Conclusion:
5 mW is too weak in the bright daylight and clear water (visibility 40 feet or so).
Murky water (20 feet of visibility) is actually better for laser since you see the beam!!! It almost like you need wider beam and more powerful laser if you hunt on the bright day. It is helpful and it is working, but weight is a concideration, since it is making my Wong negatively buyoant even when unloaded. Size of the laser does matter since my is on the bulky side and adds drag, especially when I need to manuver the speargun fast. Drop of the spear needs to be carefully examined and adjusted according to the each gun behaviour. Mr. Wong made his guns heavy enough not to have a lot of 'kick'. I estimate the spear drop being 15'' on 15' approximately. Not much different than on the air according to my experiments!!
Under the barrel mount is better then above the barrel since it allows better adjustment for the spear drop. Having access to the pool to be able to fine-tune the laser adjusments is almost a must!! I personally have to do it after midnight in the appartment complex pool near my house (I don't have a pool). Imagine the picture. Guy with fins, mask, snorkel, target + 20 pounds of lead to keep it underwater, 60" speargun with bright green laser (it is really bright at night) crossing the parking lot and dipping into the community pool. Why they didn't call the police or mental hospital is beyong my understanging . That alone was a reward for my experiments . Bottomline: Green laser, diameter of the body not more then half an inch, not longer then 5 inches, 15 mW of power is very practical. I hit every fish I was able to aim at. Usually my success rate is only about 70%...

Interesting, is your laser a 5mw or 15mw?
I think a blue laser would work in bright light but the last time I looked they were still very expensive.

This thread is interesting. But honestly, I am with OldSarge, I mean it's not only pointless to have a laserpointer, but it's like a few years back when the epidemic of killing dear via through the internet on a computerized gun. I truly think someday some rich scrub will do the same for spearfishing...