Mares Bazooka

[Don Paul]

After twenty years of searching my 1969 Titian has a big brother thanks to a Friend in Florida:friday. The Mares Bazooka model 5301.After reseal this summer, long term plans will include a 8mil 17/4 shaft and slip tip along with a Tomba vacuum kit on the over sized muzzle. ( don't tell him yet) The beautiful blue anodized 140cm 13mm barrel should work well in clear blue water and big fish.

Cheers, Don Paul

 

[popgun pete]

A longer pneumatic gun with a full length air reservoir displaces more water, so the gun can float after spear discharge provided it has no extra heavy parts added inside it. Your slightly shorter "Titan" has an internal brass bar projecting forwards from the rear brass partitioning bulkhead to make it more or less neutral in the water, so I am wondering if the "Bazooka" has a similar weight (or weights) incorporated inside it. My mini "Titan", which is the same length as a "Sten 90", has no such brass bar added as the rear brass bulkhead and thick air reservoir tanks are sufficient to send it to the bottom. While a floating gun is very convenient, it does not need to float like a cork, it just needs to stay up off the bottom. Extra gun mass counteracts recoil, so I assume that the "Bazooka" (it was also listed as the "Cannon" here with a sticker change) has opted for increased weight to cope with shooting a larger diameter spear. If you convert it to vacuum barrel operation and shoot an 8 mm diameter spear then you can probably adjust the internal brass bar weight to something that will let the gun rise in the water column after spear discharge. When spearfishing scuba divers "roamed the depths" they wanted sinkers, not floaters, so big guns were weighted accordingly. Due to rule changes here spearfishing scuba divers joined the ranks of the dinosaurs and that ended the big heavy pneumatic gun era!

 

[Don Paul]

I'll be pulling the rear tank this weekend. This gun due to the beefy coil spring and all metal muzzle and heavy chrome plated brass line anchor/strap weighs 1lb more the Titian. I'm heading to salt water this weekend to find out if its a floater.

Cheers, Don

 

[Don Paul]

Your slightly shorter "Titan" has an internal brass bar projecting forwards from the rear brass partitioning bulkhead to make it more or less neutral in the water


It's been a while but as I recall the '' brass bar'' is a thin walled 9mm tube/chamber soldered into the brass bulkhead assembly.
I wish I had a old parts manual to see what the engineers call it.

Cheers, Don

 

[foxfish]

Big gun big fish!!!
That is a real beaut mate....

 

[Don Paul]

Big gun big fish!!!
That is a real beaut mate....

Thanks Mart, It will be a while before this thing kills anything.My plans include storing the stock tanks and fabricating lighter ones from thinner 6061 T6 along with a lighter modern piston and and vacuum barrel kit. When I retire from diving at 90 something the gun will be put back to stock.

Cheers, Don

 

[foxfish]

I like the idea of customising retro guns a bit like building a model T ford hot rod.

 

[popgun pete]

Your slightly shorter "Titan" has an internal brass bar projecting forwards from the rear brass partitioning bulkhead to make it more or less neutral in the water


It's been a while but as I recall the '' brass bar'' is a thin walled 9mm tube/chamber soldered into the brass bulkhead assembly.
I wish I had a old parts manual to see what the engineers call it.

Cheers, Don

I only called it a brass bar as I had not seen it before, on my shorter gun there is no provision for anything being fitted in that position. I just checked back on your photos and see that the inner barrel has a wide groove machined forwards of the brass bulkhead, my gun does not have that either. I think that the brass tube is just there as a weight, but if it is closed off at the front end then it may be an extension of the pre-chamber volume if it is ported through into the rear section which holds the sear lever. If you think about it as the gun is made longer then the ratio of main reservoir (front and rear tanks connect via airways in the centre grip body) to pre-chamber volume becomes much larger as the rear cup formed by the brass section is a constant size. To increase its size the volume could be increased by soldering a brass tube extension to the brass reservoir. Something that you could check if you still have the shorter gun in pieces.

 

[Don Paul]

I like the idea of customising retro guns a bit like building a model T ford hot rod.

More like this then a model T

 

[DivingDane]

lamborghini!!!!! nice the tuff truck before the hummer was ever thought of

DD

 

[Don Paul]

Pete, I recall the thin brass tube being shut at the handle end, I believe it in
is part for the pre chamber circuit volume. That gun has been reassembled but I take bulkhead/searbox images of the Bazooka when I reseal it.

Cheers, Don

 

[Don Paul]

lamborghini!!!!! nice the tuff truck before the hummer was ever thought of

DD

But for the cost of 1, the opposition could have 50 Datsun pickups with bed mounted guns and cheap parts, The LM002 did much better here in Newport moving golf clubs and blonds in short leather skirts:inlove

Cheers, Don

 

[popgun pete]

Pete, I recall the thin brass tube being shut at the handle end, I believe it in
is part for the pre chamber circuit volume. That gun has been reassembled but I take bulkhead/searbox images of the Bazooka when I reseal it.

Cheers, Don

The reason that the pre-chamber volume, which is the volume to the rear of the partitioning bulkhead, is small is to provide a dual power gun with an easy loading feature. I discussed this some time back in the "Compression Ratio" thread. However if the pre-chamber volume is too small then the low power shot will be too weak as then a relatively small volume of compressed air expands to fill both the inner barrel and the pre-chamber after the shot. This will result in a significant drop in air pressure in the inner barrel and as the power of the shot depends on the difference between initial (cocked) and final (discharged) pressures the shot will be that much weaker. The gun's high pressure air levels will still be locked up in the main reservoir on the other side of the partitioning bulkhead until the power regulator cursor is moved to another position and opens up the transfer port in the partitioning bulkhead, after that the air pressure can re-equalize throughout the gun. With a gun as large as the "Bazooka" and the next model down it was probably considered worthwhile to boost the lower power shots by increasing the pre-chamber volume with an additional tube fitted to the existing bulkhead, that way they could use the same brass rear section in all the various "Titan" gun lengths.

 

[petar_dj]

Nice gun, Paul.

A couple of years ago I tried a similar project with the Mares vico jet gun, also equipped with a vacuum kit, which you can see in the attached photo.

At first I thought of this to be my long range gun, but very quickly I noticed it was unbelievably heavy underwater, compared to modern pneumatics. It literally killed my arm after 2h in the water.

Also, the mid handle design made aiming awkward. I equipped it with a 125 cm devoto double flopper spear. Surprisingly, the shaft speed was not even close to my spark 110 tovarich with the same shaft and pumped to 22 bar, probably because of the small airtank size. I managed to shoot down a couple of mullet, before hanging it on the garage wall.

Anyway, I hope you find much more satisfaction with the new bazooka.:martial

 

[Don Paul]

A beautiful vintage Mares vico jet Petar, Bravo for giving her new life even is she is now retired for a bit. I also fondly recall your work on the Mirage as well.

The mid handle Bazooka feels very natural to me as I have grown very accustom to shooting heavy mid handle long guns over the last 30 years and have been blessed with arms like a ape. With the gun fully outstretched to locked elbow I still have room for my hand supporting the end. The large extending tank up front gives the gun a very balanced feel, if our forefathers manged clean kills with monster spring guns this should be a breeze.

Unlike many in my Cali tribe I personally am not a fan of thick timber for my blue water guns. The mid hand double below has a barrel 1 1/2 by 1 3/4 without the tapered carbon/boron faring and ballast tubes.

I have come to find I prefer my guns ballasted to resist recoil, and have balance with out the nervousness of a light muzzle in the surge and fast water I sometimes dive. The one thing nice about swinging a crow bar under water is, it pulls you to your target and does not oscillate the tip when tracking a fast pelagic fish.

Cheers, Don

 

[popgun pete]

Nice gun, Paul.

A couple of years ago I tried a similar project with the Mares vico jet gun, also equipped with a vacuum kit, which you can see in the attached photo.

At first I thought of this to be my long range gun, but very quickly I noticed it was unbelievably heavy underwater, compared to modern pneumatics. It literally killed my arm after 2h in the water.

Also, the mid handle design made aiming awkward. I equipped it with a 125 cm devoto double flopper spear. Surprisingly, the shaft speed was not even close to my spark 110 tovarich with the same shaft and pumped to 22 bar, probably because of the small airtank size. I managed to shoot down a couple of mullet, before hanging it on the garage wall.
:martial

Your Mares "Vicojet" is an early version based on the Mares "Bess" spring gun handle casting which was modified for pneumatic speargun use, the all-metal construction is what makes the gun so heavy. A modern equivalent would be a "Seabear" which has a stainless steel inner barrel to add even further to its hefty weight. The last Mares "Vicojet" model had a plastic mid-handle and rear tail cone and was a contemporary of the "Titan" and the "Sten". Although not identical the three guns all shared a similar styling and colour schemes. The use of injection moulded plastic parts made the Mares guns much lighter, but the only floater was the "Sten". You can think of a "Titan" as a "Vicojet" with an extended reservoir length to increase the compressed air chamber volume, lower the compression ratio and thus increase the power of the shot. The "Titan" at first only extended the reservoir part way forwards and still had a small diameter barrel sticking out of the front end of the gun. By using the "Sten" nose cone and muzzle the "Titan" air reservoir was extended all the way to the front end of the gun, so a full length tank "Titan" will be as powerful as a "Sten" of the same length. The "Bazooka" has a reinforced muzzle to provide something more substantial to tie the shooting line to, given the nature of its intended prey which included sharks and big fish.

 

[Don Paul]

Pete, I have lots of vintage gun manuals in deep storage, but just a few on hand. I have looked on the web successfully for parts and shop manuals covering the Titian series including the Bazooka. I don't need them for disassemble and refit, but I have been known to collect paper on the gun I have, Any ideas mate.

Cheers, Don

 

[popgun pete]

Pete, I have lots of vintage gun manuals in deep storage, but just a few on hand. I have looked on the web successfully for parts and shop manuals covering the Titian series including the Bazooka. I don't need them for disassemble and refit, but I have been known to collect paper on the gun I have, Any ideas mate.

Cheers, Don

Not sure what you mean here Don, what sort of ideas? If you have the diagrams and parts lists then you have pretty much all that you need. First thing that I would do is shoot the gun in stock configuration and see if it does what you want it to do, then maybe look at changing something.

 

[Don Paul]

Not sure what you mean here Don, what sort of ideas? If you have the diagrams and parts lists then you have pretty much all that you need. First thing that I would do is shoot the gun in stock configuration and see if it does what you want it to do, then maybe look at changing something.

I should never post while I'm in training for Saint Pat's tonight.:head

What I should have said is I have lots of early Nemrod, Cressi and Aqua lung
stuff but only One sales brochure for the 1969 Titian range, Would love to find Bazooka ads, and parts manuals along with a shop manual.
Yes your are right, I will be shooting the gun stock to get a base line of performance. The 10mm shaft will then get exchanged for a 8mm before going forward.

Cheers, Don

 

[popgun pete]

I do not have a manual for the "Titan" either. References to the guns are scattered through old dive publications as in "What's New" type listings and adverts for the then current Mares range of pneumatic spearguns, but I don't remember seeing a specific advert for the "Bazooka". "Airdive" used to be the Mares distributor here and imported some "Bazooka" guns along with all the other Mares models, from memory the new "Bazooka" I saw in a city store had a metal band around the nose cone slightly different to the one on your gun. Eventually someone must have purchased it, but it sat there for some time as it was too big and too expensive for most. Interestingly the range of Mares compressed air guns were promoted at the time as being "power without effort". If only that were true!