Gentlemen,
If anyone out there has interest in owning a pneumatic or considering one, I hope this little info might help you.
I just got this today because I can bear to hear all the Euro Gun talk on this forum. My hands just get itchy. I am very familiar with pneumatic, already ruined 5 in my time. About the time I gave up on pneumatic years ago, this Cyrano just came to the market. Those days it was the Mares Stern. I had the opportunity of ruining and enjoying very much 3 Scubapro pneumatics, unfortunately it is discountinued now. Mares Stern in my days could not match the better built Scubapro units. I ripped these guns apart so often, sometime other owners came to me for repair instead of the local dealer. I also had the opporturtunity of being given from a friend
D I have nice & generous friends ) a SeaBear Russian made pneumatic, small front barrel and big air reservoir at the rear. Supposedly ex military design with titanium piston for higher operating pressure, so said the manual. It was purchased in Miami in 1996. He doesn't like it's poor balance underwater, so gave it to me. This is the junk of the junk. Not only it is heavy underwater, the trigger pull is damn heavy you probably need to aim left to shoot right, for a right hander. Anyway I gave that away to someone eventualy.
Why I gave up using all the pneu was because I pumped them 20% over the reccomended presssure limit all the time, they just could not stand the abuse. I was getting so good at loading them I keep pumping extra air in to it , hoping to get more power.
At one time I had the gun under the sun too long ( :naughty never-never do this on a pneu ) and took it under water, I loaded it and the seal exploded of its piston seat, lucky the gun did not explode, just the seals.
Anyway I am trying to enjoy Euro guns again, so instead of a single 18 or 20mm rubber guns, I choose a pneumatic because I am very familiar with it.
I chose the Cyrano because it is a beefed up and more advance unit over the Stern and averagely 20% more efficient than a other pneu on the market , so said the manual. However the operating pressure is different, now the Cyrano operates at 30 BAR / 441 psi. A luxury a pneu never offered me those days. Also the amount of pump stroke from empty to full 30 BAR is 710 pumps stroke for this 85cm model, the same sized Stern only needed 350 or so , with the same pump diameter. The Scubapro was also never operating at this higher pressure.
The advantage will be to a 30 meter diver, that this gun should still be decently powerful even at a loss of 4 BAR from water pressure.
Anyway I like certain new features never before available on my old pneu-s.
01. The big orange trigger safety is better than the old push in push out, you sometime forgot which position is "Fire". The photo shows a "Fire" position, in "LOCK" position the big orange plastic bar will swing into position to obstruct a finger from pressing the trigger. Also there is a built in hidden notch within the big orange safety bar that locks the trigger from being able to be pushed, well thought feature. Even a moron can tell a "LOCK".
02. See : top photo the lump on top of the pistol grip/handle exactly much above the orange safety, that is the rear aiming sight. See the bottom photo : the little yellow dot is the front aiming sight. This is a very useful feature because pneu can take advantage of these aiming sights, they are very accurate. The Stern and the Scubapro was excellent.
03. Overall construction, on the outside untill I ripped them a part............ is much better than what I ever owned years ago.
I do hope Mares follow technological improvements available these days.
04. Even out of the water the gun is so light, it must be a dream to swing like the older model, dimension wise not much change.
WHAT I HATE MOST IS :
The old Stern uses steel shaft, the Cyrano is the same Cheapo shaft material they now call Harmonic Steel but painted dark instead of galvanized, 7mm. I think the spearhead is also regular steel . The Scubapro has been using the 8mm 17-4 spring stainless steel, the kind of shaft proper for underwater work.
How does it perform in water ?
Sorry, go to wait till I take her in the water. Maybe this weekend.
Do I reccomend this to everyone ?
If you ever decide to buy a pneu, I have to let you know ahead that : ( Based on my old pneu )
AA. These guns need more maintenance because of the mutiple seals involved.
BB. The first thing to wear off will be the piston seals. There are two seals, one is a dirt-kicking-seal and the other is air-tight seal.
Never never allow dirt into the barrel. The speeding piston will stratch the seals and the barrel big time.
CC. The small lever you see behind the orange safety bar/lever is the High/Low power selector. YEP, the luxury of choosing power in just a flip by the finger. This lever move forward and then down for lower power, what you see on the photo is high power mode. This mini lever uses two O-Rings. This O rings will give you trouble, eventually if not replaced when due. This power selector lever actually operate a sort of a valve which separate the air between the shooting barrel ( low power ) and the entire air reservoir main tube and the shooting barrel ( high power ). If you overpower/overpumped this gun, this valve will stick because the sealing material get squeezed so bad by the extra air. Thus you will get low power setting all the time. The fix is to ripped the gun a part but CAUTION, the barrel will still keep the 30BAR of air where as the main tube will be zero pressure. Becareful of flying UFO-s !!! These power selector lever uses clockwise turn for loosening, not a regular anti-clockwsie hand turn. It is a two piece actually, one of the L shape and a thin long rod. Give it to your dealer for service, much safer.
BTW, if a high power setting is like say a 16mm x 2 bands, the lower setting is like 12mm x 1 band equivalent.
DD. The trigger is actually a mini rod/shaft that uses two O-rings to seal air. They will fail too one day.
EE. The barrel is aluminum and it has to corrode one day. You don't need major corrossion, all you need it material pitting and then bye-bye air.......... bit by bit you loose air when loading and shooting. I estimate a 400-500 hours of this gun in sea water in loaded/cocked position is about maximum. When cocked, the barrel gets into contact with sea water.
AA to DD can be dealt with the annual maintenance. DD depend on how often you are in the water.
My personal opinion :
Any pneu is tha fastest gun to load, if you are good at it, even when compared to a single band Euro gun. You can even load while swimming after a fish... this I can do.
Becareful when you load, since this is the only gun that has the muzzle actually close to your face when loading. A slip on the special plastic loader can be fatal if the shaft is heading at your face.
Me, I love it. Have always love using it for suitable sized fish.
Have Fun,
IYA
If anyone out there has interest in owning a pneumatic or considering one, I hope this little info might help you.
I just got this today because I can bear to hear all the Euro Gun talk on this forum. My hands just get itchy. I am very familiar with pneumatic, already ruined 5 in my time. About the time I gave up on pneumatic years ago, this Cyrano just came to the market. Those days it was the Mares Stern. I had the opportunity of ruining and enjoying very much 3 Scubapro pneumatics, unfortunately it is discountinued now. Mares Stern in my days could not match the better built Scubapro units. I ripped these guns apart so often, sometime other owners came to me for repair instead of the local dealer. I also had the opporturtunity of being given from a friend
D I have nice & generous friends ) a SeaBear Russian made pneumatic, small front barrel and big air reservoir at the rear. Supposedly ex military design with titanium piston for higher operating pressure, so said the manual. It was purchased in Miami in 1996. He doesn't like it's poor balance underwater, so gave it to me. This is the junk of the junk. Not only it is heavy underwater, the trigger pull is damn heavy you probably need to aim left to shoot right, for a right hander. Anyway I gave that away to someone eventualy.Why I gave up using all the pneu was because I pumped them 20% over the reccomended presssure limit all the time, they just could not stand the abuse. I was getting so good at loading them I keep pumping extra air in to it , hoping to get more power.
At one time I had the gun under the sun too long ( :naughty never-never do this on a pneu ) and took it under water, I loaded it and the seal exploded of its piston seat, lucky the gun did not explode, just the seals.
Anyway I am trying to enjoy Euro guns again, so instead of a single 18 or 20mm rubber guns, I choose a pneumatic because I am very familiar with it.
I chose the Cyrano because it is a beefed up and more advance unit over the Stern and averagely 20% more efficient than a other pneu on the market , so said the manual. However the operating pressure is different, now the Cyrano operates at 30 BAR / 441 psi. A luxury a pneu never offered me those days. Also the amount of pump stroke from empty to full 30 BAR is 710 pumps stroke for this 85cm model, the same sized Stern only needed 350 or so , with the same pump diameter. The Scubapro was also never operating at this higher pressure.
The advantage will be to a 30 meter diver, that this gun should still be decently powerful even at a loss of 4 BAR from water pressure.
Anyway I like certain new features never before available on my old pneu-s.
01. The big orange trigger safety is better than the old push in push out, you sometime forgot which position is "Fire". The photo shows a "Fire" position, in "LOCK" position the big orange plastic bar will swing into position to obstruct a finger from pressing the trigger. Also there is a built in hidden notch within the big orange safety bar that locks the trigger from being able to be pushed, well thought feature. Even a moron can tell a "LOCK".
02. See : top photo the lump on top of the pistol grip/handle exactly much above the orange safety, that is the rear aiming sight. See the bottom photo : the little yellow dot is the front aiming sight. This is a very useful feature because pneu can take advantage of these aiming sights, they are very accurate. The Stern and the Scubapro was excellent.
03. Overall construction, on the outside untill I ripped them a part............ is much better than what I ever owned years ago.
I do hope Mares follow technological improvements available these days.
04. Even out of the water the gun is so light, it must be a dream to swing like the older model, dimension wise not much change.
WHAT I HATE MOST IS :
The old Stern uses steel shaft, the Cyrano is the same Cheapo shaft material they now call Harmonic Steel but painted dark instead of galvanized, 7mm. I think the spearhead is also regular steel . The Scubapro has been using the 8mm 17-4 spring stainless steel, the kind of shaft proper for underwater work.
How does it perform in water ?
Sorry, go to wait till I take her in the water. Maybe this weekend.
Do I reccomend this to everyone ?
If you ever decide to buy a pneu, I have to let you know ahead that : ( Based on my old pneu )
AA. These guns need more maintenance because of the mutiple seals involved.
BB. The first thing to wear off will be the piston seals. There are two seals, one is a dirt-kicking-seal and the other is air-tight seal.
Never never allow dirt into the barrel. The speeding piston will stratch the seals and the barrel big time.
CC. The small lever you see behind the orange safety bar/lever is the High/Low power selector. YEP, the luxury of choosing power in just a flip by the finger. This lever move forward and then down for lower power, what you see on the photo is high power mode. This mini lever uses two O-Rings. This O rings will give you trouble, eventually if not replaced when due. This power selector lever actually operate a sort of a valve which separate the air between the shooting barrel ( low power ) and the entire air reservoir main tube and the shooting barrel ( high power ). If you overpower/overpumped this gun, this valve will stick because the sealing material get squeezed so bad by the extra air. Thus you will get low power setting all the time. The fix is to ripped the gun a part but CAUTION, the barrel will still keep the 30BAR of air where as the main tube will be zero pressure. Becareful of flying UFO-s !!! These power selector lever uses clockwise turn for loosening, not a regular anti-clockwsie hand turn. It is a two piece actually, one of the L shape and a thin long rod. Give it to your dealer for service, much safer.
BTW, if a high power setting is like say a 16mm x 2 bands, the lower setting is like 12mm x 1 band equivalent.
DD. The trigger is actually a mini rod/shaft that uses two O-rings to seal air. They will fail too one day.
EE. The barrel is aluminum and it has to corrode one day. You don't need major corrossion, all you need it material pitting and then bye-bye air.......... bit by bit you loose air when loading and shooting. I estimate a 400-500 hours of this gun in sea water in loaded/cocked position is about maximum. When cocked, the barrel gets into contact with sea water.
AA to DD can be dealt with the annual maintenance. DD depend on how often you are in the water.
My personal opinion :
Any pneu is tha fastest gun to load, if you are good at it, even when compared to a single band Euro gun. You can even load while swimming after a fish... this I can do.
Becareful when you load, since this is the only gun that has the muzzle actually close to your face when loading. A slip on the special plastic loader can be fatal if the shaft is heading at your face.
Me, I love it. Have always love using it for suitable sized fish.
Have Fun,
IYA