Mares Mirage

[petar_dj]

Dear fellow divers/hunters!

A couple of months ago I have received a very interesting gift for my birthday: a Mares Mirage pneumatic speargun from a very good friend of mine who is also a spearfishing enthusiast.
Externally, the gun is in good shape with only minor scratching on the muzzle. I must say the gun itself looks very sexy:inlove and it would be a pity to have it hanging somewhere on the wall.

I have taken apart the gun completely, changed all the O-rings and put new oil inside. Filled to about 20 bar, there is no leek of air. I did not test it in action in its original setup. My intention is of equipping this gun with a dry barrel kit, as it is approximately 10 cm longer with 6 cm longer piston travel, compared to my little Mares spark mimetic 70 ''vacummized'' (which I would not sell for anyhing in the world) and would fill in the gap between the Mares spark mimetic 110 ''vacumized'', which is the other gun I use.

Has anyone ever tried vacuumizing a Mares Mirage and their experience with the ''new'' gun.

On the internet there is very little information about this gun. All I know is that it was supposed to be produced in two dimensions 85 and 104 cm.

To my great surprise, I have noticed when taking the gun apart that there are two barrels inside with a piston each, one above the other and both are connected to the pressure chamber inside the gun. But only one barrel is connected to the trigger. The lower barrel (not connected to the trigger) is probally not intended only for storing the spear.
Additionally, the gun has three power settings. After inspection of the seal shaft position in all three settings, I could not observe any difference in ''gears'' 2 and 3.

Any info or explanation of described phenomena would be greatly appreciated.:friday

 

[ulysses]

Petar, you are one lucky bastard! The MIRAGE (Imageshack - img1713vm0.jpg) is quite a legendary gun and pneumatic icon. The hammer price in e-auctions is often above 400 euro depending on its condition.

The ingenious and unique feature of the MIRAGE is the two internal chambers you describe. The on the top is for loading of the shaft like in a traditional pneumatic. The other serves to fraction and, hence, significantly reduces the loading effort.

In principle the fractioning of the loading effort = temporary depressurizing of the MIRAGE works like this:

(i) put power lever on 1
(ii) open the white lever on the back of the handle
(iii) push the shaft into the hole below the muzzle in a sort of pumping action
(iv) with each ‘pump stroke’ you reduce the pressure behind the piston in the other chamber (the second chamber connected to the tank via a non-return valve now functions like reservoir)
(v) now regularly load the gun by inserting the shaft into muzzle until the piston engages
(vi) put the power lever back on 2 (medium) or 3 (full power)

When properly working, this feature allows loading of the MIRAGE at 35+ bar with minimal effort and provides for three power settings by regulation of the airflow between the internal chamber and the tank.

I seem to recall having read an article on bluworld.com regarding the restoration and Mamba conversion of a MIRAGE 84.

Probably the most valuable information for you is the following link to a technical drawing of the MIRAGE:

http://www.sportmarsub.net/files/pag5.jpg

If you have trouble in restoring your treasure, I believe the people behind Servizi are up to the job.

I hope this helps!

Cheers, ulysses


Some more pictures (MIRAGE 104 Mamba) to drool over:

Imageshack - dscn1773qo3.jpg
Imageshack - 04072009434
Imageshack - assagi7hi.gif
Imageshack - 04072009436
Imageshack - 04072009437
Imageshack - photo0147wd7.jpg

 

[petar_dj]

Thanks for the feedback Ulysses. This explains a lot. Now the vacuum system is a must.

 

[popgun pete]

Good to hear that you disassembled your "Mirage" without busting anything. I have disassembled mine a few times as the power cursor can develop a leak, especially if the gun is not used for a long time.

Although the "Mirage" has three gate positions, it is only a dual power speargun. The furthest forward position of the cursor is the loading position shown as "1" on the gate, with position "2" directly behind it being reduced power and position "3" with the cursor right back being full power. Mechanically the difference between "1" and "2" is that the control piston, the valve that closes the bulkhead, is just pushed deeper into the port that it blocks off. It makes no difference to the partitioning of the air reservoir system, shots taken with the gun on position "1" or "2" are identical. The reason that Mares used three gate positions was to ensure that you released the gun from position "1" after loading which automatically drove the cursor under pressure back to position "3". Once there the pressure throughout the entire gun equalised and you could then move the cursor back to position "2" for a lower power shot. If Mares only had used two positions in the gate then there was a possibility that you might load the gun and just leave it at the loading position before shooting. With a "Sten" you would still have a low power shot in that situation, but on the "Mirage" the spear would barely dribble out of the barrel, so the three position gate is there to encourage you to use position "1" as a "loading only" position, which is basically what it is. On a Mares "Titan" the three gate positions for the cursor are actually three shooting powers, low power with the rear mounted partitioning bulkhead closed, medium power with the bulkhead open but the port partially throttled by the cone shaped nose of the cursor operated piston and full power with the port fully unplugged. Having seen a tri-power "Titan" many people think that the "Mirage" is also tri-power, but it is not. I have pulled both these guns apart, so I know this from direct experience.

The 10 mm diameter lower pumping barrel on the "Mirage" is designed to use 5 full strokes (max) of the spear in that barrel which will lower the pressure in the main 13 mm barrel, and also the pre-chamber connected to it, down to next to nothing. That is because the "Mirage" is designed to operate up to 40 kg/cm2, nearly 40 Bar. The Mirage was supplied with a 7 mm and an 8 mm spear, while the latter might be shoved down the 13 mm barrel at 40 Bar, the 7 mm was certain to be bent, so the multi-step loading system was designed to allow spears of both sizes to be loaded without worrying about bending them. That said I still bent the tail of my 7 mm spear when loading it with 40 Bar in my gun! Once the five strokes of the spear are completed in the lower barrel the spear is transferred to the main barrel, it can be pushed in with very little effort as full pressure on the piston awaits the cursor being moved to position "3". During the pumping strokes the stop ring on the shaft often chewed up the lower surface of the muzzle as the small notch to retain it never worked, the ring tilting like a lock washer and being dragged along the muzzle, that is why "Mirage" guns have scratches there.

When I purchased my "Mirage" they had just appeared and there was only one size, 80 cm. The guns had red triggers and red folding foot loading levers in the butt, not white, in fact I never saw the white version of the guns being sold here. The "Mirage" was not a popular gun as they were prone to oil leaks, in fact I was talking to the former Mares distributor years later and he said many had come back for repair before they were even sold. The reason they leaked oil (and hence air) is that the "O" ring on the cursor control shaft has a floating metal tube backing, when the gun has high air pressure in it the backing tube is pushed tight on the "O" ring and creates a good seal, but at lower pressure it loses its effect and the guns start to leak. So to pump up a "Mirage" you need to quickly establish pressure in the gun and get that "O" ring seal to close up. That is why I used a portable 12V auto air compressor to quickly push the gun up to 200 psi, then I could take it up further with the hand pump, otherwise I could be in the situation where I was pumping air in and it was leaking out just as fast.

I always wondered why Mares did not produce a longer "Mirage" gun, so the existence of a bigger model is a real surprise.

 

[petar_dj]

Thanks for the reply, popgun. I knew you would post in this tread=) Your knowlwdge is endless.
The gun I own has a white trigger and loading lever, but the line release is completely different from the one in the pics posted by Ulysses. It is not connected to the trigger, but just a little plastic part in front of the trigger guard, just below the barrel.
I filled the gun with a manual pump, but observed no oil leak.
Eventually, it will be equipped with a reel and a vacuum kit and hopefully become my trusty companion in underwater adventures.

 

[popgun pete]

Here are some photos of the "Mirage" on my gear wash down table taken about three years ago, it is the speargun with the bronze coloured body tube. Note the passive line holding clip on the front of the trigger finger guard, it seemed a bad idea considering the usual Mares automatic line release operating off the end of the trigger. Angled hand grip may look cool, but is not a noticeable improvement to the usual handle, however it may have been an attempt to counter the recoil effects of a high mounted shooting barrel. The fold out red lever in the rear grip is for foot supported loading, otherwise the angled handgrip would slide off your foot as you tried to load the gun.

Main problem with the "Mirage" gun is it is too slow to reload with all the lower barrel pumping strokes and spear manipulations required to get ready for the next shot if you are using it at maximum operating pressure.

 

[ulysses]

Thanks for the feedback Ulysses. This explains a lot. Now the vacuum system is a must.

You are welcome, Petar.

Needless to say, I would also install a vacuum muzzle kit!

However, bear in mind that when you do the dry barrel conversion you can not use the MIRAGE at max power (38-40 bar) - unless you reinforce the the piston / shock absorber combination.

Without the water columni in the chamber slowing down the piston, it will eventually crack upon impact on the shock absorber unit or destroy the latter.

The gun I own has a white trigger and loading lever, but the line release is completely different from the one in the pics posted by Ulysses. It is not connected to the trigger, but just a little plastic part in front of the trigger guard, just below the barrel.

Don't worry about the old-fashioned 'crocodile's jaw' line-release on your MIRAGE. IMO the so-called 'automatic' line release shown in the pictures I had posted above is by no means better. It adversely effects trigger sensitivity or least can infere with trigger sensitivity, if the wraps of mono are too tight.

Different MIRAGE handles side by side:
Imageshack - 04072009438.jpg

Personally, I prefer an autonomous line release 'system' such as a simple o-ring size 38mm on the tank under which you can easily tuck the required 3-4 wraps of mono.

Cheers, ulysses

 

[petar_dj]

Hot damn!! That picture with 4 mirage guns is a beauty. After the installation of the dry barrel kit I intend to run it at max 25 bar.
This year I was running my stealth 70 at 30 bar, and did not notice a profound difference compared to previous use at 25 bar. Much more power to the shot came from switching the 2mm dynema tied with a knot to 1,4 mm monofil with a crimp. Now the pull is so hard I will have to add the forth wrap, as not to damage the mono.

I was thinking of something like X-Power with also their rubberized shoch absorber, but its quite expensive.

Since the reel will be positioned on the gun, the original line release will not be used. I was wondering about this O-ring line release you mentioned. How does it influence the shot accuracy, especially longer shots, as each of the consecutive yanks of the mono, when pulled from under the O-ring will probably derail the spear from the initial trajectory? Do you use the O-ring line release on your guns?

 

[popgun pete]

The original version of the "Mirage" has a metal piston and a metal shock absorber "top hat" anvil, so they will not crack, however I agree with not operating the gun at 40 Bar with a vacuum barrel kit fitted as better safe than sorry. The pumping barrel piston was also made of metal, so if the main piston material was changed then I assume the pumping piston in the later guns is also made of plastic. If you are going to use only 25 Bar in the "Mirage" then it is hardly worth loading the gun via the pumping barrel, you may as well stick the shaft in the main barrel and load it in one motion. The "Mirage" can then be treated the same as any dual power pneumatic speargun by using only cursor positions "2" and "3" as you would in a dual power "Sten", it will work exactly the same way.

 

[ulysses]

I was thinking of something like X-Power with also their rubberized shoch absorber, but its quite expensive.

I would liaise with Kara-yo (Ramon) regarding the vacuum muzzle kit and piston. At 25 bar I don't see much of a problem. The unique depressurizing feature could still be handy when using 6.5mm shafts.

Since the reel will be positioned on the gun, the original line release will not be used. I was wondering about this O-ring line release you mentioned. How does it influence the shot accuracy, especially longer shots, as each of the consecutive yanks of the mono, when pulled from under the O-ring will probably derail the spear from the initial trajectory? Do you use the O-ring line release on your guns?

Yes, I use an o-ring on the tank instead of the 'automatic' line release. Simplicity to the extreme, reliable, easily replaceable, and most important: neither influencing trigger sensitivity nor shaft trajectory.

In the Med you see a lot of 'pro' spearos using this rudimentary line release 'system' (strip of inner bicycle tube or o-ring) on band and pneumatic guns. E.g. former Italian champion Francesco Accolla (using Stealth 110) or 3 times world champion Pedro Carbonell (on Beuchat arbaletes).

Cheers, ulysses

 

[petar_dj]

So, I guess will use the O-ring line release.

Does Ramon also manufacture the plactic piston and shock absorber?

It is a pity that modern pistons are much longer that the metal one inside the Mirage, as shortening the piston is a simple way of adding a few cms to its travel length on the same length gun and consequently more power:martial

 

[ulysses]

The shock absorber is an integral part of the Kara-yo, Karamba and Tovarich muzzle kits that Ramon manufactures.

There are a number of sources for modern aftermarket airgun pistons made of derlin or teflon. They offer pistons for 11 or 13mm internal barrels, but in principle, they could make the piston according to your specifications. However, it would appear that a standard Sten piston (5 euros) will do, if you operate your MIRAGE at moderate pressure.

Cheers, ulysses

 

[tromic]

So, I guess will use the O-ring line release.

...

It is a pity that modern pistons are much longer that the metal one inside the Mirage, as shortening the piston is a simple way of adding a few cms to its travel length on the same length gun and consequently more power:martial

The piston should be longer, otherwise the sealing O-ring at the piston might come out of the barrel when the shock absorber is subdued to the piston's impact.

 

[popgun pete]

Out of curiosity I checked the referenced parts diagram for the "Mirage" 80 cm and "Mirage" 100 cm models against the earlier diagram for the original "Mirage" 80 cm. It is interesting to note that in the later "Mirage" versions the formerly double sets of "O" rings on the nose cone to body tank seal and the main inner barrel to nose cone seal have been replaced by single "O" rings. Similarly the double "O" ring seals at either end where the pumping barrel fits into the nose cone at the front end and onto the connection boss of the power regulator bulkhead at the rear end have also been replaced by single "O" rings. Evidently the guns remained sufficiently pressure tight without the need for the second "O" ring at each sealing position, so they were deleted in the later guns. This change would also make the guns easier to assemble as previously the multiplicity of "O" rings having to slide into the correct position as a gun was being closed up made progress very difficult, it was not unusual for an "O" ring to pull out of position and get nicked when you were least expecting it.

The cursor operated power regulator shaft "O" rings and the manner in which they are supported in the rear handle has also been modified in the later guns. The early guns were prone to leak in this area, especially after a long period of not being used. Standard "O" rings usually have a durometer or Shore Hardness of 70, but the later "Mirage" has upgraded "O" rings of 75 in some locations and up to 80 for the power regulator plug or control valve seal which temporarily closes off the power regulator bulkhead. It would appear that the harder "O"rings better resisted being slowly extruded out of position when exposed to high air pressure.

New "O" ring sizes for the later "Mirage" are OR2062 (replaces 1 x Special 12BIS ring) and OR2043 (replaces 2 x OR106 rings). OR2015 is a harder version of the original OR102, the later gun uses both 75 and 80 Shore Hardness rings. OR2012 is a harder version of the original OR101, being increased to Shore Hardness 75 (ball valve seat seals). OR2025 is a renaming of OR105 (rear tail cap seal on the old bayonet type inlet valve bodies).

So although they may look exactly the same size, some "O" rings are different, a good reason not to mix them up if you take one of these guns apart!

 

[petar_dj]

Finally it is ready

After a long long time it is finally finished, the legendary Mares Mirage 84.

Some changes were made compared to the original product:

-Imersion Universal reel wit 25m 2mm dyneema
-7mm Devoto shaft with a single flopper
-Tovarich kit directly from Karayo himself.

Pumped to cca. 24 bar, it eagerly awaits the beginning of the 2010 season in hope to shoot down some nice bass or mullet.

 

[Old Man Dave]

Looks very nice. be interested to hear how you get on with the "freelining" set up. Having no line slider sure makes the dry barrel system less complicated.

Dave.

 

[Ajkula]

Very, very nice....

May the dark force be with....

 

[Don Paul]

Very nice mate, the mirage is one gun I always wanted to get at some point.
Cheers, Don Paul

 

[GreekDiver]

Looks very nice. be interested to hear how you get on with the "freelining" set up. Having no line slider sure makes the dry barrel system less complicated.

Dave.

I use the 115 seac (130cm 7mm spear) with tovarich kit. The shots are LIGHTNING FAST. There is a big difference when you shoot far with tovarich kit and mamba. Mamba has a ton of power but it loses a lot of speed when it hits about 4m when you compare it to a tovarich. The slide ring on the mamba reduces the speed a lot.

With my experience with pneumatics, i really suggest you use the smallest shaft you can fit in the gun for better balance and less shaft flex in flight.

 

[tromic]

Good to hear that you disassembled your "Mirage" without busting anything. I have disassembled mine a few times as the power cursor can develop a leak, especially if the gun is not used for a long time.

Although the "Mirage" has three gate positions, it is only a dual power speargun. The furthest forward position of the cursor is the loading position shown as "1" on the gate, with position "2" directly behind it being reduced power and position "3" with the cursor right back being full power. Mechanically the difference between "1" and "2" is that the control piston, the valve that closes the bulkhead, is just pushed deeper into the port that it blocks off. It makes no difference to the partitioning of the air reservoir system, shots taken with the gun on position "1" or "2" are identical. The reason that Mares used three gate positions was to ensure that you released the gun from position "1" after loading which automatically drove the cursor under pressure back to position "3". Once there the pressure throughout the entire gun equalised and you could then move the cursor back to position "2" for a lower power shot. If Mares only had used two positions in the gate then there was a possibility that you might load the gun and just leave it at the loading position before shooting. With a "Sten" you would still have a low power shot in that situation, but on the "Mirage" the spear would barely dribble out of the barrel, so the three position gate is there to encourage you to use position "1" as a "loading only" position, which is basically what it is. On a Mares "Titan" the three gate positions for the cursor are actually three shooting powers, low power with the rear mounted partitioning bulkhead closed, medium power with the bulkhead open but the port partially throttled by the cone shaped nose of the cursor operated piston and full power with the port fully unplugged. Having seen a tri-power "Titan" many people think that the "Mirage" is also tri-power, but it is not. I have pulled both these guns apart, so I know this from direct experience.

The 10 mm diameter lower pumping barrel on the "Mirage" is designed to use 5 full strokes (max) of the spear in that barrel which will lower the pressure in the main 13 mm barrel, and also the pre-chamber connected to it, down to next to nothing. That is because the "Mirage" is designed to operate up to 40 kg/cm2, nearly 40 Bar. The Mirage was supplied with a 7 mm and an 8 mm spear, while the latter might be shoved down the 13 mm barrel at 40 Bar, the 7 mm was certain to be bent, so the multi-step loading system was designed to allow spears of both sizes to be loaded without worrying about bending them. That said I still bent the tail of my 7 mm spear when loading it with 40 Bar in my gun! Once the five strokes of the spear are completed in the lower barrel the spear is transferred to the main barrel, it can be pushed in with very little effort as full pressure on the piston awaits the cursor being moved to position "3". During the pumping strokes the stop ring on the shaft often chewed up the lower surface of the muzzle as the small notch to retain it never worked, the ring tilting like a lock washer and being dragged along the muzzle, that is why "Mirage" guns have scratches there.

When I purchased my "Mirage" they had just appeared and there was only one size, 80 cm. The guns had red triggers and red folding foot loading levers in the butt, not white, in fact I never saw the white version of the guns being sold here. The "Mirage" was not a popular gun as they were prone to oil leaks, in fact I was talking to the former Mares distributor years later and he said many had come back for repair before they were even sold. The reason they leaked oil (and hence air) is that the "O" ring on the cursor control shaft has a floating metal tube backing, when the gun has high air pressure in it the backing tube is pushed tight on the "O" ring and creates a good seal, but at lower pressure it loses its effect and the guns start to leak. So to pump up a "Mirage" you need to quickly establish pressure in the gun and get that "O" ring seal to close up. That is why I used a portable 12V auto air compressor to quickly push the gun up to 200 psi, then I could take it up further with the hand pump, otherwise I could be in the situation where I was pumping air in and it was leaking out just as fast.

I always wondered why Mares did not produce a longer "Mirage" gun, so the existence of a bigger model is a real surprise.

I took apart Mares Mirage and here is a sketch how it works.
I am not quite sure about the function of upper valve. The spring that pushes the steel ball is stronger than on lower valve. The spring tension could be udjusted. On newer Mares guns the valve works (opens) in opposite direction (from smaller to higher volume chamber). Orange is the main chamber with higher pressure. Blue is the smaller chamber (with lower pressure in 1. position). I suppose in 2. position there is only a choking effect for lower power. So 2. is lower power and 3. is full power. 1. is only for easier loading.