New 2016 Carbon Fiber Salvimar Gun (Predathor - Dark Side)

[Diving Gecko]

So, for 2016 it seems like Salvimar is adding one more oleo to the line-up. It looks like a Predathor with a bit more green trim plus a carbon fiber outer tank - and it will be called Dark Side (not kidding;-)).
Nothing too fancy, no cuttle shape or redistribution of buoyancy - "just" a cylindrical CF tank.
Looks swank but let's see how much of a premium they'll charge.

Also nice to see oleos come before bandguns in their catalogue, haha.

(There's also a nice looking new slider and a freedive computer)

2016 Catalogue is here:
http://issuu.com/salvimar/docs/catalogo_salvimar_2016

 

[giored]

....The tank is totally made of carbon fiber.....it looks pretty!!!

 

[Diving Gecko]

Yes, like mine and a few others'.

 

[Diving Gecko]

New Salvimar piston, too. Seems to come with what they call a race kit. Includes a range-adjustable trigger and some Kermit-colored parts;-):

 

[giored]

....Very nice Geko!!! they must have costed you a lot of money.....
.....adjustment screw will be available....

 

[Diving Gecko]

....Very nice Geko!!! they must have costed you a lot of money.....
.....adjustment screw will be available....

Not too bad, when you live in China and can cut out a lot of the middle men. Not exactly cheap either, but pretty fair;-)

 

[giored]

Good for you!!!
about the new gun I like the line retainer, it seems to be very slim, let's hope it holds violent impacts and it doesn't get broken at the very first shot.

 

[Diving Gecko]

Yes, I like the slider, too. It looks to have nice and efficient hydrodynamics. Also, it is made of glass reinforced nylon, which I would suspect is what the handle is made of and should be stronger/less brittle than pure nylon.

I hope they will make that slider standard on, at least, their more expensive guns.

 

[popgun pete]

The "Dark Side" version of the Predathor must have been in service for a while now (in the northern hemisphere that is) and I am curious as to what the experience with it has been. As the carbon fibre tank is a resinous construction I have been wondering about the cosmetic effects of banging one around on the rocks, assuming that not everyone here dives in a mill pond. Also how the gun handles in the water being relatively light in a bit of surge where of course while at depth you and the gun swing around together, but at the surface it can be a different matter with waves taking you on and coming from slightly different directions (while in the "washing machine" in other words).

 

[JonathanT]

Well i have a Darkside 99.9, and i kinda like but no love it. I like the perfect balance in the water when holding the gun out in front of you. Things i dont like are: 1. The spear is 7mm, not 8mm, so when loading it tends to bend way easier than the 8mm spears i have.
2. The Vacuum rubber muzzel seems to get chewed up very easily, i mean way to fast.
3: The light wieght metal muzzel the metal in the center which receives the spear is way to thin and shows fatigue and even metal ripping from not to many uses. New muzzles ARE NOT CHEAP! i think i t cost me $88usd for replacment one.
4: I already have had a broken piston (snapped in half) within the first 20 times spearing with it.
5: I already needed to replace the bumber shocks as well.
I just think they compromised weight for strength....
Would i buy again at $500usd, NO!

 

[popgun pete]

Well i have a Darkside 99.9, and i kinda like but no love it. I like the perfect balance in the water when holding the gun out in front of you. Things i dont like are: 1. The spear is 7mm, not 8mm, so when loading it tends to bend way easier than the 8mm spears i have.
2. The Vacuum rubber muzzel seems to get chewed up very easily, i mean way to fast.
3: The light wieght metal muzzel the metal in the center which receives the spear is way to thin and shows fatigue and even metal ripping from not to many uses. New muzzles ARE NOT CHEAP! i think i t cost me $88usd for replacment one.
4: I already have had a broken piston (snapped in half) within the first 20 times spearing with it.
5: I already needed to replace the bumber shocks as well.
I just think they compromised weight for strength....
Would i buy again at $500usd, NO!

The ring barked pistons are a bad design, the idea was they made the piston lighter and could be used to hold grease in the annular ring, but it made it easy to snap them off. Vacuum barrel is a bit of a fad, guns shoot pretty well without it. Where a vacuum barrel was necessary is a low tank volume gun like the Taimen, it has a small tank diameter for use in weedy environments like lakes, so needs to be as efficient and less bulky as possible. The other gun was the Mamba, basically a slim volume tank on the usual Italian pneumatic gun, some Mamba guns used the Omer Tempest handle. This is probably the reason why Mares stayed away from vacuum muzzles and kept to 40 mm diameter tanks. My Scubapro Magnum has shot plenty of fish and it is wet barrel and the Salvimar wet barrel guns probably shoot just as well as it does.

The slim tank Mamba, this one with the Omer Tempest rear handle and innards. Some were produced using other handles, such as the RAS from Tigullio.

The very slim tank Taimen with the new Taigan handle option for icy water and thick dive gloves. The other bigger handle is still available in its side mounted line release form. There are 7 mm and 8 mm spear versions of the Taimen which have 10 mm and 11 mm inner barrels respectively. Careful design has produced a vacuum barrel gun with user input refining every aspect of the gun. I own two of them for weedy environment work in the "seaweed jungle" which is like spearfishing in a loose underwater haystack.

The slider aligning holder on the muzzle, which used to screw in, has now been replaced with an integral muzzle design with the holder built into the body of the muzzle.