new OMER pneumatic!!!

ulysses said:

Fondue, I am a spearfishing amateur & enthusiast and I have no way to measure shaft speed etc.

However, I seem to recall having read something about Airbalete 90's initial shaft speed around 24-26 m/sec when charged @ 25 bar in the Italian mag 'PescaSub' or 'Pesca in Apnea'. Compared to the alleged (info Maori website) 35m/sec for a Mamba 90 are you impressed?

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Opinion: You should see what I can do if I put my mind to modifying and customizing an airgun....:blackeye

Fact: there is not a stock pneumatic speargun with higher performance than the AIRbalete.

It also comes with two years of warranty in a high performance package, compare to you modifying any stock pneumatic speargun voiding the warranty and you're left to your own devices.

panzerkrafft said:

Mark!!

Do you know of any website that shows a picture of the airbalete spear??

I want to see how the line is connected with the spear!

didnt even find on omersub homepage!



i also would like to se the whole gun in close up on that side where the line is winded on the line release

any tips ,,or perhaps you could post some pictures

panzerkrafft

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If I had an AIRbalete anywhere near me I would gladly shoot a couple digitals and send them over.

The best advice I can give you which a lot of divers are doing because the Microspeed slide ring has holes which are too small for a lot of shooting lines is to take a small piece of stainless steel cable, loop it and crimp it through the slide ring holes, and attach this to your shooting line via a knot. I personally did this on my 90, which I left where I go diving in murky water in Virginia and use it because it has 3 times the range of my dirty water 65cm band gun of the same length.

Well one thing is for sure about this gun - one thread = 18 months 250 post & almost a 10,000 views = a lot of interest.

panzerkrafft said:

mark!! (or anyone)

The only "real"speargun i owned is my seatec trb 77cm single 16mm sling!

What do you think.......does the airbalete 90cm have more or less
power/speed/range

Even better if someone not just think ...but know for sure!!!!

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Yes, a pneumatic, particularly the shorter versions have more power, range, and lower recoil than a similar size band gun.

Case in point, my single band 65cm Cayman with 6,5mm shaft is about the same overall length with shaft as the 80cm AIrbalete w/shaft, the 90 is also probably shorter than your 77 w/shaft I would also guess. The pneumatic has increased range and performance in the area of smaller band guns with short shafts for two reasons primarily:

- the pneumatic system pushed the shaft with the same amount of force through the length of the stroke. A band gun by comparsion has an explosive intial reaction of the bands in the first half of the stroke compared to the latter part of the stroke where the bands aren't as tight. Short shafts loose their energy and power = range quickly because they are short and light.

- Especially where short spear shafts are concerned where they are similar in length to their band gun counterparts, 80cm shafts for the 80 AIrbalete 90cm shafts for the 90 / compared to 90cm shafts for a 65 band gun and 115cm for the 75, the energy dispersion applied to the shaft is much more unform and efficent in a pneumatic system.

This is for pneumatics in general but I've noticed that the AIRbalete offers much higher performance than the standard pneumatic like our Tempest which is very similar to the Mares Sten and Cressi SL's. The better Mares pneumatic like the Cyrano and Spark which both have 11mm diameter inner chambers like the AIrbalete will also exhibit a marked improvement in this instance. I feel that at this point it becomes a matter or preference and the features one likes.

Ok One last question for me i think...
How is it to use a reel instead of a line with bungy??
I get the feeling that i would miss the benefit of an elastic element with the reel.
which may cause the line to accidently fall of the line release.

am i right or ..is it just an hypothese

of course i could change the reel for a bungee but as i have to pay for that it´s better if it´s an improvement rather than the opposit

You find out about reels here http://forums.deeperblue.com/beginner-hunting/64504-dummies-guide-rigging-speargun-2.html

yes i have read that guide.
but i would rather hear from someones personal point of view

use bungie with reel.

Ok???
where do you place the bungee in that case?

I have yet to see an "Airbalete" but I think much of the shooting performance improvement will be due to the reduced friction of the piston seals on the inner barrel wall. My original model Mares "Sten" had a simple dual cone seal moulded back to back as one piece and was mounted on a relatively short metal piston. That compact double cone seal eventually wore out and began to leak, so I sourced one from another gun until it too failed. By then the replacement one-piece rubber seal was no longer available, so I had to buy a new piston from the then current Mares production. This new "Sten" piston was longer than the original because it now carried three rubber seals, a forward rubber cone seal, a centre "O" ring and a rear rubber cone seal. The wider ends of the cones faced their respective ends of the piston. The forward cone seal functioned as a wiper sweeping grit out of the barrel if any happened to get inside there. With three seals the new piston had less ability to wobble in the barrel during loading than the original one did, so it no longer released the odd burst of air at times during loading as the other one had a tendency to do.

The old gun worked OK with the new piston, but seemed to lack the zip that it had before. I gained this impression from firing the shaft to the end of the shooting line (two wraps), before the gun gave quite a jerk as it pulled the shaft up to a halt, the tugging effect was still there, but not as pronounced even though the gun was at the same pressure with the new piston fitted as it was before. This told me that the drag of the new piston in the inner barrel had much more effect than I had previously thought, in fact I was rather surprised. Evidently Mares must have realised this too because some time later the front rubber cone seal was omitted and replaced by a hard plastic cylindrical sleeve that was cracked along one edge to allow it to be fitted to the piston, thereby reducing the number of rubber seals to two. Then Mares got rid of the all metal pistons and we have the plastic ones with metal tails that are used today, still with two rubber seals and a longer nose section that functions as the anti-wobble element. This modification was made to all other brand pneumatic guns (of the generic "Sten" type) at about the same time and not much has changed since then.

So if the Omer "Airbalete" has new piston seals made of lower friction material then this would give a much faster piston travel. Cyrano and Stealth/Spark spearguns already have big muzzle ports, so improved internal breathing and reduced friction are probably the main factors that would give the new Omer pneumatic gun its better performance. Rubber seals are not as slippery but are reasonably tough in terms of tear strength, so it will be interesting to see how the new material piston seals hold up. Of course if you keep sand and grit out of the inner barrel then there is less likely to be a problem in any case.

Ulysses


as for bang for buck you may be correct but again in your costing of modifying a Mares/Cressi etc with a dry barrel kit you also neglect to factor in the cost of installing the kit. Ok you may be handy enough to do it yourself but 98% of divers do not have the ability to reliably install said kit nor work out what has failed if something goes wrong. then its a fair bit of wasted money when they could have purchased a reliable, extremely accurate gun with full warranty.

as for neutral in the water and "no recoil" from your dry barrel spark i find that rather remarkable as i can honestly say that EVERY pneumatic i have ever used has had a large amount of kick when fired. and regardly of the remarkable attributes of a dry barrel system the hydrodynamic shape of the gun is still the same and will still have the same issues as the factory unit, something that the Airballette will always have over the cyclendrical barrel pneumatics regardless of brand.

and then you stating that if it isnt broke then dont fix it or something to that effect, if this stance was taken by everybody the beloved dry barrel kit you currently use wouldnt exist either we would all still be swimming around with short fins and a wooden stick sharpened on a rock... because hey it works so why change.


for everybody else who isnt so narrow minded i used the 110 on the weekend and it is a nice gun (as some of you know i'm not a big pneumatic fan in the first place) but it was very easy to maneuver in the water, accurate and easy to use. it was FAR easier to aim than any other pneumatic currently available and the barrel shape aided controlled tracking, didnt shoot alot of fish (werent many around) but did bring back a couple of nice Coral trout around 3-4kg and 2 nice size crayfish around the 3kg mark. yes these fish can be taken on lesser weapons but for a rubber gun junky like myslef i was pleasently surprised with the control and power of this gun.

just need to remember to stop dropping that damn loader now! time to tie it to my wrist i think.

DD

DivingDane said:

Ulysses
as for bang for buck you may be correct but again in your costing of modifying a Mares/Cressi etc with a dry barrel kit you also neglect to factor in the cost of installing the kit. Ok you may be handy enough to do it yourself but 98% of divers do not have the ability to reliably install said kit nor work out what has failed if something goes wrong.
(...)
DD

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BTW, Dane,

Costs of installing a dry barrel aftermarket kit on Stealth/Spark, Sten, Cressi, Asso, etc?? There simply are no installation costs. It is simplest DIY job you can imagine.

It takes less than 10 minutes installing a Mamba kit even for a person without much experience and two left hands like myself It takes even less time installing a Poseidon or Tovarich kit.

I believe I have circulated these Mamba installation pictorials before, but just the same:

MAMBIZAR UN NEUMATICO

Bluworld -Fucili oleopneumatici

Also I would like again to dispel the completely false notion that disassembly of a traditional airgun for maintenance is difficult or complicated. Not at all. As a matter of fact, many people are surprised how little there is to it and how 'simple' the construction of an airgun actually is.

Again, two pictorials that show the procedure step by step:

http://www.webalice.it/svl555/smontaggio/mares.html (including some youtube footage)

Bluworld -Fucili oleopneumatici

Cheers, ulysses

I hope at some time that someone can show us a close-up photo of an "Airbalete" placed directly alongside a "Sten", "Cyrano", "Asso" or other equivalent pneumatic speargun so that the gun's proportions can be more easily judged.

Omer's omission of an intermediate bulkhead that usually incorporates the power regulator control valve and non-return valve for the "easy load" and "high/low" power capability in the Airbalete's rivals was no doubt a deliberate choice to improve the gun's internal air flow when the "Airbalete" shoots. In order to provide the "Airbalete" with some power adjustment capability the variable choke muzzle concept was used with a flooded barrel (you could hardly do it with a dry one!), but it is not quite so handy to use having to be operated at the front end of the gun. Variable power is very useful on a short or intermediate length pneumatic speargun, but not really necessary on a longer model in my opinion unless you want the "easy load" feature. There will be no easy load with the "Airbalete" power adjustment method as it is just a barrel braking device, similar to that used on the GSD "Punto".

The "Airbalete" is going to be expensive while the supply is limited, "first adopters" always pay a premium for any imported item, it has never been any different. Pneumatic spearguns used to cost twice as much as production model band guns, but today the situation is reversed. Part of that cost difference has to due to the long production run of many pneumatics, the tooling for them has been the same for a very long time and most receive only cosmetic updates such as revised colour schemes and new stickers. So when a completely new gun comes onto the market there is a whole bunch of new tooling costs to pay off. Those who want to see the "Airbalete" reduce in price better pray for more of them to be sold. As has been stated by others the "Airbalete" seems to be designed to attract converts from band gun devotees who have never tried a pneumatic speargun before, many are pleasantly surprised by the newly discovered power of an air gun. For long term pneumatic speargun users any performance change is going to be marginal, but style plays a large part in speargun buying choices and that is certainly something the "Airbalete" has in abundance.

true spaghetti, get a bit short some times sorry guys.

as far as easy to pull a pneumatic apart i have tried and will not be doing it again because i failed horribly so now use the local shop for the service of my little pneumatic crayfish gun (legal to shoot crayfish here). so still dont recomend people pull them apart without experience.

wont comment on aything else as it is pointless.

over and out.

DD

Nice article! Its in some kinda weird english though - kinda hard to read at first.

I translated it with google - hilarious - but readable.