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Oil for use in pneumatic spearguns

Thread Status: Hello , There was no answer in this thread for more than 60 days.
It can take a long time to get an up-to-date response or contact with relevant users.
Also my Aquatech hydropneumatic guns made by Sergiy Kravchenko. (year 2000)


Aquatech "Black Sea" hydropneumatic with lever operated hydropump. Other gun is Alcedo "Hydra II", similar principle, but different layout.
 
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Reactions: Zahar
That grease was a failure as unlike oil did not move around inside the gun. Omer soon added oil to their guns as internally corroded guns began to appear.

The first Omer "Airbalete" guns only used grease, but as predicted they soon went back to using oil.
 
Aquatech has a wimpy water pump lever. I will send you a photo of my father's gun. On the other hand it reduces the gun's weight. Since you are fan, I will tell you that the most powerful spear gun in the world was hand-made on the island of Crete to hunt tuna. It had a killing range of 11 METERS. I am not sure how successful it was in usage but he was tested to have a penetrating power at this range. It was obviously hydro-pneumatic.
 
Interesting. Anyway mine is in a perfect shape. And will be prepared for my Azores trip soon. I have 3 Cyranos but only used the oldest for 35 days last year. Time to run - going to my parents and will make the photo of the gun!
 
My Aquatech "Black Sea" gun uses 100 bar start pressure (hence not so wimpy pump) and easily shoots to 6 meters in a straight line. I limit the spear travel to 6 meters with the shooting line as often visibility is not much more where I use it and to shoot further would be irresponsible as easy to spear another unseen diver! In fact where possible I use it when diving alone as the gun does not have much of a safety and the gun is very powerful. The Aquatech guns don't float after the shot and as both hands are needed to finish off and remove the fish from the shaft the gun needs to look after itself by floating nearby.

Heavy guns can be hung from belt clips or floats, but it is not an ideal solution when using a sinking gun and at times I have resorted to dropping it on loose sheets of kelp forming a carpet on the bottom and hoping that there are no big or sharp rocks underneath it.
 
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PM sent
 
Thanks for the photos! You should post the images here, in fact is this the gun? It has an outrigger trigger pivoting on the side of the gun.

There have been other guns with the hydropump in the grip handle, such as this Vadim.
 
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The gun I have was custom-made for my father in the quantity of one. Long pump lever allows for a better power but creates drug and a possible hazard.
 
Possibly gun made after consulting "Athlete-Submariner" (edition 25) and design of Evlanov and Zerkaliya. Note the outrigger trigger.
 
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This gun was of interest in looking at evolution of RPS-3. Ironically no oil in RPS-3. (PПС-3)
 
This is the first page (91) of the article in "Athlete-Submariner" No. 25.

For those who have no Russian,
The length of the gun..................750 mm
The weight of the gun..................1.3 kG
Caliber........................................... 8mm
The length of the barrel...........500 mm
Length of harpoon.................. 700 mm
Air pressure
Charger............................... 80-100 atm
maximum........................... 250-300 atm
Pump performance..................2 cm3/sec
Range (in water)........................... 12 m
Slaughter distance.......................10 m (range striking target)
 
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I am not brave enough to take my titanium "Black Sea" gun up to 200 bar start pressure, hydropump strokes get difficult past 10 with maximum 14 at 100 bar. 14 hydropump strokes are the equivalent of one barrel length of water, after that water will be pushed out after spear has already left the muzzle.
 
I can tell you right away that the striking distance of 10 meters is a complete and utter horseshit. And it would be also grossly inaccurate with such a short shaft and spear. But I remember having this issue in our apartment! That photo brought such warm memories! Thank you for that!
 
Is the gun still used on occasion or retired? The problem with hydropneumatic guns is they don't float after the shot and if in very deep water this can be a problem as diving to 30 meters to get your gun back can be tiresome. Scuba divers had to be used to retrieve the prototype “Black Sea” gun when it was accidently dropped while hunting Tuna. The user was knocked over by the recoil in a careless moment of losing concentration!

To obtain buoyancy a jacket needs to be added, but increases the bulk of the gun as can be seen below.
 
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This is the Tuna gun used by Fernando, it sinks like a stone.



These guns use oil as they have an annular piston that slides between the inner barrel and outer tank tubes as you probably know, however others may not. The machining must be very precise to make sure all parts are concentric with the gun's longitudinal axis.
 
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My father could not dive deeper than 12 meters and I never hunted with that gun. 95% of hunted fish was mullet in 4 meters of water. And usually when they hunt Tuna the depth is 300-3000! he got lucky to get that gun back!
 
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