Okay Enough Talk, Time to build a Gun

[flying_spanner]

I've been talking bout building a gun to replace my old Moray clunker that I rebuilt from parts of 3 guns given to me from various freinds.

My old Moray is increadibly heavy, sinks like a rock (quite handy as a mooring though), is older than me, and increadibly inaccurate until you get used to aiming left and down.

The usual comments I get from my mates as we get ready for a dive have included,

"When do u reckon Noah will realise that you've taken his speargun"

"If that gun were any older it'd have a beard and wrinkles"

So I've decided enough is enough, Lets see thos muppets laugh at me when I show up with two brand new spareguns that you won't find in any shop.

I'm making 2 guns. One with a 900mm long barrell, reason being we get quite bad vis here usually and I mainoly target Blue Cod etc anyhow. But this gun still needs to be able to get the occasional Kingfish.

The 2nd gun will be 110mm and powered with double rubbers, as there's no point taking a pee shooter to bazooka match.

I've got a couple of good sticks of Macrocarpa that I will machine this weekend. I then plan to cure the machined sticks for a couple weeks in the hot water cupboard (to give them time to finish twisting etc)

After straightening and further machining, I plan to laminate the sticks using Gorilla glue, and include the handle in the lamination process.

I was thinking of using a cassett type trigger mechanism (picasso or similar) that way I can use any of the locally available Euro spec shafts.

Both of these guns will have a groove to cradle the shaft, but not a complete slot necessitating a shark fin type shaft. I was thinking of using small peice of PVC Tube set into the timber for a muzzle.

Basically I'm asking if anyone has any suggestions/advice before I spend a lot of time and money on this project.

Especially how long should the shafts be for these guns and recommended thickness.

Cheers for any advice that may be coming and I'll post some pics when I've got something to show for my efforts.

 

[Newbie_spearo]

Hey spanner,

I'm going to be doing my own gun soon too. Probably using same trigger mech. I realise there are a lot of guys who have built there own guns on this forum, some of whom are very good at it. One person who I believe is an artist at making wooden guns is Ric Fallu, he has posted on here before but I don't think he frequents DB too much. check out The Southern Freedivers - Spearfishing in Victoria since 1994. and look at the gear talk section, ric has documented many a build on there and you might see some nice ideas to try and also be able to learn from his mistakes. I believe leaving room to add lead balast or make the gun more boyount is an important factor too.

Good luck with the build and keep us in the loop!

Jono

 

[flying_spanner]

Well I've made a fair bit of progress.

I machined up some 25mm x 15mm x 1000mm sticks of Rimu (I had origionally planned to use Macrocarpa but have decided Rimu would work better).

The Timber I started off with was an old mantlepiece from a fireplace I renovated at work. (I'm presently working as a Joiner/Builder). This piece of timber was totally dry and splitting quite badly as a result. But carefully picking which sticks to use. i had plenty of material to make my gun. (And enough to build another one maybe two to sell off later)

The stock is laminated up with three long sticks of timber. The middle stick is cut on a 10deg angle about 100mm from the but end and a piece of timber to make up the handle glued in at the laminating stage also. This is then followed rearward by another small piece of timber also cut on a 10deg angle to give around 30mm but section to mount the plastic but plate to.

Once the Gorilla glue had set I removed the blank fron the F Clamps I was using, and straightened and machined the stock to dimension using my Makita Table Saw.

The groove for the shaft to run in I also machined on the table saw by setting up the saw's fence so the sawblade would run down the middle of my stock. and set the blade really low so that I ended up with a nice, neat and most importantly straight 4mm deep groove that's 7.5mm wide.

I have glued another small block on the underside of the muzzle to give enough meat so that the 22mm hole I've bored through for the rubber won't weaken the muzzle of my gun.

I've carved the butt end into a 30mm round, so as to allow fitment of the plastic buttplate off an old alloy tube gun I wrecked ages ago.

The gun is presently sitting in my lounge with clamps holding a couple of small pieces of half round Pine moulding in place while the glue dries. This should make the handle a bit more substantial and comfortable.

I'll post pics soon