Omer Airbalete Vs Mares Cyrano

[Gazz]

Guys i put this together to help people choose between the 2 if they are looking to buy these guns. Bottom line is the airbalete is the better of the 2. But also dont forget a 13mm dry air barrel gun will out shoot the airbalete and be much quieter and lighter in the water.

OMER AIRBALETE
Pros
*It is loaded with innovation
*Very powerful, even with lower pressure (ie 20 Bar)
*Good grip and great trigger mech with the layout of a modern arbalete.
*Good balance
*Easy to load
*Metal slider
*The Piston has much less resistance against the barrel (due to special o-rings i think??), it feels very springy when loading. Omer believe this leads to 15% more power which i believe.
*The One reel is excellent
*Sensitive Trigger
*Quieter than other pneumatics

Cons
Over time the metal slider can Jam on the butt of the spear and be very difficult to remove. The easy fix is to put a Cyrano slider ring on behind the omer slider, but i think giving the back of the omer slider an appointment with the bench grinder may solve the problem?
*The Plastic ring below the handle for float ropes is flimsy and does break easy.
*Paint on the barrel of the black models comes off easy.
*The gun feels a little on the fragile side, compared to the cyrano.
*The one Reel has too much movement against the reel bracket and easily breaks (particularly in transport).
The gun comes un-rigged

Mares Cyrano:
Pros:
This gun is designed to shoot at 30bar and shoots really well at that pressure.
Build and Quality parts (except for spears)
Tracks Well
Proven reliability
New 1.5 trigger pin with ss case mean more sensitive shot.
These guns has been around for over 20years now and people still love them.
It looks Cool

Cons:
The gun is very muzzle heavy
The spears bend easy
It is noisy.

 

[popgun pete]

Mares Cyrano:
Pros:
This gun is designed to shoot at 30bar and shoots really well at that pressure.
Build and Quality parts (except for spears)
Tracks Well
Proven reliability
New 1.5 trigger pin with ss case mean more sensitive shot.
These guns has been around for over 20years now and people still love them.
It looks Cool

Cons:
The gun is very muzzle heavy
The spears bend easy
It is noisy.

The "Cyrano" was designed to look different and part of that distinctive appearance change was the long snout on the muzzle nose cone and the little fluoro-green sight on top, but that long nose is what makes the gun nose heavy as it took away a substantial portion of the air tank at that end of the gun. The "Spark" was the same gun, but had a standard nose cone without the snout, so that or the "Sten 11" is probably the gun to buy if you don't like the heavy muzzle on the "Cyrano". The lower grip handles are interchangeable just by pushing out the plastic pin and pulling the grip down off the inner stem of the rear handle molding, so you can change the handle's color scheme if you have access to a spare grip.

 

[kees]

My 4 bits- I have two Cyranos (97 & 110) down with leaks. I cannot load a pumped-up 110 without cumbersome leashes ( I simply don't have the reach) , so the Airbalete 100 caught my eye and it arrived today. I can load that without attachments at 30 bar.

So far I can only say that the Omer ONE is an improvement on the 'standard' Omer reels that I have on the Cyranos.

Secondly, that the Airbalete looks and feels like someone has taken the trouble to rethink and redesign the layout of a pneumatic gun, and that Omer has invested in these thoughts. That inspires confidence. Can't say if it is actually better in a functional sense yet.
Thirdly- the Cyrano standard spears are ornamental. I keep them for friends ( after I deflate the gun to whatever is manageable for them) and they are then welcome to spear the inevitable rocks. I don't think that you should judge a $ 400 gun by its $ 25 shaft, nor its $ 10 slider. Having said that- the standard Omer shaft seems only marginally short of the aquadynamic perfection of a Torsion-2 and the slider is state-of-the-art. Another vote of confidence in the Omer design- and manufacture team.

Lastly, I hope to find out soon if the muzzle bulge of the Airbalete won't interfere with its tracking too much. I don't like the muzzle- heaviness of the Cyranos but then again, how much time do you actuallly spend aiming with your arm extended? It does not seem a problem in practice.

I do not expect much power-wise, but if a 100 Airbalete actually makes good on half its claimed 15% power increase (i.e., close to Cyrano 110 power), then I have the ideal reef gun for me if it is durable.

The weather does not look promising for this weekend, but I will update once I have shot fish with the Airbalete.

Kees

 

[Gazz]

Thanks for the Reply Kees, i just sent a airbalete from sydney to WA last week

The tracking in the Airbalete is excellent and it is much less muzzle heavy than the cyrano.

You can see the shots of me firing the airbalate in my youtube video, this is at 20bar, and it is easy to load shoots hard and pulls line from the reel.

My railguns with short 20mm rubbers seem to shoot their spears in slow motion compaired to the airbalate and dry barreled asso.

My greatest concern about the Airbalate(and all cayman models) is the float line ring below the handle. A NZ Guy has offerred a solution to this.
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFZonumBuhA]Repairing Omer Cayman speargun - YouTube[/ame]

 

[kees]

Hi Gazz,

An Airbalete 100 off Ebay? If so, that must have been me.


Related to this- I had my introduction to mackie-fishing the other day which involves floating in a cloud of shredded fish in Shark Bay. The only reason why I think this is not suicidal is that the guy who took me has survived thus far.

Anyway, I borrowed a 1300 Rob Allen with floatline and was amazed at how hard these guns are to swing around at all, and how messy the floatlines are.
Another friend reckoned you don't so much swing the muzzle, but swim the handle around.

So I tried to find some info on the WWW on exactly how big a fish you can still reasonably attack with a reel instead of a float, and if anyone has any views on shooting these 10-20 kg fish with a pneumatic and if so- what sort of size. I came up with very little. Do you, or others on this forum have any experience with this?

Kees

 

[Gazz]

I am sure the gun went to you as i addressed it to a Kees

When using long rail guns you cant track normally. So you have to pull the gun back in towards your body and turn it with 2 hands from there then point the gun back out to where the fish will be when he swims in you sights.

I have heard of people taking 30kg tunas in WA with reel guns, and plenty of people in the med taking 10kg plus amberjacks with reel guns. I think the line strength is important if targeting larger fish. I think you have normal omer 1.5 black nylon on you gun, i am not sure what the breaking strength of that is. I find the reel guns best for chasing fish like drummer and jewfish in the surf and wash zones.

 

[kees]

Finally got the chance to use the Airbalete & shot an 8kg coral trout that I was very pleased with.

As far as I'm concerned there are few worthwhile differences. The Airbalete certainly has the better (neutral) underwater balance. But because the top of the handle is not in line with the barrel ( & I suspect the front & rear sight are not parallel with the shaft either) aiming is not straightforward. On the Cyrano the sights are pretty accurate if you use them.
The Cyrano's line release has less spring tension, is bigger & is easier to use. Its paintjob is more durable as well.

Overall- assuming that the claimed power advantage of the Airbalete is either hype or can be matched by the Cyrano by using a higher pressure, I think that the balance advantage of the Airbalete may be worth it in the 110 size. Otherwise it is horses for courses.

Kees

 

[kees]

Further on my Airbalete 100, it has developed a leak- by the sounds of it, a piston leak. And I heve been informed there is no Australian importer or stockist of spares. I can probably find something on the web, but still- no reliability difference between Cyrano and Airbalete in my hands at least.

 

[kwtony]

I'll shoot anything with my sten and reel. I have the Omer pelagic reel and the sten bluewater 133 gun..I'd don't know why the call it 133 as the only thing close to 133 cm is the spear, and the gun is 47 inches long. I have the dry barrel kit from tromic and have been using it here as my go to gun, in the keys. I have a 3 banded wood gun made by koah that Is also use. But the air gun is fun to use With almost the same power. It can pull a double wrap and a few feet of line out of the reel. Right now tho it needed trigger work and was having issues firing, so it's apart hopefully getting the long and arduous 1200-1400 pumps it needs to get it back to working pressure today.

I made The loader from shape lock and some para cord, it's not cumbersome or bulky. I'll tuck it in my weight belt as it sticks in there very easily.

 

[kwtony]

 

[kwtony]

.

 

[Gazz]

Further on my Airbalete 100, it has developed a leak- by the sounds of it, a piston leak. And I heve been informed there is no Australian importer or stockist of spares. I can probably find something on the web, but still- no reliability difference between Cyrano and Airbalete in my hands at least.

Hi Mate i had to replace the piston when i used an airbalete 110, The piston is molded not machined so it is not that strong. I am in Australia as well. I purchases a stack of spares from spearfishingworld.com, i suggest you get some pistons and shock absorbers from there.

I know some people have used mares parts in the airbalete but i am not sure how wise this is.

 

[popgun pete]

The Mares (and most of the rear handle clones) piston tail is designed for a 90 degree sear tooth as the sear lever hangs onto the mushroom headed piston tail like a hook, so it is inherently stable and only releases when you push it off by tipping up the rear end of the sear lever when you pull the trigger. The "Airbalete" and "One Air" use an angled sear tooth that is always trying to be pushed aside by the matching sloping angle on the piston's mushroom tail, it is a deliberately unstable sear lever system blocked from moving by a sliding catch that is remotely operated by the trigger. So in a sense there are two teeth, one on the sear lever and the other on the sliding catch. To spread the contact load over a reasonable surface area and prevent highly localized and thus rapid wear the angles have to match, so don't be tempted to swap the pistons around on stable sear lever guns like the Mares, Cressi, Seac-Sub, etc. (which are basically remotely operated, flattened out single-piece triggers) with two-piece trigger guns like the "Airbalete" and "One Air" which rely on the non-ninety degree sear tooth angle to make them work.

"O" rings can be swapped as long as they have the same dimensions to fit into the inner barrel bore and locating grooves on the piston as obviously they need to be pressure-tight yet provide a smooth sliding operation of the piston. Most mass produced pneumatic spearguns use molded plastic pistons, they can be churned out very quickly compared to machined pistons which often come in aftermarket kits.

 

[Ubykh]

i never used a pneumatic speargun before.i have 3 pneumatic speargun models in my mind.Mares Cyrano Evo HF 90 - Omer Airbalete 90 - Sporasub One Air 90. i cant pick one. i need some information and advises

 

[Jegwan]

The above guns are all very good looking - but I'll recommend you one of the classic ones...

A Mares Sten 11 84 or longer (depending on your needs). These are cheap, reliable, well shooting and comes with a nice "Race" 7mm hardened shaft with single flopper.
Use a 1-1.2mm mono for shooting line instead of the one it comes with from the factory (better shooting performance).

You can give the gun a dry barrel kit later if you like hunting with it. This improves it's performance further.

Jégwan

 

[Ubykh]

Thank you Jegwan for your advise.Pneumatic guns are not popular in Turkey.i dont have a friend around me using pneumatic speargun.Because of that i am looking for information to buy the best pneumatic speargun.i think Mares will be a better choice.

 

[kees]

Hi Ubykh,

From this forum I understand that everyone has got their favorites. There's probably not a huge difference between the guns. But pneumatics do at times need servicing and spare parts, I would advise that you get the brand that you have a dealership for.

Also- I remember Turkey as clear water, few fish- is a 90 big enough?

Cheers,

Kees

 

[Ubykh]

Kees,in Mediterranean sea and Agean sea visibility is good but i hunt in Marmara sea.Also i am just 170 cm height.i wish i can use a 100 cm but i am afraid of having gun loading problem.

 

[Gazz]

Hi Ubykh

try the vuoto 85
http://www.scubastore.com/scuba-diving/salvimar-vuoto-air-speargun/137338/p

Good performance and cheap. But you will need to get some spare gaskets.
http://www.scubastore.com/index.php?action=ver_detalle_producto&id_modelo=138579&idioma=eng

Here's salvimars testing video

 

[Ubykh]

Thank you Gazz.in scubastore vuoto 100 is about 130 euro + 6.55 euro shiping cost if i lubricate the gasket with pneumatic speargun oil how long can one gasket work properly? i am 170 cm tall,which gun length do you recommend me 85 or 100?