First thoughts on the ET roller.
Look, I don't claim to know the ins and outs or the technical merits beyond what I've read elsewhere so take this for what it's worth.
I have a desire to target Black Bream in deeper water 10 - 20 meters. Knowing how skittish these can be and the recent vis reinforcing the fact that we DO get great vis here, I wanted a longer gun, without it being long.
All the technical stuff suggests a roller gun is on par with a length about 40 cm longer than the barrel upon which the system resides. So, a 95 would/should match a 130 and my chosen 105 should be equal to a 140.
That aside, I have a myriad of guns that I can compare this directly with an 105 ET gun and 2X16mm bands. This gun has 14mm bands, with dyneema sheet bended wishbones make detaching the bands a piece of cake for storage. Wishbone length change is also dead easy.
OK, this model has a 7mm spear and I rigged it with two wraps. I was a bit concerned about the rigging but after checking with a freind who has built and shot rollers before, he assured me, it was going to be OK.
14mm band is like EASY to load, even at the stretch of a 105. However...
Yes, the 'however' ...
Whilst loading is easy, as in stretching the bands, it's fiddly. I can load a dual 16mm banded gun in 1/3rd of the time. Is this important? Well, maybe for the competitive spearo, yes. It's like, awkward but that might be more because I'm not used to it. You hook the band on the rear fin (lowest power). This has to be done or you cannot grab the upper wishbone to start the loading.
Then, you easily load to the mid tab/fin. Believe me, you might feel safe leaving spearguns around kids and women but NOT this one. It's like pulling a strong elastic band. Then, you either load up the top band area to the trigger tab OR, you turn it over once more, reaching UNDER the shooting line and choose to load to the mid-power tab or, the furthest, high power tab before once again turning over the gun and loading up to the trigger tab. I did say it was awkward ... LOL
So, not for fast shooting if you are trying to drop on a shoal in competition with others on the same head of shoal and certainly not for weeded wading with your gun...
However, once loaded you have a gun that, after 3 target tests at various ranges, pulls the bungee at almost 5.0 meters on 2 wraps whilst hitting a small hard foam dog ball square on, leaving the flopper well on the other side. At full extension, the rig gives around 7 meters, or 8 good long paces with a double wrap and still it yanks the bungee.
In fact, the bungee going is the only indication you've pulled the trigger. Like shooting a laser really. It's a better gun than I'm a diver that's for sure.
Muzzle heavy a fraction but as more experience tells me, that's a good thing in any swell.
I've only wrote this so anyone looking at the design isn't perhaps as clueless as I was before I splashed out.
Look, I don't claim to know the ins and outs or the technical merits beyond what I've read elsewhere so take this for what it's worth.
I have a desire to target Black Bream in deeper water 10 - 20 meters. Knowing how skittish these can be and the recent vis reinforcing the fact that we DO get great vis here, I wanted a longer gun, without it being long.
All the technical stuff suggests a roller gun is on par with a length about 40 cm longer than the barrel upon which the system resides. So, a 95 would/should match a 130 and my chosen 105 should be equal to a 140.
That aside, I have a myriad of guns that I can compare this directly with an 105 ET gun and 2X16mm bands. This gun has 14mm bands, with dyneema sheet bended wishbones make detaching the bands a piece of cake for storage. Wishbone length change is also dead easy.
OK, this model has a 7mm spear and I rigged it with two wraps. I was a bit concerned about the rigging but after checking with a freind who has built and shot rollers before, he assured me, it was going to be OK.
14mm band is like EASY to load, even at the stretch of a 105. However...
Yes, the 'however' ...
Whilst loading is easy, as in stretching the bands, it's fiddly. I can load a dual 16mm banded gun in 1/3rd of the time. Is this important? Well, maybe for the competitive spearo, yes. It's like, awkward but that might be more because I'm not used to it. You hook the band on the rear fin (lowest power). This has to be done or you cannot grab the upper wishbone to start the loading.
Then, you easily load to the mid tab/fin. Believe me, you might feel safe leaving spearguns around kids and women but NOT this one. It's like pulling a strong elastic band. Then, you either load up the top band area to the trigger tab OR, you turn it over once more, reaching UNDER the shooting line and choose to load to the mid-power tab or, the furthest, high power tab before once again turning over the gun and loading up to the trigger tab. I did say it was awkward ... LOL
So, not for fast shooting if you are trying to drop on a shoal in competition with others on the same head of shoal and certainly not for weeded wading with your gun...
However, once loaded you have a gun that, after 3 target tests at various ranges, pulls the bungee at almost 5.0 meters on 2 wraps whilst hitting a small hard foam dog ball square on, leaving the flopper well on the other side. At full extension, the rig gives around 7 meters, or 8 good long paces with a double wrap and still it yanks the bungee.
In fact, the bungee going is the only indication you've pulled the trigger. Like shooting a laser really. It's a better gun than I'm a diver that's for sure.
Muzzle heavy a fraction but as more experience tells me, that's a good thing in any swell.
I've only wrote this so anyone looking at the design isn't perhaps as clueless as I was before I splashed out.
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