The large variety of speargun designs in earlier times reflected the environment that they were used in and the species of fish sought. An example of this are spearguns used in tropical waters where the fish the locals are interested in are not necessarily big ones and they cannot easily be cornered in reef structure thus requiring a straight shot to bag them. Keeping the energy expended vs energy acquired in foodstuff consumption means few shots as possible are required. As aiming not to miss requires a long barrel and spear the guns need to be slim profile to have wand waving ability with small course corrections usually required as the oblivious but perpetually nervous prey change course in their own hunt for sustenance.
In Hawaii Paul Horolan crafted his own unique timber guns to meet these requirements, their most notable feature being a combined timber grip and butt stock that worked as a rear paddle to brace against with the inner forearm. Thus the long gun can be shifted with one hand for minor aiming adjustments. These great looking guns have all their parts crafted by Paul. Because of the large buoyancy incorporating a large weight of stainless parts is largely offset by all that lumber. When making my own timber guns it seemed appropriate to also use a wooden butt stock to offset the all metal mechanism weight, but I never attempted such glorious timber work as we see here. All metal mortice trigger mechanisms were common in timber guns.
In Hawaii Paul Horolan crafted his own unique timber guns to meet these requirements, their most notable feature being a combined timber grip and butt stock that worked as a rear paddle to brace against with the inner forearm. Thus the long gun can be shifted with one hand for minor aiming adjustments. These great looking guns have all their parts crafted by Paul. Because of the large buoyancy incorporating a large weight of stainless parts is largely offset by all that lumber. When making my own timber guns it seemed appropriate to also use a wooden butt stock to offset the all metal mechanism weight, but I never attempted such glorious timber work as we see here. All metal mortice trigger mechanisms were common in timber guns.
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