Spearingfish, thanks for the reply.
Hmm, if you don't mind me asking, what was unfinished about it? Was the wood stock not sanded, coated, or were there splinters? Was there still bark left on the stock?
I'm a sure a call or an email to Daryl explaining the guns deficiencies and he would have asked you to send it back for "finishing".
I know of only one other guy in Florida that has repeatedly claimed his hybrid missed most of the fish he's ever attempted to shoot, and he's taken it out many hundreds of times. Instead of contacting Daryl to explain his situation, he goes on the internet and badmouths the gun (a gift from his father) without giving any detail as to why the gun is failing him. Rick Bettua (Daryl's partner) even offered to buy the gun back from him at full price. At least two people (including myself) have offered to trade him any new Rabitech for it. What I don't understand about that guy and to a lesser extent you is...why don't you call Daryl on his lifetime warranty? If you're that unsatisfied with it, tell him about it (or don't) and demand he fix it. That's the beauty of a lifetime warranty.
Or demand to return it and ask for a full refund. You can also sell it here or the FDL. Have you seen how many people post Want to Buy (WTB) Wong guns? His is the only guns that I know of on the secondary market where there are more offers to buy than sell. You can certainly sell it for a very little loss. That's how I bought my Mahi from Kurt Bickel.
Re: Bill,
I don't think I've ever read a post of his where he comes out and castigates anyone unprovoked. I know there are some who think he's too prevalent of a poster and some may think he is too verbose. Others just don't like him because of his political persuasions. Maybe youv'e read more of his posts than I, but I can only think of one instance where he "castigates" another poster on Spearboard. That was telling Sask that he should just tell everyone the story of a boat sinking instead of teasing everyone. I think most people on that post agreed with Bill.
On the FDL he got too political and they banned him. A bunch of it's members called for lifting of the ban which Rocky did. When Bill came back on the list he explained what had happened and that the punishment was warranted. If you're on the FDL, you could do what another member did and block all emails from Bill.
On Spearboard he's been accused of pushing Wong guns. I agree that he does post alot about them but if you look at the context of his posts then you'll see that he's responding to someone asking about guns or how to set up a gun. He's never come out of the blue and start a thread on how great Wong guns are, or how someone could buy one. It's always been an answer to someone's question. There are a lot of newbies on these internet boards and some of them are so green, they don't know what they don't know. Many of them are too lazy to search the archives for their answers. I'm sure the internet (between FDL, Spearboard, and Deeperblue) has the answers to any question these newbies can even conceive. Well each time these lazy newbies ask the same question, Bill takes the time to answer each and many times with pictures. His answers just happen to be the same because many of the same questions are asked over and over. Bill is probably the only guy with the patience and inclination to answer each same question.
You might be wondering why I'm such a big fan of Bill's. When I moved to SoCal he was one of the guys from the FDL that answered all my questions about diving and spearing here. He also sent me pictures of how he rigged his guns as well as why. He even invited me to dive with him on his boat. Contrast that to another guy from Florida who told me to tie a cinderblock to my foot when I asked about diving deeper and longer eight years ago.
Now back to the subject of the thread. I disagree that wooden multiband guns are only good for tuna over 80kgs, or that they are cumbersome to dive with. Yes some have landed YFT up to 200lbs with euro/railguns but you never hear about all the fish they lost due to poor penetration because the fish is too far away or fish was just was too thick for the shaft to go all the way through. I shot at a WSB (estimated weight 70lbs) with a 100cm picasso from about 12' away and all I got were some scales. I have a buddy that loves his RA and although he's landed some really nice fish, he's also lost dozens of really nice fish (witnessed and by his own admission). He's also lost two guns due to not enough line on his reels. I have too much respect for my quarry to just mortally injure it. That being said, I hunt 60-70% of the time with a 110cm Aimrite Railgun.
Well, my daughter is waking up so I'll end it here.
Nate
P.S you wanna get rid of that dirty ol' hybrid? I'll save you the trip to the garbage can and come over to pick it up.
