Hi can anybody tell me the advantages of the pneumatic guns over the elastic ones. In a lot of spearfishing videos that i've seen the pros seem to prefer the pneumatic guns.
Thanks in advance
Thanks in advance
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pneumatic guns?
- Thread startermilesdenman
- Start date
Thread Status: Hello
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Mikes
Wait a week or two and you can try our new, state of the art Maori Mamba 90's (if they ever arrive from Italy). Ed's ordered 4, one each for himself, me,my brother and a mate called Steve. If we didn't think they were any good we wouldn't have spent our hard earned dosh. Ed has researched them to the "N"th degree and I can be a bit of a nerd myself at times, so we are fountains of theoretical info, but soon we will have practical experience as well. Just to wet your appetite, range is claimed to be 5 metres and the guns are small, light and smooth. Try the Maori site, they have loads of video clips of the guns in action. Can't wait.
Dave
Wait a week or two and you can try our new, state of the art Maori Mamba 90's (if they ever arrive from Italy). Ed's ordered 4, one each for himself, me,my brother and a mate called Steve. If we didn't think they were any good we wouldn't have spent our hard earned dosh. Ed has researched them to the "N"th degree and I can be a bit of a nerd myself at times, so we are fountains of theoretical info, but soon we will have practical experience as well. Just to wet your appetite, range is claimed to be 5 metres and the guns are small, light and smooth. Try the Maori site, they have loads of video clips of the guns in action. Can't wait.
Dave
Many years ago I had two pneumatics from Cressi-Sub, SL75 and SL90. Both were excellent guns. We (me and my buddy) used them for uncountable trips and they have always performed perfectly. Although most pneumatics are described as reef / cave guns we speared with them in open water on fast swimmers such as jacks and barracudas with very good results. I later changed into 150cm 3 bands gun which I find quite good, but let’s say I would prefer to have kept my SL 90. In my modest experience there are some advantages of the pneumatic over the rubber:
- You load the gun by one pull. Although it could be difficult for some guys, especially if the tank is fully pumped.
- In the rubber guns if you have the bands “armed” after a while of not shooting, the bands relax a bit and you loose some power. In the pneumatic you can load and swim hours without having to worry about this.
- Although not very often, the bands sometimes tear at very critical moments. On other occasions the whish bone broke when I mistakenly loaded the bands not in the correct order, which usually happens when you are in hurry to shoot the second fish.
- I don’t know the reason for this, but it seams that pneumatics don’t suffer from jammed triggers as often as the rubber guns, especially when the three rubbers are pulled. I lost many good fish because of this. :vangry
- I found the pneumatic (SL90) very accurate in mid range (4-5 meters). We used to target practice with it hitting more often than not a 2 inch circle at 4mt range.
- In terms of power, I remember that we did a very strange test :duh when we aligned several old books amounting to more than 1000 pages plus the covers and shot from 3mt range, the SL90 went all the way through
- I found that the recoil from the SL90 is much less than the elastic gun with 3 bands.
- I would also assume that the pressure wave resulting from a pneumatic gun is less than the elastic gun because the later has more parts moving in the water (shaft, rubbers). If this is true, it will make the pneumatic more stealthy and less in alarming the target.
- I also found the pneumatics easier to maneuver underwater due to less water resistance and shorter length. The rubbers on the rubber guns go “Brrrrrrr….” When you shift your aiming from side to side.
However :hmm , the pneumatics has some disadvantages, such as being extra sensitive to dust and sand. If you have any sand in the valve it will leak the compressed air and you will loose power very quickly. If you spear from shore, you need to take extra care of not letting the sand into the muzzle, trigger base or the valve. In my personal opinion, a good pneumatic with good power (such as the SL90) could perform better than the rubber guns for fish in the class < 40LBS and range less than 5mt. I have seen verrrry large pneumatic guns with very thick shafts that looked to me like Whale harpoons and were told that it is much more powerful than a 4 rubber gun and designed for large tuna and other monsters. Honestly if you are spearing in that class, 4-8 rubbers gun would be the one.
Enjoy your pneumatic spearing! :wave
Gino
- You load the gun by one pull. Although it could be difficult for some guys, especially if the tank is fully pumped.
- In the rubber guns if you have the bands “armed” after a while of not shooting, the bands relax a bit and you loose some power. In the pneumatic you can load and swim hours without having to worry about this.
- Although not very often, the bands sometimes tear at very critical moments. On other occasions the whish bone broke when I mistakenly loaded the bands not in the correct order, which usually happens when you are in hurry to shoot the second fish.
- I don’t know the reason for this, but it seams that pneumatics don’t suffer from jammed triggers as often as the rubber guns, especially when the three rubbers are pulled. I lost many good fish because of this. :vangry
- I found the pneumatic (SL90) very accurate in mid range (4-5 meters). We used to target practice with it hitting more often than not a 2 inch circle at 4mt range.
- In terms of power, I remember that we did a very strange test :duh when we aligned several old books amounting to more than 1000 pages plus the covers and shot from 3mt range, the SL90 went all the way through
- I found that the recoil from the SL90 is much less than the elastic gun with 3 bands.
- I would also assume that the pressure wave resulting from a pneumatic gun is less than the elastic gun because the later has more parts moving in the water (shaft, rubbers). If this is true, it will make the pneumatic more stealthy and less in alarming the target.
- I also found the pneumatics easier to maneuver underwater due to less water resistance and shorter length. The rubbers on the rubber guns go “Brrrrrrr….” When you shift your aiming from side to side.
However :hmm , the pneumatics has some disadvantages, such as being extra sensitive to dust and sand. If you have any sand in the valve it will leak the compressed air and you will loose power very quickly. If you spear from shore, you need to take extra care of not letting the sand into the muzzle, trigger base or the valve. In my personal opinion, a good pneumatic with good power (such as the SL90) could perform better than the rubber guns for fish in the class < 40LBS and range less than 5mt. I have seen verrrry large pneumatic guns with very thick shafts that looked to me like Whale harpoons and were told that it is much more powerful than a 4 rubber gun and designed for large tuna and other monsters. Honestly if you are spearing in that class, 4-8 rubbers gun would be the one.
Enjoy your pneumatic spearing! :wave
Gino
Gino,
I have also a pneumatic that I like cause it is very powerful and easy to move around, but I have a VERY hard time aiming with it so I end up using my band guns.
Can you tell me how do you manage to aim so accurately with your pneumatics? Is there a techique/routine that I have to follow?
Thank you in advance.
I have also a pneumatic that I like cause it is very powerful and easy to move around, but I have a VERY hard time aiming with it so I end up using my band guns.
Can you tell me how do you manage to aim so accurately with your pneumatics? Is there a techique/routine that I have to follow?
Thank you in advance.
Galadion, to aim with an airgun you have to raise the butt of the gun to cover the fish with the valve cover
If you aim like a band gun the shot will go high
Look at the maorisub site videos o www.mpsvideo.com to see how accurate you can be
If you aim like a band gun the shot will go high
Look at the maorisub site videos o www.mpsvideo.com to see how accurate you can be
Hay Galadion,
I would also recommend starting with the technique suggested by Shaneshac. In some models the recoile jurks the muzzle up so you need to hold the aim tighter. It is like shooting with a hand gun, it has a tendancy to jump so you need to tighted your grip and fully extend your elbow. When you pull the trigger dont "pull" , but rather let it slide smoothly till it releases the shaft. Practicing will lead to perfection, so try to find the "weet spot" of your gun by aiming a little higher or lower and by trying different gripping and aiming positions. The best that works for me is holding the gun with one extended hand, while my body and the gun will form a very straight line. In a while you will be able to hit that spot without thinking. You will know when the fish has entered the dead spot and you will be able to shoot right through it.
Good luck on your spearing!
Gino
I would also recommend starting with the technique suggested by Shaneshac. In some models the recoile jurks the muzzle up so you need to hold the aim tighter. It is like shooting with a hand gun, it has a tendancy to jump so you need to tighted your grip and fully extend your elbow. When you pull the trigger dont "pull" , but rather let it slide smoothly till it releases the shaft. Practicing will lead to perfection, so try to find the "weet spot" of your gun by aiming a little higher or lower and by trying different gripping and aiming positions. The best that works for me is holding the gun with one extended hand, while my body and the gun will form a very straight line. In a while you will be able to hit that spot without thinking. You will know when the fish has entered the dead spot and you will be able to shoot right through it.
Good luck on your spearing!
Gino
I have a Tiguillio RAS 70;
Its a great gun but has negative and posetive aspects....
*Spear rosts :waterwork
*expensive :vangry
thats where the ones what realy made me mad... the rest is only small fixable problems.
A short story!!:
Once i was on Mallorca... i had 7 days to get a speargun and FINALY hunt... even if we have a house there, we would return NOT less than in 3 months. I went to the a huge Shopping mall, there was a sport section. I looked what stuff their have and Volla! an Imersion 90cm .... about 50€??! even if it was a bit old (Imersion traning 90cm sm 1999?), IT WAS GREAT!! IT WAS MUCH³ BETTER THAN THIS PNEUMATIC ITALIAN!!! 50 euro bucks... nice fish and accuracy and all other shit....only the safety is crap (like a turning wheel..i broke my nail turning it form S - F ) but for such money its worth it!
or in other words thats what i want to say:
Pneumatic spearguns= some thing like a AT4 / M136(A1) Linght AntiTank Weapon ?
rubber spearguns= the old and simple Kalashnikov
Its a great gun but has negative and posetive aspects....
*Spear rosts :waterwork
*expensive :vangry
thats where the ones what realy made me mad... the rest is only small fixable problems.
A short story!!:
Once i was on Mallorca... i had 7 days to get a speargun and FINALY hunt... even if we have a house there, we would return NOT less than in 3 months. I went to the a huge Shopping mall, there was a sport section. I looked what stuff their have and Volla! an Imersion 90cm .... about 50€??! even if it was a bit old (Imersion traning 90cm sm 1999?), IT WAS GREAT!! IT WAS MUCH³ BETTER THAN THIS PNEUMATIC ITALIAN!!! 50 euro bucks... nice fish and accuracy and all other shit....only the safety is crap (like a turning wheel..i broke my nail turning it form S - F ) but for such money its worth it!
or in other words thats what i want to say:
Pneumatic spearguns= some thing like a AT4 / M136(A1) Linght AntiTank Weapon ?
rubber spearguns= the old and simple Kalashnikov
Last edited:
alexanderXP said:
i own both pneumatics and band guns...i think they both have thier advantages and disadvantages. its true that pneumatics are more high tech, but they are also more fragile and they really arent suited for hunting the largest fish (not that I get that many opportunities to do that anyway
:waterwork) Theoretically, you could build a pneumatic gun that is better than a band gun in every way (more efficient, more powerful, smaller, lighter, easier to load, easier to wield). In practice this has yet to be done in the larger sizes of gun. I think the biggest problem is that all the power that a pneumatic gun has is pushed into it in one load. So even if a band gun is only half as efficient, it can easily make up for that with the fact that you can load up to seven bands onto a very heavy shaft. I love my small and medium sized pneumatic guns and would pit them against any comparable band gun, any time. If i fished in the mediterranean its possible that a medium-to-large pneumatic is all id ever need. but i live in the eastern pacific and, on the rare occaision that I am out there with the cows, I take the old harpoon...at least for now.