pneumatic?

[okamotoa]

im looking for a new gun i'v got a band gun but its severly underpowered.
i do fresh water spearfishing but i need a gun that will manuver an yet have some power so longer band guns are out. im going after carp and catfish and the avrage is 20 lb but there are some close to 100lb. i want a shorter gun because of vis. is 15' at best but norm is 5-10'. i was thinkin somethin in the 50-75cm range. iv never used an air gun so any and all suggestion welcome. wat brands? whats the range? what size? and also in nebraska the spear has to be tied to the gun so no free shafting and line limit is 20 ft but could use a float line on the gun to increase play amount.

 

[okamotoa]

also the dark side is lookin pretty good after readin about their range and power...

 

[Britney Spearz]

Hmmm...I was going to say a Mares Cyrano 1100 but then read you want something in the 50-75cm range! If you really want such a short gun you'll probably want a thicker 8mm shaft for more stopping power so you may want to look at Seac Sub Asso's or Mares Sten's in that size range. Then again if you want a super accurate top-of-the-line gun you could try a Mares Cyrano 70cm or even maybe 85cm but the gun has a 7mm shaft but shoots extremely fast with lots of penetration and has nice aiming sights, but they probably wont matter as much with that size range of guns.

 

[Jon]

I have a Mares Cyrano 970 that I've been using since last fall. It's a bit too long when the vis goes to crap around here (Wisconsin), but it's pretty slick when the water is clear.

The shaft, and slider ring, are a bit too large for spearing panfish- it ruins too much meat. I prefer my custom, mid-handled, wooden gun for panfish that I'm going to eat. Having said that, there's nothing that comes close when you're blasting away at carp!:martial Scott (Whopperhead) had some issues with his Hammerhead bouncing off the carp's skulls are last time out and he only got two fish as a result. I had NO issues with this and could blast through their skulls at a decent distance without any hesitation- including one 36 pounder.

I had always shied away from pneumatic guns because of their extra parts and no one else whom i dove with used one, but after picking one up by chance last year I can really see where they have their advantages- increased accuracy seems to be another positive for me.

The biggest downsides I've found so far are the pristine nature that your shafts must be kept in or it will not work- with my wood gun i could use almost and bent up shaft and still get a shot off. With the Pneumatic you need to make sure that everything is prefect or it will not load.

The second thing is that you need to use a shaft loader to load the gun. I understand that if I we're to put a Mamba kit on my gun I would no longer need this, but the Mamba kits cost almost as much as my gun!

For local diving I would look for something shorter than the 970 that I own- the 750 would probably be great.

As far as your line laws go, it really won't be a big deal. You can clip off your float line to the handle of the gun- there's an attachment point for it. The gun comes with a line that goes from the slider ring on the shaft to the bungee on the gun. For diving around here you don't need a reel. You're also not going to be taking any 20' shots. Most likely all of your shots will be from 10' or less. My Cyrano had one shaft that came with a triple wrap of line on it- it could hit something at least 15' out. I ended up cutting the line down to a double wrap because it was just too much of a pain to load.

My last gun (Rob Allen rail-gun 75Cm) was a Euro gun with a single wrap of line. I really liked how fast that gun reloaded underwater. I could get a couple of shots off on a single breath without too much of a problem- except for my aim.:head

One other issue I've found with ALL of the rear-handled guns I've tried is that they all seem to be balanced out for saltwater. every single one is tip heavy in freshwater- which gets to be tiring after 6-8 hours in the water. With my mid-handled gun I have none of those issues.

Sorry for the rambling post.

Jon

 

[okamotoa]

its ok all help/advice is appreaciated!

 

[octpora]

You will probably like the Cyrano 970 more than its little sisters. It is easier to maneuver than a 100 cm band gun, and if you ever take it on a spearing adventure to clearer water the range and speed won't disappoint. If it will pin a nice grouper through the head and into the limestone, it ought to work wonders on big cats. (the fish type)

 

[okamotoa]

thanks n yea i knos its been a long time since i been on and said anything iv kinda grown quite