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Practice targets underwater?

Thread Status: Hello , There was no answer in this thread for more than 60 days.
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Pa Teeny

Well-Known Member
Mar 10, 2004
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Just wonder what kind of materials used as underwater target? Any information would be great? Remember- ONE shot one kill!!!!!- Prctice make perfect. Thanks-:D
 
Hi

Am trying different idea's at the moment for spearfishing courses.

Am going to try with 2 x 2 litre water bottles. Use one filled with air as a float. Fill the 2nd bottle with water and suspend it from the 'float' with some fishing gut ( The target bottle), about 3 meters below. You then hang a lead weight from the 'target bottle' to keep it in place.

This may work, will try next week, just be careful not to hit the weight with your spear-tip !!

Any other suggestions will be welcome.

Jeff
 
My synthetic foam targets:
 

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Looks like a great fish target!!! I recognize it from the North Cal. freedive.com page, a lot of other great videos as well. I ordered some stuff from them just a couple of weeks ago and it got here within great time and the service was unbeatable, thanks a lot!!!:D I also picked up the movie from them, "Blue: Feediving the Californias", which is amazing, blows away all the rest of the spearo vid's I've seen. If anyone knows of a better one, pm me and I'll order it as if it is remotley close it's gonaa be good.

I am going to try and get out this sunday and do some spearing practice on a target of some sort and then on several of the 10 or so million carp that inhabit my local lake.

Until next time,
Justin
 
I was thinking of using an old nerf football, tied by a length of string to a brick. The hard part for me will be convincing the next door neighbors that it is a good idea to have target practice in their pool.
 
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i just got the BLue Spearfishing the Californias video...its just amazing. you might also want to get the Picasso Vol.3 Spearfishing Brazil with Paolo Pacheco. I had it on VHS but the player messed it up so im trying to find it on DVD.

in terms of practice just go out and shoot as much as you can.
 
Boogy Board

Somebody suggested I use a small Boogie Board weighted to the bottom. It was a great first target for me, although I may be ready to try a bottle now. I like that suggestion.
 
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a bottle can be a pain in the ass because the flopper gets stuck, and its only good for a few shots before it sinks, unless you only shoot the bottom area. i'm going to try a strip of foam i cut off a camping mattress
 
I have come up with a relatively simple idea for a target fish.

I punched a hole in the bottom of a 2l drinks bottle and threaded a string inside, secured with a washer. I then tied the other end of the string to the neck of the bottle with a clove hitch and put an overhand knot in the middle of the string.

I then filled the bottle with expanding foam which can be bought fairly cheaply from DIY stores and put reflective tape on the outside of the bottle to emulate the colour of a fish (sort of)

The string can be secured to a weight with another length of string and obviously the distance of the bottle from the seabed can be varied.

The foam retains its shape and bouyancy when the bottle is shot and your spear can be easily recovered from the bottle.

Cheers, Brian
 

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Fuzz is that the handle of a JB Esclapez I see there in the foto? I hear that model is made up to 150 cm. How accurate is it?

Nikos
 
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Originally posted by Ntrik
Fuzz is that the handle of a JB Esclapez I see there in the foto? I hear that model is made up to 150 cm. How accurate is it?

Nikos



It looks like one thats for sure!

Ive got an Imersion (JB Esclapez) its a 90 cm model always seems to hit within 2 cm of where Im aiming at about 3-4 metres as long as my spear is straight
 
I'm really impressed with Brian's target fish. Cheap, reusable and easy to make. What more can we ask?
 
cheap and easy...

We went over this somewhere before here, but the easiest and cheapest way I've found is to take a section of that orange, plastic security netting you see around construction sites, thread a contrasting colored tape/yarn through the webbing to whatever size you want, zip-tye it to a couple of bricks or whatever and start shooting.
The webbing lets the spear through w/o harm and it'll roll up at the end of the day.
 
Sven,
Does that plastic netting naturally float? If so, I agree, that has to be the ultimate "cheap and easy".
 
Yeah, it's made of polypropylene and floats. With all that construction and diddling around that Cal Trans say's they're doing, they'll not miss a couple yards. ;)
 
Here is a photo of the target fish I told you all about a few replies back.

The bottle has been shot about 6 or 7 times and, whilst slightly heavier due to water seeping into the foam, it is still highly buoyant.

The bottle was shot at with a Seac Sub Asso 90cm pneumatic gun charged to about half power. The spear had enough force to go completely through the bottle from about 1.5 metres.

The visibility was about 2.5 - 3 metres and the bottle was lying in about 4 - 5 metres of water. Due to the silver tape the bottle could be seen from above the water surface (i.e. standing on rocks looking down into the sea)

The bottle will be good for about 20 - 25 hits before needing replacing. I attached it to a heavy rock letting it float about half a metre from the seabed. The bottle floated with the current and would rotate as well, which meant taking a shot was more than just shooting at a completely static target.

I would highly recommend this set up to anyone looking to get in a bit of target practice.

Enjoy, Brian
 

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