Q: short band speargun recommendations for UK?

Just doing some clearing out of a storage area and thought I might as well put some more photos of the Balco-Sub Thunder 70 up as these spearguns have probably totally disappeared by now. Balco-Sub probably made their name with spring guns and you see them from time to time on eBay. This band gun is reasonably well made but was somewhat roughly put together, so when I pulled it completely apart I fixed all that because I was not in such a hurry to slap it together as they had been at the factory. This one has never been used, original bands have cracked, but still look OK. Note the different band lengths to match the spaced notches on the shaft.

The rest of the photos here.



This is the short gun, the other models had longer barrels and cocking stock tubes with a foregrip handle on the longest guns. That was a very common fitment for the tube guns of the sixties and seventies from Beuchat and Cavalero as it also contained a short guide segment on top which supported the loaded shaft.

Mr. X said:

Looks short to me vs. my 75 Omer XXV. (More like my Apnea 65cm? But perhaps just an illusion?) .

Is 70cm the tube length from muzzle to trigger mech?
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Click to expand...

There is nothing that is exactly 70 cm, the spear without tip out of the gun is slightly longer than 70 cm and the gun from muzzle band anchor to rear of the cocking stock butt is also slightly over 70 cm. Often manufacturers tended to round numbers up, or down, as a multiple of ten, or five, sounds better, for example you would never see a gun listed as 72.3 cm.

Balco-Sub also made a version of the gun without a cocking stock butt called the "Arrow" which had the same mechanism layout but a different shape to the rear of the casting as it was not simply the same gun with a plug replacing the cocking stock tube. The guns all use a star wheel sear lever which is better than a single piece trigger, but only just as the gearing is virtually the same.

A problem with the Balco-Sub guns is the unique spear tail. The stop lugs on the shaft go into side slots in the sear box housing and that serves to stop the shaft rotating, normally stop lugs stay forward of the sear box entrance on line slide equipped guns. The spear tail has an angled rear to push the gear wheel shaped tooth on reloading and a similar angled shaft tail notch to catch on the tooth with the gun latched. The idea is any one of the teeth can catch the spear tail and thus distribute wear over all the teeth. The problem with single piece triggers, which were used on most early guns, is if the tooth wears then the gun can eventually shoot without you pulling the trigger. Hence the star shaped sear lever was seen as a small improvement, but from a leverage perspective in and out are exactly the same length, so no advantage in that respect.

This is the Balco-Sub "Arrow" grip.

A comment on speargun lengths is that originally euroguns were about the same length as their spears, the displacement forwards by the trigger being mounted in the handgrip was more or less matched by the spear tip projecting forwards beyond the muzzle band anchor. The spear length could then vary whether it was fitted with a single point or a trident, the latter making the projectile even longer. This length designation gave you an idea of the transport length of the gun and how far out in front of you the gun projected when using it. Since then spearguns have proliferated into various types and that simple relationship no longer applied, such as with cocking stock guns and pneumatic guns. From the manufacturer's viewport a range of guns using the same rear grip and muzzle was differentiated by the length of the barrel tube used and that became a reference for gun sizing, but that was not universal and now we have monocoque guns built entirely in one piece. If anything the spear length should be the yardstick as that is what we hurl at the fish, the gun is simply the launching device.