Small speargun for a very young spearo wanted

[miles]

Hi everyone!!

My 7 year old daughter has been snorkeling with me for the last 2 years and she's been nagging for me to get her a small speargun.

I recall many years ago, that one could buy a tiny speargun, around the 20 to 30cm size, with a tiny spear. Unfortunately, i cannot find any of them anymore. Does anyone know where i can find something suitable.

Note, it'll be for shooting small fish, like mullets, so not looking for anything powerful, just something for her to learn with and not hurt herself......

Thanx in advance
miles

 

[J Campbell]

Yikes! A speargun in 7yo hands? What could possibly go wrong.

 

[miles]

Mark Jeffery, thank you for your concern.

However, what would you propose i do? Do i stifle her enthusiasm? Or wouldn't it be better to teach her the PROPER way to spearfish.

Needless to say, all of this will be done under strict parental supervision (ie. me!!)

Regards
miles

 

[Aegis]

Like Mark, scary thought.
However-you know your child and situation.

Maybe a pole spear? Make it short, they're less lethal, 'easier' and fun.
Barring that, Beuchat make a 35cm 'Espadon'.
I have the 75cm and it's a decent gun.

Link to Oz store-https://spearfishing.com.au/products/beuchat-espadon-speargun?variant=44467831634

Hope that helps, best of luck.

 

[ledo2]

For my 7th birthday, I got a seacsub asso 40 and it was pumped up to a very low pressure. With the heavy 8 mm spear and a pair heavy pair of multiprongs, the range was really bad and you could only shoot a couple of feet into the distance. However, it was good for fish inside holes and the multiprongs lasted for years due to low power.

It was a lot of fun, quick to reload and I would dare to say quite safe as I never got hurt [emoji2]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

[MAKO Spearguns]

I think it is GREAT that you are developing your daughter's interest in diving and spearfishing!

Another option might be a pole spear. To be honest, it will be very challenging for her to attain the grip strength to use a pole spear, but it might work. And a pole spear is safer than a very short speargun - or any gun for that matter.

Another (more expensive) option might be to buy a Go Pro or one of the inexpensive knock offs, mount it on a pvc pole and set her off trying to stalk and film a few fish. She will learn a lot about spearfishng by watching others do it and will be actively developing her own stalking and diving skills.

 

[Andrew the fish]

shorter gun means uncontrolled muzzle in young hands. Get her normal size gun, 60-70cm and load it for her. On top of that, spear kinetic energy and momentum are unpropotionally smaller with such puny gun, she will not kill any fish. Instead, let her take a good shot at real fish.

 

[seatrophy]

kinds on such age cant load the gun anyway .. not pnematic not pole spear even with trigger .. but ! kinds on that age can hunt with success ! with 2 metres polespear or usual short pneumatic gun for adalt

only be close behid of kid to control she/he not shot himself ot other divers

 

[SubSub]

Yikes! A speargun in 7yo hands? What could possibly go wrong.

Yup. That is a rea bad idea. There are just too many parameters that can go to shit.

 

[Diving Gecko]

Miles, trust your instinct. She's your girl, you know her better than anyone. I've seen pics of very young spearos with polespears. Maybe not 7, but not that much older.
I'd say polespear, too. Have a look in the polespear section as I think it might be Aaron Crist who posted about his kids spearing (or it was Linghunt).
As a side note, she's a girl so she's already infinitely more responsible than any of us dudes;-)


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[cdavis]

Hey Miles, glad to see you posting again. Pretty soon daughter will be after some of your tuna.

Guys, you don't know Miles. He hasn't been posting for a while. If he thinks his daughter can handle it, she can.

JBL used to make a 24 inch gun that was very rugged and she should be able to load. Not sure what they make now. the polegun idea is a good one, especially if you can rig it with a trigger mech than holds the band so she doesn't have to

 

[cdavis]

Another idea, not sure this one would work. Find a very skinny, light spear and make her a Hawiann sling, sized so she could draw it. If it works and she spends the time to get accurate with it, watch out, she will be a serious threat to those tuna when she gets bigger.

 

[Darryll]

What about a short pneumatic gun? I really think that supervision and teaching kids is better - I'm a head teacher - than discouraging it. I've seen too many dangerous adults spearfishing and doing dumb sh*t so often dive alone to protect myself . Actually, there was a really young guy - 5-years old in South Africa that shot a big GT in 2016 on a boat dive...NOW, that was dangerous - I think....So Miles, your kiddo, you know your stuff, she should be good to go. Good luck - please post pics of her catch.

 

[Diving Gecko]

I personally pretty much only shoot airguns but I think as a first fish shooting device for a young kid, a polespear or a regular, short and detuned gun would be better choices.
One thing that's kinda odd, and freakish to some, is how when you load an airgun, you load against the pressure of the gun and the gun can spit the spear out at any moment during the loading process until you hook the piston into the trigger sear. That said, airguns do have an advantage in how easily you can tune the power to the muscle power of the user - just adjust the air pressure accordingly.
Also, for an airgun, Miles would have to be into that whole thing, too - as if it needs servicing or fixing, it's a different ball game than band guns. Nothing too advanced, but just something to keep in mind.

Come to think about it, a small band gun could even be rigged with double bands as Primeline Small ID can be had in 12mm and 13mm.

 

[sharkey]

Custom gun makers have been making scaled down guns for ladies & young people, since there has been custom speargun makers. The reason that there isnt so many guns made for smaller people is they are often more expevsive to make than the standard size guns, & young people dont usually control the finances. It takes a little more fiddling getting things right with two softer thinner rubbers than one & also with thinner & lighter spears. Thinning down the stock often means a couple of extra laminates of unidirectional carbon fibre to keep the gun stiff & safe, this adds labour & materials.
The two guns on the left are multiple rubber guns made for a little lady, the two on the right were for her husband. The little ones were more labour intensive & have extra laminates of carbon fibre. I do know custom gun makers who dont make small guns as part of their range simply because there is this expectation that if they are smaller they should be cheaper to make.

 

[KAYAK&SPEAR]

I have read the whole tread on this and its interesting the views on children and spearfishing as im in the same boat as Miles I have a 10 year old daughter who so keen to get out there. Me and the wife got her a 41o shotgun for Christmas just passed and for the first season of shooting she would carry it round unloaded just so she got used to it and then and only then when I was happy myself and the rest of the shoot were happy i let her load up but only when she was in a safe place and no risk to anyone else and herself. But all children are different and can see the caution from people. once again really good read and happy spearfishing to you all.

 

[Pinniped72]

The main downside from your daughters point of view that I can see in a really short gun is the ability to point it towards yourself, your legs for example. Dano's idea about stalking with a go pro is an excellent one, having said that you know your daughter better than anyone and I admire what your doing, trying to encourage your daughters love of the sea. Good for you and safe diving.

 

[KAYAK&SPEAR]

I am new myself to this sport too so have taken onboard the go pro type idea and im going to run with this this summer and see how we get on and very good point Pinniped72 with the short gun dilemma. have a great bank holiday weekend all

 

[marco15499]

All I will say is that my youngest son 9 years birthdays present was a 70 cm Rob Allen speargun. When he turned 12 he shot a WAHOO with that gun!

I changed the bands for thinner/longer ones so he could load them.

 

[KAYAK&SPEAR]

All I will say is that my youngest son 9 years birthdays present was a 70 cm Rob Allen speargun. When he turned 12 he shot a WAHOO with that gun!

I changed the bands for thinner/longer ones so he could load them.

look at that smile on his face that the reason we help and bring on our kids well done to him.