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Some questions for Aquiles

Thread Status: Hello , There was no answer in this thread for more than 60 days.
It can take a long time to get an up-to-date response or contact with relevant users.

rofl
rofl
rofl

I may give a try it if these Milleniums doesn't work.
I hope its work.Boorties are bit expensive here.

Thanks Bill.This can save my dollars
 
I started off with the JBL guns. I think that every spearo has one. I think of them as workhorses too. I just don't like the way that the JBL's shoot. I got used to the fancy euros and the fancy riffes. I like the softness of the trigger on the riffe. All of the other trigger mechs just seem vulger after that one. I also got used to the euros doing some commercial fishing over the summer. They are quick to reload and cheaper to buy. The best thing that I like about the riffes though is that quiet wood will sneak up on you just like sven on a keyboard. The most important thing is that you know your gun and its capabilities. All guns are capable of killing a fish, its just a matter if you know how to use the damn thing or not.:t
 
Hi Don,

Like Aquiles said, I started halfway with JBL, first ones were pneumatics ( 5 of them ). All died of over pressurization and a few of barrel corossion. I could have rebuilt them but the dealers stop selling them, so no parts.

My JBL were the 140cm aluminum non XHD. All of my friends use JBL. We have like 20 of them, from Woody to XHD, even the 38. Whatever JBL has to offer, we try them all. We are rough users, if in a long trip, the guns don't get washed for at least 3 days. Many of use have owned more than 1 JBL cause they corrode to death. We go out to sea almost every week those days.

We bought JBL because it was the supposedly most powerful gun available in my city. Riffe was not yet available, AB Miller came in as personal import to a few people. Scubapro used to have the black plastic stock and pneumatics.

My JBL Magnum aluminum 140cm+- comes with 1/2" x 3 bands and 8mm shaft with Tri-Cut detachable. The brochure stated 21 feet shooting range or something and it cost US$175. I also have the JBL reel and all sort of JBL spear tips. The 21 feet shooting range is the clown I talked about, 12 feet is good enough.

First trouble we had was the slide ring which will get damaged very fast and jam on the shaft, thus reloading is impossible. Some angry friends of mine just jam it up the muzzle and force in the shaft, after all the fish were plenty. Some shaft jam up so bad, we need small hammer to release it. Powerband installation is another tough affair on those winged aluminum muzzle, since we are not familiar with the guns, we try to widen the gap with screwdriver, thus we snapped the wings at the muzzle. This happened too often, yep we were stupid but the designer is not any smarter too. The rubbers last with us no longer than 4 months at our frequency of use. At US$12.00 a piece localy, US$36 x 3 times a year, buy you 60% of a new gun. Then another shop offer a new stronger rubber ( I don't know what brand ), we install it and found out that the trigger could not handle it. The trigger pull came to such a level that Sven put it as "U need a hammer to push the trigger", same case with us. Adding more powerful rubber not only cause trigger problem, the slide ring get damaged even faster.

We were enjoying the JBL still and shafts started to break at the shaft threaded end, too often. Spearhead break too at where u have the small rubber insert pushing the floppers open. We accept this as "wear and tear" of fighting big fish. Later the water tight plugs at the barrel started to leak and the speargun will sink and collect water inside, extra corossion. We then started buying new barrels cause corrosion also occurs where the screw holes are, front and rear part. We also bought a few trigger sears cause our galled/worn from stronger rubbers. The pistol grip since made of cast aluminum, sometime they won't be able to be dismantled for cleaning cause the oxidation inside which produced white powder, felt and act like super glue...as I said we abused it badly.

Then the dealer introduced the JBL XHD series with tungsten carbide insert. Trigger is OK and can take better rubbers but the muzzle is plastic. The outer or third band will fly off sometime during a shot, we use nylon tie wrap to prevent this. Once in a while we break the muzzle, just from shooting. Anyone handling a JBL long enough, should know that the rubber butt end need to be glued, or else it will be lost, what an inconsiderate design.

Then come the Woody, nicest gun of all the JBL. The slide ring jamming up is a fact that we must live with. Some of owners weld a nice rounded stop tab on the shaft, instead of the two small dot for stopping the slide ring but on 3/8 shaft it is not good cause the shaft gets a little elevated on the plastic track by the extra diameter of the weld. That plastic track will also come off after some years cause it is being only glued to the aluminum barrel and when the corossion set in, the glue bonding failed.
There is nothing that we never change on our JBL, even the screws and the female insert need to be replaced after sometime cause they jammed up and we damaged the "+" screw heads.
So Woody get to be our favourite and it has the old dark brown pistol grip. Later after a year or two of using it, we found one flaw, and a serious one. Whatever the plastic material they use was bad, where the trigger pin rest, near the safety flip switch, will fail. First u see small white dot colouration on the plastic. This in an indication of plastic on the way to breaking apart. Take a small screwdriver and push that small "dimple", the plastic will fall off and u can see the trigger pin. If when a gun is loaded and that plastic part of the pistol grip failed, it might self fire. U may have a good trigger sear but the pin is what hold it in place. This is why JBL now uses a new black pistol grip for the Woody, must be improved material. All of ours with brown colour pistol grip had this problem, not one gun, we have about 8 units.

Smaller JBL last longer cause less power, less impact on the slide ring and so on.

Now let's do the math. Ignore US local prices, I don't live in the US, so the prices is up to the local dealer here.

One year of USE of our JBL guns :

Aluminum Magnum = US$175.00
1 year supply of rubber = US$ 108.00 ( 3pcs x 4 months )
3 Slide rings a year = US$ 36.00 ( 3 pcs x US$12.00 )

3 years of owning my JBL, I have spent more than the price of the gun itself + all the unhappy times the slide ring jamming up when they are so many fishes. I have not included all the broken shafts at the machined thread, broken speartips, muzzle, new trigger sear sets and so on. Who say cheaper is cheap.

Compare to my US$ 600+- Riffe 124cm teak Standard #2 fuly modified. I only buy 4 bands a year and it is because I hate the look of it, I never snap any rubber yet if service life is only a year. US$56.00 a year is my expenditure. I can shoot a fish with this short Riffe easier than my friends biggest and baddest XHD450s, power for power I don't loose, in fact since mine is 4 banded, I out range those 450s. As for my own JBL, not worth comparing to my #2 Riffe. Tracking fish, I am ahead. Ice Pick spearhead on my Riffe never get replaced till today and it holds fish like I never seen before ( limited experience..sorry ). I harvested more fish, much more fish with my #2 Riffe. I never get slide ring problem, Riffe doesn't have any. My shaft got bent once but no breakage on the machined threaded end. I have no fear of trigger jamming up. I don't have any corrossion problem.

If I keep using my JBL for 3-4 years, I will get the same #2 Riffe fuly modified like mine, money for money.

The only Riffe I dislike was the Metal Tech cause it was aluminum, my experience with aluminum JBLs scared me. But when my friend bought an MT-3, I took a close look and that's when I decided to get my MT Zero, I calculated it will last hell of a long time.

The XHD series of JBL has no difference in quality over their non XHD, except the color of the barrel being blue and tungsten carbide insert in the trigger. Oh yeah the muzzle is plastic..why...I don't know.

You see, I am a bit of an engineering guy. When I see quality machining parts, I can tell the difference. If u ever ripped open a Riffe trigger, u will know what I mean.

A friend of mine who owns a Steve Alexander told me this :
"Take a look and use an Alexander for sometime ( me not yet ), u will find the Riffe is almost like a toy, exactly the same "toy" like impression of a JBL when u first swap ur JBL for a Riffe."
He was referring to his Riffe Blue Water against his Alexander Tuna gun.

Do I believe him ? I have to...... he owns and have tried everything RAs, XHDs, Omers, Riffe-s and he is a very qualified freediver spearo, he is not biased, he just told me how he sum up a product.

Atached is how my JBL looked like. That broken wing on the muzzle is a second muzzle. This one I did not use any screw driver to pry open, just over forceful insert of powerband. See the screw holes on the barrel, it gets bigger. See the cracking on the barrel end, this is the corossion.

I don't bad mouth a product unless it is poor quality, I don't gain anything. Also ,I can only say that a JBL is poor engineering only after I got a Riffe, there is a reference to compare with. If I later buy an Alexander........... Riffe a toy ? ......who knows..... he he he.
If in a place there is only Swatch as a common and best watches there are, when you buy a TAG Heaur......... how will u find that Swatch ? If later u swap for an all gold Rolex, how would u find that TAG ?
 
Iya,
You made a lot of claims and supported all of them with experience, picture, etc.. I wish you could be my lawyer right now in my suit against my ex-wife. We would win for sure!

I’m glad I bought the Riffe. The ex was a big mistake. At least I got the speargun right!
Don
 
Reactions: tuomo
If we win the suit, u buying me an Alexander ??
U are a second person to want me be ur lawyer, RigDiver was first....wha ha ha.

One thing about USA, is that sueing one another seems like a past time hobby...

A mistake is only a mistake if u keep living with it. Now that u have corrected it, enjoy the new company. Second marriage is what u and I have in common, but not the sueing part.

I had surprise catch with my MT Zero yesterday, will post when the film get used up. This midget lived up to my expectation.



For those with JBL Woody Magnum, this is the new pistol grip ( and all intrenal mech ) you should get or swap for, if urs failed like mine ( my group ). I have yet to wait to see how long this pistol grip will last compared to the old brown color one. Ever since the owner got that new pistol grip, he also got a #2 Riffe like mine, so he stopped using his Woody, thus the pistol grip is still very new. See the shiny screws. I am like a gunsmith for my group, so all un used guns get to be kept in my house.

If u notice the Mahagony wood being very dark color unlike the regular yellow wood Woody, this is tripple coated with West System Epoxy and 2 coats of 2 part Polyurathane, an experiment I did years ago. Result, so-so.

The kind of messy stuff on the rear stock close to the pistol grip was from a fiberglass job, an emergency repair I did. The owner loaded the gun so quickly, he broke the pistol grip rear end where the rear stock is inserted into the pistol grip, finaly the trigger pin pop out.......so new grip then. Without that rear wood stock and butt, that is one painful gun to load...ouch !!

I guess my group used the guns so often we find flaws faster than many other casual users. This gun is about 3 years old, 2 years in the gunting ground and been a year with me collecting dust. The owner had a JBL Aluminum just like mine, it too corroded away in just 3 years. We always hunt together, so we sort of ruined things about the same time.
 
Iya,

You didn't post anything lately buddy.Where have you been?
Another Bluewater Hunting trip?I am really wondering about ur latest MT0's prey.Any hint before the pic?
 
Great stuff Iya ...
If I ever come visit I would like you to take my gun for a try- out and do a similar write- up .
Guess I'll have to wash it first ...
 
He he he, anytime man. U load I shoot OK.... .
Trust me, next year I will get an RA or maybe Rabitech if that is a beefed up unit of the RA.

Just check my book, ur friend Mr Uyss was a real lucky guy, the spearshaft entered the marlin only 8cm and the flopper did not even disengaged......is he related to 007 or is there a sniper school in SA ???
 
Iya , do you know the story behind that marlin ?
Jimmy is a Cape spearo and it was his first visit to Sodwana . At reception there are some casts of truly humonguous marlin and he asked one of his (local) mates where to hit such a brute fish .
He was told to go for a brain shot and shown exactly where .
The next day they took a boat up to Nine mile reef , but since they were not sure where the northern tip was , Jimmy offered to hop in and scout around .
As he returned to the surface he called his mates over to come help 'cause he has a monster marlin to get onboard .
Needless to say they all thought it was a good joke , but...
I can't swear this is what actually happened , but it makes for a good story anyhow
 
hi Guys

hi

Abri ive read that story what a monster fish. Went spearing yesterday got a couple of good trout and a 73lb Hump headed maori wrasse, I don't know if you guys know what these fish are but here they are regarded in the top 5 best eating fish. they are extremely prized and elusive. I shot him with my RA 110 with a single 20mm, I was extremely happy cos this fish had scales of 8cm diameter and thick like a tank. Only bad thing is it totally wrecked my spear. Going out to the reef tommorow on a snorkel charter boat for work experience.


cheers
 
Ivan,

I used to take those too but not anymore, it is protected now and they are quite rare where I live, so I stop shooting them. They are prime target ( 1-2 kg size ) for Hong Kong sea food market. My corals been damaged by commercial fisherman trying to catch this elusive fish which retails up to US$100 a kg in a HK sea food restaurant.

The biggest we had was about 40kg. I was using my Scubapro 85 cm pneumatic. Penetration never more than 7 cm and the shaft always break at the threaded end or only manage to get the scale as souvernier. We have no guns those days that can penetrate the fish entirely. There was only one gun, I think the brand was Canon or something and it uses 7mm shaft and a hawaiian flopper. All of ours are 8mm with screw on spearhead, so penetration is poor. These fish at 20kg and above will wreck all kind of shafts.

The only way I ever landed a big one one on my own was to shoot the eye, that's the only part I can get penetration from my pneu. The rest we need more than I gun ( all small those days ) to
land a big one.

It is extremely delicous and the bigger ones have lots of oil layer....super yummy.

Poor thing this fish is now quite rare where I live. In many locations they are scuba divers pet fish, very friendly....not in my area.
 
Hey guys, thanks for all the replies. I think that I am going to go with a euro gun for right now and get a Riffe or a hybrid down the road. Murat, are you sure that the metal tech 4 is the right gun for you? I have played with that gun while in the store and let me tell you it is an absolute MONSTER! The one I was playing with had a 3/8" shaft and the gun felt heavy as hell. I couldn't imagine needing anything that large here in Florida so that one is off my list. I also played with the C3X at Austin's and it is a lot lighter in weight and would probably track a whole lot better than the metal tech. I am not trying to change your mind or anything just telling you what I noticed. I shot a nice mangrove snapper on saturday with the Sporasub euro. The gun now shoots awesome after changing over to the lighter line and the Riffe flopper. I shot the gun five times and hit three fish right where I wanted to, I missed the other two shots because we had a chop from hell here in Miami and I was on the surface trying to shoot a tiny rainbow runner that I wanted to use for chum but the chop was tossing me around all over, I missed it twice but hit it later on. Thanks again.
 
If you think its heavy (MT 4) with the 3/8 shaft...add the aluminum muzzle!!!!
 
Anyway i will wait until develop my freediving skill and observe what i need for which preys.

BTW i am starting my static apnea training soon.Target is 6 min.I will keep you guys inform about it.

Don't forget!!! You can not expect all the work to do from high dollars guns and fins.You must improve yourself also for your own secure.
 
hey Iya

hi

IYA in my country the Maori Wrasse is going to be protected from next year so this will probably be my last one, I shot mine just in front of the eye. In the coral sea some guys have shot them at 73kg plus imagine what that would do to your spear.

Murat good luck with the static training I tried it not long ago but got bored within a week so I give up.

cheers
 
GS,

Good 2 hear u gun doing OK now. So it was the shaft and the shooting line ? Gee, that means ur gun now cost extra money just to make it shoot normal. How come Sporasub never do testing or what. Anyway enjoy it......


Ivan,
How's the deep wreck u r trying to dive...any luck ? Good thing u not shooting those Maori anymore, they are kind of sweet sometime right ? At least u and I know how delicous they are... Ur dive spot sounds like heaven to me........lucky you.
 
Iya, it didn't cost much to get the gun to shoot good. All that I did was buy some soft mono which cost me $15 and cut off the sporasub flopper with the upward bend and replaced it with Riffe flopper for $4.50. That is a total of about $20 and I don't think it is really that much to get the gun to shoot like it now does.
 
i don't think i've ever had a gun that i didn't have to modify in order to get it to shoot correctly.

c'est la vie, no?

anderson
 
hi

Iya I guess those Wrasse are beautiful, anyways with that wreck lately we've had trouble locating it as the water vis along the coast where the wreck is is shocking lately less than 1m. However we have been looking on depth sounder for it usually we find a bit of a patch in 60ft and over we looking for it, kind of scary diving to 60ft in 3ft vis. However I think both my mate and myself's apnea ability is improving fast and we will have a shot at the deeper wreck like you said in the clearer water. Any yes where I have been diving lately on the contintnental shelf where the reef drops invert from 10ft down to the abyss is fish heaven although no dog tooth tuna.

cheers
 
GS,
Ooops, I forgot that u can actualy buy a flopper only from Riffe. Did you install it correctly, I mean the resistance opening requirement. This make a difference. I never install my own flopper, I don't know how to flatten the pin nicely like the factory.
Have Fun........


Ivan,

I think that kind of drop off may produce almost anything if the timing is right, just look for the productive one. Sometime I realized that it is better to have a single spot like a 100 meter big rock than a strecth of long abyss like that, we don't know where to start the hunt. Good Luck.
 
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