"Spearfisherman Magnum" by Swimaster 1962

[popgun pete]

Here is an old "Spearfisherman Magnum" by Swimaster fully wrapped in black tape. Unfortunately I had to remove the tape to check out the trigger mechanism, there seemed to be yards of it and I had a job as to where to start. The tape was thick stuff with a tapered edge and was ideal for wrapping. I kept the black tape for a long time, which was very sticky even though it was old, but never got around to rewrapping the gun and eventually threw the tape out.

The gun clearly had seen action when Dinosaurs ruled the Earth.

This is a catalogue page for the gun. This gun was Swimaster's attempt at replicating Jack Prodanovich's gun after he gave them a handle to copy. Unfortunately they blew it and stuffed it up according to Jack.

 

[popgun pete]

Here the unwrapped gun lies between its predecessor and successor. Similar stylistic elements can readily be seen if you compare handle butt shapes, trigger finger guards and the sear box humps.

 

[popgun pete]

What went wrong with the "Spearfisherman Magnum" was the trigger and transverse safety pin that moves behind the trigger were put in the wrong places so that the pin actually came through the middle of the trigger! With the gun cocked to shoot the safety pushes on the side of the trigger and making an even larger hole to fix it would have cut the trigger in half.