speargun accidents

[Mr. X]

...Then, he carefully put his loaded gun:naughty inside, leaning against the gunwhale, pointing upwards. He proceeded to board the boat. While sitting on the gunwhale getting his mask off etc., an octopus (even stringed) slid over the gun and squeezed the trigger!!!! The shaft hit him in the ass and got stuck in the iliac bone. ...

Ouch! rofl Jez, I hope I never underestimate an octopus!

 

[fish_spawn]

rofl i have had the fortune of shooting myself through the webbing in between my toes :head not a lot of fun at all but it didnt hurt all that bad to be honest....and now i have turned it into a piercing lol im jkin ...but this taught me the best lesson bought spearguns dont leave them loaded while exiting through heavy surf i was only just lucky :crutch

 

[Hypersquid1]

overall, are spearguns dangerous to use? i am talking if you use common sense, and always unload before exiting the water. i want to buy a gun, but after reading these stories, i am thinking about getting a new bike instead! i would think that a pneumatic gun would be somewhat safer to fire, rather than a band gun, because the band guns have loose oblects, i.e. rubbers, line, wishbones, and the top? also, the spear is exposed at the top so wouldnt that make it easier to bump a wishbone or something off?

 

[Amphibious]

speargun "accidents" are 99.999999999999999999% user error, fully preventable, and not "accidents" at all.

learn proper muzzle control and treat them like the weapon they are and injury is a non-issue.

 

[Hypersquid1]

ok, i am going to continue with my speargun fund.

 

[Mr. X]

speargun "accidents" are 99.999999999999999999% user error, fully preventable, and not "accidents" at all.

learn proper muzzle control and treat them like the weapon they are and injury is a non-issue.

Um...where did you get that statistic from Amphibious? (Same place our politicians get theirs no doubt). Of course, people do make mistakes, equipment fails & accidents do happen (at least it says so in the Elvis Costello song ).

 

[Amphibious]

Of course, people do make mistakes, equipment fails & accidents do happen (at least it says so in the Elvis Costello song ).

If someone made a mistake it is human error and fully preventable

equipment these days is very good and reliable, if it fails, chances are it is do to wear and tear or user error. so then, again, fully preventable. the user either was abusive to the equipment, used it impropperly, or failed to inspect it pre-dive.

regaurdless of ALL of that, and ALL the excuses people make. if the speargun is pointed propperly you will NEVER have an "accidental" shooting.

 

[Adrian]

I almost had an accident with a speargun, twice. Once I was diving down and saw an interesting shape a couple of meters a way in pretty murky waters, and obviously aimed trying to figure out what it was before judging it's "shootability". It turned out to be the head of a fellow diver doing an aspetto where I least expected! I checked out his bouy before diving and it was a good 30 meters away. Luckily I made sure before shooting because there would have been no way I would have missed. My friend had gone down some distance away and had just cruised under me without realizing it.

On another occasion I was using a borrowed speargun and while swimming close to my buddy the gun just went off, he'd forgotten to tell me that he'd filed the trigger mechanism to a point that you only had to touch the trigger to make it fire. Potentially a deadly mistake. These two incidents have really made me realize how easy it is for things to go wrong.

 

[cdavis]

I'm with Amphibious on this one. One way of the other, diver error is the root of almost all accidents I ever heard of. The point about muzzle control is absolutely critical. I used to think this was normal and automatic until I started teaching my kids. Its not and must be taught and retaught until it is completely unconsious and automatic. Do that right and it is pretty hard for equipment failure or anything else to cause a major problem.

Connor

 

[Silent Assassin]

First and apology to Busterlung, but I've got to post this. Spearing near to Portland Harbour 2005 I rounded a corner to see two Bass on the bottom in sand, my attention was drawn by a quick glimpse of the silver side. Yahoo dinner time. It was a surface shot in calm conditions so easy peasy at about 3metres. Relax, aim, pressure on trigger when f@@k me a head looked up at me near to my shot! Only Busterlung laying on the bottom with 2 bass on his stringer. Had I taken the shot I am sure I would have only impailed the fish to the sea bed but close or what! Poor vis, murky water, black wetsuit. Hilarious afterwards!:rcard :crutch

 

[Spaniard]

That's the main reason I string fish to my bouy and not to my belt!!! In the UK with murky waters it's an accident waitng to happen, I'm surprised it hasn't already. When I was 12 years old and fishing with c****y nemrod rubber guns (zero power and wishbones broke after 4 loadings) my cousin got shot through his hand as he swam by another of our group. The trident head had to be unscrewed from the spear and then he went to hospital with just the trident sticking out of his hand. He was lucky not to suffer any major nerve damage. Had it been a more powerful gun I'm sure it would have been worse!!!!