STC Italia X Power Kit

[floatingbeatle]

Hi all,
Wondering if anyone has had much to do with the STC brand of vacuum kits. Thoughts? Tomba better? Or aim for dedicated vacuum gun? Cheers.

 

[popgun pete]

Front tied spears with bare tails seems to limit it these days compared to all the muzzles that use special cuffs that let a shaft tail stop through or the Mamba type arrangement used by LG-Sub. Actually when I think about it some more they do have one that works with a tail stop, but have heard not much about that version. You get a replacement tail and a titanium stop ring to stop the tail being hammered up and producing sharp edges.
https://www.eurodiveshop.com/us/spe...tems/x-power-2-0-kit-for-traditional-rod.html

 

[Diving Gecko]

There aren't really any dedicated vac guns... Well, that's not entirely true, of course and I know what you are saying - that some guns come equipped with a vac muzzle already. But apart from the muzzle, the internals on all these offerings are no different from a non-vac gun. So yeah, just slap on your fave vac muzzle and make pretty much any (Italian style) airgun into a vac gun. That said, I did buy a much hyped One Air years back (didn't know much, haha) and these days, I still find a Predathor Vuoto quite good value for the money (I know more now). But the truth is, the Predathor wont shoot any better than a 30 year old Sten with pretty much any after market vac muzzle on it.

Sadly, I can't help much with your STC question as I only have one of their first gen muzzles and those were a bit heavy and pricey. They have since lost weight but are still pricey and use proprietary seals.
For a shortish gun, if I didn't just go for easy - which in my book is a Vuoto muzzle - I would personally probably go with a Tomba. It is cheaper and super well made and you get something almost custom - while still using regular o-rings. The one main difference, I think is that the Tomba - in its current form - needs to be loaded out of the water but Tomi explains how it's a simple operation that just takes a few secs and I am sure it's probably easy unless the gun is long.

BTW, we went over the available off-the shelf muzzle options in this thread not so long ago (so, no Tomba there but Tomi/Marko could tell you if Marko has time to make you one these days):

What vacuum muzzle guns are available off the shelf?

I keep falling behind with this question but I was hoping someone could list any vacuumed or dry barrel guns that can be bought off the shelf....

forums.deeperblue.com

 

[popgun pete]

Salvimar, who used to be Salvi & Figli, make replacement muzzles for transforming most speargun brands into vacuum barrel guns. Before they made their own pneumatic gun they used to make machined parts for many other brands as a components supplier. In fact that gun was the old "Magnum" which they had made in Italy for Scubapro. Under their own name the gun went back into production as the "Vintair" which then proceeded to be made in a "Vuoto" model with a vacuum muzzle.

 

[floatingbeatle]

There aren't really any dedicated vac guns... Well, that's not entirely true, of course and I know what you are saying - that some guns come equipped with a vac muzzle already. But apart from the muzzle, the internals on all these offerings are no different from a non-vac gun. So yeah, just slap on your fave vac muzzle and make pretty much any (Italian style) airgun into a vac gun. That said, I did buy a much hyped One Air years back (didn't know much, haha) and these days, I still find a Predathor Vuoto quite good value for the money (I know more now). But the truth is, the Predathor wont shoot any better than a 30 year old Sten with pretty much any after market vac muzzle on it.

Sadly, I can't help much with your STC question as I only have one of their first gen muzzles and those were a bit heavy and pricey. They have since lost weight but are still pricey and use proprietary seals.
For a shortish gun, if I didn't just go for easy - which in my book is a Vuoto muzzle - I would personally probably go with a Tomba. It is cheaper and super well made and you get something almost custom - while still using regular o-rings. The one main difference, I think is that the Tomba - in its current form - needs to be loaded out of the water but Tomi explains how it's a simple operation that just takes a few secs and I am sure it's probably easy unless the gun is long.

BTW, we went over the available off-the shelf muzzle options in this thread not so long ago (so, no Tomba there but Tomi/Marko could tell you if Marko has time to make you one these days):

What vacuum muzzle guns are available off the shelf?

I keep falling behind with this question but I was hoping someone could list any vacuumed or dry barrel guns that can be bought off the shelf....

forums.deeperblue.com

Thanks Gecko. I had been researching in a lot of places, and did read about the muzzles, but could not find anything about the STC kit. I find them expensive, at least to get them to Australia, and I don’t know if I really want all the fuss surrounding them. It would be nice to have a more silent gun with 15%-20% more power, but I get enough fish with what I have already. I’ll look into the Tomba option a little bit more. Another gun option would be great though. I do like what Pelengas are doing but the minister for finance would be a little upset if I got one at the moment. I'll keep researching.