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Taimen - Russian pneumovacuum speargun

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.
I have been useing Band spearguns but want to change to pnumatic this russian one looks good and about my price range however parts and servicing might be a problem it is impressive in the video what other brands should I look at.
 
Hi, I also use to live in Russia and still hunt (caves) with old circa 1979 (that's 30 yrs!) Russian phneumatic. First time I need any service was when I made a stupid mistake and overpump the gun by factor of 2, which result in blown rear gasket. I used original spear parts and repear it on the beach. Amazing reliablility and maintenablility. BUT! It was 30 years ago and those old guns was made as a by-products on the military factories with very stringent quality control. Now it is all different. I broke the shaft of my old Russian gun and my relatives sent me new one. No comparison. Old one didn't rust for 25 years and withstand countles hits in the rocks. New one was looking rusty after one season. No big deal - I just use the sylicone lubricant on it - but you got the picture.
I carefuly revied all info about Taimen - the design as it common for Russian things is ingenuine and amazing. Poor attention to the details kills the idea though.. One example. They said on the Taimen-related forum that trigger mechanism consist of two titan parts rubbing against each other - it is big no-no in enginiring (believe me, I know that from my background). Again with very little effort one part can be replaced with staineless steel one, which would eliminate problem. Question is - I would do it if I would interested in phneumatics because for me good design outweights little flows in details. Is it the same for you? If so - go ahead and buy it. When you buy it you can actually ask for maintenance kit (the gun need some unique tools to be dissasembled) and some extra pistons, gaskets etc. With proper lubrication I'm sure you will have a blast using it. Well... after spending 5-10 hrs on improvements. If you deside to go for it and actually buy the gun I can probably assist you on getting all user-recommended upgrades information.
For me - Wong's rules and phneumatics belongs to the mud- and cave- hunting. I also start drooling about Sea Sniper guns. Almost twice more expensive then Wong's, but some of the features and the quality is totally amazing.
Let me know if you need more help.
I'll be in Mexico diving with my Wong so catch me if you can!!
Good luck everybody.
 
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I bet that Rusian pneumatics you are talking about was green in color and cost 27 roubles!
 
Fabio70. Just thought about that. You might want to go custom build pneumatic raute. It seems that those guys take pride in their work so you'll get better initial quality. I also think it might be not that big of a deal for them to ship items (especially semi-disassembled) to another country. Just a thought...
 
For those who do not know, and that included me until I looked it up, a "Taimen" is a member of the salmon family of fishes. The species name is "Hucho Taimen" and the fish is also known as the "Siberian salmon" or "Siberian taimen". The name translates as "Huchen" rather than "Taimen" if you use the on-line translators. First time that I have heard of a speargun being named after a salmon, but not surprising given that they can grow to very large sizes.
 
I lived in Russia for more than 20 years and speared there for more than 10. Some folks are so much in love with this gun in Russia that they buy several - different sizes. I hear they do make better quality guns than your average FSU maker, but I would discourage anyone living outside the areas where they offer service and repairs from buying one unless you are good at at lathe or have someone who can take measurements and manufacture spare parts. Pneumatic guns have a habit of breakind down more often than rubber band guns and they require more complicated repairs.
 
Out of curiosity I just revisited the web pages for the "Taimen" and found that there is now a parts list with photos of all the various sub-components used in the gun. Now you can see how small the internal mechanism parts really are and will understand why such a small bodied speargun floats.


http://apox.ru/taimen?start=5
 
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Great site Taimen. Love the archive pics.

Still havn`t found the guns yet

cheers
 
Just found this "Taimen" piston photo which I had saved from a Russian forum some time back, one of many threads discussing changes and improvements for the gun. The polyurethane shock absorbing bush on the titanium piston has changed shape and the single rubber piston seal has been moved, but you can see where it was before on the other piston.
 

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I have created a Word document (now replaced with Acrobat pdf file, see attached) showing the 2011 price list for the "Taimen" components with their individual photos. The information is taken from the Russian web-site, but with English names for the parts which I have created as the "auto-translation" is sometimes incomprehensible. The component listing has the following logic. Main component assemblies are listed in bold type and the parts that they are made up of are listed in turn below them. Some parts are therefore listed more than once for this reason as there are two versions of the gun in terms of the muzzles (with and without a line slide system "M") and there are two versions of the rear handle assemblies (with and without the power regulator "R").

As you can see from the photos some of the component parts are relatively small. The models available are "PV", "PVM" and "PVR", "PVRM". The "R" denotes the power regulator model (you can see the power regulator control arm on the LHS of the handle just above the trigger) and the "M" denotes the use of a line slide instead of using a front tied line attached directly behind the spear tip (the "M" models have the extra muzzle nose piece at the front end to hold onto the line slide or slider).

The air inlet valve is mounted in a separate inlet valve body that attaches to the rear body, the reduction in diameter where they both meet provides a shoulder step which the surrounding moulded plastic clamshell grip handle can key onto to prevent any fore-aft movement of the handle on the gun body. As the rear body with the power regulator is longer than the version without it that rear body is teamed with the short inlet valve body and the long inlet valve body is therefore used with the single power version. That maintains a constant length for the plastic grips handles even though they are different mouldings internally to match the gun bodies that they mount to.

I have seen forum references to a plastic version of the muzzle in black; early guns appear to have an aluminium muzzle shown in the component photos. Being reduced to its individual components gives the viewer a better appreciation of the gun's rather unique construction compared to the speargun models that we usually see in the West. Close study of the images reveals how the gun is assembled; shock absorption is undertaken by both a small muzzle damper with rubber ring in conjunction with the rubber vacuum sealing cuff and the polyurethane bush on the front of the sliding piston.
 

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Pete, have you used these guns yourself? How do they stand vs. competitors (mares/Spora/others)? I have one guy visiting me these days, he owns one of Taimen's limited edition guns. I will probably forget all the specs he shared with me, but I will post some pics. He said there are less than 100 guns made overall + some parts of the gun are made from titanium.
What I learnt from him is that there are many scientists that are working normally as military/nuclear engineers, once they get bored they start making spearguns. (Around the city where Taimen factory is originated, there are around 2000 lakes.) And from time to time, they produce something pretty cool, which cannot be mass-produced due to high production prices. But I will post some specs of his gun and you will let others know if these guns are any good.
 
No, I don't have one as they seem reluctant to sell outside Russia, but my query to them was some time ago now.
 
This web-site contains an introductory article and some of the operating manual material for the Taimen guns:
http://www.akvakirov.ru/curious/article.php?ELEMENT_ID=16756
 
Only a small image, but another perspective of the rounded lines of the rear handle and the line slide version of the muzzle.
 

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Any chance of seeing those photos which you mentioned? I assume that the limited edition "Taimen" spearguns (less than 100) were distinct from the normal production guns which must be produced in far greater quantities, although I do not know how many "Taimen" guns have been produced each year since 2000 when they commenced. The production guns have titanium pistons, and sears, according to the other correspondents here, so possibly the limited edition guns have more parts made from titanium such as the outer body tube, muzzle and rear body sections. Titanium is strong and non-corroding, it does not cause galvanic corrosion with other metals, but it is heavier than aluminium, so makes a floating after spear discharge gun less likely. Titanium is expensive stuff, hence it is best used where its properties can be used to advantage. In Russia and the Ukraine, where many spearguns are "sinkers", the weight penalty of titanium is not a problem, so some top end models are made using it. European spearguns are made to float, hence titanium is a less attractive proposition, although guns made from it always have an exotic appeal in the West.
 
Sure Pete, I didnt take these pictures back then, but I will ask that guy to take pictures himself + send me exact specs of the gun. They are friends of mine and I think it will not take long for them to answer. Check back in a day or two =]
 
After looking at the gun dismantling threads by both "Skarabey" and "Hanter" I have rearranged the photos from the "Taimen" parts list (see post #32 above) to create an assembly diagram for the "Taimen" PVRM model. The alternative PV rear end is shown in the rectangular box (no power regulator model). Not all parts are to the same scale, notably the rear handle assembly, but this should give you an idea of how the gun goes together. Hopefully the company owner will contribute if I have anything in the wrong place!
 

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