Taimen - Russian pneumovacuum speargun

popgun pete · Apr 24, 2013

tromic said:
Pete, what is the possible angle of tilt of the slider (alone, without shaft) in muzzle? Or to ask it other way. What is the ID of boring in muzzle for the slider, and what is the OD of the slider, and its lenght? How deep it get into the muzzle?

The slider locks into the front of the muzzle via an "O" ring inside that cylindrical fitting on the front end. There is a small annular recess on the tail end of the slider that catches on the "O" ring which you can see in the muzzle photo, inside that fitting. That stops the shaft tilting, you set the slider into position, then you muzzle load the shaft. During the shot the spear tail knocks the slider free of the "O" ring's grip. The "O" ring is part no. 4 on the "Taimen" parts list (refer post # 32), the muzzle nose piece is part no. 3. On my parts diagrams (refer post # 40 and # 42) the "O" ring is shown behind the nose piece, but it actually fits inside it. Note that there are two sizes for this "O" ring to suit the different sliders for 7 mm and 8 mm diameter shafts.

tromic · Apr 25, 2013

That solution with the O-ring inside the muzzle tip to accept the slider is usefull. It prevents the slider to leave the muzzle before it is hit by the shaft tail so the shaft is in center position all the time.
I have similar functionality in Tomba kit with O-ring on the shaft. In my case O-ring is held in place by vacuum.

popgun pete · Apr 26, 2013

The "Taimen" pneumo-vacuum system allows you to muzzle load the spear in other than a single continuous inwards motion, the spear shaft can come forwards in the gun without breaking the vacuum seal as that rubber seal is completely imprisoned in the muzzle. The line slide, or slider, acts as a muzzle guide so that the shaft tail enters this rubber seal in the correct alignment with respect to both it and the axis of the inner barrel and maintains that shaft alignment during the full loading stroke. According to the instructions this is how you load the gun.

"Insert the harpoon in the gun, then lock the line slide in the holder. Wrap line on line release and rotating front ring. If necessary, rotate the ring until the slack is reduced. Place the hand loader on the tip of the harpoon and then push on the harpoon so that it goes down the barrel of the gun until it locks." (NB. the front line wrap hook is mounted on a ring or collar that can revolve around the muzzle).

Of course you still have to push the spear shaft with it initially lined up to be parallel to the inner barrel. The spear shaft has to be maintained in good condition. Here is what the instructions say.

"After each use, rinse everything thoroughly with fresh water, especially the harpoon and the areas of the gun around the barrel and power regulator lever. Wipe the harpoon dry, preferably with an oily rag. Ensure that sand is not left on the harpoon and also keep the barrel clear of any sand particles, which may damage the vacuum cuff and scratch the inner barrel."

tromic · Apr 26, 2013

popgun pete said:
The "Taimen" pneumo-vacuum system allows you to muzzle load the spear in other than a single continuous inwards motion, the spear shaft can come forwards in the gun without breaking the vacuum seal as that rubber seal is completely imprisoned in the muzzle. The line slide, or slider, acts as a muzzle guide so that the shaft tail enters this rubber seal in the correct alignment with respect to both it and the axis of the inner barrel and maintains that shaft alignment during the full loading stroke. According to the instructions this is how you load the gun.

"Insert the harpoon in the gun, then lock the line slide in the holder. Wrap line on line release and rotating front ring. If necessary, rotate the ring until the slack is reduced. Place the hand loader on the tip of the harpoon and then push on the harpoon so that it goes down the barrel of the gun until it locks." (NB. the front line wrap hook is mounted on a ring or collar that can revolve around the muzzle).

Of course you still have to push the spear shaft with it initially lined up to be parallel to the inner barrel. The spear shaft has to be maintained in good condition. Here is what the instructions say.

"After each use, rinse everything thoroughly with fresh water, especially the harpoon and the areas of the gun around the barrel and power regulator lever. Wipe the harpoon dry, preferably with an oily rag. Ensure that sand is not left on the harpoon and also keep the barrel clear of any sand particles, which may damage the vacuum cuff and scratch the inner barrel."

Rotating the ring is an interesting feature to reduce the slack!

popgun pete · Apr 27, 2013

The various spear tips available, the metal reinforced hand loader and the spear tail and slider are shown here. Note the annular groove mentioned earlier which can be seen here on the rear of the slider, that groove keys into the "O" ring in the muzzle's nose-piece fitting.

tromic · Apr 27, 2013

popgun pete said:
The various spear tips available, the metal reinforced hand loader and the spear tail and slider are shown here. Note the annular groove mentioned earlier which can be seen here on the rear of the slider, that groove keys into the "O" ring in the muzzle's nose-piece fitting.

Nice, Pete!

popgun pete · Apr 27, 2013

tromic said:
Nice, Pete!

Yes, everything is nicely made. The standard shaft supplied with each "Taimen" speargun has an integral speartip (central image). It has two short floppers and a tapered shank section where the floppers are attached behind the round headed tip which has four hollow ground grooves cut into it and is very sharp! All the spear shafts are equipped with black plastic caps at each end which are held in place by winding the shooting line around the slots molded in the outer ends of the caps for packing and transport purposes.

The alternative threaded end (M7) spear shafts use either the "Taimen" (RHS image) or the "Marlin" (LHS image) screw-on speartips. The "Taimen" tip and the "Marlin" tip are very similar in head shape (four-sided elongated pyramids), but the "Marlin" tip has notches cut into its four leading edges with small notches on one set of opposing edges and larger notches on the other set of opposing edges. The instructions state that this "Marlin" tip rotates during flight, which is an interesting concept, although I would think that to cause the shaft to spin some energy would have to be used to do it. The "Marlin" tip is said to have increased piercing ability, but that may be due to the scalloped cutters created by the larger set of edge notches. These removable speartips carry longer floppers than the ones used on the integral speartip, but they all have tapered shanks to allow their floppers to sit closer in when folded flat against the body of the speartip.

popgun pete · May 5, 2013

There is now a "Taimen" PVM1200 speargun, although the handbook lists the PVM1000 as the longest model. Interestingly the PVM1000 is actually 1050 mm in length, rather than the nominal "1000", so its piston stroke (working course of the piston) is 825 mm. If the PVM1200 is similar then it may have a piston stroke of 1025 mm instead of 975 mm. Usually if you subtract 225 from the model size of a "Taimen" gun then you have the piston stroke. My PVMR600 has a piston stroke of (600 - 225) = 375 mm. That is comparable to the "Cyrano 550" (actually a 540!) which has a piston stroke of 365 mm. In fact I bought the "Taimen" to replace the "Cyrano" because the former floats and the latter does not.

Some videos here on the PVM1200.
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popgun pete · May 14, 2013

I received a complimentary underwater hunting DVD with my "Taimen" speargun purchase. The DVD would not play at first, but eventually I found out how to view it. The video is a "Your Holiday" (as in recreational activity) presentation. Underwater action is shown at a number of river and lake locations, both during warm weather and in the presence of ice and snow. Divers crawling out on the ice like seals and then being precipitated into the water as the ice at the edge breaks is something that I have seen before. Full wetsuits and plenty of lead on your weight belt is no doubt essential. Underwater visibility tended to be foggy and fish were located zipping through stands of thin stems rising to the surface from the underwater foliage such as grasses, water lilies and reeds, or hiding under the logs and broken branches of sunken trees. It is pretty clear that a long speargun would soon tangle up amongst this stuff and a narrow barrel is handy for poking down through a criss-cross intersection of branches to take a shot at a fish that is seeking refuge underneath while thinking that it is out of sight. The fish soon finds out that this is not the case! Most shots seemed to be quick reflex shots taken at close range, but although some very large Carp were dragged out there was no underwater footage of them being shot. The hunters had certainly bumped them off with their "Taimen" guns, but we never saw it on the video, only the hunters crawling ashore weighed down by a belt crammed with round sucker mouthed fish that would each easily cover the long blade of a freediving fin. All divers were equipped with such fins and there were a lot of European brand wetsuits being worn.

Most of the spearguns shown were "Taimen" guns, although I did see one longer European type pneumatic in the "Sten" style, but I could not recognize it. However on using the pause button to look more closely at a "Taimen" PV500 gun as it was weaved through the stems I noticed that it bore the name "Scorpion", so the "Taimen" was at one time called by that name. Subsequently checking up on a previous reference the "Scorpion" dates from 1992 and became the "Taimen" in 2000. Over the following years the surface finish detail on the rear handle has changed, as has the colour of barrels (at one time green) and muzzles (black). So the gun as a type has been around for a long time with small incremental improvements being made on a continual basis.

popgun pete · May 20, 2013

popgun pete said:
However on using the pause button to look more closely at a "Taimen" PV500 gun as it was weaved through the stems I noticed that it bore the name "Scorpion", so the "Taimen" was at one time called by that name.

Here is single frame captured from video showing "Scorpion" name on gun.

tromic · May 20, 2013

popgun pete said:
Here is single frame captured from video showing "Scorpion" name on gun.

Still another pneumatic gun - Skorpion:
[ame="http://youtu.be/z13Y-Dzt6G0"]1° TIRO SKORPION 96 STC 19 BAR - YouTube[/ame]

popgun pete · May 21, 2013

Omer produced their "Skorpion" pneumatic around about the time the "Taimen" changed from the name "Scorpion", but I don't know if there was a causal connection. The "Scorpion" (Taimen) did not sell in Europe, but maybe the Italian "Skorpion" sold in Russia as Hanter shows one being examined on his web-site http://fishgun.spb.ru/. Interestingly the "S" and "K" in "Skorpion" were stylized to represent the tail and pincers respectively of a scorpion insect in Omer's gun logo, while the "C" in "Scorpion" is stylized as a curved over scorpion's tail on the Russian (Urals) gun.

The Omer "Skorpion" was a pneumatic gun with a long tapered nose conical tank and small front bulkhead, the rear handle was the same design as the then Omer "Tempest". The "Skorpion" looked different, much as the "Cyrano" before it looked different, but unlike the latter does not appear to have been a popular gun as Omer eventually dropped the "Skorpion" from their range.

tromic · May 24, 2013

popgun pete said:
The various spear tips available, the metal reinforced hand loader and the spear tail and slider are shown here. Note the annular groove mentioned earlier which can be seen here on the rear of the slider, that groove keys into the "O" ring in the muzzle's nose-piece fitting.

Pete, how does look the shaft tail without polyurethane part? Is there a screw? Have you spare polyurethane parts?

popgun pete · May 25, 2013

tromic said:
Pete, how does look the shaft tail without polyurethane part? Is there a screw? Have you spare polyurethane parts?

I have not tried to remove it, but I do not think that the tail screws off. I was also wondering if the polyurethane bush could be replaced as the spear may be OK and only the bush deteriorated after a long period of use. I guess the best way to find out is to ask the company.

The Taimen Company now have their own website; www.taimengun.ru. If you click on the "more information" button on the lower section of the home page then you can download the English translation of the gun's user manual from the web-site. The Russian version is also available, both are pdf files which incorporate colour photos.

The web-site also shows new photos of the "Taimen" gun in a slide show at the top of the home web-page.

tromic · May 25, 2013

It is possible that the shaft is in one piece, without screw on the end. OD seems to be same at the end as OD of the shaft.

popgun pete · Jun 5, 2013

tromic said:
It is possible that the shaft is in one piece, without screw on the end. OD seems to be same at the end as OD of the shaft.

Yes, I think it is one-piece and the tail is turned down slightly on either side of the bush. The diameter of the small pin at the extreme rear is 4 mm.

The web-site is best viewed with Chrome, I had problems with IE10. The user manual downloads from here: http://taimengun.ru/support/manual

tromic · Jun 5, 2013

popgun pete said:
Yes, I think it is one-piece and the tail is turned down slightly on either side of the bush. The diameter of the small pin at the extreme rear is 4 mm.

The web-site is best viewed with Chrome, I had problems with IE10. The user manual downloads from here: http://taimengun.ru/support/manual

Thanks Pete!

By the way I found this:

Доброго времени суток! С разрешения Томислава - хорватского охотника и конструктора, адаптировали к Тайменю новый вариант бегунка гарпуна с соответственно новым видом привязки линя. На фото:

Good day! With the permission of Tomislav - Croatian hunter and designer, adapted to the new version of the taimen runner with a harpoon, respectively, a new type of binding line. In the photo:

This was like an early version of Tomba plastic slider.

popgun pete · Jun 8, 2013

Updated parts diagram; numbers have changed as 10 items were deleted with the front tied spear version of the gun no longer being manufactured. However an adaptor (part #78) screws in to replace the line slide holder (part #3) so that the gun can shoot front tied spears.

tromic · Jun 8, 2013

I cannot recall that I saw a shaft on these diagrams. I am interested in polyurethane part on the shaft tail end, and the shaft tail end itself without polyurethane part.

popgun pete · Jun 9, 2013

tromic said:
I cannot recall that I saw a shaft on these diagrams. I am interested in polyurethane part on the shaft tail end, and the shaft tail end itself without polyurethane part.

There are no diagrams for the shafts, but I noted on one of the forums that a user mentioned replacing the polyurethane bush three times, not necessarily on the same shaft. Somewhere there may be a photo of a shaft with the bush removed, but I have not found one yet. To remove the bush it would probably need to be sliced open from end to end, but I will not be doing that on a new shaft!

There is a FAQ page here: http://apox.ru/forum/topic/2826-faq-po-ruzhjam-taimen/

Some discussions on the polyurethane bush are dealt with, but no photos that I can see. The shaft screw threads are M7x1 for the 8 mm diameter shafts and M6x1 for the 7 mm diameter shafts (well that is what the FAQ web-page says, but my 7 mm diameter "Taimen" shafts have M7x1 screw threads and that is also the size of the screw-on speartips supplied as I tried them on my "Cyrano" shafts).

Taimen - Russian pneumovacuum speargun

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