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Taimen - Russian pneumovacuum speargun

Latest model.
latst model.jpg
 
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Adjusted exploded diagram for new parts, only new muzzle in alloy to add which has the line slide holder built-in. Released in titanium version, but no profile part photos in alloy yet. Prototype shown below. Note carabiner now has a coil spring (part 11).
Taimen parts nos. assembly & seals 2020 X.jpg

muzzle with integral line slide holder.jpg

Titanium version below.
titanium muzzle.jpg
 
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Taimen have now announced hardened stainless steel spears (Sandvik) for their guns which come in Tahitian single flopper, Tahitian single flopper with replaceable point and threaded end versions for screw on speartips with floppers. If you hunt near rocks or a stony bottom with a light sprinkling of sand then replaceable tips are recommended, otherwise you will be grinding your tips down after a shot hits the nearest available rock when it lands.
stainless hardened spears A.jpg
 
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An updated 2021 handbook (pdf file) is now available for the "Taimen". The new rear handles, spears and removable spear tails are now shown.
 
Taimen Company have finally discontinued the fixed tip spear that came standard with their guns. This small tipped shaft with twin floppers has now been replaced with the "Щукарь" removable threaded tip to be used on M7 threaded shafts.
Щукарь removable M7 thread tip.jpg

The name of the tip is "Beetle" due no doubt to the short wings (floppers). It is much the same shape as the item it replaces. The problem with this as a fixed tip was that if you smashed the point that did for the shaft unless you cut the damaged end off and threaded it.
 
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Prepared this for another thread, but decided to add it here as well. After a shot the line side is usually stuck on the polyurethane bush so that when you reload by pushing the spear tail in the muzzle the spear tail is concentric with the nozzle of the vacuum cuff courtesy of the line slide plugging into the muzzle socket. This makes for an easier life for the vacuum cuff.
tail projection.jpg
 
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A reference with photos of latest parts.
 
Taimen have revamped their website and there is now a new tool to assist in dismantling the gun for servicing.
As the rod on the previous plastic version of the tool is no longer needed with the two part muzzle it has been replaced with a screwdriver tip.
new tool.jpg


 
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There appears to be a tradition of supplying a combination spanner for working on spearguns in the former USSR countries, but some of the special tools supplied were better than others. This practice probably stemmed from the need to replace or modify parts of early production guns that never really worked properly, or for very long, due to indifferent manufacture and poor quality seals sourced by the factory. Those days are long gone, but a culture of working on your own gun has persisted in places where any service centre may be a long distance away as Russia for example is a very big country geographically speaking.

Western manufactures have relied on their guns being relatively trouble-free or being sent off to their repair centres, hence in recent decades they have discouraged owners from working on their own guns. However with the internet the innards of most guns have been widely discussed and with them no longer being regarded as "black boxes" many owners realise that they can do any work themselves, hence I agree that tools should be available for items that require something more than a simple spanner or a screwdriver.
 
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Taimen have now developed a way to replace the polyurethane front section on their titanium piston. This video shows how it is done using a drill press to force the titanium body into the polyurethane bush while it is imprisoned by a metal sleeve which is part of the kit.

There is a kit available for the 7 mm spear firing guns and another for the 8 mm spear firing guns as these use a 10 mm and an 11 mm ID inner barrel respectively.
 
A stainless steel winding horn is now available for the Taimen gun which is basically the front line wrapping hook. This is mounted in one of the alternate holes in the muzzle for the line carabiner of which there are four holes, the carabiner usually going in the top hole once the muzzle is screwed into position. This metal winding horn is for use with the side-mounted line release lever guns which wrap the shooting line on the left hand side of the gun rather than underneath the barrel as the original guns did. Seen before on the titanium limited edition guns it is now available to be used on any model. The attached photo shows it installed in the latest alloy muzzle with the integrated line slide holder replacing the previous screw-in version. The angled post screws into the base after the latter is pushed into position in the alloy muzzle and is easy to remove if you are worried about corrosion.
Taimen winding horn.jpg

Taimen muzzle with winding horn.jpg
 
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Tried to buy the new servicing tool and titanium line slides, but Putin's war has stopped all commerce with payment systems putting on the brakes. Hopefully his war will end when he runs out of explanations and his people work things out for themselves, not just accepting everything on his say so.
 
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I may have mentioned this earlier, but I will put it here seeing as we have been looking at the front end of the gun. The Taimen was designed to be disassembled from the rear end for two reasons. The nose cone which is also the muzzle is very tight in the necked down front end of the tank and has two "O" rings on it, so unwinding it is very difficult, in fact to get it out you need to knock it out from the back using a suitable rod big enough to cover the back end of the nose cone when the rest of the gun has already been removed. The second reason is more compelling , if you undo the inner barrel from the front end of the muzzle out of the annular nut the screw threads on the front of the inner barrel when backing out may chew up the fat "O" ring and ruin it. This "O" ring is not something that you can source anywhere, you need the Taimen seal kit.

Some time back I did a design study to get rid of the fat "O" ring by eliminating the annular nut, but there are so many guns using it that this "O" ring would still require to be made. It is fat because it seals on two diameters, basically sealing the two screw threads on the annular nut, the inner and the outer screw threads.
Taimen muzzle gun dismantling.jpg

The annular nut was required on the original one-piece muzzle because everything in that muzzle inserted from the rear end, which meant no joins to seal looking in from the outside of the gun. This was a very neat and extremely compact design, but to change the vacuum cuff the whole gun had to be taken apart! The annular nut still remains as a legacy design element, which is why the Taimen is a unique construction, with nothing else like it, thanks to the genius of Mikhail Kuznetsov, founder of the company.
misha_samara_big.jpg
 
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This was the redesign to get rid of the annular nut and the fat "O" ring. The shock absorber is still the reversed unit that we see in the Taimen, it sits inside the end of the inner barrel tube. The new front hub design is retained. Complex and very accurate machining, a hallmark of the Taimen, is still required.
Taimen muzzle thread strength.jpg
 
Waiting for Vladimir Putin to give up and allow commerce with Russia to recommence once he is out of the picture. Right now he is making war on Russia and Ukraine by attacking one and oppressing the other. And to think he used to be a spearfisherman! There are good products in Russia and Ukraine, but his military adventures have put the stoppers on it all.
 
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