Target Practice

[Brian Hamilton]

I have just started spearfishing and have designed a 'fish like' target to help me practice my aiming underwater.

I got a variety of empty plastic soft drink bottles from 0.5l to 2l in size. Next I punched a hole through the centre of the bottom of the bottle and put a string through the hole tied to to a washer. The other end of the string is attached to the neck of the bottle by a clove hitch or similar.

I then got a can of expanding filler foam and used this to fill each bottle. I then put silver duck tape round the bottle to keep it fairly visible underwater. The attached string is then tied to a longer string which is tied to a stone or weight heavy enough to take the bottle down to the seabed.

I have not tried this setup but the theory is that even though the bottle will get punctured by the spear the air in the foam will keep the bottle bouyant and off the seabed.

Have any of you spearos tried a similar setup or other types of target? How did the targets work out for you?

Cheers.

 

[fuzz]

I make mine out of synthetic foam(not that brittle styrofoam crap). The holes aren't very noticeable after pulling the shaft through. After about 100 shots, I can just replace the target

Also:
Here's a similar thread

Cheers

 

[fuzz]

There's also a video here:

http://www.norcalfreedive.com/gallery/view_album.php?set_albumName=videos

It's the first one - "foam fish target practice in a pool" :hmm