Fair enough Mark but from what I read of what Fondueset posted he has used a variety of guns over a long period of time. I thought that with this in mind he might have recognised a bit of what he liked from the various guns.
Hi Ed, I didn't really understand what you're saying here. Let’s cut to the chase for a second and step out of this obvious “difference of opinion” between the speargun rep. and the do it yourselfer trying to give advice to Fondue. This thread is called “Technosport 6.75mm...” and from talking about shafts, Fondue asked the difference between two Omer guns and that’s how we got onto guns. He asked me to describe differences between two Omer guns. You come out of left field with your recommendations to build your own…There’s a Forum within the Hunting section called “Do It Yourself & Homemade”. I assume he would be in that particular forum asking you questions if that’s what he wanted to know. I’m not jumping into the section trying to tell every person that likes to work with wood and who are spending seeking advice on making guns, ...ehh quit wasting your time and spend more time diving and just buy a stock Omer gun made by a company’s whose job and history is in producing spear guns!
A little off the subject, sort of like a math professor barging in on a physics class calling all the students to his attention telling them just to apply mathematical formulas to all their physics problems before wasting their time studying physics! I think you get the point.
Back to the issue: It seems he's had some limited experience using a few guns in freshwater and I don't think he would consider himself a seasoned veteran of the sport of spearfishing from what I gathered. I recommended a standard 90cm aluminum gun, a perfect intro into modern day band gun performance at an entry level price. It’s obvious time is tight and he has a busy schedule, even more reason to spend less time tinkering and more time in the water! And that was my opinion and that's what he asked for.
Maybe on the other hand, you’ve been spearfishing for 20+ years, and shot hundreds maybe thousands of fish like me and used dozens of stock guns, before you decided you were qualified enough to build your own speargun. And if that’s the case you probably realized after building your twentieth gun or after 5 years of making them, that, your first two guns sucked in comparison to your latest creation and master pieces.
So £70 for a wooden gun (totally wooden - none of this plastic handle nonsense - just joking Mark - I'm sure there is a good commercial reason for the plastic handles on a $700 gun...- or is the 130cm cheaper than that ? Anyway somewhere around that level).
There’s something you need to understand about speargun production and manufacturing. First off, why do Riffe, Wong, Rob Allen, Rabitech, and Omer use plastic handles? And why do smaller artisan gun makers use wood handles?
The answer is logical, the former has invested the time and money necessary to produce a production handle from modern thermo plastics and mold production. It’s like the jumping stone from hunting and gathering ways of life to the beginning of agriculture…a huge change in effort and technology to make things better and easier. The later makes do with what he has, wood and basic tools, so just like you’re doing carves a handle out of wood. A “plastic handle”, even parts of the space shuttle today are made of some “plastic” parts, are thermo plastics, fiberglass reinforce nylon, high impact nylon, polycarbonate, ABS… stuff that is ten times better suited to wear and tear than wood. It is much cheaper for those brands you mentioned to do things this way.
“Basically I am a perfectionist too but I won't let that stop me making (or trying to make one) a speargun from wood.”
I looked at the pictures of your gun and they didn’t border on perfection I hate to say it. I can see ten things that are wrong with it right off the start and I don’t even do any wood-working. Take it from a professional; you have a long ways to go my friend. Constructive criticism.
I never made it a myth that building a very good home made wooden gun was nearly impossible, in fact most experienced spearfisherman, at one point or another have built their own guns. There are some very nice hand made spearguns I’ve seen on this forum, Gilert G for one made a nice looking gun, and that seemed well thought out and every once in a while I see another one that impresses me.
A year or two ago I sent pictures and descriptions of a 130cm Teak gun barrel that was build by a very good wood artisan for me as a blue water gun 8 years ago. It was the first prototype and idea behind what later became the production CNC made teak laminated Master Americas. I shot a lot of big wahoo and my first tunas up to 90lbs with the gun one which I’ll never forget took floats under and 1.5 miles away before they popped up and I thought it was the best thing going since sliced bread. After using it for five years and evaluating it for 5 years guess what? Although my one piece Teak Master blue water gun (there’s probably still pictures of the gun on the forum somewhere) weighed 4 pounds more than today’s production Master Americas, and I was sure my original gun would be more accurate than Omer’s production gun, I was wrong and for some crazy reason with the exact same shaft and same power is less accurate pool tests later confirmed. I was incredulous, the bigger gun shot consistently right or left while the lighter better balanced stock gun was more precise. This goes to show you that its not so easy after all to build a perfect weapon, even by an experienced hobbyist, because if it was speargun manufacturers wouldn’t be in business today (and I wouldn’t have a job) and everyone and their brother would be making their own guns with basic tools. Shoot, there are even production speargun manufactures out there whose guns are not accurate stock and they do it for a living!
“Also he is a freediver more than a spearfisher so perhaps the desire to have a gun NOW! maybe isn't so strong... ?”
I don't understand the difference in your definition between freediving and spearfishing, spearfishing is spearfishing regardless of how you do it.
“Needless to say Fondue will no doubt buy an off the peg ali. gun but no worries”
Ali? Like Mohammad Ali? Come on, what kind of rubbish is that mate :duh
Ed, the important thing is that you have fun during your long UK winters building your guns but don’t assume that it’s the way to go for every cat in the woods. It’s good to have confidence in your equipment and not everyone will have the time to devote to it or be confident in their guns if their wood making skills aren’t up to par.
Mark