Blustery winds were blowing when I took these photos today, as when I turned my back for a moment the inner barrels rolled off the table and ended up on the grass. I then chocked the tank with the plastic snap lid box that I keep all the small parts in and waited for the wind to die down to take most of the photos. I will check later, but I don’t think I have lost anything and the inventory of parts is engraved in my memory. If the gun looks clean to you then the reason is that on last dismantling it I immediately stuffed the still oily components into separate plastic shopping bags so that I did not have to clean everything next time I assembled the gun. That was about two years ago, how time flies! This “Mirage” has probably had about a dozen successful dives in all (and has shot fish) as it always gave trouble the next time I checked it out and had again sprung a leak. I think I know why, but have been in no mood to fix it as the answer lies in the floating metal tube that holds the power regulator control rod “O” ring and the similar tube behind it hidden in the rear handle. That has another “O” ring trapped behind it (neither this “O” ring nor the second metal tube are shown on the parts diagram) which you can only get at with an angled tipped awl to tease the second metal tube out of the plastic channel it sits snugly inside. This “Mirage” gun came in a nice press button flap, brown faux leatherette carry bag actually made of very thin vinyl cloth, so thin it was like paper! I kept all the black plastic packing pieces and the only part of this gun that I have used almost continuously is the Mares Universal loader that came with the gun and for a short period I used its bayonet rear valve cap on my “Sten” until I found another one in a dive shop junk box which the owner kindly gave me for nothing, The “Mirage” spear tip, which I have yet to photograph, had one outing on my “Black Sea” gun, but I don’t remember shooting anything on that occasion. The slide ring on the 8 mm shaft functioned like a tilting lock washer on a caulking gun and tore stripes off the cadmium plated shaft every time I used the pumping barrel. The 7 mm shaft had a much better slide ring, but I bent the tail of that shaft while trying to load the gun under washing machine surface conditions where I could not easily control my body positioning. With the performance less than expected I decided to not waste my time with a 7 mm shaft. I never met another “Mirage” toting diver and one time when I was re-emerging after only just recently entering the water with the “Mirage” I was asked by a bystander where I was going. I replied “back to my car to get a longer and better gun”.
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