I am setting out to do another custom-sized Mirage. This time I want a gun no longer than my fins. The idea being to have the maximum length gun that I can easily chuck in my bag, jump on a bike/plane/etc, head to a beach and hunt the local reef.
Of course, if we were talking band guns this would be one measly gun but my Hunter 90 pneumatic has taken plenty of dinner sized fish and fits the above size requirements. It was my first gun and is still a real pleasure to use.
Here is an old pic of it in an earlier incarnation (under it is a Mirage 80):
As some of you know, the original Mirage came in two sizes: 80cm and 100cm (sometimes also labelled as 84 and 104). To confuse things even more, the Mirage model designations were quite "generous" as a Mirage 80/84 is about 15cm shorter than a Predathor 85 and 14cm shorter than a Seac Hunter 90. So, we can conclude that a Mirage 80 is quite a short gun, even in the world of pneumatics.
So, I thought: Why not make a Mirage version in the same size as the Hunter 90? This gun will be 13cm longer than the original Mirage 80 and thus 7cm shorter than their 100 model. It will be around 96cm total length and fire a spear very close to the same length. With the increase in power, I might even try to shoot 7.5-8mm spears to get a bit more mass into the projectile.
Additionally it will hopefully be the ideal companion to a longer one such as the Mirage 125 that I worked on in this thread.
Here is a pic of the Mirage 125 (with the first version of my custom handle), this time with the Hunter 90 in a newer disguise on the bottom:
Other goals in this build is to have the two Mirage handles be close in ergonomics so I can seamlessly switch from one gun to the other. And I am aiming to use the same muzzles, shock absorbers and pistons in both guns so I can minimize the amount of spares I need to travel with.
Of course, if we were talking band guns this would be one measly gun but my Hunter 90 pneumatic has taken plenty of dinner sized fish and fits the above size requirements. It was my first gun and is still a real pleasure to use.
Here is an old pic of it in an earlier incarnation (under it is a Mirage 80):
As some of you know, the original Mirage came in two sizes: 80cm and 100cm (sometimes also labelled as 84 and 104). To confuse things even more, the Mirage model designations were quite "generous" as a Mirage 80/84 is about 15cm shorter than a Predathor 85 and 14cm shorter than a Seac Hunter 90. So, we can conclude that a Mirage 80 is quite a short gun, even in the world of pneumatics.
So, I thought: Why not make a Mirage version in the same size as the Hunter 90? This gun will be 13cm longer than the original Mirage 80 and thus 7cm shorter than their 100 model. It will be around 96cm total length and fire a spear very close to the same length. With the increase in power, I might even try to shoot 7.5-8mm spears to get a bit more mass into the projectile.
Additionally it will hopefully be the ideal companion to a longer one such as the Mirage 125 that I worked on in this thread.
Here is a pic of the Mirage 125 (with the first version of my custom handle), this time with the Hunter 90 in a newer disguise on the bottom:
Other goals in this build is to have the two Mirage handles be close in ergonomics so I can seamlessly switch from one gun to the other. And I am aiming to use the same muzzles, shock absorbers and pistons in both guns so I can minimize the amount of spares I need to travel with.
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