Updated Rob Allen Vecta Mechanism (Photos enclosed)

[Claudio]

Hi folks,

I just heard of this on another board and thought of sharing with you guys. Rob Allen is coming out with an upgrade to the Vecta mechanism.

See enclosed PDF for details.

Cheers,
Claudio

 

[spaghetti]

Cool! Thanks for sharing, Cla'. Many people will be inspired, no doubt...

 

[Claudio]

Ciao Spaghetti,

You are welcomed! Attached is the photo of the current (now old) mechanism for people to compare the two.

Cheers,
Claudio

 

[DivingDane]

hmmmm, i have the new mech in a Carbon 130, much smoother mech than the old one and does away with the line release block!

very happy

DD

 

[Mr. X]

Quite a change -- I thoroughly approve The first RA Vecta trigger mech I had (one of the earlier ones) was good but started jamming quite badly after 2 or 3 years as my only speargun. RA recognised the problem (something to do with strengthening fibres in the polymer furring up - although this was not visible to me) and kindly sent me a new mech (they are very easy to swap over) from South Africa (RA warranty their gear for 5 years:king). The new mech had some significant changes [see my earlier thread for pictures - similar but not identical to that posted by Claudio, above] and has a lighter but crisper feel. I think they mentioned changing the polymer/fibre material and/or trigger sear s/steel too. The only real draw back with it was that the line tooth had moved closer to the trigger guard, making it harder to wrap the spear-line around, and it had changed to a flat angular design rather than the rather neat tooth of the original (it looked fragile but wasn't, and it worked better).

This new design (MK4?) looks very promising:

1. - Less moving parts, so there is a good chance that it will be (even) more reliable.
2. - It sounds like they have addressed the jamming by using an active line release (rather than depending on gravity - which the furring interfered with on my first mech) and using a heavier, smoother metal line release rather than polymer (which would help gravity move it into place & reduce friction from 'fur'), at least on the model shown.
3. - They've opened up the gap between the line release and the trigger guard, for quicker/easier loading. Excellent.
4. - a smaller opening from the spear into the trigger mech., to reduce the ingress of sand & grit

Great to see RA & Jeremy are continuing to improve and refine their already highly evolved and successful spearguns, sorry, Railguns.

 

[jimy286]

For anyone with the old mech.....I took out the spring in the line release and it works waaay better!

 

[popgun pete]

The new mech is like an Undersee yoke type sear and trigger system, only the proportions are greatly changed. Gone is the dipping sear tooth shaft tail relatch with the sear lever floating on the sear pin. A metal trigger would have been nice. The vertical backing projection on the sear, directly behind the sear tooth, forms the yoke.

 

[scottwilson]

Nice!!!!! I wonder how much the upgrade will cost?

 

[Mr. X]

For anyone with the old mech.....I took out the spring in the line release and it works waaay better!

I plan to leave the spring in my earlier model trigger mech, as the model I had before didn't have such a spring and eventually jammed -- gravity alone was no longer enough to get the plastic line release mechanism to fall back into place; the spring is intended to ease that problem I believe.

 

[jimy286]

Hi Mr X
For me the spring was way to strong and the spear had to jerk to pull off the line(loss of power and accuracy)

With the "old" vecta mech the spear reengages the line release so this is not a problem.
My wife has an old RA so i know what you mean tho.

 

[Mr. X]

Interesting.

...With the "old" vecta mech the spear reengages the line release so this is not a problem...

That was the bit that stopped working for me, the line release "gubbins" would not fall, so the spear could not be inserted (alternatively, sometimes it could be inserted but not released). I guess re-shaping the "gubbins" might (have) fix(ed) that.

Your wife has an RA - how cool is that!

RA's use of a trigger mech. cassette is pretty cool. They've managed to make numerous versions and enhancements - some quite significant, others small refinements - which are backwards compatible and can still be slipped into an older (Vectra) railgun if necessary.

 

[Milan]

Does anyone know what sort of difference in range/distance of the shaft between RA Vecta in 100cm, 110cm and 120cm??

 

[Mr. X]

Depends on how you rig the spearline &/or what rubbers you use. But with a normal single wrap that would be spear length + ( barrel length x 4) from your shooting hand. Which is about 5 x barrel length + 40cm, so for the above (i.e. 5.4m, 5.9m & 6.4m). If you used more rubbers/thicker rubbers & a double wrap of spear-line you could probably get a bit further - but you might be better to get a longer speargun if you need to get further (e.g. I believe RA make spearguns with barrels upto 160cm & possibly longer - they can also make custom orders).