What vacuum muzzle guns are available off the shelf?

[Diving Gecko]

I also find it a little disappointing that gun designs are so basic and unchanged, I still use my 15 year old Omer 90 and 12 year old Asso 115 both with Tromic muzzles.
They both still work ok but looking a bit tatty.

I think optimizing the slider and going with the thinnest shooting line you feel you can get away with is where we can make the biggest gains once we have mounted a vac muzzle on a traditional gun. Tomi did some nice testing on that years ago

 

[foxfish]

Yes, the same applies with band guns, the biggest development has come from rigging rather than anything else!
40 years ago the majority if not all speargun used a slider and braid now it is coming back as a development... of course we do have thinner stronger line and lightweight materials but certainly not a new idea.
Super hard 1mm nylon and tiny nylon sliders matched to a high mass wood gun powered by twin 14mm bands, that seems to be the way at the moment.
Many years back when this forum was rocking.... it seemed imminent that new style air guns were coming , there was plenty of excitement when the Omer Airbalete was released but basically no major changes have actually happened?

 

[popgun pete]

The "Airbalete" was designed to appeal to spearfishermen who know nothing about pneumatic guns and provide something with a similar envelope to a eurogun. In a way they were wasting their time as some band gun users are totally fixated on band power and are convinced that pneumatic guns will sooner or later expire. Basically the "Sten" revolutionized pneumatic guns, was relatively simple in its construction and there was very little needed to improve on it. The most advanced of the pneumovacuum guns is the "Taimen", but because it was designed for shooting through thickets of reeds it has compromised on the size of its tank. The "Pelengas" is a sort of rip-off of a "Taimen", but has based the rest of the gun on the "Sten", including a larger tank, although not as large as the 40 mm tanks on most Italian guns. The "Pelengas" has kept to a slimmer tank as many users are spearing in lakes and need to thread their guns through underwater vegetation. The closest to a "Sten" is the "Vintair" or "Predathor" Vuoto guns in terms of vacuum barrel. The LG-Sub Manilu "Revolution" is an exercise in being different, a revamped Mamba with only a single power version so far and made in a very expensive manner. A Ferrari or Lambo for pneumatic gun users (with respect to cost)!

Quality fit for purpose means the guns we have now are pretty much all you are going to see. Ideally vacuum seals should be sized to the spear diameter, as they are in the "Taimen", but cost considerations and inventory have made everyone else go for multi-size units that work better on the slimmest shafts that they cater for (except LG “Revolution” as the slider is the key). This is from someone who owns all the guns bar the Omers and Sporasubs which personally I find not a great idea with the handle dangling out the back end of the gun making it longer than it really needs to be.

 

[Diving Gecko]

A note on the Airbalete, Omer XII and One Air: They all share the same handle which effectively sacrifices a whole lot of effective "band length" - or rather barrel length as the barrel stops in front of the detachable handle. So, while the handle is nice in other ways, that design is actually a step back in terms of performance. They also only work with front tied shafts and may only work with 7mm shafts. I know the muzzle is an STC design, but if I recall correctly (and I may not), it is slightly altered so that the centering bushing and seal is not compatible with the STC ones which comes in many other sizes to accommodate a fair range of shaft sizes. But I’m not sure Omer/Sporasub has the same range of swappable muzzle parts?
What on the surface looked like a step forward, may not have been one in performance and usability. I actually liked the way the One Air shoots but I have since learned that it's not a super powerful gun for it's size and bulk.

 

[popgun pete]

Always surprised that Sporasub/Omer never offered the "One Air" with a 13 mm ID inner barrel.

 

[foxfish]

I have often thought about making a push rod, forward set handle for my Asso.

 

[Diving Gecko]

I have often thought about making a push rod, forward set handle for my Asso.

If you do that, Pete’s Pelengas thread has some great pics of how they do it on their guns.
It’s not impossible but will take quite a few parts. You would need to make a handle that sleeves over the reservoir and then find a way to make a trigger bushing seal on the curved reservoir. Add to that a rear cap, a trigger sear with a 90 degree elbow (or some kind of elbow to engage the original sear) and another elbow to connect the pushrod to the trigger pin (and a sleeve of sorts around the shooting barrel to hold the elbow).
Not impossible but definitely need to manufacture some parts.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[foxfish]

The easy way would be to leave the existing trigger in place, cut away the handle and just use a pushrod.
Of course there would be cosmetics and aesthetics to deal with but I have some ideas.....
For the last 13 years I have made one or two guns to offer as prizes in the db Guernsey specimen hunt., ( 20 in total)
I think it is about time I offered a custom air gun....
This year I only built one gun but it was quite a complex build ...

 

[Diving Gecko]

The easy way would be to leave the existing trigger in place, cut away the handle and just use a pushrod.
Of course there would be cosmetics and aesthetics to deal with but I have some ideas.....
For the last 13 years I have made one or two guns to offer as prizes in the db Guernsey specimen hunt., ( 20 in total)
I think it is about time I offered a custom air gun....
This year I only built one gun but it was quite a complex build ...

Ah, true, you could have the linkage outside the reservoir. That would certainly simply things
I remember your mad woodworking skills. Didn't you once take an Airbalete under your treatment?

BTW, the link for your guns in your signature is dead...

 

[foxfish]

No but I did make a couple of elliptical slip on barrel sleeves for two mamba 90s . and maybe I did something else on one to give it better balance ....
Yes you are right is was working only a few days ago!