Where Do You Point Your Gun While Looking?

[Blesum]

So where do you guys point your gun while you're crawling across the bottom or holed up somewhere? Bear in mind this is for low visiblity conditions at 10' or less. I can't decide which's better:

1) Wave the gun back and forth, looking in the general area the gun is pointed at. That way when you do sight something, you only need to move the gun a little bit at most and squeeze off a shot.

2) Scan all around you, and hope that if you see something that's not where the gun is pointed, you can swing the gun around fast enough to nab the fish before it moves away again.

-Blesum

 

[spaghetti]

For me it depends on terrain.
In reef hunting, especially if you dive over a bottom with big high rocks, you must always point your gun to the same direction you're looking at, for obvious reasons: bentonic fish is not as curious as pelagic, and the reef terrain full of hidings won't give a second chance to localize them. See them and shoot in a moment: eyes and gun on the same line.
--
While in open water, even with short visibility, it's different: you scan all around with your eyes continuously, but you can't swing the gun continuously, right? In this case different routines are advisable.
-if you're hunting with current from your back, keep it aimed frontally, or against schools of small bait fish (that's where the big fish will probably come from). Don't wave the gun too much: the current will push the vibrations pretty far beyond, like a telephone call to the fish: "you careful, I'm coming! And then consider that in open water you use longer guns, harder to swing.
-with current coming frontally, you can act with that waving back and forth movement you mentioned above. The current against you will cover your vibrations. But remember that predator fishes hunt against current, so they pelagics will probably come from your back, while bentonic may be under you.
-if you're hunting parallel to the coast line in absence of current, or with feeble current: gun pointed 45 degrees from the coastline outwards.

 

[Bill McIntyre]

I always carry my gun on its back with the handle pointing up, held in my hand with my arm extended down my thigh. This puts the muzzle roughly next to my head, depending on gun length. Then when I see a fish, I can extend it at the fish rather than trying to swing at the fish.

If you have access to Blue Water Hunting and Freediving by Terry Maas, he shows a photo of Gerald Lim holding the gun this way and calls it the "soldier at arms" position.

And BTW, since you are posting in the beginner hunting forum, I highly recommend that book as the best single source of information on equipment, hunting techniques in general and for specific species such as white sea bass and yellowtail, and safety.

 

[Blesum]

Outstanding and informative posts the two of you. Thank you.

I've been doing the soldier at arms thing without realizing that it's something that other spearos do. My forearms get tired of holding the gun up and horizional after a while - I figured I was just a weakling.

-Blesum

Edit: P.S. A friend has the book from Terry Mass and will be loaning it to me the next time I see him.