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which is beter pnumatics or bands
- Thread startersmaxel
- Start date
Thread Status: Hello
, There was no answer in this thread for more than 60 days.
It can take a long time to get an up-to-date response or contact with relevant users.
It can take a long time to get an up-to-date response or contact with relevant users.
With bandguns you have more choice: there are hundreds different types and for sure some can match your personal preference and needs for your terrain and kind of hunting.
Pneumatics, on the contrary, are all the same. You just have 3 subcategories:
-with 11mm inner barrel (Mares Cyrano, Sporasub Stealth: more velocity, thinner shafts, more theorical accuracy).
- with 13mm inner barrel (Mares Sten, Seac Asso, Cressi SL, Omer Tempest: less velocity but more "punch")
- tuned with a "Mamba" kit (no water in the barrell, much more velocity).
But basically they're all the same, made by a handful of (mostly italian)manufacturers. You don't have much choice.
The Mirage mentioned by Marmir was a great gun indeed (double reservoir, three power options, could be pressurized up to 40 bar/atm or more with no major loading effort), but it's been discontinued many years ago and is now very hard to find even used or e-bayed.
Pneumatics, on the contrary, are all the same. You just have 3 subcategories:
-with 11mm inner barrel (Mares Cyrano, Sporasub Stealth: more velocity, thinner shafts, more theorical accuracy).
- with 13mm inner barrel (Mares Sten, Seac Asso, Cressi SL, Omer Tempest: less velocity but more "punch")
- tuned with a "Mamba" kit (no water in the barrell, much more velocity).
But basically they're all the same, made by a handful of (mostly italian)manufacturers. You don't have much choice.
The Mirage mentioned by Marmir was a great gun indeed (double reservoir, three power options, could be pressurized up to 40 bar/atm or more with no major loading effort), but it's been discontinued many years ago and is now very hard to find even used or e-bayed.
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The problem with airguns (and I'm talking of classic pneumatics, not of the heavy russian hydropneumatics) is that the manufacturers, mostly italian companies, quitted any investment and gave up improving this kind of weapons in the early 90's, when OMER started making great bandguns in Italy too, and bandguns became the fashion also in southern europe.
The only recent improvement have been:
-in the late 90's Mares started making the Cyrano gun with a slightly more sensitive trigger and a thinner inner barrell.
-in the early 2000's Maorisub launched the successfull Mamba system.
These two improvements brought up pneumatics to the same level of the best bandguns in the fields of accuracy, power and shaft velocity. But still there are some downsides in the comparison with bandguns:
-triggers are more rocky: it would take just a little technical improvement to make them much better, but nobody is investing 2 cents on this.
-no anatomic or comfortable handles: they all have still the "square" designs of twenty or more years ago.
- loading is still hard on longer ones: if you ever tried to load a full pressurized 130 airgun you know it's not for anyone. The Mirage was a genial solution: much more power with less loading effort. It's a shame they discontinued that great gun.
I'm told that a major company is now working on a highly improved version of the pneumatic gun, that will be available next year. Let's wait and see.
The only recent improvement have been:
-in the late 90's Mares started making the Cyrano gun with a slightly more sensitive trigger and a thinner inner barrell.
-in the early 2000's Maorisub launched the successfull Mamba system.
These two improvements brought up pneumatics to the same level of the best bandguns in the fields of accuracy, power and shaft velocity. But still there are some downsides in the comparison with bandguns:
-triggers are more rocky: it would take just a little technical improvement to make them much better, but nobody is investing 2 cents on this.
-no anatomic or comfortable handles: they all have still the "square" designs of twenty or more years ago.
- loading is still hard on longer ones: if you ever tried to load a full pressurized 130 airgun you know it's not for anyone. The Mirage was a genial solution: much more power with less loading effort. It's a shame they discontinued that great gun.
I'm told that a major company is now working on a highly improved version of the pneumatic gun, that will be available next year. Let's wait and see.
This thread is from 2007! Spaghetti has long since given up spearfishing to concentrate on making wine and life-sized statues of american household appliances from the 1950s. One of his toasters is on display in the Guggenheim.
The magnetic rail-gun - first devised by the russians, has been modified into a super-cavitating speargun with a thought guided projectile having a range of over 1,000 kilometers.
Really and truly - check out the Omer Airbalete. It is the current apex of design - although there are also some beautiful russian guns.
The magnetic rail-gun - first devised by the russians, has been modified into a super-cavitating speargun with a thought guided projectile having a range of over 1,000 kilometers.
Really and truly - check out the Omer Airbalete. It is the current apex of design - although there are also some beautiful russian guns.
It's a personal thing. On paper, I have to admit the pneumatics seem to overcome the main limitation of bandguns (e.g. pneumatics can be short but still very powerful - such that you could say buy a gun similar in size to a 70cm band gun but with the power/range of a 90cm bandgun). But I like the clean, inexpensive, elegant simplicity of bandguns. Easy to understand, maintain, repair & customise -- seems to fit well with a simple snorkelling approach. They don't leak oil, some say they are much quieter and although they can and do occasionally jam with sand/grit, perhaps not as easily as pneumatic.
That said, the Omer Airbalete looks like it would overcome most objections. It's sleek, modern, quiet, powerful, easier to load, etc.. Quite pricey at the moment though.
BTW there is a cool link on one of the DeeperBlue.com threads to an Italian website on customizing pneumatics. Folk have been making their own improvements to popular models.
That said, the Omer Airbalete looks like it would overcome most objections. It's sleek, modern, quiet, powerful, easier to load, etc.. Quite pricey at the moment though.
BTW there is a cool link on one of the DeeperBlue.com threads to an Italian website on customizing pneumatics. Folk have been making their own improvements to popular models.
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