It all dates back to early speargun history, as in Europe the spring gun was first out of the blocks and set the trend for all the weapons that followed. As the shaft was pushed by a long coil spring sitting directly behind the spear the first attempt used a single-piece trigger with a trigger pivot pin below the barrel tube and as that was very unreliable the decision was then made to use a pull down sear lever in the gun. Because they wanted to avoid pushing the spear backwards when pulling the trigger they angled the retaining tooth. If you use a long enough sear lever arm then it swings on a flatter arc, but there was only so much length available in the gun’s usually alloy grip handle, thus the tooth had to be angled, but never by enough to completely eliminate the problem.
Side slotted barrel band guns got rid of the long propulsion spring, but they kept that same trigger mechanism for both them and the next weapons revolution the French band powered Arbaletes, even though it no longer had a coil spring pushing over the top of it as had been the case with the compression spring gun. Le Prieur used something similar in his “declic” trigger.
Because in the USA they never started with the spring gun they used a single-piece trigger and they only work well with a square cut tooth. Some early US spearguns used the wishbone directly on the shaft tail and thus had no sear box roof, but that type of gun did not last long as securing the spear tail with a sear box roof was a much better idea. However such guns must use a square cut shaft tail or the shaft can pop off the tooth at the wrong moment
Of course Europeans also used single-piece triggers, but they were not as easy to pull with larger band loads as the two piece pull down sear lever trigger guns were and their spears were not as universal compared with the French Arbalete shafts. In the USA most guns used shafts with square cut tails until improved euroguns arrived in recent decades as formerly the guns were considered too weak being principally designed for reef work and smaller fish.
Side slotted barrel band guns got rid of the long propulsion spring, but they kept that same trigger mechanism for both them and the next weapons revolution the French band powered Arbaletes, even though it no longer had a coil spring pushing over the top of it as had been the case with the compression spring gun. Le Prieur used something similar in his “declic” trigger.
Because in the USA they never started with the spring gun they used a single-piece trigger and they only work well with a square cut tooth. Some early US spearguns used the wishbone directly on the shaft tail and thus had no sear box roof, but that type of gun did not last long as securing the spear tail with a sear box roof was a much better idea. However such guns must use a square cut shaft tail or the shaft can pop off the tooth at the wrong moment
Of course Europeans also used single-piece triggers, but they were not as easy to pull with larger band loads as the two piece pull down sear lever trigger guns were and their spears were not as universal compared with the French Arbalete shafts. In the USA most guns used shafts with square cut tails until improved euroguns arrived in recent decades as formerly the guns were considered too weak being principally designed for reef work and smaller fish.
Last edited: