best speargun

jon109 · November 23, 2007, 16:34:13 CET

hi i am thinking of buying a new speargun! can anyone suggest a good speargun available on the market at the moment? i was thinking of buy one with a reel, do u suggest it? which brands are the best? hope to get a few tips from this great forum! tnx in advance,

regards,

Jonathan

Granitu · November 23, 2007, 17:36:10 CET

from my experience a speargun with a reel is excellent if you aim for bottom dwellers like ceren ect as yoy will be able to resurface without any real problemswhile the fish is fighting. well in my opinion there is no best speargun, the best speargun is the one who makes you feel most comfortable. you can esily install a reel on a speargun which doesn't hold up but if i were you, these carbon fibre spearguns are very handy today. pity about their cost

jon109 · November 25, 2007, 23:41:00 CET

thanks man for the info, i realized that one can install a reel on a speargun but mine (bought about 7yrs ago) is the type with a clip to hold the line and not with the special mechanism activated with the trigger! is it still good for a reel jew? any brand for the carbon fibre ones? and how much do they usually cost? tnx in advance,

reg,

jon

Robert · November 25, 2007, 23:53:03 CET

Yes, your gun is still good to take a reel - you can buy a universal reel that is attached to the gun's barrel by means of cable ties. My gun is a Beuchat Mundial Elite (100 Aluminium) - I find it great but after all it depends on what you get used to - however I have to admit it's a bit heavy - but I still have no intention of changing it. After some time using the same speargun you will develop a personal way of handling it and that is what makes a gun good or bad. I have a friend who had the same gun but in carbon version - he has already changed the barrel twice in 2 years - the carbon gets hairline cracks (1) reducing safety (2) water seeps in and it looses its buoyancy and balance. Might be that the Beuchat carbon is defective but when I look at my barrel and see all the scratches I always tell my self "Thank God it's not carbon!" - and I am the kind of person that really takes care of his equipment...it's just that a speargun is made to be used in the worst of conditions!

Edit: - Forgot to tell you about your clip - probably this is a jaw clip - Presently, without the reel, the line on your shaft goes from the end of the shaft that connects with the trigger, and it goes straight up to the muzzle, down to the clip and up to the muzzle. With a reel on , you will have the same set up, but instead of tying the terminal line to the muzzle, you will use a bowline knot to connect it to the line coming from the reel (which line has to go out from the reel, all the way up to the muzzle and through some kind of hole over there - that is where you are to connect it to the monofilament terminal). Sorry for the complexity but it's hard to explain!

jon109 · November 26, 2007, 13:32:46 CET

hey man thanks for your post!! i perfectly understood what you wrote! cheers! can u mention any price for yor speargun? my speargun is old (as already told) its a cavallero (now cavallero was taken by beauchat) i never had any problems with it but maybe because i don't use so much! i use it like 2 times a week in summer! i want to go spearfishing all the time but my problem is that i don't have anyone to go with! i don't really like going alone, (insomma not me actually, my family don't like it if i go alone), do u use a (3point spear or u always use the bullet) should i buy a speargun with a threaded spear? what about sporasub spearguns?? has anyone had any experience with them?

thanks guy for all your help,

reg,

jon

EmicMalta · November 26, 2007, 13:47:06 CET

Hi,

There is a lot to say about spear guns, and my opinio is to go with some one and make some tests. No metter if your are good or not in spearfishing, you will select a good gun when you are in the water with it.

I use a sporasub insctint 90cm for aguato witha spear 6.3mm 17.5mm rubber to be fast and 4 mtrs distance from tip, an esclapes 65cm to catch in tana at 1mtr distance from tip with 4 point tip,an esclapes 75cm to catch in tana at 3mtr distance from tip with bullet spear tip and now with the new gun of Mr Carbon 104cm for aguato and aspettoes (still working on its ballance and rubber dimention) for 5mtrs distance and penetration.

I don't know you so cannot ive you my advice, but think with a 75cm you can beguin somthing.

For the reel is a good idea to have one but as i said is better to modify your gun at your needs. An esclapes gun goes around Lm30 without a real, and a sporasub insctint goes around Lm35. If your having a small gun the best are to be of aluminium cos the difference is not so much, and no need to send so much money.

I had used robert's gun and told him my opinion. Beuchat are really good guns but think they are to heavu and the line relise is too complicated for me. You loose time to relode so some thims you loose fish for that simple reason.

Rob, on friday simon and I went for a dive but didn't see any special fish as was on tuesday. Simon G caught 5 Morlini (for me cos really like them) shoot on a Plamtu of around 5 Kg and broke his spear after it had took him around 40 mtrs of line from the reel and lost it, 3 nice octopus, 3 Red mullets, and a 500 g amberjack. And I got 4 octopus, 2 1kg mullets, 1 cappullazza, 1 2.5kg grouper. No one of us have shoot on a sea bream and in all we didn't saw 30 in all. We had a lot of work to estract the groper cos shoot it fom long range while it was going under a rock and it stuck itself. We needed more then 2.5hrs in 8mtrs deep to pull it out.

Sorry for no pics cos we where too tired.

And for the aquatica spearfishing competiton, Simon and I came 10th. Was really difficult cos no fish around. We swam for the first hour in 10-15mtrs, 3 hours in 20-25mtrs and at last hour by the shore and cliffs. We caugt 2 vallid fish with no penalities, and the firs placing was of Pierre Aguis and Terrence with 7 vallid fish.

Edward

jon109 · November 26, 2007, 13:57:49 CET

hi edward,

please give me some of you tips as i know u are well informed in this area!

reg,

jon

EmicMalta · November 26, 2007, 14:32:58 CET

text me on 99593775 and we can go for a dive and you can test my guns.

edward

Granitu · November 26, 2007, 19:41:21 CET

yep emic i have to agree with you, i actually own a beauchat 70 but its a little bit time consuming to reload but never failed me

EmicMalta · November 26, 2007, 20:42:34 CET

The buauchat is a powerfull gun to shoot in 3 mtrs cos the line will only pass once trough the fish line and then to the real. This is good when shouting for groupers or merge so that when the fish is shoot you try to take it out immidiatly and not to have the hessle of having 6mtrs of line that makes a lot of difference. If you meet the amberjacks with a boauchat like that Robert`s one its quit difficult. I use to have a 75cm one for this reason cos if i`m fishing alone and meet the amberjacks, the most I can catch are 2, but if im with the 75 I had made also 5 fish.

For example this new gun can shoot the spear with twice the fish line in the line realise, and when i wish to shoot as for penetration shoots like for groupers, i can pass it only for one time trough the line realise and not have the hassle of all that line.

this shows how a gun should have a line realase

http://www.c4carbon.com/eng/sub/mrcarbon/sagola.htm

Also this reel is fantestic cos it work like automatic brake and it totally differnt from any one i had tried before. Not only friction but it have a pair of titanium springs that make tention on the line

And as Robert said, the only thing in these carbon spear guns is to pay extra attention for them at all the time and this a thing that i really do not like especially if your by the rocks or on the dingy

reg
Edward

Robert · November 27, 2007, 13:20:22 CET

This is becoming a nice discussion!

Mela, my gun costs Lm45. Carbon version would be some Lm75 I believe. Just add or reduce Lm2 accordingly for the price of the longer or shorter versions of the aluminium model. As Emic said, my gun has a strange line release - but once the terminal is 100% monofilament, then its very easy once you get used to it becasue the mono gets a kink in the place where it connects with the line release and its very easy to put in place. In any case, in cases of urgency there are alligator clips on either side of the handle so it would be convenient to use those.

As Emic and Simon know I do not like to shoot from very long distances. But I remeber some shots that make me very confident with my gun. Once I shot a 600g white bream and the spear went in from behind the gills and came out of the mouth of the fish - only 1cm came out of the mouth. Doing some simple mathematics I realised that the shot was a really long one: the lenght of the barrel (1m), my outstreched arm (1m), the shaft (1.4m), and the mono (3m) - a good 6m+ of distance!

Emic, this weekend it was not good for fishing - I swam 4km under cliffs on the west side of Malta - the only nice sized white bream I saw was one of 700g (which I caught) - I saw some others of around 400g (but not much) in about 18-20m and they were EXTREMELY skittish. Lets hope for the next weekend mate!

Robert · November 27, 2007, 13:21:27 CET

By the way Jon, I never use tridents - only bullets.

EmicMalta · November 27, 2007, 13:39:50 CET

at this time of the year its better to fish ith 4 point cos seabream use to go in tana. Last time I went with giovanni M, he caught 8 merge, and 12 seabream. All from around 2 rocks, and we then stopped to repopulate for next time. All the fish was caught with the 4 point.

Rob: I am going to test a new setting for the gun and take a look for maybe i find a amberjack for supper

jon109 · November 27, 2007, 14:27:04 CET

hey guys, thanks for all the info!! i didn't understand two words though! (1) what do you mean by tana? and (2) what is the name of merge in maltese?

Emic, if its ok with you, i will come with you for a dive and see which is the best gun for me!? mine is a 75cm cavallero... don't really know about the spear etc.. i have both tridents and bullet tips! so i will get both... on the other hand, my line is normal nylon i guess (not mono)... i have alot to learn from you guys!!

keep this discussion going as it great to gain knowledge!!

reg,

jon

EmicMalta · November 27, 2007, 15:11:14 CET

went to see the sea at Lapsi and still too rough. And don't want to go on the other side cos it was just for an hour.

Catching in tana means, find fish under the rosks, merge means gurbel.
Tomorow try to bring all your staf so I can give you my opinion.

By the way,the suit is like new, cos used Pottex glue and really fantestic. Much better then mares neoprene glue.

reg
Edward