Home Tournaments Calendar Weather Merchandise Sponsors

Go Back   Spearboard.com - The World's Largest Spearfishing Diving Boating Social Media Forum > Spearfishing Gear > All About Guns

All About Guns What's your weapon of choice, and why? Discuss the beloved speargun here!

Reply
 
Thread Tools Rate Thread Display Modes
Old 05-15-2019, 01:47 AM   #1
kavachi
the deeper the blue.....
 
kavachi's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2016
Posts: 498
new backyard build for reef & light bluewater - pic heavy

Pics attached of new backyard build from local Vitex cofassus wood I felled, milled and seasoned two years ago.

Have gone with a lot more taper than previous shapes, this one’s 83 wide x 54 thick in front of the mech, right down to 35 x 35 at the muzzle. Superb swingability and nice & slim in the hand diving, but still a shi*load of mass where it’s needed. Have made the butt longer than previous builds - to facilitate loading hot 16mm bands when in bluewater mode - but tapered it off at the loading pad so still nice and compact profile.

this was a REALLY special piece of Vitex - came in a lot lighter [the finished stock weighs just 2.3kg] than the other blanks I cut and milled at the same time, with beautiful straight grain. Around 0.8 sp grav. Shaft in, rigged and loaded the gun hangs neutrally in the water slightly muzzle down. The whole shebang is home made cept the mech from Mario and shafts from Paolo.

the gun looks sooo simple next to the sexy carbon rollers posted on SB, but there’s actually quite a few refinements in there, which i’ll go over below. finish is very basic cos only power tools i have are circular saw, cordless drill, angle grinder, and a dremel. have just bought a nice bosch bench drill with a woodpecker table, should be here in about three months, that'll make building more fun

Gun is designed to be very compact and durable, and cover most use scenarios here in the islands. only takes two minutes to swap bands and shaft to go from banging round the reef for snapper and grouper with twin 14.8mm small ID primelines at 380% pushing an 8mm x 156cm Hunt single flopper shaft with single wrap 400lb LP mono and floatline clipped to butt - to chasing dogs and hoo in the blue with twin 16mm small ID primelines at 380% pushing an 8.5 mm x 156cm Hunt double offset flopper shaft with double wrap and breakaway 400lb coated cable

some refinements from previous builds...

- the abellan-style grip plate has been beefed up to 3mm 316SS plate [salvaged from old aux outboard bracket], allowing cutaway at the sides where the handle mounts [bringing the hand even higher up in line with recoil axis] without losing the rigidity and stability needed to support the [removable] handle under high loads
- fastenings for the Ermes DR mech have been integrated with those of the handle plate, reducing total fastenings to just three threads with nyloc nuts [the two threads at the rear are to hold a sight guide]
- trigger sear cutout [in the grip plate] has been widened to allow the bottom of the mech housing to sit flush inside the plate, allowing higher hand alignment
- shortened trigger sear allows trigger guard to be brought higher up, enabling higher hand alignment
- line guide and wrap pin are a single piece of thru-drilled 3mm 316 spring stainless rod [from the heavy longline clips that wash up on the beach]

Grip is Cordia wood hand carved to get perfect recoil shape in the palm. Personally i prefer coarse grit grip handles - esp with hot bands - but this is for a mate who prefers Sika grip, and went with white for visibility on the surface [i.e. when you forget you’re on breakaway]

pretty reluctant to part with this gun to be honest, but next build will be a bigger version with three 16mm small ID bands 380% throwing a 170 x 8.5mm Hunt Doggie Special, look out!

love to see other guns being built out there, y’all - please post!
Attached Thumbnails
Click image for larger version

Name:	build-for-Jase-2019 (7 of 12).jpg
Views:	257
Size:	153.9 KB
ID:	242512   Click image for larger version

Name:	build-for-Jase-2019 (6 of 12).jpg
Views:	253
Size:	149.7 KB
ID:	242513   Click image for larger version

Name:	build-for-Jase-2019 (3 of 12).jpg
Views:	255
Size:	138.0 KB
ID:	242514  

Last edited by kavachi; 05-15-2019 at 02:01 AM.
kavachi is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-15-2019, 01:54 AM   #2
kavachi
the deeper the blue.....
 
kavachi's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2016
Posts: 498
Re: new backyard build for reef & light bluewater - pic heavy

as i said......pic heavy
Attached Thumbnails
Click image for larger version

Name:	build-for-Jase-2019 (1 of 12).jpg
Views:	231
Size:	125.9 KB
ID:	242515   Click image for larger version

Name:	build-for-Jase-2019 (2 of 12).jpg
Views:	184
Size:	112.5 KB
ID:	242516   Click image for larger version

Name:	build-for-Jase-2019 (4 of 12).jpg
Views:	203
Size:	125.6 KB
ID:	242517   Click image for larger version

Name:	build-for-Jase-2019 (5 of 12).jpg
Views:	203
Size:	140.3 KB
ID:	242518   Click image for larger version

Name:	build-for-Jase-2019 (8 of 12).jpg
Views:	167
Size:	157.6 KB
ID:	242520  

Click image for larger version

Name:	build-for-Jase-2019 (9 of 12).jpg
Views:	193
Size:	150.9 KB
ID:	242521   Click image for larger version

Name:	build-for-Jase-2019 (10 of 12).jpg
Views:	205
Size:	144.1 KB
ID:	242522   Click image for larger version

Name:	build-for-Jase-2019 (11 of 12).jpg
Views:	208
Size:	137.5 KB
ID:	242523   Click image for larger version

Name:	build-for-Jase-2019 (12 of 12).jpg
Views:	176
Size:	117.6 KB
ID:	242524  
kavachi is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-15-2019, 02:04 AM   #3
kavachi
the deeper the blue.....
 
kavachi's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2016
Posts: 498
Re: new backyard build for reef & light bluewater - pic heavy

bandstretch is 132 to rear tab
range single wrap is just shy of 5 metres from muzzle to shaft tip
and she weighs in at a stately 3.6kg fully rigged [but weightless in the water
kavachi is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-15-2019, 05:25 AM   #4
SEATUX
Registered User
 
SEATUX's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Port Charlotte Fl
Age: 76
Posts: 2,480
Re: new backyard build for reef & light bluewater - pic heavy

Nice build.
PM sent.
SEATUX is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-15-2019, 06:13 AM   #5
kodama
Registered User
 
Join Date: Aug 2016
Posts: 460
Re: new backyard build for reef & light bluewater - pic heavy

Very nice build. Maybe a bit crude here and there but that adds to the charm.

Looking forward to seeing the next one taking shape.
kodama is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-15-2019, 03:41 PM   #6
deanmc
FII Professional
 
deanmc's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2012
Location: Rocky Point, NY
Posts: 332
Re: new backyard build for reef & light bluewater - pic heavy

Taking it to the next level cutting down your own tree! Is it a solid piece of wood or laminated? Love the shape!
deanmc is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-17-2019, 06:25 AM   #7
kavachi
the deeper the blue.....
 
kavachi's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2016
Posts: 498
Re: new backyard build for reef & light bluewater - pic heavy

Quote:
Originally Posted by kodama View Post
Very nice build. Maybe a bit crude here and there but that adds to the charm.
Looking forward to seeing the next one taking shape.
ain't about charm Kodama, just about putting pelagic goodness on the table
Attached Thumbnails
Click image for larger version

Name:	IMG_1582.jpg
Views:	109
Size:	141.5 KB
ID:	242590   Click image for larger version

Name:	IMG_1781.jpg
Views:	100
Size:	124.0 KB
ID:	242591  

Last edited by kavachi; 05-17-2019 at 04:20 PM.
kavachi is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-17-2019, 07:14 AM   #8
kodama
Registered User
 
Join Date: Aug 2016
Posts: 460
Re: new backyard build for reef & light bluewater - pic heavy

Quote:
Originally Posted by kavachi View Post
ain't about charm Kodama, just about putting pelagic goodness on the table


Point made. nice fish.
Rock on..
kodama is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-17-2019, 10:06 AM   #9
Trace
Registered User
 
Trace's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2010
Location: Santa Clarita
Age: 65
Posts: 1,082
Re: new backyard build for reef & light bluewater - pic heavy

Nice build. I like what you’ve done with the handle trigger configuration.
Trace is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-17-2019, 05:41 PM   #10
kavachi
the deeper the blue.....
 
kavachi's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2016
Posts: 498
Re: new backyard build for reef & light bluewater - pic heavy

Quote:
Originally Posted by deanmc View Post
Taking it to the next level cutting down your own tree! Is it a solid piece of wood or laminated? Love the shape!
thanks Dean!
solid timber, not laminated. Vitex cofassus is super stable and very straight grained, and i hike a lot of hills to find a really straight tree without butresses. So once cut to size, dried for a couple of years, and selected - no issues with warping.

With it being such a dense timber the challenge is getting a blank that is light enough to float a big heavy shaft. Identical quarter-sawn blanks from the same tree can vary a couple of pounds depending angle of wind loading.

bluewater/doggie build coming along nicely, will post pics of that beast soon
kavachi is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-17-2019, 10:44 PM   #11
popgun pete
Registered User
 
popgun pete's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2006
Posts: 4,245
Re: new backyard build for reef & light bluewater - pic heavy

Great condition fish!
Attached Thumbnails
Click image for larger version

Name:	IMG_1582A.jpg
Views:	115
Size:	96.3 KB
ID:	242599  
popgun pete is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-22-2019, 02:23 AM   #12
Mikel_24
Registered User
 
Join Date: Nov 2016
Location: Bilbao (Spain)
Posts: 445
Re: new backyard build for reef & light bluewater - pic heavy

Great build and the results speak for themselves. If not about the looks, think that the more polished a surface is, the least chances it has to corrode (less real surface in contact with the water in this particular case).

So even if you don't care about the looks, try to polish any stainless to an almost mirror finish. I have seen rust spots in 316L stainless pieces (probably due to contamination with grinding discs previously used in carbon steel and such). Polishing helps to avoid them.

I hope this helps!

Mikel
Mikel_24 is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Bookmarks

Thread Tools
Display Modes Rate This Thread
Rate This Thread:

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -5. The time now is 12:14 AM.


The World's Largest Spearfishing Diving Social Media Forum Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.1
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright ©2002 - 2014 Spearboard.com