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All About Guns What's your weapon of choice, and why? Discuss the beloved speargun here! |
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01-24-2014, 08:11 AM | #1 |
Sam G
Join Date: Apr 2012
Posts: 151
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My 5th Gun Build, WeekEnd Warrior 90
3rd Flame of Anor
http://spearboard.com/showthread.php?t=169925 4th My FlagShip gun http://spearboard.com/showthread.php?t=169927 The WeekEnd Warrior I made this gun because I really wanted a pranga gun for all those flathead, whiting and really everything else, I love landing fish with prangas. I had an old threaded torres shaft on my first build, a stupidly high Riffe mechanism, Seahornet handle and a timbergun closed muzzle Dan gave me. This was going to be a classic assembled wooden gun and I was excited to finally get to make one. I wasn’t expecting anything awesome at the end especially since the riffe mech was sooo high (8.5cm total and you can’t cut the trigger down). I got two nice pieces of random hardwood from the hard rubbish that were used as a door frame. I think they are Meranti, one was twisted and the other fine. Took the twisted one and cleaned up a nice square blank using an eagle eye and a plane. It took me one day to do the track, mech pocket, band hole, etc and most of the shaping. I used my angle sander to burn and make a tiger look on the muzzle band-track recesses. I engraved my name and a tuna then set the gun up for gluing on some sights and a butt pad. The side line release is a funny thing, it must be tuned just right, I needed to drill three line release pin holes and carbon back on some wood to close up the big routered gap a lot. Shaped my sights, glued on my homemade line anchor and keeper. Epoxied on the butt pad. Drew with graphite and a red pen a nice length measure on the bottom that measures to 75cm(66in). Also made my Weekend Warrior Graphic, it looks pretty sweet. Took the font and left hoplite off the net by tracing and did the right helm and spear myself. It’s ready for coating . As I was coating this gun during the same time as my Flagship Gun I had a little trouble but strangely not as much and it came out with a relatively nice finish. Let it cure a week, then assembled... it looked terrific. The sights look awesome too, so hopefully if ever I need to take a long shot it will be an accurate one. WeekEnd Warrior Stats Gun Length: 90cm from band hole to last notch, 120cm overall. Dimensions: Barrel to 27 high by 37mm wide. (Tapered (higher at the handle)) Spear: Threaded 8mm Torres and flopper, 11cm overhang. Rubber: 16mm amber 46cm loop. Thanks Col Mech: stupidly high Riffe Handle: Seahornet Pranga: Dmart grubscrew base with American notched prongs. Band hole capacity: 3 rubbers Balance in the water: With all the buoyant wood at the back and a big pranga at the front it is really heavy in the front, I’m almost tempted to go to the trouble of putting some weight in the back. It’s a lot better with a single point on the front. |
01-24-2014, 08:12 AM | #2 |
Sam G
Join Date: Apr 2012
Posts: 151
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Re: My 5th Gun Build, WeekEnd Warrior 90
First dive I found my pursued species, good sized flathead and lots of them. Swimming on the edge of a weed bed in murk with soft mud on the bottom I saw a nice flathead swimming below towards me, put the gun down onto him and fired. The fish disappeared and the shaft was left where it had been but I couldn’t believe it because of such an accurate shot. I put my hand a foot or so into the soft mud to retrieve my buried shaft when I found the flathead buried in the mud too! Great fish measured 40cm on my nice gun ruler and I was happy to be on my way to a grand feast of flathead.
I was able to catch 3 more flathead around the same perfect size, filleted them all up and that night I cooked them beautifully with a serve of chips at a mate’s place and we enjoyied eating them in celebration of a successfully built gun that I really liked. Next day I took a nice trevally under the bridge. The Dmart grubscrew pranga was starting to cark it. We eventually got some grand 1.9m high tides which were the highest all year so I thought I’d head to secret spot far up river that I wasn’t able to try until now with the king tides. I scouted everywhere swimming for kilometres but found absolutely nothing of considerable size in the clean water. Took break from it and went and filmed the bat colony, found some perfect looking fallen trees but still nothing due to the clean water. Swam on for a fare way then once I was on the top of the tide, in the murky water exchange I descended below, held still in the rocks and a school of Mangrove Jack surrounded me on the edge of visibility. I could just make out their perch appearance and dark red color, I didn’t linger as they were all 50-55cm from what I could see. Although in hindsight I should have as bigger jacks generally come if you can stay calm and hold on. Took the fish with pride, the pranga hit the cheek sending one prong flying off. Grabbed the fish, then the prong and surfaced with a well deserved best eating fish after a marathon of a swim. Found a nice 50cm flathead not far away also and the pranga worked wonders once more landing a great fish. That was certainly a memorable terrific dive, new area, great fish, long swim. ....... and ugly crocs We had a great meal that night, I was almost tempted to eat the all the Jack raw it was so delicious... maybe next time. Sashimi is so rich you don’t think you can eat a lot but you most certainly can haha. The next day all the prongs fell out from snapping at the grubscrew notches, so I’ll be rebuilding it with good old solder and mustard prongs. Very happy with the gun, it’s great to have a good sized pranga gun finally and I love using prangas now. Conclusion I hope you too try and gunbuild some day and that this may have been some help or inspiration. Please check out spearboard.com for a lot of gun building info as there is a good deal that I have left out from this. I don’t expect I’ll be making any more for ‘sometime’ as these have taken a lot time..... ...... I’d really like to thank Darren, Daniel, Collin, Jack, Wayne, Jono, Alan, Tony and everyone else for all the help and inspiration they couldn’t have been more willing in giving me. Thankyou . If you have any questions about gun building I’d be happy to help so shoot me a pm or reply. Thankyou all for reading. Best Regards Sam I guess you’re going to pick on my backyard ‘ I’ll weed it all after the parsley goes to seed ‘ I have been contemplating whether or not to include a list of what I have learnt from this in tips and tricks. As I thought it would be a good way to finish this write up to include something that people can start to make their own guns with. However I know some of my ideas are not backed up with long term repetitive personal experience and; I do think it is better to receive that information from those who are experienced. But if you’d like those tips and tricks I can write it up if you’d like.? |
01-24-2014, 10:32 AM | #3 |
Registered User
Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: Oregonian in Utah
Posts: 234
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Re: My 5th Gun Build, WeekEnd Warrior 90
Very unique guns. Nice shooting. Fun read!
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01-28-2014, 05:00 AM | #4 |
Sam G
Join Date: Apr 2012
Posts: 151
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Re: My 5th Gun Build, WeekEnd Warrior 90
Thankyou Istickfish, glad you enjoyed it
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01-28-2014, 01:14 PM | #5 |
Registered User
Join Date: May 2008
Location: Orange Beach, Alabama
Posts: 1,075
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Re: My 5th Gun Build, WeekEnd Warrior 90
Nothing tastes quite as good as a fish you shot with a gun you built yourself!
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01-28-2014, 05:10 PM | #6 |
Registered User
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: Victoria Australia
Posts: 367
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Re: My 5th Gun Build, WeekEnd Warrior 90
Roses are red
Violets are black Nothing's as good as spearing a jack Cheeky b*stards deserve to be shot. I have a mate who spends a lot of time seeking flathead, and swears by his antique sea hornet gun, which is fronted by a pranger. I think he found it on the nature strip beside the road. He detuned it by increasing the length of the bridle. The barbs are all bent. But he still bags out on flathead. Takes snapper with it sometimes too. I have another mate who swears by prangers for taking kings - says they have incredible holding power. Your logo doesn't seem to have run - what combination of pens and varnish/sealant did you use? Ric
__________________
Ric Fallu started spearfishing on the southern coast of Australia in the 1960s, and never really stopped. His other passion is building wooden spearguns. |
01-28-2014, 08:27 PM | #7 |
Kyle Porker
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: ur moms
Age: 32
Posts: 6,910
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Re: My 5th Gun Build, WeekEnd Warrior 90
Single band 90 for the win! Nice job.
__________________
For all your diving needs Petros has you covered www.spearamerica.com instagram: yardsalejosh |
01-28-2014, 09:03 PM | #8 |
Chad
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Louisiana & Florida
Posts: 1,944
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Re: My 5th Gun Build, WeekEnd Warrior 90
Great work! I agree with the note from wood guy, I'm sure you enjoyed those fish.
The only suggestion that I have is that you consider recessing the handle into the stock a little. This will make it push against wood instead of relying on the screws. Probably not a big deal with a one band gun, but you clearly have the skills. |
02-02-2014, 07:35 AM | #9 |
Sam G
Join Date: Apr 2012
Posts: 151
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Re: My 5th Gun Build, WeekEnd Warrior 90
Thankyou all,
The fish tasted terrific indeed! Particularly jacks! Almost got one today but shot just in front of his nose, arrrgh I had a golden opportunity and blew it so no sashimi tonight. Good Bream though. Thats a good story on the Seahornet Ric haha, I love my old seahornet pranga those things are really the best. Taken plenty of flathead with it, the barbs are all bent and rusty but still works great. I do think the old Seahornets are still pretty good pranga guns since I’m finding it hard to get a nice threaded shaft in oz. And also because they’ve got character Thankyou Josh, 90 guns are great, I still like my flame of anor gun and think I might make a quiver of them next year maybe 90,125 and 150(in fibreglass-maybe). Thanks Griswold on the advice about assembled handles, I like the look of recessed handles but that reason never crossed my mind and it is a good one so thanks. I couldn’t however recess this handle as the riffe mech is stupidly high and can’t be cut down, So I made the stock as small as I could and recessed the handle 0.5mm and the trigger just clears. I could have made a much better gun(lower profile) with a different trigger but this is still pretty good |
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