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

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Old 10-20-2014, 06:49 AM   #31
2fishin2
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Re: Rail guns..Railguns...Rail-guns...and a roller too

No i havent made the 14mm bands yet. Im considering it and womdering if 400% would be too much. Thanks for the barb tip!
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Old 10-20-2014, 07:03 AM   #32
Rob Allen
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Re: Rail guns..Railguns...Rail-guns...and a roller too

They say latex can stretch to 500% but I feel 400% should be max. Any more that that could damage it.
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Old 10-20-2014, 01:59 PM   #33
dxb.night
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Re: Rail guns..Railguns...Rail-guns...and a roller too

I recently rigged a spear master 125 with twin 14mm at 400%. The gun was very powerful, and was accurate, with little recoil; but too much more stretch and it would've been uncomfortable. Caught good fish with it.

Ive since put 2x14mm on my RA 120 with a 7mm, and it should come to around 370%, and will test soon... I haven't weighed the RA 120, but my reasoning is that due to it being a bit lighter, recoil maybe an issue so less stretch was in order.

2 x 14 and 7mm is a good match.
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Old 10-20-2014, 07:14 PM   #34
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Re: Rail guns..Railguns...Rail-guns...and a roller too

hey 2fishin2 im running twin 14mm primeline bands on my pathos 110 cut at 400% or 4-1 stretch ratio. The gun performs excellent, one of the main things I like about it is that I dive in a lot of heavy current areas and when the 14mmbands are stretched to 400% they are so so thin that it creates bugger all drag through the water when compare to thicker bands.

One thing to watch out for and as spearq8 has stated before is the difference in band strength between different manufacturers etc. For example I have 2 x 16mm bands on my denton also cut at 400% and iam pretty sure these are cressi bands. The 14mm primeline bands on my pathos are considerably harder to load than the 16mm bands on the denton!!!!
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Old 10-20-2014, 08:02 PM   #35
2fishin2
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Re: Rail guns..Railguns...Rail-guns...and a roller too

Thanks yall, Im going with the 375 stretch.
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Old 10-22-2014, 08:46 AM   #36
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Re: Rail guns..Railguns...Rail-guns...and a roller too

Looks like we found a winner on the 14mm bands for standard band guns.



Im going to switch over to roller mode for a second tho and talk about other the elephant in the room.


Right now the first thing that comes to mind with roller guns is that currently the rail gun roller add ons requires the use of double wrap. Despite what some people think (at one point even myself ) a rail gun doesn't need a double wrap, having all that mono gives a false expectation of how far the gun should really shoot. And once you go past a 120 gun, two wraps of mono ends up being an obscene amount of line. Let alone in a 160 version of this.

A lot of people were impressed, with that roller video of Ascension Island that came online a little bit ago, but a and a lot of people were unimpressed at the same time...me included, from what i know about my own long roller gun setup, that gun needed testing and tuning and was hardly at its maximum there. For everyone wanting to bolt on a roller muzzle, it sure gave them a bit of confidence till they started seeing the comments from real the gun builders....

After taking the very first shot, i knew several things weren't optimal with the rigging, but the end result was a landed fish. If i lived there full time, going out there testing guns like this is no problem, but for those that dream of taking one trip out there in their lifetime, should probably come prepared with something a little different. Which is why i want to keep this thread going. Some people dont have access to pools, canals, heck even any body of water larger then a bath tub and dont have the ability to test-n-tune setups.

I've decided I will be making a 130 RA out of my AL tube and will be testing and posting the results on this thread once I get a shaft. Everyone loves the 120 length on here, but that just seems way too short for me. While I plan on making the 130 a 9/32 twin 14mm band gun at 400% ratio shooter in the end. I still want to find the best setup for a roller muzzle, so that others can see what they are getting into with them. Because as it is, there is still a TON of confusion about them. I really wish we could compile all the best posts on rollers over the past few years and put them into one thread.
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Old 10-22-2014, 08:54 AM   #37
2fishin2
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Re: Rail guns..Railguns...Rail-guns...and a roller too

Nope no winner yet. I took my 120 out today with. 7mm 160cm shaft. Used 2 14mm bands cut at 375%. I killed fish but dont like the setup. Not enough power. All of my fish were shot wrong. im normally a head shot guy and all today were mid body to ass.
I do like no recoil but, thinking if I go to a 150cm 7mm shaft it might be better.
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Old 10-22-2014, 03:04 PM   #38
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Re: Rail guns..Railguns...Rail-guns...and a roller too

Thanks for getting back with us on the results of your tests. Could the bands have been cut shorter? I thought the 120 comes with a 160 shaft, would a 150 even fit?
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Old 10-22-2014, 03:37 PM   #39
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Re: Rail guns..Railguns...Rail-guns...and a roller too

2fisin2 try cutting to 400%
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Old 10-22-2014, 07:55 PM   #40
2fishin2
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Re: Rail guns..Railguns...Rail-guns...and a roller too

120 comes standard with 160cm 7mm shaft and 16mm bands. Have shot that config for many years with great success. I recently changed to a 150cm 7.5 shaft and kept same bands which by the way, my standard is 350%. I like this setup also.

A 150cm shaft is better than a 160cm. Reason is that 10cm difference really takes alot of weight off the nose. If you are shooting open water and just dropping and shooting fish or scuba it really doesnt mater but, if you are laying on the bottom calling in skiddish reef fish a nose heavy gun makes you expend more energy using up oxygen faster.
With the 14mm bands it does shoot smoother with almost no recoil. Also because of the longer band stretch and smaller diameter bands, they dont vibrate and flutter so much.
Im going to get a 150cm 7mm shaft and try it with the 14mm bands and first try the 375 then go to 400% if needed, thanks yall.
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Old 10-22-2014, 08:11 PM   #41
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Re: Rail guns..Railguns...Rail-guns...and a roller too

Interesting thread...
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Old 10-23-2014, 02:37 AM   #42
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Re: Rail guns..Railguns...Rail-guns...and a roller too

2fishin 2 I fully agree re over hang, extra weight for no reason. When I first started making our railguns 20 years ago I also had the same short overhang but the average guy did not like it. Had to “give the customer what the customer wanted” and that’s where it's remained.

I have just been told you can stretch the rubber up to 500%. Anymore that that won’t damage the rubber but will shorten it’s life. I like the extra stroke length by going to these thinner diameters. Win win with rubber stroke and lower profile.

The biggest tuna shot on Ascension to date was shot with a 7mm and 2 x 14mm tight bands.
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Old 10-23-2014, 03:55 AM   #43
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Re: Rail guns..Railguns...Rail-guns...and a roller too

By far my favorite setup is a 120 band stretch gun with 2 x 16mm bands on a 150cm @ 7mm shaft. When big fish are not showing up ... baitfish are in trouble! If you can hit a small baitfish darting around at 5 meters you can hit anything! It shoots super flat flat flat, all the way to 6 meters and is very very accurate and will still have enough power to penetrate a large King Mackerel at the end of the 2 wraps ... usually the biggest fish I will see in my part of the world. The new high performance 14.5mm bands are really amazing and I bet all the guns I have that you will soon see a change where many band manufacturers will start dropping the ID. Not sure how the physics works, but 2 thin bands at higher stretch are easier to load, give more velocity to your shaft ... YET they have less recoil. Almost sounds too good to be true but somehow the physics seems to work that way. Remember that the best way to increase power of a speargun is to close your distance to your target ... a good estimate would be that for each extra meter of range you add above 4 meters you need an extra band. A single 16mm band with say 125cm band stretch can propel a 170cm @ 8mm shaft with more power at 4 meters than a souped up double banded gun at 6 meters. Of course getting close to your fish is not always possible and thus the need for higher performance guns.

Forget all the gun crap ... how do I get my ass to the Ascension Island? It is one of the things on my bucket list !

Last edited by spearq8; 10-23-2014 at 04:07 AM.
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Old 10-23-2014, 07:12 AM   #44
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Re: Rail guns..Railguns...Rail-guns...and a roller too

Quick question; I run a single 20mm band on my guns, (~70cm and ~90cm). At those shorter lengths, do you think there's the same advantage to switching to twin 14s, or is that more a benefit for longer guns?

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Old 10-23-2014, 07:35 AM   #45
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Re: Rail guns..Railguns...Rail-guns...and a roller too

Quote:
Originally Posted by spearq8 View Post
By far my favorite setup is a 120 band stretch gun with 2 x 16mm bands on a 150cm @ 7mm shaft.

is this a reference to a wood gun or a rail gun
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