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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 08-31-2019, 02:31 PM   #1
Hpwatson
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Newest Build - Purpleheart 95cm Kid's first gun

Haven't posted many builds in here recently mostly because the image posting on this forum still vexes me (please let me know if these don't work). But I thought I'd put these up here for some viewing. This gun is for a dive friend's son. I think he's around 12 and already a total fanatic. Can't wait to see him learn to shoot. This is my first time using purple heart in a gun and I love it. Nothing really groundbreaking here, just a semi-typical gun with some cool additions. I finally got a brand to burn-on my logo and I also got to try some other cool things with this build. The guy I built this for wanted me to burn his son's name into the bottom so I freehanded it with a pyrography pen. It turned out pretty cool I think, not perfect. Then he asked me to put his boat's name 'freeSPEARit' on there somewhere too. I wasn't comfortable burning the boat's name into the gun because it's kind of long and my handwriting is awful. With a burning pen, even worse. So I researched how to do an image transfer and after a couple tries I got it figured out. Looks pretty cool I think! I have several layers of teak oil over the top of the ink transfer, so I'm thinking it should be semi-durable. Probably won't last forever though unless he is diligent about keeping oil on the gun. All in all I like the final result with this gun. As I said nothing too complicated here just a good looking traditional gun.

One thing I've been doing on rear handle guns like this one is a micro-mid handle setup. With the combination of the Neptonics mechanisms and AR-15 handles, I've found that you're really limited on how thin the gun can be if you place them on top of eachother. The gun has to be minimum 2" thick for that setup. So I've started placing the handle just barely in front of the mechanism and doing a very small push rod in between the triggers. This still achieves the rear handle feel but allows the gun to be much thinner. This gun is 1.4" thick and feels much nicer than 2" thick in my opinion. Especially considering that this will be a kid's gun, I wanted it to be pretty nimble in the water so that he doesn't struggle to track and aim with it.

Let me know your thoughts!

-Henri


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Old 08-31-2019, 05:25 PM   #2
Marco
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Re: Newest Build - Purpleheart 95cm Kid's first gun

This is one of the nicest guns I've seen in this board. Congratulations! The kid will love it for sure!
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Old 08-31-2019, 06:41 PM   #3
Hpwatson
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Re: Newest Build - Purpleheart 95cm Kid's first gun

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This is one of the nicest guns I've seen in this board. Congratulations! The kid will love it for sure!
Well I don't know about that! But thank you
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Old 08-31-2019, 07:47 PM   #4
Trace
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Re: Newest Build - Purpleheart 95cm Kid's first gun

Very nice build!
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Old 09-01-2019, 12:59 AM   #5
popgun pete
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Re: Newest Build - Purpleheart 95cm Kid's first gun

Looks great, very clean looking lines. The name came out well, so no worries on the boat name lettering and the name of the prospective owner.
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Old 09-01-2019, 11:53 AM   #6
Dbrown
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Re: Newest Build - Purpleheart 95cm Kid's first gun

Really, really cool looking gun!
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Old 09-04-2019, 12:25 PM   #7
deanmc
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Re: Newest Build - Purpleheart 95cm Kid's first gun

Beautiful gun. That wood combo is one of my favorites!
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Old 09-04-2019, 12:47 PM   #8
Hpwatson
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Re: Newest Build - Purpleheart 95cm Kid's first gun

Thanks guys! Yes I'm loving the purple heart combo. I went through a monoblock mahogany phase because I love seeing continuous grain running through a finished gun, but I've found that mahogany is really on the softer side for a regular-use speargun. A lot of the guns that I've sent out into hardcore divers' hands are already looking pretty well dinged up and dented. I'm amazed at how dent resistant the purple heart is, and having it on the sides of the gun will really help it to last I think.
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Old 09-04-2019, 03:35 PM   #9
popgun pete
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Re: Newest Build - Purpleheart 95cm Kid's first gun

Suggest that the kid gets a gun bag to put it in, then he will be more likely to look after it. Doesn't have to be anything fancy, they can be made of cloth or neoprene. Plus keeps the sun off the bands.
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Old 09-05-2019, 12:25 AM   #10
Diving Gecko
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Re: Newest Build - Purpleheart 95cm Kid's first gun

Speaking of bands, what did you rig it with?
I put together a small pipe gun for a short woman as her first gun and rigged it with double 13mm Small ID bands and it shoots great and is still easy to load.
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Old 09-05-2019, 04:49 AM   #11
Mikel_24
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Re: Newest Build - Purpleheart 95cm Kid's first gun

Greeeeeeeeeeeat gun! And I don't know what that 12 year old kid is going to be shooting anytime soon but I recall my early days and I was shooting small fish point blank. I got my first speargun at 14 and it was a Nemrod Cazador in 50cm or so. My next step up was a Sporasub Aspic 75 (I still have that gun... what a change!!! line release, thin thaitian shaft...).

I see that double banded 95cm gun and I REALLY keep wondering what he will be shooting at.

Mikel
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Old 09-05-2019, 01:48 PM   #12
Hpwatson
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Re: Newest Build - Purpleheart 95cm Kid's first gun

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Originally Posted by Diving Gecko View Post
Speaking of bands, what did you rig it with?
I put together a small pipe gun for a short woman as her first gun and rigged it with double 13mm Small ID bands and it shoots great and is still easy to load.
I rigged it with 14mm regular ID bands at around 280% stretch with pretty long wishbones. His dad is going to load it for him for now, but I advised them to tie in some spear pole rubbers if it still kicked too much for the kid or if he got tired of loading it for him.
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Old 09-05-2019, 01:51 PM   #13
Hpwatson
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Re: Newest Build - Purpleheart 95cm Kid's first gun

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Originally Posted by Mikel_24 View Post
Greeeeeeeeeeeat gun! And I don't know what that 12 year old kid is going to be shooting anytime soon but I recall my early days and I was shooting small fish point blank. I got my first speargun at 14 and it was a Nemrod Cazador in 50cm or so. My next step up was a Sporasub Aspic 75 (I still have that gun... what a change!!! line release, thin thaitian shaft...).

I see that double banded 95cm gun and I REALLY keep wondering what he will be shooting at.

Mikel
He will probably be swimming around the rigs shooting surface fish like mangrove snapper and sheepshead. I expect his dad will take it down a bit deeper and shoot some red snapper occasionally as well. It is probably a little too much gun for a kid his size, but the goal was to get him something he could grow in to and shoot for several years. We agreed that if we built him a gun that fit him now, he'd outgrow it within a year or two.
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Old 09-05-2019, 03:00 PM   #14
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Re: Newest Build - Purpleheart 95cm Kid's first gun

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Originally Posted by Hpwatson View Post
I rigged it with 14mm regular ID bands at around 280% stretch with pretty long wishbones. His dad is going to load it for him for now, but I advised them to tie in some spear pole rubbers if it still kicked too much for the kid or if he got tired of loading it for him.
Longer wishbones don't make loading easier. When you pull the bands, you naturally spread your hands and the wishbone tends to be all stretched appart. And, believe it or not, it is more difficult to put it in the shrakfin/notch.

So, you are making it more difficult to load while loosing some power.

If he's a strong kid, he'll have no problems loading it. 280% is not that extreme.

My 2 cents.
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Old 09-05-2019, 03:41 PM   #15
popgun pete
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Re: Newest Build - Purpleheart 95cm Kid's first gun

He is pretty lucky to be given a gun, when I was a kid I used a polespear as no one trusted a kid with a gun. However that was shorediving with others around, out on a boat and with his Dad it is a different situation. Still keep your finger off the trigger until you want to shoot is good advice. Had a few "oops, sorry" spears fly by me over the years!
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