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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 12-23-2019, 03:37 PM   #1
popgun pete
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Eskwad Air Max pneumatic speargun

A few years ago Imersion in France announced a pneumatic speargun was being offered to add to their existing range of alloy tube barrel euroguns. This new gun was the "Eskwad Air Max" and looked like a "Cyrano" from Mares in terms of a snout at the front, although apart from that similarity the gun had somewhat different styling and a 13 mm diameter inner barrel instead of the 11 mm used in the Mares gun.

I only ever saw one advertised for sale and that was a 50 cm which I was not interested in. However on the recent Black Friday sale Scubastore was selling the guns for very low prices, so I decided to buy a longer gun which turned out to be 100 cm. I had thought the gun was a "me too" version of the much copied Mares "Sten" which basically created a template for most floating pneumatic guns that followed its introduction in 1967, but on inspection it is a little more original in how it is put together. Functionally it will perform much the same as all the others, but that it true of any pneumatic gun. French made allegedly, it is a quality gun and has a decent spear (8 mm diameter), although not spring stainless steel, with a detachable double flopper tip.


Last edited by popgun pete; 12-23-2019 at 03:51 PM.
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Old 12-23-2019, 03:42 PM   #2
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Re: Eskwad Air Max pneumatic speargun

Here are a few more photos, note the safety lever that folds down in front of the trigger so that you cannot touch it.



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Old 12-23-2019, 03:44 PM   #3
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Re: Eskwad Air Max pneumatic speargun

The instruction sheet that comes with the gun is a single page printed on both sides with identical info in a variety of languages.

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Old 12-27-2019, 07:43 PM   #4
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Re: Eskwad Air Max pneumatic speargun

Snout comparison of the Eskwad and the original Cyrano, the former has slightly greater outer diameters than the latter. Both have 40 mm OD tanks.
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Old 12-29-2019, 03:43 PM   #5
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Re: Eskwad Air Max pneumatic speargun

Thank you for the review Pete!
It would be interesting to see a side by side comparison on the performance of the Eskwad vs the Cyrano for the same size gun/barrel. The 8mm shaft would have more mass hence more penetration vs the Cyrano shaft which would be faster. Effective shooting range for the 100mm?
I did not see an attachment point for a trailing line/save the gun in case of a larger fish encounter..
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Old 12-29-2019, 06:55 PM   #6
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Re: Eskwad Air Max pneumatic speargun

You are right, there is no hole for a trailing line attachment, but you could easily drill one through the back of the heel of the grip handle or two holes running transversely in the handle butt such as are used on the "Predathor" grip handle. The white part of the Eskwad grip sits over a black plastic core that runs right to the bottom of the grip handle, although it is slighter thinner there to make the white part sit flush with the rest of the grip. Being a 13 mm ID inner barrel gun the Eskwad should shoot easily outshoot the 11 mm ID "Cyrano" which was purposely created to shoot slimmer shafts at faster swimming fish. Or as one old salt commented when he first shoved a shaft down the inner barrel of a then brand new (1994) "Cyrano", a gun for weaklings!
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Old 12-31-2019, 02:25 PM   #7
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Re: Eskwad Air Max pneumatic speargun

Another modification, which could be implemented in a variety of pneumatic guns, is to replace the rear screw-in valve cap with a metal version that has a retaining eye added for the rig line. Ideally there should be a reasonable length of screw thread there, some are longer than others, to enable this threaded connection to provide a strong link through the gun body if it was being towed in an in-line rigging set-up. Such a line rigging eye is found on the screw-in tail cap of the "Seabear" pneumatic speargun, although that mid-handle pneumatic gun is a non-floating "boat anchor" with its full length stainless steel barrel and all-metal construction.

This arrangement was suggested for the Russian “Taimen” as its plastic clamshell handle was too thin to be used with a line attachment eye positioned on the handle butt, plus there was no way to add an internal bracing rod that ran through the grip handle and connected to the cylindrical metal gun body. An example is shown for the latest "Cyrano" where a swivel may be also added to stop any spinning action unscrewing the metal replacement for the rear valve cap.
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Old 01-02-2020, 06:29 PM   #8
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Re: Eskwad Air Max pneumatic speargun

Eskwad (Imersion) hand pump with Salvimar and Mares pumps shown for comparison purposes on either side.


The nose on the Eskwad pump pushes into an "O" ring sitting in a recess in the rear of the speargun that seals on the machined outer step on the front end of the hand pump.
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Old 12-19-2021, 02:26 PM   #9
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Re: Eskwad Air Max pneumatic speargun

I note that these French pneumatic guns are still available from Scubastore.

Imersion Eskwad Air Max Pneumatic Speargun 100 Black, Scubastore
Imersion Eskwad Air Max Pneumatic Speargun 100 - Black.Due to a strong demand from the Eastern European freedivers, we have developed in our, dive
www.scubastore.com www.scubastore.com
Imersion Eskwad Air Max Pneumatic Speargun 75 Black, Scubastore
Imersion Eskwad Air Max Pneumatic Speargun 75 - Black.Due to a strong demand from the Eastern European freedivers, we have developed in our , dive
www.scubastore.com www.scubastore.com
Imersion Eskwad Air Max Pneumatic Speargun 50 Black, Scubastore
Imersion Eskwad Air Max Pneumatic Speargun 50 - Black.Due to a strong demand from the Eastern European freedivers, we have developed in our , dive
www.scubastore.com www.scubastore.com
The 100 cm and 75 cm models are only separated in price by 6 US dollars!

The Eskwad guns are slightly bigger boned than their Italian counterparts as the grip and muzzle mouldings are large enough to envelop the 40 mm tank tube by having a socket mounting at their inner end. This is unlike the usual rear handle pneumatic gun where the grip handle and nose cone have an integral boss on their inner ends that presses inside the tank tube. The Eskwad guns replace the function of this boss by those separate bulkheads shown in white on the schematic diagram that simultaneously locate inside the tank tube and their respective end mouldings. The gun is still held together by the inlet valve body and muzzle acting as nuts on the threaded end inner barrel tube which creates a clamp holding everything in place against the tank pressure trying to blow the gun apart. One advantage of this different arrangement is the gun is less likely to banana at the ends because the tank tube is imprisoned between two surfaces, but that requires extra “O” rings to seal the bulkheads. The other advantage is that the power regulator bulkhead is set much further back in the Eskwad gun making for a smaller pre-chamber, whereas in Sten type guns it is positioned further forward of the grip handle boss. That smaller prechamber creates a weaker low power shot which would be handy in the rocks as half power, which is the usual low power level, can still crunch your spear tips if you hit a rock point blank. The low power shot in the Eskwad is a third of full power.


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Old 12-19-2021, 02:40 PM   #10
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Re: Eskwad Air Max pneumatic speargun

A direct comparison is shown here with the Mares Cyrano in its original form. The respective prechamber boundaries are indicated by the red boxes. It would appear that this much smaller prechamber in the Eskwad "Air Max" is the key factor for creating this very different layout.
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Old 12-19-2021, 02:56 PM   #11
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Re: Eskwad Air Max pneumatic speargun

A graphical comparison shows the energy storage for low power shots being represented by the area marked in green. Full power is the sum of the red and green areas. The first graph is for the usual Sten/Cyrano layout and also represents all their clones made by other manufacturers (many of which are probably subcontracted out of the same factory until the Chinese got into the act).

This second graph represents the Eskwad layout.
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