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Florida East Coast Spearfishing Let's talk here about spearing on Florida's Atlantic coast. Reports and other issues about this region belong here.

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Old 06-18-2009, 09:41 AM   #1
walleyworld
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Riffe No ka Oia Upgrades,, Please help?

Hey everyone, I have a Riffe gun for about 1 year now. It is a 3 band gun and i believe it it is between the Hawaiin and the Island in size. Anyways I had some accuracy issues, gun shooting low due to muzzle lift when firing. After researching the board, I took my gun to Florida Freedivers 2 days ago and asked for a the front stabilizer wings to be installed for increased stability, a flashlight holder(is a rubber one they have at florida freedivers), and a mag track for freeshafting and quicker reloading. Anyways, I spoke with the store owner today and he has installed the wings, but has never put a flashlight holder and wings on the same gun. Florida Freedivers owner believes that we can mount the flashlight holder directly to the stabilizer wings(due to lack of any other location to place it) He wanted me to post this question on spearboard as to whether this would counteract the stabilization effect of the wings..Has anyone out there with a riffe done this before? Any suggestions are appreciated..Thanks guys

Last edited by walleyworld; 06-18-2009 at 11:43 PM.
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Old 06-18-2009, 11:52 AM   #2
Alexrom1207
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Re: Riffe No ka Oia Upgrades,, Please help?

Good question. I've never done this before so I'm just speculating. The wings are designed to be symmetrical so that the forces of the water act consistently on both sides of the gun. Since the forces counteract each other the central barrel will remain more stable. If one of the wings has a light mounted to it which changes the way that the water acts on that fin only, then the force of the water (acting unequally) could cause stability problems.

This is just theoretical, as I'm not sure how much of a difference the flashlight will actually make because I'm not sure if the forces that we're considering are large enough to cause the effect. It's like having one of the tires on your car a little unbalanced, at 30mph you can't even tell something's wrong, but once you hit 50 or 60mph the car's rattling like crazy. I'm guessing that the force upon the gun when you shoot it will not be that serious (the fins are only going to counteract the small amount of movement from the muzzle flip). So when firing, the light may cause no noticeable difference. But when tracking vertically, which will create a lot more force, you may find the gun wanting to twist in your hand. Which brings me to the next reason not to mount the flashlight there: it will ruin the tracking of your gun. Mounting the light at the front of the barrel will create a lot of drag (significantly more than if it were mounted somewhere else). Vertical tracking is going to be much more difficult with those wings (that's the reason you install them in the first place) with a flashlight attached too, you're going to have serious horizontal tracking issues. Combining all that additional drag, you're going to end up with a gun that's a bear to use. If this were a very short hole/cave gun, you could probably get away with it, but not with your gun.

I'd consider alternatives like wrist or mask mounting the light, or getting a Wong (but that's a whole other thread).
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Old 06-18-2009, 10:21 PM   #3
walleyworld
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Re: Riffe No ka Oia Upgrades,, Please help?

Thx, i actually meant that he was installing the light holder just underneath the wings on the actual muzzle. There isn't much room underneath the wing so may have to shave down the light holder. Light holder holds a mini Q40. I have too much money invested in the gun to change it out at this point(about 1100$) I definitely will probably try another brand if this doesn't work out though. I really wanted to have the light on the barrel of the gun, but may not be able to have it with the wings..thx again I will say that it sure has a lot of power though, i shot a legal grouper under a ledge 2 days ago and the spear ended up going through the grouper, and 3 big margates that were behind him..(it was chaos trying to get all those fish off at once with a swarm of hungry triggers attacking them). I was only using 2 of the 3 bands to do this!
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Old 06-18-2009, 10:50 PM   #4
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Re: Riffe No ka Oia Upgrades,, Please help?

Just put a light on each side.
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Old 06-18-2009, 10:54 PM   #5
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Re: Riffe No ka Oia Upgrades,, Please help?

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Originally Posted by SeaWeed View Post
Just put a light on each side.
Would solve the stability issue but make the drag issue worse.

Just a question, if you need a light on the gun I'm assuming that you're shooting it under ledges and rocks and such, that being the case....why such a big gun? All that power's great for FL when you are shooting Mahi at 20', but if you're shooting grouper under ledges wouldn't a shorter gun work out better? It's only a matter of time before that shaft goes 4" into the reef instead of other fish.
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Old 06-18-2009, 11:41 PM   #6
walleyworld
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Re: Riffe No ka Oia Upgrades,, Please help?

seaweed

alexrom, you are correct, it is a little overpowered for under ledges(which is why i usually use one or two of the 3 bands..I also use this gun to hunt mahi/pelagics (the reason for the wings and the reel that i have on it) and was just trying to use one gun for everything. I had a 48 ab biller for the reefs and it worked well. Unfortunately, i bent it in half when i did the back roll into the water over the side of the boat and the butt of the gun got caught on the leaning post..whoops.
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Old 06-19-2009, 07:29 AM   #7
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Re: Riffe No ka Oia Upgrades,, Please help?

Quote:
Originally Posted by walleyworld View Post
just trying to use one gun for everything.
Oh boy, you're in for it now.
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Old 06-19-2009, 09:10 AM   #8
mcbas
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Re: Riffe No ka Oia Upgrades,, Please help?

I have a No Ka Oi with two 5/8th" and one 9/16th" bands and I find it to be extremely accurate and don't really have issues with it. I am not sure of your level of familiarity with the gun but a good thing to do is to set up a static target anchored underwater and just spend some time shooting at the target. You will soon find out exactly how to hold the gun to hit the specific spot on the target that you are aiming at and it will become second nature to you when you are in a situation where you are aiming at a moving target.

Other things to thimnk about:
1) Is the gun overpowered? What size bands are you using?
2) How are you holding the gun? Do you have your elbow locked and extended fully and have your body in a nice streamlined position?
3) How long have you had the gun?
4) Were you suceessful previously with another gun and just started having trouble when you changed to this one?
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Old 06-19-2009, 09:39 AM   #9
walleyworld
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Re: Riffe No ka Oia Upgrades,, Please help?

yeah, i never missed with the ab biller which i had for about 6 years, had the riffe for about a year, and i am using the original bands it came with still. I notice the gun shoots low, but am also using an icepick which i have read can affect the accuracy. I am only getting the wings to make the long shots, i don't have any problems with shots less than 10 feet..where do they sell the static targets?
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Old 06-19-2009, 10:28 AM   #10
mcbas
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Re: Riffe No ka Oia Upgrades,, Please help?

Aha! The icepick will certainly impact how you shoot. It is a heavier spearhead which definitely creates drag, especially with the cable and line. Try your gun using a simple and pure Hawaiian flopper spear and then tell me how you're shooting. Also, I find the icepick to be more of a bluewater device that is not real good for reef hunting due to its propensity to get easily dinged up and deformed went it impacts reef structure, which renders it ineffective.

It seems to me that you are tring to do a little too much multitasking with one rig setup. Use your icepick for your bluewater forays and stick with the accurate and versatile Hawaiian flopper for your reef hunting. This is a much cheaper alternative to the wing setup which frankly did not convince me would solve your problems on the reef.
Also the wings may not be ideal for the reef in that you will have a lot more drag on the gun which will compromise you whne you need to quickly pull the gun around to get a shot off.
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Old 06-19-2009, 02:24 PM   #11
walleyworld
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Re: Riffe No ka Oia Upgrades,, Please help?

Thx for the feedback, I went to florida freedivers today and the wings are already installed. Mike is calling Riffe himself to ask about adding the light, i may just wear a light on my mask(which i don't really like doing). I will try the other tip that came with the gun too. No fish that i have shot, get's off the ice pick though. Thx again
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