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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 12-23-2021, 08:29 PM   #31
seaviews
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Re: Long Pneumatic Guns

Thanks Pete - if anyone wants a better pic, just reply to this thread. I've got at least one spear and a pump for each gun. The 2 shorter guns have the center grip as shown, but are easily removed. The shortest gun, with the reel, also has a slip tip set up, but this can be easily changed. I believe this gun is a 115 or 120. I also have a box of parts (not all Mares) that I will separate and include with the purchase.
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Old 12-24-2021, 12:08 AM   #32
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Re: Long Pneumatic Guns

Those grey tubular grip handles remind me of the extra fore grip that used to be added to the old Arbaletes such as the Champion later Beuchat "Canon" to drag the nose of the longer gun models around when changing your direction underwater. Adding the vinyl tape wind on the tanks helps protect the attachment point of that extra handle with its worm drive jubilee clip. Of course the black tape covers up the name stickers on the tanks so it makes the guns look rather anonymous.

Such long barrelled guns are really dedicated use weapons as you want very good visibility to shoot them in without the risk of nailing someone nearby in the water, but just out of sight.

Mares gun lengths are the measure from the tip of the muzzle back to the rear inlet valve cap, but not including the length to the back of the raked grip handle
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Old 12-25-2021, 05:04 PM   #33
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Re: Long Pneumatic Guns

In the 70's and 80's and some of 90's, I only used pneumatics, by Mares, up to the Supersten 130 . The long ones were always modified to increase power and made able to resist highr pressures. ( often above 35 atm ) using 8 mm shafts. Loading is doable, especially if you keep the power control. require s a modified loading handle with a loop of thick cord tied to it, some strength and tecnique. You might also want a connector with manometer and pressure reducer to use a scuba bottle to load air , otherwise you might need to pump manually, for a few thousand cycles.They were all 13 mm inner barrel. Nowadays a lot have a 12 mm or even 11 mm inner barrels, to be used with a thinner shaft and easier to load. Mediterranean fishing is not Ocean fishing... lighter, faster shafts are better. Mechanisms that keep the barrel dry, with no water inside are also popular, nowadays " sous vide " or sottovuoto in italian.
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Old 12-26-2021, 04:49 PM   #34
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Re: Long Pneumatic Guns

Anything that is designed to be pressurised is always built with a safety factor so that varying operating conditions don’t impose a risk of the item blowing up. The safety factor is probably of the order of 3 times the maximum operating pressure of the device. In the early days pneumatic spearguns had all metal parts so there were next to no intrinsic weak points. With the desire to make guns lighter and potential after the shot floaters the end bulkheads were switched to plastic once suitable plastic materials became available that provided sufficient strength and durability. The effect of this change was reduced cost and faster production of guns. Then in the early seventies the switch was made to plastic pistons with metal tails and matching plastic shock absorber anvils which again lowered costs, but introduced a potential weakness in guns whereby these high speed impact parts may crack after many hits, or not so many with some examples! That change meant that maximum pressure limits on pneumatic guns could no longer be ignored with relative impunity, so 30 bar became the new limit and for some guns, 20 bar. As you need to be able to latch it the compression ratio also had to be considered and in most modern pneumatic spearguns it is around 1.1:1 as most modern guns use a high start pressure, whereas very early pneumatic spearguns had compression ratios of 2:1 and a relatively low start pressure.

With the driving force unable to be changed much for practical purposes the propulsion stroke was lengthened in very long guns to increase the acceleration phase in the barrel and that is where these very long models come from.

Last edited by popgun pete; 12-26-2021 at 04:57 PM. Reason: extra comment
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Old 12-30-2021, 03:50 PM   #35
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Re: Long Pneumatic Guns

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Originally Posted by Keysspearoo View Post
Hey guys,

I need to get a long pneumatic gun, looking to get one in the 140cm size range. The problem is I see there is very little if any pneumatics in that size. I have an opportunity to buy a used persistent 140cm pneumatic but im not sure on the quality of those guns, anyone got any feedback? If not Anyone know where i can get one?

Thank you
I won't buy that. Get a Salvimar Vuoto instead. It's a 130 that's a 140 (or something close). Then, when you have to service it, change the piston and shock absorber by a Mares 13 mm. They're much better.
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Old 12-30-2021, 04:04 PM   #36
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Re: Long Pneumatic Guns

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Originally Posted by Keysspearoo View Post
Thanks for all the info, I find it interesting that long (140cm+) pneumatics are hard to come by and not many people make them. I will look into the salvimar 130s. I have also seen online pictures and videos of people using what appears to be a “homemade” pneumatic. For example, I have seen people using the Mares sten handle on a long gun and i know mares only makes those guns to about 100cm or so. My question is would it be possible to buy a barrel and other components say for a 140 and just put a name brand handle (cressi, mares, seac, salvimar, etc) on it and call it a day?
Some components are interchangeable. In Cuba they do miracles... I've seen 2 meters guns in Facebook









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Last edited by Marco; 12-30-2021 at 04:12 PM.
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Old 12-30-2021, 07:51 PM   #37
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Re: Long Pneumatic Guns

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I won't buy that. Get a Salvimar Vuoto instead. It's a 130 that's a 140 (or something close). Then, when you have to service it, change the piston and shock absorber by a Mares 13 mm. They're much better.
What is the difference between the salvimar predathor vouto and regular predathor? There is a price difference in the same size gun, and from what i can find the only difference is the vouto comes with a reel.
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Old 12-30-2021, 08:26 PM   #38
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Re: Long Pneumatic Guns

The difference is the vacuum barrell, which makes a huge difference in performance.

You get the same power with less pressure, or 30% more power with the same pressure. Additionally, because the barrell has no water, the speargun is lighter to handle.
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Old 12-30-2021, 09:29 PM   #39
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Re: Long Pneumatic Guns

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The difference is the vacuum barrell, which makes a huge difference in performance.

You get the same power with less pressure, or 30% more power with the same pressure. Additionally, because the barrell has no water, the speargun is lighter to handle.
So it is worth getting the vouto model?
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Old 01-04-2022, 12:43 PM   #40
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Re: Long Pneumatic Guns

Totally
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Old 01-04-2022, 02:46 PM   #41
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Re: Long Pneumatic Guns

If you buy a Vuoto and want to try the wet barrel equivalent it is relatively simple to swap the muzzle to the standard muzzle. There is no other difference in these guns. The wet barrel guns generally use thicker spears up to 8 mm diameter, although Salvimar say their Vuoto seal will work on 8 mm shafts, but only use 7 mm and 7.5 mm in recent times.

You can switch back to the vacuum barrel later, the only downside is you need to totally depressurize the gun each time. To get a wet muzzle if you cannot find a spare then a short model can suffice as a donor gun. Vintair and Predathor guns use the same screw threads and share most internal parts due to the latter being a revamp of the former, so a cheap option is to find a Vintair on sale as at one time Vintair 35 cm guns were selling new for well under a hundred bucks.
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Old 01-04-2022, 03:18 PM   #42
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Re: Long Pneumatic Guns

You can use a 8 mm shaft on a Vuoto, Pete. I do. Muzzle seals last longer with 7 mm shaft though.
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Old 01-04-2022, 04:10 PM   #43
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Re: Long Pneumatic Guns

Possibly in the interests of improving vacuum seal life Salvimar have introduced a new spear tail with an angled collision face of 45 degrees. Right now they only come on the 7 mm and 7.5 mm shafts and are listed in their 2022 catalogue.


One method that has been used on Russian guns is the soft spear tail stop where a polyurethane bush fronts the spear tail stop and enables an easier life for the vacuum seal as a high speed shaft moves through it. These soft tails are used with hydraulic damper line slides. Most advanced of these soft tails are the latest Taimen tails.

The metal tail has a coke bottle shape that tapers to the extreme end tip.
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Old 03-14-2022, 07:33 PM   #44
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Re: Long Pneumatic Guns

I have the Salvimar Predathor Vuoto 130. I removed the power adjuster and added a stainless steel line slider, a pelengas vacuum seal, triple wrapped mono. The gun is easy to load and extremely powerful, with little recoil. Very good for for large Pelagic fish.
I took it for a 14 day live aboard trip to the coral but was able to do a testing with other people who were taking 4 rubber cannons and double rollers/inverted rollers. Its power surprised everyone including me.
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Old 03-14-2022, 08:34 PM   #45
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Re: Long Pneumatic Guns

A long held myth of pneumatic spearguns being too complicated and maintenance intensive has persisted from the very early days when this may have been true, but with the appearance of the rear handle models this was no longer applicable although band gun manufacturers liked to keep the notion going to turn buyers to their products. The additive loading of band guns using multiple bands is something pneumatic guns cannot match, but staged loading using the non-return valves in the regulator equipped guns makes it easier than it normally would be. Once you get your technique right most can ram the shaft in with one push, but it is not something you can do immediately as you have to learn to stop the gun moving as you grasp it and haul the shaft back with the hand loader.
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