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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 06-27-2018, 12:55 PM   #1
Bloodygaffsboi
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120 cm Exotic wood reef gun project

Staying with some relatives in the azores currently, and since my grandfather has a pretty nice workshop, I thought I should finally finalize my speargun fantasy. The native wood here is cryptamaria, which is extremely strong but inherently light and bouyant. Planning on doing a 120 cm beefed up reef gun with neptonics hardware. Don’t know if I want to pour an enclosed track for my first gun. Please add on some tips or information for anyone who has gun building experience. Thank you!
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Old 06-27-2018, 02:44 PM   #2
Lorini
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Re: 120 cm Exotic wood reef gun project

I wouldn't use that wood, it's not strong enough. Just for comparison, teak is almost five times harder then japanese cedar/criptomeria.

Something cheap to get on the islands is iroko or mahogany. Good luck and keep us posted about your project
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Old 06-28-2018, 10:10 AM   #3
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Re: 120 cm Exotic wood reef gun project

If this is your first gun, and depending on your skills with tools, I suggest you stick to an easy to craft simple design.

I am an euro guy, so keep that in mind if you keep reading. Here fish swim fast and gon't give many chances for aiming, so mobility is key. I would ditch the fat muzzle, keep it narrow (taper the whole stock) and just drill a whole on the stock from side to side. You can do it to fit the rubber band itself or just a wishbone (tender shot style). I like that system a lot, allows you to use short leftovers of rubber, although it requires twice as many knotting.

I don't like those handles that just screw onto the underside of the stock. The hand is toooooo low and recoil will lift the muzzle. You need your hand as high as you can get it. That means I suggest you whittle it out of wood and adapt it to your hand).

I have used iroko and it works great, but for small guns you may need more bouyancy (you don't want a sinking gun, you want it neutral). Cedar is nice, but it is relatively soft. If you make a T laminated stock (two side by side and one on top) with carbon fiber in between the joints, you can get a light gun which is extremely rigid.

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Old 06-28-2018, 12:53 PM   #4
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Re: 120 cm Exotic wood reef gun project

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mikel_24 View Post
If this is your first gun, and depending on your skills with tools, I suggest you stick to an easy to craft simple design.

I am an euro guy, so keep that in mind if you keep reading. Here fish swim fast and gon't give many chances for aiming, so mobility is key. I would ditch the fat muzzle, keep it narrow (taper the whole stock) and just drill a whole on the stock from side to side. You can do it to fit the rubber band itself or just a wishbone (tender shot style). I like that system a lot, allows you to use short leftovers of rubber, although it requires twice as many knotting.

I don't like those handles that just screw onto the underside of the stock. The hand is toooooo low and recoil will lift the muzzle. You need your hand as high as you can get it. That means I suggest you whittle it out of wood and adapt it to your hand).

I have used iroko and it works great, but for small guns you may need more bouyancy (you don't want a sinking gun, you want it neutral). Cedar is nice, but it is relatively soft. If you make a T laminated stock (two side by side and one on top) with carbon fiber in between the joints, you can get a light gun which is extremely rigid.

Best
Very good tips thank you, this gun will not be used for the azores though. This will be my amberjack and cobia gun for my local Florida waters. I wanted a fat muzzle so the bands would lay flat and I will carve a semi-cuttle fish into the stock to make it more hydrodynamic. But I will use your idea to cut a pocket and get the handle higher up. I found some cedar that is a lot harder than usual and looks beautiful. Cheers
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Old 06-28-2018, 03:51 PM   #5
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Re: 120 cm Exotic wood reef gun project

Quote:
Originally Posted by Bloodygaffsboi View Post
Staying with some relatives in the azores currently, and since my grandfather has a pretty nice workshop, I thought I should finally finalize my speargun fantasy. The native wood here is cryptamaria, which is extremely strong but inherently light and bouyant. Planning on doing a 120 cm beefed up reef gun with neptonics hardware. Don’t know if I want to pour an enclosed track for my first gun. Please add on some tips or information for anyone who has gun building experience. Thank you!
Using a light and buoyant wood is the opposite of what you want. You have to add mass to counter the recoil and doing that just makes it float like a cork. Which means you'll have to add a ton of lead. If it's the same cryptomaria I'm seeing on the wood database it shows a sg of .33, teak is even .55 and I had to add way more lead than I expected on my team gun.
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Old 06-29-2018, 03:54 AM   #6
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Re: 120 cm Exotic wood reef gun project

I would first start off with what length shaft you plan to use and what diameter and then build my gun around that. If I were to start building a 120cm gun, I would choose a 150cm @ 7mm shaft ... this would give me good range to 5 meters and I could still jump to a 7.5mm shaft if I needed some extra power. With that shaft you only need 2 bands ... a 3rd band will not add any velocity and will actually give you less velocity. I would change the muzzle shape to one single oval hole that will fit 2 x 14.5mm bands and push that as far up in front as possible to get maximum band stretch. I would then decide on how much of a loading tab you feel comfortable with ... if you hip load you need a longer loading pad, if you know how to chest load you can go for a much shorter loading pad that also allows you to have a smaller footprint. I personally don't hip load, but I also hate chest loading ... I tend to load on my abdomen ... for me the comfortable range I like is around 15cm from last shark fin to end of loading tab ... but I tend to use a rest tab on my shaft and shark fins that are maxed out to almost reach the mech. Now for the trigger, you should get a high quality reverse trigger that allows you to push the handle as high up as possible and also give you extra band stretch. The higher the handle the less leverage recoil has in pushing the muzzle up and causing loss of shaft stability. Also understand how a handle can help you get more performance out of your gun by using the band energy correctly by channeling recoil into your palm rather than your thumb which prevents lateral shifting of shaft (also causes loss of shaft stability). Take a look at this video I put up some while back, this has really good data to get you on the right track. It also has follow up videos on how to modify your handle or in your case just build it correctly from the get go.

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Old 06-29-2018, 09:32 AM   #7
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Re: 120 cm Exotic wood reef gun project

Get a better wood for the job.
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Old 07-02-2018, 08:25 AM   #8
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Re: 120 cm Exotic wood reef gun project

Like everyone has already said, don't build the entire gun out of that wood. If it's important to you and you like the look of it, what you can do is get teak or another reliably strong wood for the core of the gun then cut thin lams of your preferred wood to glue on the outer sides of the gun, so you'll get the look you want but still have strength inside.
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Old 07-10-2018, 10:27 AM   #9
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Re: 120 cm Exotic wood reef gun project

epoxied the laminates and sanded it two weeks ago. going to seal the blank with epoxy and poly urethane. might use a water based stain.
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Old 07-10-2018, 04:39 PM   #10
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Re: 120 cm Exotic wood reef gun project

The only way to find out if something works is to try it yourself. If you take one fish with your first gun, it is a 100% success; anything more is bonus. If it doesn't work for you, you can always recycle the hardware into your second gun.

Show some pics as you go through the process
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Old 07-12-2018, 03:59 PM   #11
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Re: 120 cm Exotic wood reef gun project

Some pictures from early on, sorry didn’t post pictures earlier I had bad WiFi. Going to a friend of mine who is a local gun builder to get some thoughts on the next steps. Appreciate all the feedback and kind words.
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Old 07-13-2018, 04:34 PM   #12
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Re: 120 cm Exotic wood reef gun project

Working with gun builder from st. Augustine. Eric from deadfish spearguns makes some sweet stuff. Going to coat the gun and pour an enclosed track.
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Old 07-16-2018, 05:22 AM   #13
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Re: 120 cm Exotic wood reef gun project

Looking good! Please post moooooooooore pictures!
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