What do you guys think about an aimrite carbon fibre hawaiin railgun? I was thinking about getting either a 100 or 110 cm, for these shallow reefs, hogs, small grouper, when I go offshore occasional smallish dolphin. Which size do you think would be best for me? Thanks

I've never used an Aimrite, but all the reviews I have read have been very positive. The guys I know who use euros here in NC use both 100s and 110s. I would go with a 110. Disclaimer - I don't have any euroguns, but a 110 is similar to a 53-55 inch American style gun (which I use for a lot of things).

Where exactly do you hunt?
Unless hunting in low vis, I would probably opt for the 110cm.
I love my Aimrite 110 and its the gun I use for almost all my freedive hunting.
Ive also heard good things about the Rabitechs although I havent used one.

I mainly use wood guns for freediving, just my personal preference. I just got a new 55" mid-handle Deathstick with an enclosed track and love it. Lots of power and very accurate! Great gun for when the fish are out in the sand. i use my Riffe Hawaiian for shooting in the rocks or low vis stuff.

Im in miami with about 70% fishing done here, and frequent the keys, mainly islandmorada all the other times.

The Riffe Competitor 3x has been an awesome gun for me, it is a narrow gun and so lightweight and maneuverable when freediving. It is easy to get inexpensive shafts for it from Ray Odor, also, which you should give some thought to. The 9/32 shaft is a great size shaft, and you can go down to 1/4in. shafts for shooting small fish, and double wrap your line for long distance shooting, like in St. Thomas for yellowtail. Hello, Gamble, no offense but I have a Deathstick like yours which is very accurate and reaches way out there, but for freediving it is not very maneuverable IMO. You will rip that enclosed track right out of the gun one day when you peek under that shallow rock at a grouper at close range one day....I love the deathstick for scuba with a spare shaft on it...I think you need a gun specifically for freediving and one specifically for scuba, just works best for me this way. Buy Watco Teak Oil and it will keep your teak gun looking brand new.

Hello Gamble, and everyone here is my big question: for freediving, do you prefer your flopper Tahitian or Hawaiin style? I swear my gun shoots differently with my flopper Hawaiin style, and Tahitian style is blocking my view down the shaft as I descend, so what works best for you???

How about the ab biller floridian?

For the areas that you will be hunting, I would ask Rick to make you a 115 CM gun. That is about the equivelent to the 55 Hybrid as far as power and shaft legnth. Use one 5/8 band and one 9/16 band and you will be very happy with that gun. Just my opinion:toast:

;)The Riffe Competitor 3x has been an awesome gun for me, it is a narrow gun and so lightweight and maneuverable when freediving. It is easy to get inexpensive shafts for it from Ray Odor, also, which you should give some thought to. The 9/32 shaft is a great size shaft, and you can go down to 1/4in. shafts for shooting small fish, and double wrap your line for long distance shooting, like in St. Thomas for yellowtail. Hello, Gamble, no offense but I have a Deathstick like yours which is very accurate and reaches way out there, but for freediving it is not very maneuverable IMO. You will rip that enclosed track right out of the gun one day when you peek under that shallow rock at a grouper at close range one day....I love the deathstick for scuba with a spare shaft on it...I think you need a gun specifically for freediving and one specifically for scuba, just works best for me this way. Buy Watco Teak Oil and it will keep your teak gun looking brand new.

No offense taken brother, Mine is a mid-handle so it swings very easily in the water while freediving. If I see a fish rocked up I will just unload a band and back up. If I am using Air[which is rare] I can freeshaft it no problem. All my shafts have the flopper on the bottom and they are the large floppers not those dinky ass ones Ray gives me hell about all the time.

Everyone has their personal preference on guns, this is just what works for me as I am used to Mid-handles.

Asking him to make me a 115 would probally cost extra money, which I dont have, spending almost $400 is killing me already.

Oh ya, might sound stupid asking but what are floats for? im used to slings where I just shoot em, retreive the fish, and bring them up, with the gun is there anything else that I should buy?

Asking him to make me a 115 would probally cost extra money, which I dont have, spending almost $400 is killing me already.

I may be wrong, but I'm pretty sure he will just charge you half-way between the price of a 110 and 120.

The primary purpose of a float and floatline is to prevent a large fish from escaping with your gear and/or taking you down to Davy Jones's locker. You can shoot a large fish, which then has to fight the buoyancy of the float rather than you.

I think it would be a good idea to post separate floatline and reel threads in the freediving section. I'll try and get some photos together for it.

Thanks, I figured he would charge extra because he doesnt have that size on the website.

I have owned a Aimrite 110cm and I now own a Rabitech 100cm. I would say that some of this depends on your height also. I am only 5'7'' and prefer the 100cm Rabitech. Both are excellent gun but loading the Aimright was very painful I dive in Japan where the weather is very hot in the summer and don't always wear a wetsuit and don't want to put a mouse pad under my rashguard. I really enjoy the single band Rabitech with one wrap very fast reloading and a very reasonably priced if you get the closed muzzle stealth, well under 300. Shafts are also very cheap to replace. Just my 2 cents you cant go wrong with either gun though.

This is an interesting discussion and I'm glad I found it.

I currently use a Rife Competitor 2xs, and have been used to using all sorts of Riffes, I've shot the Competitor 3, Euros, Standards, etc...

I just got out of my pool where I held my friends aimright carbon fiber, I swung it around like NOTHING and it just felt perfect in my hands.

I love my Riffe, and I love the teak wood finish as well as its stability, but its a big log and sometimes its difficult to swing it around. I've been looking for a new gun to buy and I'm pretty sure I'm gonna go with an Aimrite. You also can't go wrong with Rob Allen. I know people who treat their Rob Allen's like pure garbage, they throw them around, they don't maintain them, and the guns still stay true, they are really well made and inexpensive. Either way...thats my two cents, but myself, I'm going for the 110 Aimrite as my next gun...plus, I'm a sucker for Carbon Fiber :D

Does carbonfiber sink?

You can email Rick at Aimrite and he'd answer all your questions...

The Riffe Competitor 3x has been an awesome gun for me, it is a narrow gun and so lightweight and maneuverable when freediving. It is easy to get inexpensive shafts for it from Ray Odor, also, which you should give some thought to.Ray odor: $40 (shaft) + $3 (longer flopper) + $20 (shipping) = $63

Scubas World (Miami) 9/32 57" $57.60 + $4 (tax) = $61.60 for original shark fin shaft http://www.scubasworld.com/products.asp?id=19Hello Gamble, and everyone here is my big question: for freediving, do you prefer your flopper Tahitian or Hawaiin style? I swear my gun shoots differently with my flopper Hawaiin style, and Tahitian style is blocking my view down the shaft as I descend, so what works best for you???How does it shoot differently with the Hawaiian? You can always put the flopper Chinese style, vertical hole with the flopper opening to the side, either right or left. Use the left one for shooting fish that are moving from left to right, the flopper will compensate for their movement. You can tune the tip of the flopper by bending it out, the more you bend the further the trajectory will change, use those shafts for fast moving fish. Use the opposite set up for fish moving from right to left.

I have a 90 Aimrite and it is a sweet gun. I also have a couple 58 inch teak guns for the serious stuff. The 90 impresses the hell out of me though. I am thinking about getting a 110 to fit right between the 90 and the 58 sized teak midhandle guns.
The seemingly small Aimrites have alot of power compared to wood guns if the wood gun does not have a midhandle type trigger location (all the way back to the butt). I am guessing my 90 Aimrite has the same power as a 52 Biller or simlar gun. Remember the Euro guns trigger mech is all the way as far back as possible and many non rear handle type wood guns have a foot of their length used as loading stock for hip loading. Meaning they don't have the same band stretch as a Euro (Aimrite) type gun.
My 90 is aluminum and I see no reason for Carbon at that size. If I get a 110, I'll probably get carbon even though I doubt it gets you anything. Maybe lighter weight? Great guns for very good price. Pretty hard to load though. Even my little 90 needs chest loaded.