Griswold
10-10-2007, 07:37 PM
Molded Carbon Fiber Guns
TinMan (Jeff) and I started down this road a few months ago and here are a few pictures of our first prototype which has the following features:
(1) Molded carbon fiber body.
(2) Handle raised as high as possible to reduce the vertical distance from the center line of the shaft to the hand. This was done to allow max power while minimizing the tendency of the gun to want to rotate around the point of support (your hand) and kick the muzzle up.
(3) Magnetic line release which acts on the magnetic field of the shaft. Nothing actually touches the shaft, yet when the shaft is in place the line release is locked and the moment the end of the shaft passes the line release it releases the line. To reset it, you simply re-insert the shaft.
(4) Internal weighting system which allows the diver to adjust the buoyancy and balance of the gun while on the boat (takes about 3 minutes).
(5) Muzzle designed with a band slot so that normal bands can be used and easily removed, yet they stay in-line with the shaft when loaded.
(6) Trigger silencer to eliminate the metal on metal ringing of the dinner bell for sharks and jewfish.
(7) The track is a dovetail shaped Neptonics UHMW track that is mechanically locked into the carbon fiber, allowing the carbon fiber to be continuous so that its strength is not compromised. The track in this gun shoots a 5/16” shaft.
(8) The gun is filled with a buoyant, yet highly crush resistant material which we developed for this purpose. It holds screws about as well as pine wood. It will not absorb water and will not rot.
(9) The shape is designed to be easy to track in the water while having enough mass for 4 bands.
(10) The push rod is full enclosed within the carbon fiber, yet can be accessed if necessary.
(11) This gun is 57” long, weighs a little over 9 pounds fully rigged, is slightly negative and perfectly balanced with the shaft in, and positive with the shaft out. We can make guns from 48” to 65” from this mold.
I have used the gun several times and am very happy with its performance. It has shot wahoo, AJ’s, snapper, cudas and bonita in the two trips I made. It has very light recoil with 4-5/8” bands and the shaft goes where I aim it.
Yes, this is the same gun that I had with me at the Blue Wild Expo. It was kinda cool walking around with a gun we made in my garage which was on par with or ahead of what is being produced by the big boys. We spent a couple months thinking we would work something out with a big manufacturer, but in the end they decided that they had too much on their plate at this time to take on something this challenging to produce.
We also spent a good deal of time working on patent issues, but recently decided that while we believe that several of the features on this gun could be patented, we aren’t really in this for money and going down that road has taken the joy out of it for both of us. If we see some of these things implemented in other's guns in the future, maybe we will have done something good for the sport. If someone wants to hire a good design team, give us a call.
We’ll post pictures showing how most of the features work but we’re going to hold onto a few things, so please don’t get bent out of shape when we decline to post the fill material details.
TinMan (Jeff) and I started down this road a few months ago and here are a few pictures of our first prototype which has the following features:
(1) Molded carbon fiber body.
(2) Handle raised as high as possible to reduce the vertical distance from the center line of the shaft to the hand. This was done to allow max power while minimizing the tendency of the gun to want to rotate around the point of support (your hand) and kick the muzzle up.
(3) Magnetic line release which acts on the magnetic field of the shaft. Nothing actually touches the shaft, yet when the shaft is in place the line release is locked and the moment the end of the shaft passes the line release it releases the line. To reset it, you simply re-insert the shaft.
(4) Internal weighting system which allows the diver to adjust the buoyancy and balance of the gun while on the boat (takes about 3 minutes).
(5) Muzzle designed with a band slot so that normal bands can be used and easily removed, yet they stay in-line with the shaft when loaded.
(6) Trigger silencer to eliminate the metal on metal ringing of the dinner bell for sharks and jewfish.
(7) The track is a dovetail shaped Neptonics UHMW track that is mechanically locked into the carbon fiber, allowing the carbon fiber to be continuous so that its strength is not compromised. The track in this gun shoots a 5/16” shaft.
(8) The gun is filled with a buoyant, yet highly crush resistant material which we developed for this purpose. It holds screws about as well as pine wood. It will not absorb water and will not rot.
(9) The shape is designed to be easy to track in the water while having enough mass for 4 bands.
(10) The push rod is full enclosed within the carbon fiber, yet can be accessed if necessary.
(11) This gun is 57” long, weighs a little over 9 pounds fully rigged, is slightly negative and perfectly balanced with the shaft in, and positive with the shaft out. We can make guns from 48” to 65” from this mold.
I have used the gun several times and am very happy with its performance. It has shot wahoo, AJ’s, snapper, cudas and bonita in the two trips I made. It has very light recoil with 4-5/8” bands and the shaft goes where I aim it.
Yes, this is the same gun that I had with me at the Blue Wild Expo. It was kinda cool walking around with a gun we made in my garage which was on par with or ahead of what is being produced by the big boys. We spent a couple months thinking we would work something out with a big manufacturer, but in the end they decided that they had too much on their plate at this time to take on something this challenging to produce.
We also spent a good deal of time working on patent issues, but recently decided that while we believe that several of the features on this gun could be patented, we aren’t really in this for money and going down that road has taken the joy out of it for both of us. If we see some of these things implemented in other's guns in the future, maybe we will have done something good for the sport. If someone wants to hire a good design team, give us a call.
We’ll post pictures showing how most of the features work but we’re going to hold onto a few things, so please don’t get bent out of shape when we decline to post the fill material details.