Spearfishing Guns

Freedive Spearfishing Spearguns

Freedive spearfishing includes freediving and hunting. Freedive spearfishing involves not only all the usual diving equipment, but also a speargun for hunting. A speargun is an investment and there are in fact many choices on the market:

1) Euro-band guns. These band guns are ideal for smaller game, because they are accurate and fast when compared with other spearguns. The range of this type of gun is three times the spear length. Some speargun owners find that band guns wear out quickly, and when they do, they are unsafe. It is important to maintain and inspect your band gun regularly and to have it replaced before it becomes dangerous.

2) Multiple band wood guns. These band guns are intended for larger game. While slower than the Euro-band gun, this type of band speargun has more power. These guns also have more range, which is ideal for hunting in clean waters. Like Euro-band guns, multiple band wooden guns can wear out and become dangerous when they do so.

3) Pneumatic guns. These spearguns use air to push the spear through the water. For their size, these spearguns have considerable power. However, they lose their power at depth. As well, some speargun owners find pneumatic guns to require a lot of maintenance.

The type of speargun you will buy will depend in part on personal preference and in part on the type of game you are hunting for. No matter what type of speargun you are interested in buying, however, there are specific features you will want to consider:

1) Safety features. Make sure that your gun has a good safety that can be easily engaged, even under water and even when you are wearing dive gloves. You will want to make sure that your speargun safety is enabled up until the moment when you are actively shooting the gun.

2) Noise. Look for a speargun with a relatively quiet mechanism to avoid scaring your game with the noise from your gun. Your hunt will be more successful if your speargun is quiet.

3) Size. The cleanliness of the water where you will be hunting will largely determine the size of your gun. Very clean water will need a larger and longer speargun. As well, your location is important when determining the size of your speargun. If you want to hunt in caves and other smaller spaces, you will want a smaller gun for maneuverability. As well, a smaller and more powerful gun may be ideal if you want to hunt for smaller game, which tends to be faster. For larger game, you may need a more powerful and larger gun.

4) Trigger action. Your trigger must be reliable and smooth in order for your hunt to be successful.

5) Buoyancy. There are positively-buoyant spearguns as well as weighted spearguns. The weighted guns reduce the recoil of the gun, which is an advantage when hunting. However, the weighted guns are more likely to sink.

6) The line. Shooting line is attached to the gun and the spear, so that you can retrieve your spear (and possibly any game you have caught with it) underwater. Your line should be strong enough to hold the weight of your game but thin so that it does not cause undue drag underwater. A 300 lb. line is the minimum you will want for most spearfishing dives.