Inverted Roller Build

[Grizzlestomp]

Regarding the risk of attracting sharks, it's definitely on my mind, but I figure the risk is relatively low. First, the gun will be rigged for breakaway, so if anything gets too curious I could always just let go.

I once had a sailfish make a beeline for a throw flasher tucked in the front of my weight belt (i.e. right over my crotch) and only turn aside at the last minute. Got a great shot and landed the fish, but definitely scared the shit out of me.

I took the shiny stickers off my fins for the same reason, hate the idea of something sneaking up on me, but at least with the gun I figure I'd be relatively safe(ish) in clear water.

Love the idea of bringing a skittish wahoo or tuna in just a few extra feet closer, but will probably keep my head on a swivel when in the water with this thing.

Would you guys really be that concerned diving with something like this? I have always dove blue water with throw flashers hanging from my belt (when not in the water) and that seems like the same risk.

[Grizzlestomp]

Originally Posted by Behslayer

Yep I was happy to see those things shaded blue. I can remember the time I removed all of the flasher tape from my fins inbetween poking sharks with my gun.

Right now the outlines are in blue, and there are a few blue stripes, but the reflective material itself isn't shaded blue.

Would shading it blue somehow pose less of a risk? I figure the reflectivity will also go down in time as the gun gets dirty and scratched up.

[popgun pete]

I suggest you wait until you try it out in the water and see how much the light catches it and if it produces any strong reflections, you can always matt the mirrored surface finish with fine grit "wet and dry" paper if it looks a bit too sparkly.

[Grizzlestomp]

The "mirror finish" on the inlay material is almost entirely as reflective as an actual mirror. The reflectivity is somewhat lessened by less than perfect epoxy work (dust, etc).

The intent was to make it as reflective as possible from the start.

[Behslayer]

Some people purposefully want their equipment to be flashers. Guns, Fins, all loaded with Flash. I learned real quick that while it's great to have Flashers.. it's not great to have them on your person when things are getting sketchy. Other things I don't like are White. Like White Masks.. White Gloves. When it does happen they are just honing in on white and silver.

[Grizzlestomp]

Hmm.

I like the idea of bringing wahoo and tuna closer...

But I don't like the idea of losing a hand or other body part..

Tough choices. I may just shade the inlay on the back half of the gun (which would be kept near my body) and leave the flashers flashy on the front of the gun.

Unlike fins or masks, I could always drop the gun if things get sketchy, although then I'm left with only a knife...

[Behslayer]

I wouldn't worry too much about it. The only time I had real concerns was in those situations where a shark was making a Real pest of himself. That didn't happen because I had a shiny tape etc. It happened because I had a huge bag of Chum and a Wahoo and Mahi on a Stringer. But in that situation if you let go of the stringer the shark is going to take it, so you hold onto the stringer and the shark comes around and tries to grab it and then you poke it. repeat.. but at that point there's so much going on that I wouldn't want flash on me. I wouldn't worry about it. Looks cool as heck.

[Grizzlestomp]

Finally finished most of the aesthetics, and all of the shaping. Decided to go full throttle with the inlaid mirror fish.

Reshaped the handle a little bit so that it is as high up as humanly possible using the Neptonics tuna mech. The top of my hand where the recoil is directed is less than a half-inch from the bottom of the track. Also played around a little bit to make sure the handle/hand/wrist alignment is nice and straight. It's higher than it looks because the top of the stock above the handle goes all the way to the top of the trigger mech (as opposed to most guns where the trigger mech is about a quarter inch proud).

Overall, while the top of the gun is wide toward the back, the front is very narrow and the gun has a very low side profile to allow easy swinging from side to side.

I'm going to revisit the band attachment points on the bottom to make sure the wishbones don't pop off when the bottom bands contract.

Then I'll have to play around with band configurations to get things dialed in to blast an 11/32" spear.

[willstroo]

Wow what a monster! Cant wait to see it all rigged up, some cool ideas in there..

Well done on building something different, which also hopefully is a laser beam firing 10mm shafts haha!

Awesome work :-)

[Grizzlestomp]

Still need to take some pics of the final product, but put this gun through the paces last week and it exceeded my expectations.

First thing you notice is that there is almost zero felt recoil. Second, it shoots lasers at 20 plus feet with no noticeable shaft drop. Hit every fish within range in the spine or within a 1/2" or so close.

Takes a little while to get the loading pattern down, but by the end of the trip I could load this just as quickly as my four band, traditional style mid-handle tuna gun.

The clear sight line with no bands on top is an added bonus. Perfect window to watch the shaft (or at least the line) travel when shot and see the shots land.

Going to need to experiment with moving up from an 11/32" shaft to a 3/8" shaft. Either way, going to add another wrap of line as I'm pretty confident this can shoot flat past 25 feet (the current length of the line at 2.5 wraps).

[Behslayer]

That is so cool. That gun could be a good match to a 3/8" short shaft. Great Job. Hope we can see some static testing as well.

[deanmc]

Can't argue with those results!

[Behslayer]

I use a Middle point Line Guide on some of my guns. This allows you to rig up a bunch of different lengths of shooting line.

[willstroo]

Congrats dude, nothing like killing fish with something you have made. Satisfies the caveman dwelling inside of you!!

Awesome gun, awesome results, you should be very proud :-D

[kavachi]

nice work Griz those hoo musta tasted damn sweet !!!