Home Tournaments Calendar Weather Merchandise Sponsors

Go Back   Spearboard.com - The World's Largest Spearfishing Diving Boating Social Media Forum > Spearfishing Gear > All About Guns

All About Guns What's your weapon of choice, and why? Discuss the beloved speargun here!

Reply
 
Thread Tools Rate Thread Display Modes
Old 08-13-2022, 11:45 PM   #1
popgun pete
Registered User
 
popgun pete's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2006
Posts: 4,245
Rebikoff Ratchet Cocking Speargun

Dimitri Rebikoff was one of the underwater pioneers especially in the field of underwater photography and developed a number of devices including his torpedo-like underwater scooter which was equipped with cameras and lights for underwater work. He also invented an underwater speargun for which I am showing the patent below. In the event the actual gun produced was somewhat different in the final layout, but how it worked was essentially the same.

I only mention it here as one has come up for sale on eBay.
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/225110276980

Anyone who has ever cocked and fired a speargun underwater may wonder why anyone would bother with such a layout which has some obvious drawbacks, but in the fifties an informal competition seemed to be on to come up with new weapons that displayed inventiveness and imagination. Expensive in its day and not a lightweight given the all-metal construction.



Photos supplied by John Warren from his web pages on historic underwater weapons (which are unfortunately no longer up) as an educational resource for divers.
popgun pete is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-13-2022, 11:47 PM   #2
popgun pete
Registered User
 
popgun pete's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2006
Posts: 4,245
Re: Rebikoff Ratchet Cocking Speargun

We can see why Rebikoff inverted the gun compared with his earlier proposal as it means that the ratchet lever pivot did not have to be on a yoke that flanked the sliding barrel with the pivot being a stub cylinder projection on either side rather than an axle passing through it. By creating this new deep handle all the pivots are under the barrel, not above it. I have never seen the innards of one of these but the arrangement of pawls to lock and advance the gear rack on the barrel will be much the same. Of interest is the vertical sliding column sear tooth element that the trigger pulls down on to fire the gun, not such a great idea with friction loading up the movement of the column. This trigger design was one of those considered by Rene Salles for his pneumatic gun and is shown in his patent, but he used a single-piece trigger instead with an outrigger arrangement placing it on one side of the gun and bent at its lower end to be inside the trigger finger guard. It is possible that Rebikoff changed the trigger as the column would now be much shorter, but I have never seen it disassembled.

I have seen photos of a number of these and most do not look like they received much use before their owners switched to something easier to use. Fish hanging around listening to the frantic clicking as you work the ratchet handle for the last part of the cocking action would soon have wised up once a few of their pals had been shot. However if you have ever speared in a virgin untouched area you will find the fish swim up and look at you trying to figure out what this strange creature is that has appeared in their midst, both big and small ones.

The above is an earlier version with a more rounded styling of the handle that is shown in the advert.

Last edited by popgun pete; 08-14-2022 at 01:15 AM. Reason: typo
popgun pete is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-15-2022, 07:59 PM   #3
popgun pete
Registered User
 
popgun pete's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2006
Posts: 4,245
Re: Rebikoff Ratchet Cocking Speargun

The Rebikoff gun failed to sell at 600 USD. Not surprising as that included shipping which would be around 130 bucks for a heavy gun given the big alloy castings used, and maybe more.
popgun pete is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Bookmarks

Thread Tools
Display Modes Rate This Thread
Rate This Thread:

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -5. The time now is 08:12 AM.


The World's Largest Spearfishing Diving Social Media Forum Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.1
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright ©2002 - 2014 Spearboard.com