Blue water spearguns- accuracy at range.

Lets discuss one of the most important factors of a blue water speargun, accuracy at range. The power side of things is relatively straight forward, the accuracy at range is where Debono Spearguns edge forward of the competition.

So how do we achieve accuracy at range? Well it really is an accumulation of a number of factors, the first one we will talk about is stability. With a wooden speargun, becasuse of its buoyancy we are able to add ballast to the speargun so that it sits perfectly in the water regardless of depth. This is a very important factor and is why a lot of Spearo’s choose wood for their blue guns. Let me use an analogy, if you were to shoot a rifle at long range, you need to use some form of support so that you aren’t constantly trying to correct the rifles alignment and fight it’s weight. The same thing apply’s to shooting a speargun at range, so if the gun has a perfect balance, then the water becomes the support, where guns not made from wood can be sinky and require more effort to keep the aim true. At Debono NZ, we aim to have a neutrally buoyant gun butt and an ever so sinky muzzle. If a speargun muzzle is perfectly neutral in the water, it tends to waver a bit, if we add a little weight then it settles a lot easier.

The next important factor is the trigger mechanism. The “sear” is the working part of the mechanism which usually involves two metal parts sliding against each other as the trigger is pulled until one metal part slides off the other, this is the same in a speargun mech as it is in a firearm mech. But there is a fundamental difference between firearm and speargun mechs, and that is that in a firearm, the sear does not hold the potential kinetic energy of the projectile, so the trigger weight is constant and light… a very important factor for accuracy. In a speargun, the sear “does” hold the potential kinetic energy of the projectile/spear, and the more we load the speargun, the more friction is applied to the sear. What this means is that the more weight loaded to the speargun, the heavier the trigger pull becomes.

So how do we mitigate this? Well we use trigger mechanisms where a roller bearing is the fundamental part of the sear. So we have a rolling motion opposed to a sliding motion. This makes the trigger weight much more consistent throughout varying loads. The most important factor here is not the actual weight of the trigger, but the consistency of release. As rubbers age, they lose energy which means it is very hard to learn and predict when the speargun will fire and that leads to issues such as trigger jerking or premature firing.