fusilancien

popgun pete

Kramarenko's spring gun used a single-piece trigger, hence the large horizontal biasing spring behind the trigger has to balance the torque on the trigger or it will shoot without you pulling the trigger! This was fixed in the next model and Charles Wilen, his American associate, patented that new gun in the USA. Of course everyone then copied it!

The grip handle is made from aluminium and wood as an internal spacer. Wilen said movement in the grip made the gun unreliable, but it was better than nothing and opened up the sport of spearfishing with mechanical weapons.

popgun pete

I thought that some images of the Undersee "Reefmaster" should go here. After the "Bazooka" the "Reefmaster" was Undersee Products' most iconic gun, it was the big gun of the Undersee range and bowled over many large Groupers and Cods in the old days. A large piece of timber was needed to craft each "Reefmaster" speargun, the only separate piece of wood used in its construction was inset into the chin of the muzzle, you can just see the timber join which is opening up on this forty year old plus example. This gun no doubt inspired Jay Riffe to build his own spearguns after his visit to "downunder", a careful inspection of the "Reefmaster" will reveal the similarities, including the vertical saw cut in the front of the muzzle to wind the shooting line. An even larger piece of wood was required for the darker colored gun (not an Undersee factory gun) as that chin mount for the 12 gauge powerhead is the same piece of wood as the stock, only the wooden muzzle guide on top is a separate piece of timber. These guns were built in the days when quality seasoned, straight grain timber was in plentiful supply and much of the stuff that we use today would have been burnt along with the off-cuts and scrap. The Undersee mortise mechanism on both guns (the powerhead equipped gun has been completely restored) has stood the test of time and seen service in thousands of guns, having been designed by Denny Wells and placed into volume production by Don Linklater who founded and owned "Undersee Novelties", later renamed as "Undersee Products". Those two names certainly merit "Legends" status as we live with their legacy today which is embodied in the modern arsenal of "Underwater Arms".

Attached Images

    

Don Paul

Great post Pete.

Cheers, Don

__________________
''Great mother ocean brought forth all life, it is my eternal home''
Don Berry from Blue Water Hunters.
Speardiver Gear

Don Paul

These are for PopgunPete:

Peter, here are some preliminary images of the Cernia Velox that was Big Jim Christiansen's gun.
At 79'' it a big gun, I'll shoot the over length images Tues, as I lost light.

Cheers, Don

Attached Images

     

__________________
''Great mother ocean brought forth all life, it is my eternal home''
Don Berry from Blue Water Hunters.
Speardiver Gear

Don Paul

More.... to be continued...

Cheers, Don

Attached Images

  

__________________
''Great mother ocean brought forth all life, it is my eternal home''
Don Berry from Blue Water Hunters.
Speardiver Gear

popgun pete

Thanks Don, that is exactly what I needed to see. The two-stage loading involved dragging the grip back after initially inserting the spear into the muzzle and partially loading the gun. So the operator had normal muzzle loading followed by using their feet on the foot pegs to haul the propulsion spring back to full compression. Now we can see the slot in the barrel tube where the sear tooth travels back and the catch to secure the grip in position.

Hookinfish

This is a great thread. Some great history in these posts.

Don Paul

Thanks mate.

Cheers, Don

__________________
''Great mother ocean brought forth all life, it is my eternal home''
Don Berry from Blue Water Hunters.
Speardiver Gear

popgun pete

For those wondering about the ferrule on the section of thread behind the handgrip catch on the "Cernia Velox" it is a joining system for the front and rear sections of barrel. You unscrew it to pull the rear section of barrel free from the grip section and then fold the gun on the coil spring acting as a sort of hinge. This halves the length of the spring gun for transport. Note that the spear is slightly longer than half the length of the gun. Some models the ferrule connection is in front of the grip and in others it is behind it. When you have a six foot long gun to transport the folding system is very handy.