

To find the right balance, you need to match the power of your speargun to the type of hunting you are doing. When you’re hunting reef fish in heavy structure, the last thing you want to do is send your $50 shaft flying into a rock to get bent or stuck. Second, certain hunting situations require lower powered spearguns. For this reason, it is critical to choose a shaft that is thick enough and stiff enough to match the amount of power your gun has. First, it is possible to overpower a spear shaft to the point that you lose accuracy. But an overpowered speargun can be just as problematic. It goes without saying that an underpowered speargun will not reach out far enough or with enough punch to ethically harvest the fish you are targeting. When you pull the trigger, the energy stored in the bands propels the shaft forwards and (hopefully) into a fish. You put energy into the system by pulling back the bands (or, in some cases, pumping compressed air) and locking those bands into the spear shaft. In the most basic sense, a speargun is just a tool to store potential energy. To understand power, it helps to understand how spearguns work. Nevertheless, because it is important to choose the right tool for the job, it is important to understand how power affects speargun performance. New divers especially can fall into the trap of thinking power is more important than it actually is. Manufacturers and their fans love to make claims that are difficult to verify and, sometimes, that conflict with the laws of physics. Speargun power can be a contentious subject. Once you’ve figured that out, the next step is to decide how much power you need.

So if you really want to get to the bottom of what speargun you need, you first need to ask what type of diving you plan to do. And a blue water diver chasing tuna will need a cannon capable of slinging thick, strengthened shafts over long distances to connect with their prey.

A long, slender gun will give you the reach you need to tag skittish fish without shortening your breath hold. By contrast, reef diving in Hawaii requires divers to drop deep and let the fish come to you. Check out our Northern California speargun review here. A small, nimble gun makes that process significantly easier. Because spearfishing can look so different from one place to another, it’s impossible to find one “best gun” for every situation.įor example, divers in Northern California hunt in thick kelp and low visibility, slowly crawling across the bottom and contorting their bodies to find fish deep in caves and holes. The reason is that people tend to give advice based on the type of spearfishing they do, and even then, they might not be very qualified to be giving advice in the first place. Unfortunately, browsing online shops and dive forums tends to compound that problem.
KAP SPEARGUNS FULL
When you walk into a shop for the first time and see a wall full of wood, aluminum, and carbon fiber, the seemingly endless sea of choices can make it difficult to determine what you are looking for-and more importantly, what you actually need.

Choosing your first speargun can be a daunting process.
