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Outdoor Wonders you should get out more ... |
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Reviews |
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Home Made Spearguns |
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I saw them each morning. They made their way down the dusty road toward the beach. It was usually around 7AM, but the sun and the humidity had already begun to bake the small island on which I was staying. Between four and six of them climbed into the banca, an outrigger with broad bamboo pontoons. The banca went out each morning, run by a man and his wife. They operated a taxi service for shallow water spear fisherman and took a percentage of the catch as payment for their service. But what struck me was the home made spearguns each of the men carried. One of the best examples of ingenuity that I’ve seen has to be the improvised spearguns I saw in the Philippines. These are simple devices, cobbled together from small scraps of material. But they were highly effective. The stocks were carved to look like thin rifle stocks, made from local woods: coconut, acacia, star apple or whatever was handy. They are sometimes painted, either for ease of identification or as a waterproofing method. |
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The trigger assembly was composed of an L-shaped piece of spoon shank or similar metal, with a small 90 degree bend in front. The trigger was balanced over a 1-inch long section of ¼” tube. This small section of tube was made either of metal, or bamboo. There was a pin located behind the tube to act as stop for the spear. A U-shaped nail on the sides secured the tube to the stock. This whole assembly was bound with lots of rubber band in such a way as to put downward pressure on the front of the trigger. Pressing the trigger with one’s thumb released the spear. The spear itself was a simple 3/16” steel rod about 3-4 feet long. It was pointed and had a small hole drilled near the tip that accepted a thin nail and acted as a barb. In the rear of the spear, two notches were filed to about the midpoint. One notch accepted the trigger; the other accepted the rubber band that powered it. The front of the speargun had a 3” length of ¼” (inside diameter) steel or bamboo tube bound to the stock with thick monofilament line. Also bound to the front were two or four sections of rubber strips or tubing, also salvaged. These were connected to a thick piece of string, which stayed in the notch filed in the spear. |
