Underwater gun: types and models, how to choose it correctly. Making a homemade speargun for spearfishing Homemade harpoons for spearfishing

Date of writing: 16.10.2023

Reading time: 20 minutes

Spearfishing is song and excitement! At the same time, you don’t need to have permits, register your underwater gun, or have other problems. Spearfishing is equivalent to fishing with a fishing rod.

The only equipment needed for spearfishing is a mask, fins and a speargun. The latter is the most expensive in spearfishing equipment.

And it is precisely the underwater gun that I propose to make with my own hands.

Some of the parts of such a gun will need to be turned on a machine, but you can always negotiate with a turner and pay with fish from your catch. So you can make an underwater gun with your own hands almost free of charge!

Increasing the power and sharpness of combat in this design of an underwater gun is achieved by increasing the working stroke of the rubber bands. For this purpose, rollers are installed at the end of the gun, through which the cords are thrown, and the cords themselves are located under the gun.

This arrangement has a number of significant advantages over a conventional “rubber” gun. Firstly, the increase in power is achieved here without lengthening the gun. Of no small importance is the fact that you can take as a basis a simple serial gun with rubber bands, which is modernized according to the given drawing. Calculations and practice of spearfishing have shown that the working stroke of the rods (depending on the elasticity coefficient of the rubber used) increases by 30-70%. At the same time, combat accuracy increases significantly. The gun is also very easy to use - after a shot, the rubber bands do not hang loosely, as happens in conventional guns, and do not interfere with the manipulation of fish and harpoon line.

When manufactured independently, the barrel is made from a duralumin (D16T) tube with a wall thickness of 1.0-1.5 mm. The handle and trigger mechanism can be taken from any serial "rubber" gun. The length of the gun is selected depending on the physical characteristics of the athlete. Its maximum size should be such that, resting the handle of the gun on your stomach, you can reach the tips of the rubber bands (part D).

The general structure of the gun is clear from the drawing. Parts A, B, C, D are made of D16T duralumin. The guide sleeve is made of stainless steel. When assembling the gun, between the harpoon shank and the bushing, a rigid spiral spring with an internal diameter equal to the diameter of the harpoon should be placed on the harpoon. This spring (5 - 6 turns is enough) serves as a shock absorber, eliminating damage to the rear section of the bushing from impacts on the shank.
A reliable shank that creates virtually no additional resistance is made as follows. Stepping back 5-6 mm from the rear end of the harpoon, drill a hole D 4 mm, perpendicular to the axis of the harpoon (see Fig.). Then bore this hole with a file to an oval and press into it an oval rod made of hard steel, previously turned into a very flat cone. After this, the rod must be cut off, leaving protrusions on both sides of the harpoon equal in height to the thickness of the walls of the guide sleeve.

To make the bow connecting the tips of the rubber bands, steel spring wire D 4-5 mm is used. The ends of a piece of such wire of the required length are annealed and bent into rings. Before bending the second ring onto the wire, you must put both caps on the tips. After this, the wire in the place where it adheres to the harpoon is moistened, giving it an oval shape for better fit into the cutout on the harpoon.

Fastening rubber bands (especially solid ones) still causes difficulties; Here we propose a fastening method that has been tested for many years and has proven itself even under conditions of extreme stretching of rubber. To securely fasten the ends of the rubber, the holes in the tips must have the profile shown in Fig. The minimum bore diameter must be equal to the diameter of the rubber in the extremely stretched state (in this case, 8 mm).

A noose-loop made of durable nylon cord is placed on the end of the rubber, which is first threaded into the tip and tightened tightly (see Fig.). Having stretched the rubber as much as possible, cut off its excess protruding from the tightened loop. Then, without reducing the tension, wet the end of the rubber and 2-3 cm of the cord behind the loop with a thick soap solution. Moving the tip along the cord, pull the loop into it along with the cord.

To fix the tip, a strip of rubber 4-5 mm wide, cut from an elastic medical bandage, is wound onto the stretched cord. Winding is done with maximum tension on the strip and should have the form of a roller with a cone similar in shape to the profile of the hole in the tip (see). To fix the end of the rubber strip, the last 3-4 turns should be wound onto the flat part of the cone. After this, without reducing the tension force of the cord itself and the winding tape, move the tip onto the roller. In the same way, the opposite ends of the strands are secured in part A.

The rollers for the muzzle assembly are turned on a lathe from D16T duralumin. For better sliding on the axle, bronze bushings should be pressed into them. The axis for the rollers must be made of stainless steel. To prevent the rollers from jumping off, holes for cotter pins are drilled at the ends of the axle. The inner diameter of the roller groove is selected based on the thickness of the rubber bands and the center-to-center distance of the barrel and the harpoon inserted into the gun. In any case, it is necessary to strive to ensure that the axes of the harpoon and both strands on a loaded gun are in the same plane.

As a material for a harpoon, it is best to use elastic grades of stainless steel (rod D 7 mm). If ordinary steel is used, then the harpoon must be chrome-plated or nickel-plated, since even a slight coating of oxides significantly reduces the sharpness of the gun’s action. A harpoon line (line D 0.8 mm) is attached to an earring on the guide sleeve and to a protruding eyelet in the front of the muzzle.

The rubber tension can be adjusted by moving the lower tie rods along the barrel (part A). The position of part B should be such that after the shot the strands do not jump off the rollers.

With a charging force of 30 kg, the killing distance with a single tip is 5.5 m. The free flight of the harpoon under water is 7 m.

Source: book - "Underwater hunting. / Directory" author Khorkhordin E. G. "Ruchenkin Publishing House", 2001. - 320 p.

Use for storing keys and spare parts. But it’s better to put a bottle of vodka in such a glove compartment of a snowmobile made by yourself. In case you break the chain. It’s difficult in the cold without vodka, but you can live with vodka.

VLADISLAV comments:

ORIGINAL SOLUTION.

Sanya comments:

Can you provide more detailed diagrams?

Big Boss comments:

I think it's interesting not only to me

Star comments:

Sasha comments:

I'll do this and go whale hunting

Where can I get rubber and a mechanic? How can I make this gun shorter? The problem with the weight of the arrow, how to get a trident...

Alexander comments:

How can I get a larger drawing, otherwise it’s difficult to figure out.

Alexander comments:

Email; [email protected]

Igor comments:

When the axis rotates in a bronze bushing
When the strands move, a sound may occur that will scare away the fish.

Already when the reservoir began to slowly freeze, and the “future catch” began to spend more time at the bottom, in the holes many fishermen are visited by a feeling of nostalgia, for the past moments of fishing, for the feeling when you pull out your trophy.

During the winter period, there is a lot of free time that can be spent usefully, for example, making a homemade speargun for spearfishing.

There are many models that you can make with your own hands, which will be characterized by accuracy and ease.

Making your own underwater gun

To make a spearfishing weapon at home, you must have several qualities:

Perseverance:
Painstaking;
Patience.

Such work will take a lot of time and effort, but the end result will give admiration and delight, especially in those moments when that very desired trophy is obtained with the help of a gun made by yourself.

So, an underwater gun is a combination of several materials and rocks in one design:

Wood for the base;
Stainless steel material for the release mechanism.

The average weapon that can be made at home will have a total length of no more than 900 mm, from hook to hole should be at least 75 mm, and a total weight of about 1.5 kg.

The handle of the gun will need to be treated with a special automotive sealant, sprinkled with sugar and dried thoroughly, then shake off the sugar and end up with a porous material.

You will also need to make a reliable stop, you can make it on the axis, then when the harpoon is inactive, it will rest against it and will not get confused, and when the harpoon is activated, it will be able to rotate.

Homemade spring gun for spearfishing

If all the instructions and recommendations are correctly followed, it is possible to ensure that the spearfishing gun will be characterized by a sufficiently strong force to hit a fish of medium size and light weight.

Most likely, the damage radius will be no more than 3 meters.

It is also worth knowing some of the negative aspects of homemade spearfishing weapons:

Significant level of noise when fired;
Spring creaks during charging.

In order to reduce the level, you need to systematically wipe the barrel of the weapon and the spring with a rag, which must be moistened with glycerin.

It is worth paying special attention to the safety rules and requirements:

It is necessary to charge the weapon only directly in a body of water;
When going ashore, be sure to unload it.
Shoot only if the water is clear and the target is clearly visible.

An important advantage of a hand-made weapon is its accuracy and lightness, which greatly helps to catch a dexterous predatory fish.

Any fisherman who tries himself as an underwater hunter needs to know that just shooting accurately is not everything; you need to not lose the fish from the harpoon.

Parts of the structure

Any underwater weapon design consists of the following elements:

Trunk;
Clip;
Harpoon;
Action spring;
Liner;
Hook;
Fuse springs;
Traction.

The barrel of a speargun is a pipe, with a diameter of 12 mm and a pipe thickness of 1 mm. Often, a material such as brass, which does not oxidize in water, is excellent for these purposes.

Stainless steel also works well.

In order to provide water with unobstructed entry and exit, it is necessary to drill holes along the entire length of the trunk, with a diameter of at least 3 mm and an approximate distance between them of 10 mm.

It is best to choose a piston for the barrel from duralumin or brass.

The pipe can be purchased in a larger size; the remainder will be needed to make bushings and pistons.

This will allow you to completely avoid turning operations in the manufacture of an underwater gun.

The clip, which constitutes one of the main parts of the underwater gun, must be made of rolled brass sheets, 1 mm thick.

It must have special holes, which need to be made on the sides and it is best to cut them out after bending the workpiece.

Using the chosen technology, it is possible to achieve a clear location of the holes, without bevels or offsets, on the right and left sides of the cage. When assembling the clip, you need to solder it to the barrel, you need to fit the parts along the slots and holes.

The main active part of any weapon will be a harpoon, which is made of a strong steel rod with a diameter of at least 5 mm, at the main end of which, for installation, a five-millimeter M5 thread is cut and a hole for the line is cut out.

After all the preparation work has been completed, it is imperative to harden the harpoon in a thermal furnace. In addition to everything, you will need to grind out a sleeve for the harpoon; it is best to use stainless steel for this.

The mainspring for a weapon should be made of OBC wire, 1.6 mm in diameter and wound spirally, so that the resulting pitch is 4.5 mm.

Before starting to process the wire, it must be released, namely, heated to 300 degrees and cooled to room temperature.

Such operations will avoid spring deformation in the future. The ends of the rod, or the springs, must be heated and bent so that they are perpendicular to the axis.

The insert in the gun is intended to secure flat recoil springs and is mainly made of textolite.

It will need to be glued to the clip, and then the springs will need to be glued to it.

To assemble an underwater weapon, you will need rivets, which are best chosen from strong, reliable steel.

In order to reel in a harpoon line, you will need a special hook, which can be made of brass or stainless steel.

The hook must be soldered to the barrel.

Safety springs are mainly used as a stopper for two main positions.

The best material is steel, 0.5 mm thick, made of durable alloy material 65 or carbon grade U8, U10, U10A. The spring is secured with rivets.

The tench rod is nothing more than 2 mm steel wire. One of the ends of the rod is bent to form a ring, with the help of which it will subsequently be attached to the trigger.

Today, pneumatic spearguns are the most popular among consumers. Although, it is worth noting that the principle of their manufacture includes several features.

It is precisely due to the fact that the design involves a rather complex manufacturing technology that some interested clients refuse this type of fishing weapon.

In order to make a spring speargun for spearfishing with your own hands, you need to prepare some materials in advance:

OVS wire Ǿ 2 mm grade, it is best to choose spring steel 65G;
duralumin tube with Ǿ12.5-13 mm, which will be intended for the barrel;
2 plates, 10-12 mm thick, made of vinyl plastic, from which the handle will later be made;
rod Ǿ 6-8 mm, the ideal option would be a material such as stainless steel for a harpoon.

The technology for the step-by-step production of an underwater gun is as follows:

All experts recommend starting the manufacturing process with the most complex element in the design, namely the spring, which is best left to professionals for coiling.
Specialists will most likely wind the spring on a lathe in accordance with GOST standards, after which they will be fired in a thermal oven and apply a special anti-corrosion coating. Professionals will not need to give recommendations, they will only tell you what pitch of the finished product is needed and its final length, which will correspond to the size of the barrel. The spring already in the assembled product will work on compression and therefore its length must be approximately 300 mm longer than the barrel, otherwise it will shrink or burst at the first shot.
The essence of such a reserve is that at the moment of the shot, the value of the spring force at the very end of the barrel is not reduced to zero, but only to a minimum, which means there is no premature firing of the harpoon. This effect is called the compressed spring effect. The second step will be to make a weapon barrel from the prepared material.
If it is not possible to buy a small aluminum tube, you can use an old ski pole. It is believed that the most optimal barrel length is 700 mm. Thus, you can achieve the best and most comfortable shooting, in any conditions, in any bodies of water.
At the two ends of the tube, it is necessary to cut a thread and a special 150 mm groove, which will be intended for the sear. After this, it is worth making holes so that the liquid that gets into the barrel can come out easily and quickly.
The gun must have a muzzle and a plug made of duralumin.
In order to install a harpoon in the plug, you will need to make a special hole. After which, feel free to begin working on the handle of the weapon and the trigger itself. To make the handle, PCB plates are perfect, which are healed in a vice during the process and drill holes along the diameter of the barrel.
Now combine the two finished halves of the handle in the barrel and secure with screws, this will eliminate subsequent mixing along the length of the barrel.
A retaining ring must be installed before fastening. The assembly process itself will be completed after the trigger mechanism, springs, fuses and sear are installed. In general, there will be some simple plumbing work ahead. Now you can proceed to the harpoon, the best material for which would be stainless steel 6 mm thick.
The harpoon must have a tip sharpened in a special way, so that 4 faces are made to fit the body. Thus, the sharpened edges of the tip will instantly cut the scales of the fish and pierce them much easier.
Almost everything is ready, the only thing left is the easy release device, which is made of a steel strip and is attached with screws to the barrel plug. At the moment of the shot, the line will simply unwind, without delay or effort, and when wound, it will be laid under the plate, in front of the barrel.
Everything is ready, you can try out the gun and start spearfishing. You just need to insert the harpoon into the barrel of the weapon, so that it reaches the stop, then press the spring against the sear until a specific click is heard.
Thus, the sear goes up into the barrel and is pressed by the bushing, at the moment of release, the spring performs translational actions, returning to its original position. The gun is now loaded and ready for its first kill. When the angler pulls the trigger, the sear goes into the groove

and frees up space for the spring bushing.

Thus, the spring expands and pushes out the harpoon.

The benefits of making it yourself
The advantages of making an underwater gun with your own hands include:
high level of accuracy;
significant money savings;

production does not require special knowledge and skills;

comparatively quiet in operation.
But do not forget that there are also disadvantages:

Hunting can only be done for medium and small fish; for large ones, the harpoon is not strong enough;

The sporting interest inherent in many fishermen forces them to constantly look for new ways of fishing to increase the amount of catch and diversify the fishing process. The oldest ancestor of the harpoon is the spear, but if the legality of hunting fish with the help of a spear is questionable today, then this type of weapon is gaining popularity among fishing enthusiasts. A harpoon is a weapon designed to be thrown at prey underwater or in shallow water and has a serrated tip. It can be either an independent weapon or a projectile of a throwing weapon. What distinguishes it from a spear is that the shaft of the harpoon is connected to the tip using a strong rope or fishing line. The shaft remains in the hands of the fisherman, and the tip digs into the prey using the side teeth. Fish, as a rule, are not killed immediately, so a rope connecting the shaft to the tip allows the fish hunter to monitor the movement of the prey. Without any materials or tools at hand, making a harpoon weapon yourself is problematic. You can find out how to make a harpoon with your own hands at home below.

The most common type is a harpoon with a release mechanism without a lock, i.e. no moving parts, grooves or grooves. The second type has special holes and grooves. This type of harpoon is used in guns with a trigger mechanism located at the front. The third type has a special groove, which is designed for fastening to the rear of the trigger mechanism.

Fishing grapple - types

Harpoon heads come in two types: removable or solid. The first type is universal, it is easy to change depending on the type of prey and its weight, dimensions, as well as in case of deformation during fishing. The second type is a single unit with the base of the harpoon and is considered more reliable than a removable one.

Depending on how the harpoon binding is made, the following types can be distinguished:

Front binding
Front binding to sliding sleeve
Attached to the rear by a sliding sleeve

The front tie is easy to make and holds the fish well, easily shooting through it. But with this method of tying it is more difficult to hit the fish from a long distance; the arrow can get stuck in the barrel or break at the point of tying. The second type has the advantage of a longer line, necessary for hunting at long distances, as well as the independence of the line from the harpoon. But this type is difficult to make on your own; its design is more complex. In addition, it is difficult to hit the prey and hold it. A harpoon tied at the back to a sliding sleeve is easy to manufacture, and the line does not affect it. The disadvantages of this type are: difficulties with replacing the line, weakening of the arrow by the hole, and the inability to hit prey right through.

At home, it is easy to make a harpoon for underwater hunting, which will consist of a handle and a tip. Before you start making a harpoon, you need to prepare the following materials:

Wooden stick
A piece of polypropylene pipe
Martens bandage
Medium size nails
Large nut
Vise
Sandpaper, file
Hacksaw
Insulating tape

Grapun

First, the harpoon itself is made. To do this, the nut is placed in a vice. At the same time, a wooden block is placed on the drill. Using medium speed, the block is inserted into the nut and twisted through it, achieving a round shape. Then, also turning with a drill, the block is polished with sandpaper. Then you need to take nails (3 pieces), saw off their heads with a hacksaw, and sharpen both ends of each nail with a file so that they are sharp. Electrical tape is wound around the end of the block, and nails are attached to it one by one using a strong fishing thread. After they are tied with thread, small wooden blocks need to be inserted between them and the stick so that the nails take an angled position. The gap between the nail and the block is filled with glue for strength. All that remains is to wrap the place where the nails are attached with electrical tape, and the underwater fishing tool is ready.

Next, you need to make the main part to launch the harpoon. To do this, you need to cut a small piece from a martens bandage (or rubber band) and attach it to a piece of polypropylene pipe on both sides. This can be done using glue. From above, this part, as well as the place where the harpoon comes into contact with the bandage, is wrapped with several layers of electrical tape. The device is almost ready, all that remains is to attach the harpoon with fishing line or fishing thread to the launcher to hold the prey.

Methods for making a harpoon as a projectile for a gun

If we consider the harpoon not as an independent weapon, but as a projectile for an underwater crossbow, then its design will not differ from that described above (shaft, tip, rope for attaching to the crossbow). The difference from a hand gun is that the rope is wound onto a spool, and after the shot it is easily unwound. To keep the harpoon on its trajectory, feathering is often made on it.

Similar to a hand harpoon, in this case the shaft is made of light, durable material. A thin fire-hardened branch will do. If the tip is not removable, solid steel must be used. It is turned on a lathe from a steel rod. If this is not possible, they are made to order. When designing a harpoon with a removable tip, the main part is made of wood, as mentioned above, or metal. The tip is formed from thick wire (4-5mm), bent at a right angle. It consists of several parts, one of which is made flat using a press and attached to the axis with a rope or mortise. When making a removable type of tip, it is advisable to make several pieces at once for their future replacement. They must have threads of a certain diameter and pitch that are present on the axle.

In practice, air guns for spearfishing are of course popular. But to make such a gun you need a lot of things. One sports club has found a solution; it uses a spring gun of its own design. They make an underwater gun with their own hands, it’s not at all difficult, and most importantly, such a gun works flawlessly.

Before you start making an underwater gun, you need to purchase the necessary materials:
For a gun, buy wire with a diameter of at least two mm. grades OVS, 65G or PC for springs, up to 16 meters are required.
Duralumin pipe, internal diameter 12.5-13mm. , it is necessary for the trunk.

The handle requires two 10 mm plates. each (this can be oak, nylon or aluminum plates).
A rod for a harpoon, the diameter of which is up to 1 cm, it should be made of stainless steel.

How to make a speargun with your own hands step by step instructions

Let's start, it's the most difficult. It is made on a special lathe, then subjected to heat treatment and finally covered with an anti-corrosion coating. The length of the spring is measured based on the size of the barrel. It should be 20-30 cm longer than the barrel length, since after the first use of the gun the spring will decrease by 5-10 cm.

On both sides of the barrel, cut a thread, cut a slit 15-17 cm long for the sear. It is this length that regulates the force of the gun and its firing when moving the handle along the barrel. Then we make a hole in the trunk to get rid of water.

We grind the muzzle together with the plug from duralumin. In the last one we make a hole into which we insert the harpoon. The barrel is ready, after which they begin to make the trigger mechanism and handle.

The handle is made from two separate plates. They are drilled to the original diameter of the finished trunk, and then the contours are cut out. Next, a slit up to 4 mm deep is made with a file in each plate for the trigger mechanism.

The next operation is to make holes for the sear axis, spring and fuse. The halves in the handle are connected to the barrel and pressed with screws. A ring is placed on the front of the handle to prevent slipping along the barrel. The mechanic makes the trigger, the sear, the spring and the fuse, in a word, the trigger mechanism. He tempers the sear. This completes the assembly of the speargun handle.

The penultimate thing they do is a harpoon (see drawings of a harpoon for a speargun). The diameter in our case is 6 mm. For this purpose, previously purchased stainless steel was used. There is a sliding sleeve along the harpoon, and a line is attached to it. The bushing is made in such a way that it is cushioned by a fluoroplastic ring and rests against a special shank. The latter is designed to secure the harpoon. The tip is made simple - a flag with a wire to hold the fish. They sharpen it for several edges. The trick is that the sharp edges quickly cut through fish scales.

And lastly, they make an easy release. It is cut from solid steel. The cut plate is attached to the plug on the barrel using two screws. When winding, the line is placed under the plate, and in the very center of the barrel it is attached to the fly. When fired, the line easily comes out of the plate and unwinds.

The do-it-yourself underwater gun is ready, it needs to be tested in practice. Insert a harpoon into the barrel and compress the spring until it is fixed to the sear. This is facilitated by a clicking sound, which indicates that the speargun is ready and loaded. They press the trigger and shooting begins. This gun is loaded only in water and unloaded too.

The underwater gun has sufficient destructive power, weighs about 3 kilograms and hits the target at a distance of up to 3 meters. When it is infected, it is quite noisy, just like when shooting. This is a drawback, but it is the only one. To reduce noise, the spring and the barrel are rubbed with glycerin.

Spear, spear, harpoon - names familiar from childhood. Every schoolchild knows that all these tools were once used for different types of hunting, but few people know that the spear and the harpoon, although they are used for water hunting, have differences among themselves. A spear is just a shaft with a sharp jagged tip, which was not thrown, but held in the hands, unlike a harpoon, the shaft of which was tied to a rope, which made it possible not only to track the animal, but also not to lose the hunting weapon in case of an unsuccessful throw.

The device of the harpoon and its history

Many centuries after their invention, harpoons have changed little in appearance: a long and strong shaft, a tip with notches of different shapes, a hole in the shaft for a special rope (line) in order to pull prey to the boat. Only the materials from which the harpoons are made have changed. The rod of a harpoon arrow is made of solid stainless steel, and the tips are made replaceable. The purpose of harpoons, as many centuries ago, remains the same - hunting fish or whales and seals.

Whale hunting with a harpoon is one of the most ancient types of hunting. Scenes depicting whale catching have been discovered on rock paintings that are over four thousand years old. Norway is considered the birthplace of whaling, and the first evidence in Europe of this type of hunting is found already in 1000 BC. From the 12th to the 17th centuries, this type of commercial hunting spread throughout the world from the Arctic to the shores of North America and Japan. Previously, when ships were sailing and were small, whalers hunted whales on lighter and more maneuverable boats, and their main weapon was a hand-held whaling harpoon. Later, in the 19th century, when the Norwegian Sven Foyn invented the harpoon cannon, whale hunters expanded their geography and moved to the southern waters of the Pacific Ocean. The design of the whaling harpoon also underwent some changes: now it was a heavy (50 kg), two-meter spear, with spikes (or claws) on the tip, the petals of which, getting inside the animal’s body, opened and did not allow the whale to escape from the pursuit of hunters.

Today, not only professional whalers use harpoons. Recently, underwater hunting has become popular among amateurs, for which even special types of guns that shoot harpoon arrows have been invented. The harpoon itself for underwater hunting can be divided into several types, which depend on the design features of guns or crossbows for harpoon shooting.

Types of harpoons by tips and loading methods

Modern harpoons for fishing are divided into several types:

A harpoon for a crossbow, which in the design of its arrow does not have various fasteners (grooves, grooves, soldering, grooves). It is also used in shotguns with air or spring triggers;
With groove: it is designed for shooting from underwater guns and pistols and is equipped with a trigger mechanism in the front part;
In spearfishing weapons with a trigger mechanism located at the rear, products equipped with latches are used;
With non-removable tips. They have high rigidity and strength of the rod and eliminate the risk of losing the tip, but are a little inconvenient when removing from fish bodies;
With removable tips they are less convenient, but you can change them. The type of tip depends on the type of underwater fishing. The removable harpoon tip is very sensitive to damage, and the accuracy of the sight depends on the strength of the thread. If the thread becomes loose due to damage, the harpoon will quickly fail.

The shapes of the tips and their sharpening play a big role when it comes to choosing a fishing tool.

Shapes of harpoon tips

Speaking about the collapsible tip, you need to know that this important element has several different shapes:

Armor-piercing tip with a dowel inserted into it for fish with large and thick scales;
Tip with one petal;
Tip with two blades for strong and large fish;
Three-pronged (or more) tip;
X-shaped tip;
T-shaped tip;
Knurled tips; they are good for small fish.

According to the method of sharpening, the tips can be sharp-conical, double-conical, three- and tetrahedral, cross-shaped or crown-shaped.

How to choose the right harpoon?

For an experienced hunter who has been engaged in underwater fishing for several years, it will not be difficult to choose the right harpoon for any type of fish and fishing location. What does a beginner need to know when choosing a tool for underwater fishing?

A harpoon with an arrow whose diameter does not exceed 6.5 mm is suitable for small-sized fish. Small fish are more difficult to hit, and a gun of this diameter has a high rate of fire;
For medium-sized fish, arrows with a diameter of 7 mm or larger are usually chosen;
For large fish species, the harpoon must be made of titanium and have a diameter of 8 millimeters or more.

The method of tying the line to the rod is of great importance in fishing. Not only the accuracy of hitting the prey depends on this, but also the distance at which you can safely hunt underwater.

How to care for a harpoon?

Regular lubrication will not hurt even stainless steel, because over time it can be destroyed, especially if you use a harpoon for hunting in salt water. The rod must be inspected for deformation, and the tips must be periodically sharpened. If the tips are removable, then their fastening may become loose and the threads may wear off. Tench is also susceptible to abrasion and aging, so periodic replacement of aged tench with a new one is necessary.

All harpoon maintenance is best done after each hunt. If defects such as worn blades or cracks on the harpoon are not corrected in time, then hunting, especially with an underwater crossbow, will not be enjoyable.

How to make a harpoon yourself

Beginners starting underwater hunting ask experienced hunters: is it possible and how to make a harpoon yourself? The question arises because many experienced harpooners prefer a homemade harpoon to a factory one. The fact is that homemade weapons are often better than standard ones, since they are made to the individual requirements of the hunter. When creating such a harpoon, everything is taken into account, down to the smallest detail. Making a harpoon with your own hands will not be difficult if you have certain materials.

To make a homemade harpoon, you need a strong stick, thick synthetic thread or rope, wire from which you can make tips, as well as tools. To make the simplest homemade tips, you need pieces of wire 4-5 mm thick and 25-30 cm long. One edge of the wire is bent at an angle of 90 degrees, and the other is flattened with a hammer. The ends thus flattened are then filed into a hook shape. Holes are made in the stick and manufactured hook tips are inserted into them. A simple homemade harpoon model is ready.

Harpoons, just like knives, spears and other hunting weapons, are the property not of one specific nation, but of all humanity. Today, in many civilized countries, modern models of harpoons are used both in professional activities (whaling) and among underwater fishing enthusiasts. However, some peoples of Africa and New Zealand, Indonesia, as well as the peoples of North America still hunt in the same way as their ancestors did many millennia ago - on boats and using an ordinary hand-held harpoon.