newbie with beuchat questions

[Jonny250]

i'm a complete newbie to spearfishing - this is day zero - i bought a really nice beuchat 75cm speargun today.
because I have a weak back (titanium rods + bolts actually), I wanted to use more flexible rubbers to make loading easier; the guy in the shop was helpul and seemed knowledgeable and made the change to a slightly longer set. I now have a pair of 225mm long 'clear' rubbers (not including the plastic threads on the end) and they are 18mm diameter. I went out and tried the gun, found a suitable spot and tried to load the spear. No chance.
i know that i need to learn technique and gain fitness, but in the meantime, given that I am not going to be totally serious spearo, I want to get some less tricky rubbers to use. I see in the Beuchat catalogue that there are 16 and 13mm rubbers and also longer ones too.
My questions:
1. What would you suggest would be best - thinner, same length rubbers, or same thickness, longer?
2. The wishbone has a 'blade' type sharp vee to lock onto the spear; I lost the edge of my finger today when I failed to lock it on (that really hurt !!). Is there a special technique for loading the gun without getting your fingers ripped if you slip? I have searched the web for several hours to get good info on this..
3. I wonder about changing the wishbone to the wire 'spring' type to avoid the bleeding fingers in future - should I change the spear to match this? is the spring type good too?

i would appreciate any good advice that helps me get sorted out and onto the right track, thanks.

Great website btw.
JohnB

[miles]

Hiya

Loading a 75cm gun will be pretty easy, due to its short length. Longer guns tend to be more difficult to load, simply because the spearo can't reach the bands easily. Loading a speargun is 90% Technique and 10% strength!! Rob Allen spearguns, railguns and other spearfishing and freediving accessories. scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on "gun loading tutorial"

What you need to remember, the longer you make your rubbers, the less powerful your gun will be. I recalll when i started out, i had a 90cm Cressi gun with very long bands, also to facilitate easy loading. Then, i had a 5kg fish, which was MONSTOROUS at that time in my spearing career, stop right in front of me, perfect mid-body shot, but my spear simply bounced off the fish's scales, BECAUSE it wasn't powerful enough!! Lesson learnt!!

Metal wishbones, aka, articulated wishbones. I see you've already found the downside to using them!! Many spearo's switch over to dyneema wishbones, which are basically a soft cord type material. Much safer on your fingers!! The downside is that you need to smooth the notch's on your spear or else it'll cut the dyneema. Wire wishbones are prone to fraying and they'll also poke holes in your fingers once this happens.

Two options. If your gun has place for a second band and your spear has two notches, use 2x13/14mm bands. These will definitely be easier to load.

Otherwise, get the spearo shop to make you another notch 3/4 way up your spear. You can then load the wishbone to this "loading notch", then go from there to the proper notch. This is how i taught my wife to load her 1.1m gun.

Remember though, practice makes perfect!! When i started i BATTLED to load a 90cm gun!! Now, with no additional physical training, i can load my 150cm-170cm guns with the greatest of ease!! Soooo, PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE.......

Also, wear gloves, as it makes a big difference and always load the gun in the water!! NEVER discharge your gun OUTSIDE the water!! The spear will get jerked back by the shooting line and will come straight back at you!! You can seriously injure or even kill yourself!!!

Hope that helps!!

Regards
miles

[Jonny250]

Thanks Miles, i appreciate your time and advice. I might try and switch to a Dyneema wishbone and mod the spear to fit as you suggest. Thanks for the pointer about technique - I guess I'll have to get in the water (with some goves next time) and practice lots.
Cheers,
JohnB

[covert]

Yeah i also have a bad back and I load big guns quite easily since proper loading technique puts zero strain on your back actually . And I struggled the first time I went diving to load the gun, on my second dive I was loading a 1.2m gun with no issues. Just takes some practice, A good idea though if you have back problems is to not carry all the weight on your weight belt but try and distribute it with a back weight harness system or weight jacket. It spreads the load more evenly and doesn't affect your back like a single belt does on a long dive. Anyhoo hope you get it right and happy hunting.

[azapa]

I hate to say but try a pneumatic!! I would say loading force vs. gun power is at least 2 times better on regular pneumatics and up to 4x easier on Mamba type pneumatics compared to any band gun...

[Jonny250]

Thanks for the suggestion azapa, I have now sorted out the problems I was having. Went down to the local shop and the guy changed the bands over to 16mm (black) from the 18mm (clear) and I can load it no problem now. I'm amazed at the difference. I'm still nervous of the articulated wishbone though :-)