When you really need a ‘liquor cabinet’ in your arsenal

My introduction to wooden spearguns came at the age of 6. I marvelled at my cousin’s newly acquired wooden speargun. “If you can load it, you can have it,” he said. I almost gave myself a hernia at that tender age.

I have used the same line on many of my young nephews since then and am sure it is going to come back to haunt me.

There is just something alluring about wood. I ended up going high-tech with carbon fibre and aluminium/plastic combinations but my fascination for wood was never completely lost.

For me, the excuse remains the right gun for Yellowfin Tuna and my search for the right gun stopped when I saw my first Riffe mid-handle wooden speargun. It looked incredible. Then the news that Tommy Botha builds his own wooden guns to shoot Tuna. I did not need any more convincing. A mid-handle 4 rubber wooden gun was the way to go.

The Penetrator and Punisher phoned to tell me Orca had a wooden gun in stock. It did not take me very long to get there. The gun looked great but I needed some mods, would that be possible? The guy that makes the guns was not there, but I left a number and he would get back to me. I duly forgot all about it.

Imagine my surprise when I get a call from Wayne at Orca. He suggests I go through and chat to him about what I am looking for in a wooden gun. I must have spent a good 2 hours chatting to him about what I needed. No problem, the gun could be made to my requirements.

The gun is made of laminated kiaat (very similar to teak in its hardness) interleaved with carbon fibre for rigidity. It is a mid-handle gun with a robust stainless steel mechanism. It carries 4 rubbers arranged off a metal fin near the front of the gun. I am sticking with an 8mm tempered steel with an ice-pick tip for my spear. The spear rests in a deep groove and is held in place by line hooked under a SS tab at the front of the gun. The spear is connected to the break-away rig by a double wrap line arrangement, giving a range of over 10m. The gun will have an oiled finish.

It is quite a daunting prospect to take a chance on what, for all intents and purposes, is an untested gun, but sometimes things just seem right!