For lack of a better name for this gun. I am
temporarily calling it a 'Vintage Long Speargun'. It was suggested that
this type of gun was known as a "Bottom Scratcher". I believe this
individual metal gun was originally manufactured
by Wally Potts himself but later editions were by Paul Hoss. George
Perryman also made his version
of speargun and I have been told that Charlie Sturgill made some as
well.
I am sure more information will be forthcoming soon. Once Wally Potts
sold one of his guns to the "LA guys", they replicated the mechanism
and began their own production. Wally commented, "It was like selling
arms to the enemy."
This particular gun has a one-piece trigger, a formed
track
in the continuous aluminum tube gunbody and stock and welded aluminum
nosepiece. See
some details in the next images.
The above speargun was in Jack Prodanovich's personal
collection.
Another example can be seen in the images below. This gun was found on
the
bottom of the ocean at Pyramid Cove, San Clemente Island. The original
owner
is not known. It was suggested this was a Paul Hoss edition speargun.
Images in early Skindiver Magazines show the Meistrell brothers and Bev
Morgan using guns like this for giant black seabass. Jay Riffe used a
gun like this on his black seabass as well. Detailed images of
the elements can be seen. It has a finely crafted 64" long Douglas Fir
dowel
for the gunbody. The nosepiece is missing and probably dissolved in
salt
water immersion. The other components are made from stainless steel
soldered
together. Behind the handle can be seen a cannister for a CO2
inflatable buoy which would
break-away when a giant fish was speared. The fish could be located
with this buoy
and retrieved without losing the gun. These guns were made in the late
1950s to early 1960s.
I am sure that more information about these
precursers
to today's bluewater spearguns will be forthcoming from the 'Fathers of
Spearfishing'. For more related information see the link http://rocknfish.com/PottsGun.html
.