Ali is great for starting i dived for 9 years with ali, before going carbon.

I dont think you'll find a Phantom carbon for 200 anywhere in aus. I paid 320(ish? Cant remember the exact price) for my Phantom Carbon 95. From my experience using it, its tough as nails and *much* cheaper than a similar carbon gun from some other companies. Having said that, I've been treating it like a bit of a princess (eg. not leaning on it) - and apparently you cant double band with anything bigger than 16mm (comes stock with a single 19mm - though I've been told this has to do with the trigger mechanism rather than the strength of the barrel). I've left it with the single 19 and it hasn't missed a beat.

I personally dont think you can go wrong with it, but I don't have a lot of experience with other guns (I've only ever used a cheap sea hornet, a cheap ocean hunter, and the mares) so I cant give an objective review; but they're light, accurate and they go through the water well.

Word of warning though - it IS Italian, so it might catch on fire without warning.

ye well for the size and price its quite a good gun I think, thanks for the advice! now I have to wait a couple of months because I'm still recovering from surgery, fuark

Regarding the Mares Phantom guns, you might find this forum link I posted to be interesting.

http://www.extremespearfishing.com.au/m ... pic&t=7075

With what concerns you:

- Mares Phantom FV and Carbon are both great buys, with the FV being the best value for money (IMO)
- Price difference of $80 between FV and Carbon
- $80 extra buys you non-slip grip, loading platform/butt, double band muzzel attachment

DO NOT pay any attention the "Carbon" label. Read the ferrero rocher comment in the link above.

I think you'll find it hard to source a cheaper price than the Geelong dive shop which is about 70% spearfishing, 30% scuba. I've compared prices for all the online and brick n mortar shops and this shop has cheaper prices across their whole range. I just bought a gun, fins, and a ton of winter accessories.

http://divein2scuba.com/index.php?_a=viewCat&catId=836

Get well soon and in the meantime have some fun buying s**t online.

Ray

Raybox your a champ, seems like your a spearfishing scientist from reading what you've said. I'll have a look down at the geelong dive centre when I can drive down there. the FV seems like the go, cheers for that

I've only ever been on a handful of dives. It's all new to me. But I guess you don't have to completely understand spearfishing to understand the dynamics of a speargun being used in water.

I decided to go with the phantom "carbon" because I have had a hard time loading a speargun which doesnt have a loading butt. My first and only gun, before this one, didn't have a loading butt, so I use to jam it in the crevice between the top of one leg and my waist. If I tried chest loading it would be unstable due to the fact that it would want to point up and the base would want to slip down. If I had the FV and was loading using the above retarded method I don't think I'd make it to the 3rd/furthest prong on the spear, which I can do with the "carbon".

Is the loading butt, the non-slip grip and the double muzzel worth $80? Dunno, maybe. Or you may find that your $80 is better spent on a weight belt and some weights, or a hood and a pair of gloves.

If you know your local shop stocks something you are interested in which divein2scuba has for a cheaper price you can either research the product online or at your local shop and then order it online from geelong, or you can ask for a price match (which I've found they are more than happy to do, knowing that they will still make a profit and that there is a high chance of repeat business). Saying this, I still feel like I should honour the place which originally offered the cheapest prices.

Ray

picasso scorpion rails are pretty cheap and seem to do the trick.