I picked up a second hand gun yesterday as a few would know and while it's no big deal and took only 5 min to fix, a very floppy flopper is definitely not what you want.
A good flopper is fairly tight on the shaft with very little lateral movement, the only movement you want in it is perpendicular to the pin that holds it in. If your flopper is loose at the pin its quite easy to fix by closing the end of the flopper that the pin goes through with a pair of multi grips. I use multi grips because the jaws remain much closer to parallel when you close them. You then place the shaft on what ever you use for an anvil( A foot or two of railway line is perfect if you can get hold of it) with the pin vertical and give the pin a couple of sharp taps. After this stage you want the flopper to be able to move freely through it's motion with as little left to right movement as possible.
The next step is to close the part of the flopper that the spear lies in behind the pin just enough to give it a little resistance to opening and then you want it to jam open when it is fully opened so that it wont fall shut.
A good way to tell if it is right is by getting your gun and seeing that the flopper remains shut against gravity then giving your shaft a health tap. You want it to open when you do this. When it's open you want to see it stay open after giving it just a gentle bit of force.
It's nice to have a flopper that stays shut when your poking the gun around in caves and weed. It's even nicer to have one that stays open when you have the new state record for snapper on the end of your shaft and going crazy

_________________
WARNING: CONTAINS CARROT

Great post Greg,

Flopper function is something that is often overlooked but it is an important part of a well maintained speargun. I often hear tails of people losing fish due to the flopper action being loose but be careful that you do not tighten it too much as this can mean disaster.

You really want to find that perfect balance as you already stated. This is something that should be check often.

_________________
The Neoprene Ninja

thanks for posting that greg i think ill have look at mine this weekend and probably adjust it as after reading that i think its a bit loose.

I just drilled 51 flopper holes in 6.5mm S.S. shafts using a
3"/32 or (2.38mm)
Formula Cobalt drill bit. (purple packet)

RRP $7-$8

very good, cheep drill bit!!!!!!!!!!
oZ.

Stainless Steel or Spring Steel?

_________________
Civilisation ends at the waterline. Beyond that, we all enter the food chain, and not always right at the top.

stainless sorry...

stainless, he definitely didn't do that with good spring steel spears.

_________________
WARNING: CONTAINS CARROT

i no what Trents doing sat... applying and tuning!

bingo!