Rob Allen 1.4m Tuna Rail Gun

Rob Allen 1.4m Tuna Rail Gun

At a Glance: The Rob Allen 1.4m Tuna Rail Gun is a fine piece of workmanship, the attention to detail stands out. This real gives you the impression that you have a quality product in your hands. That aside the spear is slightly thicker 7.5mm than the Caranx or other standard guns. And the grip is slightly less bulky than the old handle ... or at least it feels that way. 

  First Impression: The first time I shot the gun was in Mozambique, and on my first dive down on the trip new gun in hand a Cuta swims in onto me. Slightly nervous I take aim and spine the cuta. I swim to the surface on my first dive on the trip with a 15kg cuta ... of course I am going to smile. So my first impressions were good. I did however tweak some things, I shortened the rubbers a touch being careful not to overpower the gun. And as always I put a double wrap shooting line. At first the line release did not really handle the double wrap, but Rob gave me an upgrade which is working perfectly now. 

  The Tester: The big test came on morning on the same trip in Mozambique when in the distance I saw what I thought was a 20kg Giant Kingfish. At first I was not going to take a shot, but I eventually took aim when it came a little closer ... now I thought it could be 25kg. Truth was that it was quite far away and when I took the shot it seemed like the spear took forever to reach the fish. I was at first concerned that the spear did not penetrate all the way through, but after being dragged around the ocean I realised the shot was good. In fact the shot landed exactly where I was aiming, and the combination of the double latex bands and the thicker 7.5mm spear meant there was enough velocity to hit the fish hard. What also impressed me was that the spear was still dead straight after shooting the 43kg Kingfish. I have had smaller kingfish fold my spear in half before. 

  Overall Impression: So far I have not had a bad shot with the gun other than when I have relaxed too much and the recoil has made the shot hit high on the fish. This is something to watch out for with any double rubbered or high powered gun. But that said when concentrating and keeping focused the gun is extremely accurate, even near the end of the double wrap. I have shot some smaller cuta in crystal clean water from silly distances, once I even hit a very small cuta stone dead right at the end of range. The barb did not even get into the fish, it just went like an ironing board and sank nose first. This gun is one of my favorite guns, unfortunately it is a tool for a specific purpose and I don't get to use it as much as I would like. I have been asked the question would I prefer a carbon rail as apposed to the aluminum rail. And after using both I have found that the heavier metal barrel has less recoil and if there is any flex in the barrel it does not seem to be affecting the guns accuracy. So if you are looking at getting a blue water gun the Rob Allen 1.4m Tuna Rail Gun is a well balanced Speargun, something worth investing in. Coatesman