Tahitian Vs Hawaiian Floppers & Spear Tip Differences
The main difference between Hawaiian and Tahitian is that on a Hawaiian shaft, the flopper is positioned at the bottom whilst for Tahitian shafts, it's on the top. But aside from this, there are also a few perks to each design. Here are some of them:
Tahitian Shaft Vs Hawaiian Shaft
Floppers essentially hold the fish onto your spear once it has been shot. If you don’t want to lose the fish you have caught, then it is essential to make sure that the head of the speargun goes deep into the flesh so that the fish will not slip away.
The Tahitian spear typically will have the flopper on top. Have a look where the notches are on the spear. If your flopper is on top, you have a Tahitian. The positioning of the floppers do impact the trajectory of the shaft, so the best option varies from gun to gun based on your own preference.
Tahitian shafts are faster and more accurate. However, it can pass straight through some targets when you may need to hit the fish with more energy to dispatch it properly. A lot of people use Hawaiian shafts, on the other hand, because they are reliable and allow for an unhindered view of the target.
One of the most important things to look at when buying a spear is the way the flopper itself is tuned. So when you go into your shop to get a spear, one easy test you can do is hold your spear back towards your tang and hit the spear in its center. If your flopper stays up, it's a relatively good tuned flopper. Make sure that your flopper isn't anywhere close to 90 degrees, because that angle allows for too much leverage for the fish as they can tear the flopper off.
One more thing to think about when you're looking at the front end of your spear is the style of the spear tip it has on it. Typically there are two different styles when you're talking about flopper style spears.
Spear Tips
There is a bullet-point spear, which is an evenly rounded-tip spear. There is also a tri-cut spear. The difference between these two is, typically, it is a lot easier for people to sharpen a tri-cut spear because it is just three square edges. It’s also easy to keep even and pointed right in the center of the spear. Doing these things may not be that easy with a circular-shaped or bullet-point head.
Tri cut spears also give more penetration power. So if you're chasing bigger fish like a marlin or dogtooth you want to make sure you have as much penetration power or bone-splitting power as possible. Threaded ends are typically used in conjunction with a slip tip when chasing pelagic fish.
In general, Tahitian and Hawaiian shafts are beneficial for those toting smaller, less buoyant guns. They're also faster and more streamlined when fired for the same reasons and basically the easiest shaft design to use.
If you want to know about the different parts of a speargun, or spearfishing in general - visit theAdreno Spearfishing Blog now! You can also check out our massive range ofspearfishing gear at the lowest prices!
