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Home > Speargun > Mares Phantom FV 95

Review on the Mares 95
It took me a while to get my hands on one of these guns and I remember looking at them on the net and Mares didn’t really do it much justice with their smaller pictures. I remember thinking they didn’t look very robust. Seeing one in person was a different story. Although one might think making an entire speargun from one piece of plastic might seem cheap, they have done it quite well and it looked and felt quite robust. Sometimes I’m not sure if companies are responding to demand of the consumers or to competing companies. As some changes pollinate so quickly to other brands I doubt the market has enough time to respond with feedback as quick as the opposition does. Here we have another gun with a formed barrel. The barrel appearance is very similar to the Omer Cayman hf which swells out from the trigger to a fat belly in the middle then tapers small again towards the muzzle.
Muzzle
The muzzle again is quite comparable to several other modern euro open muzzle guns; it comes with an optional bridge to enclose the spear. Or it can be used as a genuine open muzzle with just the shooting line holding the spear down. Further forward there is a vacancy for ballast adjustment where a weight can be added. Which would be used in the scenario where the spear got sized down to a 6.3mm od from the current 6.5mm od variety. The hook and groove which hold down the spear are very pronounced and do make it easy to reload the gun. There is a little clip on the underside of the muzzle to give added strength which can be loosened for fitting or removing a second rubber sling which in some way has been interestingly implemented. The screw must be loosened then push the clip forward to then remove or replace the rubber sling. By pushing this clip forward pushes a little fin up through the center of the muzzle. This has been done as an indicator to the user that the clip must be returned to its original position before the gun is loaded. Moving down the barrel a little we have the connection point between the gun and the shooting line. Which is quite far back from the front of the gun which does effectively shorten the shooting line compared to other competing brands of the same length spear gun. This connection point doubles up as a double rap hook.
Bridle
Although the Phantom I had was fitted with a dyneema bridle, they normally come with and articulated bridle.
Barrel
Although as I mentioned earlier that Omer Cayman hf and the Phantom have a similar barrel design, the Mares Phantom is by no means as rigged. In fact the Phantom is easier to flex than a standard aluminium speargun which did surprise me as this designed an improvement on a standard tube gun. According to the mares website this speargun is designed to take either a single rubber sling or double 19mm rubber slings. I find it hard to believe this gun would remain straight under so much load.
Trigger
This trigger has plenty of room for the trigger finger. The safety is quite stiff which can be a good thing. Unlike some guns which engage the safety while loading the gun. The shooting line release is in a vertical position which even after the gun has been shot has quite a bit of spring tension which made me wonder if this would have an influence on the spears projectory when shot. The line release can be removed from one side and then fitted to the opposite side. The components that make up the line release are quite small and delicate looking. Maybe they can be purchased separately should a part break. The loading T or pad is a permanent fixture that cannot be removed. With that said it is one of the more comfortable loading T’s I have used. The connection point of the gun is substantial and simple at the back of the trigger out of the way.
Impressions in the water
Nicley weighted and I feel if you forget about something then it’s not bothering you, which is how I felt about the trigger. The line release was easy to use. The gun was quick to reload without too much thought. Although I’m not really one to use a loading T or loading butt this one was one of the more comfortable ones I have used. As one can imagine with the thicker barrel this gun was a bit slower to manuveur especially verticly. I quickly got used to this gun with one exception. I had a similar problem with the Omer Cayman hf, which is because of the thicker barrel and the speargun being quite light in really shallow water where there may be a small amount of swell would manipulate the gun. This makes it hard work aiming at fish while the gun is moving up and down with the ocean movement. This problem soon disappears a few metres deeper.
Conclusions

Pros:
• This gun does not mark easily as I had a Phantom here that had done quite a few spearfishing trips and it looked almost as new as one of the shelf.
• This gun is well weighted and easy to keep elevated when aiming for our prey.
• Because the barrel is thicker at the middle the pigtail swivel does not rattle.
• Not much to oxidize as the only metal parts is the mech and a few screws.
• The hook and groove which hold down the spear are quick and easy to reload.
• Low noise levels when shot.
Cons:
• The gun does not have a shooting line hook to keep it out of the way of the bridle.
• For those who aim their gun down the barrel the roof of the mech is positioned quite high.
• The line release is very highly tensioned and would expect it to influence the range and accuracy of the gun.
• Very flexible barrel
• Seems a bit under powered compared to the Omer Cayman HF.

Although the gun has a spear that would fit in a 95, the gun itself from butt to muzzle is the same length as a 100cm tube gun. Which is worth noting as this does influence the spearguns maneuverability in the water. Due to the whole gun being manufactured from one piece of nylon reinforced plastic means this gun has no stepping up or down from the trigger to the barrel to the muzzle which I can imagine contributes to the guns accuracy. Out of the bag this gun is nice and easy to use, but one thing that plagued my mind was the amount of flex in the barrel. So with that in mind I would have to say its nice straight out of the bag and with the exception of going to a thinner spear I would suggest keep it that way.

Mares Site.