First Impressions
Already having plenty of experience with the standard Cayman, I made some
assumptions that the likes of the trigger would be the same on the Cayman
ET. However this is not the case. Here we see a change to a stainless
trigger and the intersecting point where handle meets barrel is contoured
to match the barrel. Out of the water this gun is not light As someone
who gets to look at many different guns it's interesting to see again
how trends follow. Although it's not always easy to see who started what,
there is definitely a trend. And this time I am talking about short spears.
The Spear
155cm long 6.75mm thick and three shark fin notches. The flopper lies
flat to the spear with no flick at the end and do my eyes deceive me...
the flopper actually stays up with the strike test. The spear in itself
is quite interesting. The Europeans usually either have a 6mm or 6.5mm
diameter spear in most of their guns where as the South Africans would
have a 6.5mm or a 7mm spear for their more house hold spear guns. Riffe
for a long time have had shark fined spears of an almost identical diameter
as this Omer. This gun was released in 2010 and there have already been
some reports of the notches / tabs pulling out of their slots when loaded..
I don't know why they did not go with the normal approach of welded tabs.
Spears are to some degree a consumable depending on how much spearfishing
one does and the size prey they chase. This does not look like a cheap
consumable.
As with the Beuchat Carbon Elite, the lead on this spear is short compared
to earlier models. Going by the numbers this does not really ad up. Lets
compare my more standard Beuchat 120cm spear gun (which I can guaranty
has a 120cm barrel as I put it in there) to the Cayman ET
Beuchat:
the gun 120cm, the spear 160cm, the lead 305mm
Cayman ET:
The gun 115cm, the spear 155cm, the lead 195mm
In theory they should still have the same amount of lead. But there are
two things going on here. Firstly although they have stamped 115cm on
the Cayman ET, when placed side by side with the Beuchat they are identical
in length(excluding the spear). Secondly the trigger mechanism is further
back on the Omer E.T
The Muzzle
Open muzzle guns are common place on euro guns now, what I do like is
how they have improved the line holder which once was no more than a little
hook on the side of the muzzle which was open to knocks and abuse and
I could see it being easily damaged. With the new Cayman Et One would
have to do something pretty crazy with the gun to damage the line release.
It has a nice positive groove for the spear, in fact its a continuation
of the enclosed track. On the underside the ballast can be adjusted by
changing the amount of weight in the muzzle.
The Bridle
The bridles are novel, for some reason Omer have some kind of aversion
to dyneema which is what I would prefer. I can say for those who would
want to change rubbers slings quickly in the field that you can unhook
theses bridles without any tools. I will share my finding once I have
spent some time in the water with this speargun.
The Barrel
When I first saw this gun on the net I thought it was the latest iteration
of Omers HF guns. But on closer inspection I think this might be an extrusion.
My understanding is Hydro forming is not a cheap exercise and they would
probably have trouble forming an enclosed track with the hydro forming
process.
The Trigger
Like the The original Cayman it keeps it's original style but with a stainless
trigger. Visually these are more comparable to the Pathos or Effesub trigger
than they are to the earlier Omer Excalibur trigger. They have managed
to move the spear further back in the trigger by about 50mm which means
that the barrel can be 50mm shorter for the same amount of rubber sling
length and tension.
To Be Continued
First Impressions in the water
