While I do tend to use my Rob Allen 800 Snapper Railgun more often, I am lucky enough to say I have shot and landed many fish with the Rob Allen Aluminum Tuna Railgun and it is all in all a great gun. The size I have used the most is the 800 Series.
Locations I have used the gun:
- Point Judith, Jamestown, Newport, and Narragansett, Rhode Island
- Marathon, Key West
Species I have shot with the Rob Allen Tuna:
- Striped Bass
- Tautog
- Scup
- Sea Bass
- Red Grouper
- Black Grouper
Here's a quick breakdown of the specs of the gun.
Coming stock with the gun is:
- 120cm long 7mm thick Rob Allen Spring Steel Shaft
- (2) 16mm / 5/8" Blue Rob Allen Power Bands
- Fully Rigged ready to shoot with Mono, swivel, and shock cord bungee
- Tuna Clip attached to the handle of the gun
My Impressions
Manueverability and Aiming the Tuna Railgun
I always choose the 800 series guns for their great aim to power ratio. I am comfortable shooting fish 6 feet infront of me without worrying about the range. The manueverability of the gun is also quite perfect. You can move it on a dime to be able to hit a target of any size. It's also quiet in the water and I don't notice any sound issues.
7mm Rob Allen Spring Shaft
This shaft is awesome. It comes with rust protection which seems to last about 1.5 years of water use before you start getting severe rust on it. The part I notice getting the most rust on is the tip since I have to sharpen it every so often and the sharpening takes off the coating.
The shaft is incredibly strong and has never bent even when I have missed my target and hit what my dad calls "rockfish". It also has smooth nocthes so you can use bands with dyneema instead of having to use a metal wishbone.
The Vecta 2 Trigger Mechanism
The Trigger is my second biggest complaint with this gun. They use a skinny trigger that does not provide a ton of surface area for your finger. It also requires 2x more force to shoot compared to the Snapper Railgun. It shoots fine when you remember to pull extra hard, but it is hard enough that I have missed fish from not pulling hard enough the moment I had the right shot.
The Safety
My biggest complaint of the whole gun has to be the safety. It is plain bad. It is hard to move, and the area you need to push will break your finger nail. Even when I have spearfishing gloves on I can rarely move the safety. It is very odd how bad the safety is, even worse than my Snapper. It's so bad I never put the safety on, since I know I won't be able to switch it in the water.
Rob Allen 16MM Power Bands
The 16mm Power Bands are tough to load. Coming from using the stock 14mm bands on the Rob Allen Snapper it was noticeably harder. Still doable, but if you are young and or old and don't want to struggle it might be worth getting 14mm bands to swap out. The 16mm bands have lasted over a year of heavy use.
Adding a Reel to the Gun
I have a Rob Allen reel on the gun. It took seconds to install on the gun and has never given me an issue. It actually makes loading the gun even easier. In my opinion reels on guns are something that is only needed in certain conditions. Of course it depends on what your target species is, and if you connect your dive flag to your gun. The species I usually hunt are in 30' deep or less water so I connect my gun to my float line so I can let it go if need be without using the reel of the gun. Click the blue link if you want to know more about my Spearfishing float, float line, and dive flag set up, I wrote a whole post about what I prefer.
When I used this gun in the Florida Keys for Grouper the reel did come in handy when a grouper I shot got stuck in a reef head.
Overall Opinion of the Aluminum Tuna Railgun
Overall I am happy with the Tuna Railgun. It provides more power than Rob Allen's Snapper and is just as good in most other ways. The trigger works fine but does take a bit more strength to load. My biggest complint is the safety, its so bad I rarely use it.
