Bands and wishbones
Tackle · Last reviewed 2026-08-10
The rubber that stores the energy and the small loop that transfers it — a consumable and a component, both of which fail suddenly and under full load.
Safety
Entanglement — Can cause injury needing treatment
A band or wishbone that fails at full stretch releases stored energy with the diver's hand and body directly in the load path. Injuries to hands, arms and face occur during loading, and an unnoticed partial failure can also cause a gun to discharge unexpectedly.
What reduces it: Replace bands and wishbones on a schedule rather than on inspection alone. Load in the water, with the muzzle pointed away from every person including yourself. Inspect wishbones for abrasion before every session. Never store a gun loaded.
Precautions that always apply here
- Never spearfish or freedive alone.
- Dive one up, one down: one diver down, one on the surface actively watching, every single dive.
On a band gun the rubber is the engine. Everything about the gun's power, its noise, its recoil and how hard it is to load comes down to how much rubber there is, how thick it is, and how far it is stretched.
A BAND is a loop of latex tubing. Its power is set by its diameter, its unstretched length relative to the gun, and therefore the STRETCH RATIO it is loaded to — typically somewhere around three times its resting length, though this is a matter of gun design rather than preference. More bands, or thicker ones, mean more power and a harder load; and there is a point past which a diver cannot reliably load their own gun in the water, which is the practical ceiling rather than any specification.
A WISHBONE is the small loop, at the middle of the band, that engages the notch in the shaft. It is the smallest component in the system and it carries the entire load. Traditionally metal, now more often Dyneema, which is lighter, quieter and does not corrode — but which abrades, and which fails silently rather than visibly.
Both are consumables. Latex perishes with ultraviolet light, salt, ozone and simple age, and it does so from the inside where inspection does not reach. The failure mode is what makes this a safety record rather than a maintenance note: a band that parts at full stretch does so with the diver's hand at the point of maximum tension, and a wishbone that fails during loading releases the whole system.
- Category
- Spearfishing equipment
What it does
Stores the energy that drives the shaft. The band holds it as elastic strain; the wishbone transfers that load to the notch in the shaft and releases it cleanly when the trigger frees the shaft. Between them they determine the gun's power, its recoil and how hard it is to load.
How to choose one
- Match band power to a load you can perform reliably IN THE WATER, cold, at the end of a session — not to what you can manage fresh on land.
- More power is not automatically better. An overpowered gun in confined ground drives shafts into rock and is harder to aim.
- Dyneema wishbones for quietness and corrosion resistance; metal where abrasion resistance matters more.
- Replace bands on a SCHEDULE, not on the appearance of the rubber. Perishing happens inside.
- Match band and shaft: a heavy shaft with light bands is slow, and light shaft with heavy bands bends.
What the numbers mean
BAND DIAMETER, in millimetres — typically 14 to 20 mm — is the headline power figure; thicker means more energy stored and a harder load. LENGTH is quoted unstretched, and matters only in relation to the gun, because what determines power is the STRETCH RATIO the band is loaded to, commonly around 3.0 to 3.5 times resting length depending on the design. NUMBER OF BANDS multiplies power and load difficulty together. WISHBONE MATERIAL: Dyneema or metal, with articulated versions that reduce the friction of the wishbone dragging along the shaft. None of these figures describes accuracy, which comes from the shaft and the diver.
Care, and how it fails
Rinse in fresh water after every session, store out of sunlight and away from ozone sources such as electric motors, and never store a gun loaded — a band held at stretch degrades far faster than one at rest. Replace on a schedule appropriate to how much the gun is used, because latex perishes from the inside and looks acceptable right up until it parts. Inspect wishbones for abrasion where they pass the shaft and where they enter the band; a Dyneema wishbone gives very little warning. A band that fails during loading does so with the diver's hand at maximum tension, which is the reason all of this is a safety matter rather than an economy.
Perishing, not wearing out — and why the neglected gun is the dangerous one
The most important fact about rubber is that it degrades whether or not it is used.
ULTRAVIOLET LIGHT, SALT, HEAT AND OZONE are what age a band. Diving it is not. That inverts the intuition people bring from every other piece of tackle: the gun dived twice a week and rinsed is in better condition than the identical gun that has sat in a hot garage or on a boat deck in the sun for two seasons.
WHAT PERISHED RUBBER LOOKS LIKE. Surface crazing, a dull chalky appearance, loss of stretch, and — the one that matters — cracking at the ends where the band enters the wishbone binding, because that is where it is under permanent local stress.
WHY A FAILURE UNDER LOAD IS NOT A MINOR EVENT. A loaded band is storing a substantial amount of energy a few centimetres from the diver's hands and face. When it parts it releases all of it at once and asymmetrically, and the wishbone and its binding go with it.
SO THE RULE IS A SCHEDULE, NOT AN INSPECTION. Replace bands on age and exposure rather than waiting for a failure to tell you. Inspect before every session anyway, particularly at the bindings, and treat any crazing near a binding as a replacement rather than a note to self.
THE WISHBONE IS THE OTHER HALF AND IT IS SMALLER AND CHEAPER. Dyneema wishbones are quiet, low-profile and slip into the shaft notch cleanly; metal wishbones are durable and noisier and can wear a notch. Either fails at the same place — where it turns through the band — and either is replaced for the price of a coffee, which makes it an odd thing to run to destruction on a gun whose bands cost twenty times as much.
AND LOADING IS WHERE THE INJURIES HAPPEN. Loading is done in the water, against the chest or hip, on a breath, and a band that slips during loading drives a wishbone or a shaft into the loader. Load with the muzzle away from everybody including yourself, and stop if the sequence does not feel right rather than forcing it.
Authoritative guidance
Stated by a fisheries authority, scientific institute or recognised angling body. Authoritative, but summarising rather than demonstrating.
- CMAS technical and sporting standards for underwater activities — Confédération Mondiale des Activités Subaquatiques (Standards body)Relied on for: Breath-hold spearfishing practice, equipment convention and the safety expectations set out by the international underwater federation.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- BlueWater Hunting and Freediving — BlueWater Freedivers, Ventura, California, 1995 (Practitioner report)Relied on for: Spearfishing equipment and practice: gun and rigging choice, shot placement, and the handling of a shot fish, from a practitioner tradition distinct from the European one.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- DAN guidance on freediving safety, hypoxia and shallow-water blackout — Divers Alert Network (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: Freediving safety guidance including the buddy system, weighting, positive buoyancy at the surface and the management of equipment failure.States this directlyPassage read and verified
Where to go next
What it works with
What these connections rest on (1)
Practitioner consensus — 1 connection
Widely and independently recommended by experienced anglers and specialist sources. This is real angling knowledge, not proof: controlled evidence for it is limited, and FishingHQ records it as convention rather than as a demonstrated effect.
Spearguns
Band specification is the primary tuning variable on a band-powered speargun.
- BSAC diving safety guidance and annual incident report — British Sub-Aqua Club (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: Diving body guidance on equipment configuration and handling.Background and mechanism onlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- Sea Angler — Bauer Media (Specialist angling publication)Relied on for: Spearfishing and sea angling equipment practice.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
A dependency between equipment, recorded because choosing one of these constrains the other. Convention, recorded as convention.
- CMAS technical and sporting standards for underwater activities — Confédération Mondiale des Activités Subaquatiques (Standards body)Relied on for: Breath-hold spearfishing practice, equipment convention and the safety expectations set out by the international underwater federation.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- BlueWater Hunting and Freediving — BlueWater Freedivers, Ventura, California, 1995 (Practitioner report)Relied on for: Spearfishing equipment and practice: gun, shaft, tip and rigging choice, and the handling of a shot fish, from a practitioner tradition distinct from the European one.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Understanding it
- An equipment maintenance checklistBands and wishbones degrade chemically with age whether or not the gun has been used.
- Spearguns and slingsBands and wishbones are the mechanism the gun and sling record describes; the component page is where the specification lives.
What these connections rest on (2)
Authoritative guidance — 1 connection
Stated by a fisheries authority, scientific institute or recognised angling body. Authoritative, but summarising rather than demonstrating.
An equipment maintenance checklist
The two components replaced on a calendar rather than on wear.
- BSAC diving safety guidance and annual incident report — British Sub-Aqua Club (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: Diving equipment maintenance and inspection guidance.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Practitioner consensus — 1 connection
Widely and independently recommended by experienced anglers and specialist sources. This is real angling knowledge, not proof: controlled evidence for it is limited, and FishingHQ records it as convention rather than as a demonstrated effect.
Spearguns and slings
The power system is the defining difference between gun types.
- BSAC diving safety guidance and annual incident report — British Sub-Aqua Club (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: Diving body guidance on equipment configuration.Background and mechanism onlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- Sea Angler — Bauer Media (Specialist angling publication)Relied on for: Equipment practice in spearfishing and sea angling.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Instead of this
- Speargun power systemsThe rubber is the engine and the wishbone is the smallest component carrying the entire load. Both are consumables that fail suddenly, at full stretch, with a hand in the load path.
- Bands, wishbones and when to replace themBoth components carry the whole load and both degrade with age rather than with use.
What these connections rest on (2)
Practitioner consensus — 1 connection
Widely and independently recommended by experienced anglers and specialist sources. This is real angling knowledge, not proof: controlled evidence for it is limited, and FishingHQ records it as convention rather than as a demonstrated effect.
Speargun power systems
The two power systems are the standing comparison in the discipline.
- BSAC diving safety guidance and annual incident report — British Sub-Aqua Club (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: Diving body guidance on equipment types.Background and mechanism onlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- Sea Angler — Bauer Media (Specialist angling publication)Relied on for: Equipment practice in spearfishing.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
A dependency between equipment, recorded because choosing one of these constrains the other. Convention, recorded as convention.
- CMAS technical and sporting standards for underwater activities — Confédération Mondiale des Activités Subaquatiques (Standards body)Relied on for: Breath-hold spearfishing practice, equipment convention and the safety expectations set out by the international underwater federation.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- BlueWater Hunting and Freediving — BlueWater Freedivers, Ventura, California, 1995 (Practitioner report)Relied on for: Spearfishing equipment and practice: gun, shaft, tip and rigging choice, and the handling of a shot fish, from a practitioner tradition distinct from the European one.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Authoritative guidance — 2 connections
Stated by a fisheries authority, scientific institute or recognised angling body. Authoritative, but summarising rather than demonstrating.
Speargun power systems
An equipment claim with a direct injury mechanism, held above practitioner level because the failure happens during loading rather than during fishing.
- BSAC diving safety guidance and annual incident report — British Sub-Aqua Club (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: Equipment inspection and handling discipline for in-water activities, and the principle that consumable components are replaced on a schedule rather than on inspection.FishingHQ's interpretation of what it saysCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Bands, wishbones and when to replace them
The component record and the replacement discipline it needs.
- BSAC diving safety guidance and annual incident report — British Sub-Aqua Club (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: Equipment inspection and replacement practice for load-bearing consumable components.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Sources for this page
- BSAC diving safety guidance and annual incident report — British Sub-Aqua Club (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: Equipment inspection, maintenance and handling discipline for in-water activities, and the principle that consumable components are replaced on a schedule.FishingHQ's interpretation of what it saysCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
How FishingHQ labels evidence is explained in the evidence policy.