The invention relates specifically to spearing devices which are hand held and which are powered by resilient bands. As scuba diving becomes more popular and more equipment is developed for divers to use, it becomes increasingly more important for apparatus to be devised that is simple to use and that can be used with one hand whenever possible. With that in mind, the invention herein described fills the following criteria: the spearing device is held with one hand; it is set in readiness simply by pushing the spear shaft against any solid surface while holding the grip with one hand; it is aimed and fired with one hand. The device is accurate, powerful, and quick to use. There is no hand fatigue such as that experienced when using the popular hand-held spear poles that require a rubber band to be looped over the thumb and the pole to be held tightly by hand against stretched rubber tubing until released. Other spearing gigs require two-hand operation since the spear shafts must be precisely aligned in order for their locking and releasing mechanisms to function. Because of its unique design, our invention does not require the spear shaft to be turned, twisted, or aligned when the spearing device is being loaded. Other spearing devices such as described in Chappell U.S. Pat. No. 3,456,376, Hanshaw U.S. Pat. No. 2,537,754, and Thorburn U.S. Pat. No. 2,869,273 require not only precise alignment of their spear shafts but also mechanical triggering devices; ours does not: it can be fired simply by pushing down on the spear shaft itself with the thumb of the hand holding the handgrip.
In summary, it is the object of the invention to provide a very simple spearing gig which is powered by readily available resilient tubing such as surgical rubber tubing and which is powerful, accurate, and operable with one hand. We feel that our invention achieves these goals.
The invention has other advantageous features which are described in the following description of the preferred form of the invention which is illustrated in the drawing accompanying and forming part of the specification. It is to be understood, however, that variations in the preferred form can be adopted within the scope of the invention as set forth in the claims.