making fun of jbl... but...

[rene]

First, seriously I'm all for guns that are made in developed countries instead of China (I especially hate stuff made in China and tagged made in the USA or other). I have resisted getting my mech parts cut in China myself (they are laser cut in New Jersey).

BUT, I have been guilty of making fun of JBLs in the past... as well as billers and the riffes before the euro came out, oh well and after also to be honest lol. But wait, don't flame yet! I saw this JBL Reaper :

https://www.jblspearguns.com/product/re ... on-series/

How does it hold up? is it neutral? is the mech any good? does it shoot straight? Just wondering, obviously not looking to buy one since I make my own but always interested in guns.

[DeepsouthDiver]

It’s a JBL it will kill fish.


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[John Hughes]

I had a buddy (new diver) that got a JBL gun in a raffle. It immediately started firing on it's own before he could even get it completely loaded. I explained how dangerous that was and that he might want to contact the company and see about getting some help on a new trigger mech. I have to give it to my buddy for perseverance because it took him weeks to get ahold of somebody. The problem was, once he finally did, they wouldn't help him.

I've got friends that get that stuff almost free so over the years I've tried some of the JBL products out. I don't think a single one of them has held up more than a month.

I was actually shocked to get a weight belt from them (free) a few years ago and was totally surprised. It was made just like the RA belt except the rubber wasn't quite as bomb proof. Regardless, the belt lasted me two years and I was actually impressed they finally made something that didn't fall apart in the first few weeks. A few weeks ago, my truck got stolen along with both my weight belts. I got two more of those JBL belts and went through the hassle of setting them up. I used one of the belts once and noticed immediately that they changed the rubber and it was way too stretchy and was going to fall apart within months. I finally found something they made fairly well and they changed it. I gave the belts away and went and bought 2 RA belts which should last me the rest of my lifetime for $8 more than the JBL's.

Somebody has to corner the low end of the market so I get that but JBL is the absolute bottom of the line IMO. I honestly haven't come across any gear that falls apart faster, but hey, at least it's consistently low end all the way across their whole product line. There's something to be said about consistency.

[rene]

But, but, but, did you try the reaper? I saw it in La Paz Yesterday... nex time I'll get it off the wall just to feel the materials lol. Seriously, I hope it's a good gun.

[John Hughes]

But, but, but, did you try the reaper? I saw it in La Paz Yesterday... nex time I'll get it off the wall just to feel the materials lol. Seriously, I hope it's a good gun.

Just don't be pointing it at anybody when you're loading it.

Seriously

[chris oak]

John was it the reaper that had the bad mech? I cut my teeth on the 22 explorer and it killed goats and bass, but quickly moved to rabitechs and rob allens. I usually recommend rob allens as pipe guns, you can throw those things on the ground, get racked in the surf and shake them off and kill fish. I liken them to the glocks of the sea.

[John Hughes]

John was it the reaper that had the bad mech? I cut my teeth on the 22 explorer and it killed goats and bass, but quickly moved to rabitechs and rob allens. I usually recommend rob allens as pipe guns, you can throw those things on the ground, get racked in the surf and shake them off and kill fish. I liken them to the glocks of the sea.

no, it was one of their "higher" end newer wood model guns that came out about 5 years ago. I don't know what they call them. The point for me is that being on the low end of the pay scale, a lot of new guys are going to start with those guns. My newbie buddy didn't even know how dangerous that particular situation could be. For me, if that was happening right off the rack, I wouldn't trust any of their mechs.

I'm also pretty big on customer service. I'll always pay more for it. Always. Obviously in manufacturing you're going to have some stuff go sideways at times. Especially in mass production. If you're not willing to back your product though? I'm pretty much done with you.

That's just been my experience with JBL. I'm not out to downright trash companies, but I do believe in being honest with reviews and especially when it comes to safety issues. You can go low end, but it absolutely should be safe IMO.

[rene]

I never got why the carbine and other trash guns were sold so much. You can pick up a cheap Cressi Commanche or other low end euro guns and go win a target shooting competition and they will last decades... So no one tried the reaper lol.

[grometito]

Found this https://spearfishing.world/thread/7438- ... -speargun/

[Schwaman]

Shameless copy of the Rob Allen gun. Zero reason not to get the original.

[rene]

Found this https://spearfishing.world/thread/7438- ... -speargun/

Yep, that's a lot of information! They don't seem to have many fans the poor people at JBL lol

[NaClAddict]

John’s account is the first I’ve heard of a dangerous jbl. Every manufacturer has made a bad gun. Surprising that jbl wouldn’t fix it.

Now Bandito guns, they were all bad.

[dctrjayyy]

Back in the day I owned 2 JBL's. Both were old tech and shot like crap. Met the new guys that bought jbl a couple of years ago at Neptonics. They were showing off some of the new designed gear including their carbon fins. I emailed and IG messaged the guy the next day asking him where I could get a pair of the carbon fins in medium. Crickets. No response. That was enough for me.

You can email Rob Allen and he gets right back to you and he doesn't need your business. The only problem is his US distributor sucks.