PATHOS OPEN CARBON ROLLER REVIEW
EXTREME LIGHTNESS, EXTRAORDINARY POWER
A few months ago, we wrote a very positive review of the pathos sniper roller, in which we conveyed our full appreciation for this product that we believe to be with no doubts the best industrial speargun we have received for testing in almost 10 years.
We noticed that some of the main features of the sniper roller were reflected in another product of the pathos catalog and therefore we asked Giacomo Demola to undertake a LASER OPEN CARBON ROLLER test.
This is a different product although at first glance it may look like a declination of the now well-known Sniper Roller. We don’t not know which one between the two spearguns was born before the other, however, below we present a careful analysis of the 82cm model.
Unlike the sniper, the carbon laser is provided with a d’angelo 2 handle made of nylon and glass fiber with stainless steel mechanism characterized by a maximum load of 400kg. Despite this important feature of the trigger, the latter remains very smooth to operate. The handle is mounted in a carbon barrel, with a 30mm (external) section, that is equipped with an integral shaft track (also made in carbon), unlike the sniper that is equipped instead with the enclosed track.
The muzzle is very similar to the sniper roller one. It keeps all the essential features such as the slot that keeps the shaft barb locked and the deep grooves that, together with the hooks, make the passage of the line smooth and “tidy”. Of course, the barrel junction shape is different and changes from “cuttlefish bone–shaped” to "cylinder-shaped". Finally, due to the absence of the enclosed track, the header features small triangular protrusions that allow user to arrange the monofilament “bridge” to lock the shaft in its position.
Standard comes with a shaft that is 115cm in length and 7mm in diameter (for 82cm model) with a tri-face cut high penetration tip and 4 "shark fin" pins strategically positioned over the entire length. The first one is at 58cm from the tip of the shaft and is primarily intended to facilitate loading. The second is at 92cm while the third and fourth are respectively at 105cm and 110cm from the shaft tip. With these measures it is easy to evaluate how close to user’s chest the latter two pins have been designed to be, especially if you consider that the overall length of the whole speargun is 122cm!
The propulsion is entrusted to a 16mm (diameter) TNT roller band (black rubber inside and thin red coextrusion outside) that is 103cm in length and a 14mm (diameter) TNT circular band (the so-called booster) that is 50cm in length. Both are provided with cord wishbones.
This jewel that weighs just 1393gr (complete setting but without reel and line) is actually sold without reel, but we strongly suggest to purchase a vertical model that has a small volume and, above all, a great clutch that really does what it should.
Left on the surface, the speargun softly sinks in a perfectly horizontal alignment (equipped also with a reel) and this clears out that besides the accurate details there is a very efficient functional design project. The movements in water are characterized by the incredible lightness of the carbon structure. The slot that blocks the muzzle slot that locks the shaft barb works so perfectly that you could even avoid setting the mono-line “bridge” over the shaft. The only negative point is represented by the cord wishbones. Unfortunately the eyelets are really very small and it is not easy to replace the wishbone neither in water nor out of it. As soon as we received it, the first change we made was right the replacement of both the eyelets and the wishbones and the installation of the "handle" on the roller band wishbone (roisub style) to facilitate loading without having to split this operation in two steps.
