Abstract: A spear-gun is disclosed which can be loaded by holding the butt end in the hands and moving a slider forwards with the feet to extend a spring. This allows a person of given strength to more easily load the gun or to store more energy in the spring than would be possible with a conventional arm-loaded gun. The gun comprises a barrel (32) with a pistol-grip (30) at the butt end and a head (34) adapted to guide the spear. The spring comprises two rubbers (36) arranged on either side of the barrel and aligned with its axis, the forward ends of the rubbers being connected to a forward slider (40) adapted to slide on the barrel and the rear ends being connected to a rear slider (42) also adapted to slide on the barrel. The forward slider (40) is fitted with releasable non-return dogs (47) that normally prevent it from moving rearwards along the barrel, while the rear slider (42) is adapted to be retained by trigger-operated catches (43).