My gun has two bands but I only use one when free shafting. Sorry I forgot to mention that. If I use more than one I blow through fish. If you are using a true freeshaft, shoot them with a quartering away shot, that way when they struggle, they swim back up the shaft, not off the back, a true free shaft has nothing to keep them on the back of the shaft.
If you're going to try freeshafting AJ's, keep extra shafts on the boat. You'll need them. Tough fish to bring down with a single shot, but it can be done with practice. Same is true with cobia and big red snapper.
I'm glad you know about Ray. He's the man for shafts!
Dave
For some reason, I don't have much trouble with AJs. They tend to give me a nice broad side shot. Here's one I shot this summer. You can see where I hit him in the head just behind the eye. He didn't give me too much trouble, but it was not a stone shot.
When I shot him, I was on the way up from a 140 fsw dive, and had missed a nice black snapper. He swam right over to me and didn't give much fight, but I would have lost a shaft if I was free shafting because I shot him at about 40 ft.
On the other hand, this cobe was a team effort.
I shot him almost on the surface. I had uncocked my gun while I was hanging on the anchor rope doing a safety stop, and he swam right under me. I only got two bands cocked but shot him right behind the head from about 10 feet away. My shaft did not even go all the way through and he didn't even seem to notice. I tried to swim with him until he finally pulled off then miraculously, turned back right under us. By that time a couple of my buddies got shots at him. The gash in his side is from a JBL Magnum. It went all the way through, then while he was holding on, my son shot him with his Riffe. With two spears in him, we were able to wrestle him to the boat, but he never gave up fighting.
I shot another cobe this fall that my shaft did not penetrate. It was almost the same shot except on the bottom. I shot down on him and hit him directly in head. He just swam away and pulled off immediately. That, and essentially the same situation with a nice grouper is what got me thinking about changing guns.