Questionable Content XIX: Give Jeph Just A *Little* Credit, Here

[Rodin]

Harpoon

Rhubarb.

Ah my mistake.

Point still stands though, harpoon guns can be just as portable as a handheld harpoon. It all depends on the size of the animal you're hunting.

As to the naming business, I literally Googled "harpoon gun" and the first result was an example of an actual harpoon gun made in 1910 in Birmingham, England. There's quite a few more further down the search results, including one that's supposed to be the inspiration for the harpoon gun used by James Bond. Quite a few of the historical mounted harpoon guns were also man-portable in theory, clocking it at only a meter or so long. They'd probably have one hell of a recoil though.

The terminology appears to be interchangeable, as even some of the spearguns I saw referenced were said to shoot harpoons.