I like to use a single word to define watershed events along the year but, this time, the 2019 PAC gets two words  because it will be a watershed event along the years (yes, plural).
And the reasons are simple, though not completely evident:
- It has become the largest airgun shoot in the country with about 300 entries into the three different events
- Even in just FT, it was capped at 120 shooters and the field was complete, except for some last minute drop-offs that had no "backup"/waiting list.
- It attracted more press and more media than ever before
- It has found a new venue with lots of potential
- It has started to attract formal "Teams" from the manufacturers
- It had some very high caliber international attendance (pun intended).

Of course some of this great success comes from the great prizes offered. Let's be sincere: not everyone can take an trans-Atlantic or trans-Pacific flight to shoot a few hundred pellets and then go home.
If we want the airguns sports (all of them) to grow and gain respect from the other shooting disciplines, we need to get more "professional" and the quotes are not unintentional.

I truly do NOT want ANYONE to take these statements as an endorsement of a "Savage Equipment Race". Or an endorsement of a "requirement" to offer prizes (whether cash or kind) at all regional, or national, scale matches.
On the contrary, this is a WARNING, that we (as the airgun shooters' community) will start treading the thin red line between growing the sport, and spoiling the sport.
And everyone will have different opinions and sensibilities. That is OK, we may be a great bunch, but no one has said that, individually, we are not opinionated, EVER!                           LOL!
To be able to put the discussion front and center is necessary at all levels, whether it is AAFTA, WRAB/ASA, or a nascent 100 yards Airgun Benchrest (if you want to call it 'extreme', or not, is up to you), is absolutely essential.

So, you, my dear readers, have now a role to play:
Write to the regulating boards of your choice and let them know how you feel.
Club reps will have to write to AAFTA to express what they feel about FT
Members will have to write to WRAB/ASA to express what they feel about 100 yards BR
Shooters will have to write to Pyramyd Air to express what they feel about the Gunslynger

​So, with that out of the way and without trying to repeat what other great reviews of the PAC 2019 have shown or said, let me try to transmit to you what I felt and experienced during the 5 days that the competition took.

It has become evident to me that in reality, people don't read the write-up, they want to see the pictures, so I will post the pictures and shut-up, LOL!

I really don't know how, but I ended up being interviewed by the 'Airgun Exploaration and Advancement Channel' in YouTube for the "Pyramyd Air Cup.- The Movie", and it was a lot of fun working with Steve S on the filming. Steve explained clearly what he wanted on video and I do think he is a good director. Even a non-actor like me looks half good, LOL!
​See the whole film here. If you are pressed for time, skip to 1:14:35

My most sincere thanks to everyone at Pyramyd Air for all they do for the airgunning community, specially for those of us that take our entertainment "seriously".

;-)

Keep well and shoot straight!

We all know that "life happens".
I had hoped to use a little quiet time to do the writeups for the Pyarmyd Air Cup and the Pennsylvania State Championship, but suddenly I had to devote time to fix a situation that should have never happened.

I had been watching a thread in the Gateway to Airguns Forum, but everything pointed out to a relatively simple problem.
Now I LIKE to leave the forum alone because in that way, people that have learned over the years how to do things and fix problems share their knowledge. If I were to jump into ALL threads, the forum would become a boring place and there is no "community building" in that.
By leaving the users help the other users, a "Community" is built where trust and friendship are clear and evident. And THAT is worthwhile.

At first I thought that the problem was a broken mainspring guide.
Why?
Because the OP said: "I began to cock it but stopped at the first ratchet of the bear trap so I could reposition my hand. I then grasped the lever and it would not move. Tried it again and this time put a little more force to the cocking action and it still did not move."
So, that meant, in my mind, that the sliding compression chamber had moved freely to the first ratchet position.

Lots of good advice was given, but still the 54 refused to cock.

By then I got in contact with the OP and suggested he returned the gun to the seller. But I also said that, given that he had demonstrated being a careful individual, I would not consider his warranty to have lapsed or gone up in smoke if he tried to do the repair himself.
Still, I insisted that he return the rifle to the seller, as sellers have a contractual obligation to let DIANA know what is failing in the case of returns.

He then offered to drive 5½ hrs to Ohio, to witness the repair process.

So, you can see he had an attachment to the gun, LOL! And so, after the seller refused to do anything else but replace the gun, I made an offer to repair the gun and learn from the experience, as well as share it with all of you.

Learn was the operative word here, LOL!

The gun arrived to Maryland well packed and  boxed.

After unboxing, I tried to cock the gun and was completely taken aback, there was a strong resistance from the first movement of the sliding compression chamber.

Hmmmmmm, this was no broken guide.

​Off to the table:

Sights and stock removed:

Everything seemed to be normal in the bedding:

On to the spring compressor:

Cocking lever was removed:

Slave/Dumb pins inserted:

Out came the action pins and when the slave pins had been centered

The trigger block came out:

Spring and guide were good.

Trigger worked properly

Without the spring, the cocking lever was used to bring back piston and compression chamber

But then, things really got stuck.
The piston did not come out, the compression cylinder refused to move

Ah, well, this is going to be one hairy ride!

Let me digress a little: I was once asked what I thought the difference was between a "Home tinkerer", a "Tuner" (whether professional or not), and a "Gunsmith".

And I still think that this appreciation is correct:

A "Home Tinkerer" will use general tools to the best of his knowledge and ability. He MAY even have some commercially made gunsmithing tools, but he will stop when major modifications are required for a gun to operate properly. He will use commercially made replacement parts, or "kits", whether OEM or not.

A "Tuner" has specialized in changing and upgrading parts, doing minor modifications, and possibly altering some parts (barrel, or piston) so that the best possible performance is attained from the engine. In general, Tuners will not deal with problem guns because that is not their job. If something is not working, it gets replaced. Simple and expedient.

Now, based on the principles of the old guilds'  apprenticeships, I THINK, that a gunsmith makes himself many of the specialized tools he uses. They can be as simple as a properly ground screwdriver, to a jig to support a workpiece and move it within the desired path for a good result.
And in many occasions he will make a tool to solve ONE problem. That problem may present itself at a later date, but it may not.
The other aspect of the gunsmith is that he understands WHY things happen.

In the old days, apprentices passed their first year when they could take a lump of steel and with nothing more than a set of files, a ruler and a compass, come up with a perfect cube of steel.
Sounds Simple? Try it! Note that you need to start by creating a square.

Second year, apprentices learned how to forge, temper and draw springs (Flat), how to case-harden parts, and how to blue them.

By the third year they could forge a barrel, ream it, chamber it, backbore it, or choke it (most of the long guns back then were smoothbore)

By the fourth year they could rifle a barrel, time the locks and set up loads and sights.

Along this route, the lads built their tool chest. One by one, the tools they made were what they would be taking away to hang their own shingle. Apprenticeships of 5, 6, and even 7 years were not uncommon.

And once they were a practicing gunsmith, they would have to present, within a reasonable amount of time, a piece to the guild's council to be accepted as "Master" and THEN he could take in apprentices of his own.
That piece was the "Master-Piece" ("MeisterStuck").

To this date, there are museums where the tool chests of different craftsmen are exhibited and one wonders if the system really had to disappear.

Now, back to reality, and the reason why I made the long comment, is that to get the piston and the compression chamber out, I had to make two tools, one straight relatively slender dowel to push the assembly from the inside, and then one curved one more beefy, to give the pair the final "whacks" to get them out.

Once out, this is what I found:

Now, this is a lubricated piston, but there was something more on the edge of the bell, that, when taken out resulted in this:

Yup, that is a small sliver of steel. It had gotten lodged between the bell and the tube and created a strong "interference".
But steel, specially heat treated steel, does not generally gall, so why did it occur in this instance?
And why did the compression chamber also needed to be extracted with a dead-blow hammer?

Upon cursory inspection, there was nothing wrong with it. On the left the "problem" compression chamber, on the right a "normal" one.

But, ¿Were they really the same?

Careful measurement showed that while in most places the compression chambers were identical, there was ONE place where the problem compression chamber had a difference: and that was on the OFF side of the cocking lever attachment point.
From a working diameter of 1.209" the non-working part went to 1.211"
Now, 0.002" may not seem much, but consider that when working with steel (not heat treated as this was), an interference fit of 0.002" on a 1.209" piece can hold around 36,000 newtons (about 7,900 #)

So, now we knew what had happened: this specific compression chamber had the "bad luck" of receiving the cocking lever attachment point perforation where it presented the "fattest" diameter.
With the cocking system in place, the compression chamber pushes more on one side than on the other, and the huge pressures created, caused the galling.
And not only that, but the whole assembly was getting stuck because while all the proper tolerances were kept, the accumulation of errors created an impossible condition to work in.

I think we need to revise our GD&T for reference points from where to define the tolerances. But that is "homework" for the technical guys. We're here to see how we fixed it and along the way, created a gun that will be unique.

One solution could have been to grind off a thousandth from the compression chamber, but in my experience, compression chambers usually last a LONG time, as long as the rifle itself, so, ¿Was there a better way?

And of course, the answer was ¡yes!. We had the opportunity to hand-fit the compression chamber to the mechanisms tube.
​I started by making a tool to de-burr the cutouts of the action:

Using water and a fine sanding paper, I managed to open up the inside of the tube to the point that the piston entered with SLIGHT effort, but not too much.
At first I thought that the cutouts and the pressure put in the welding of the sled-rails support bracket were the culprits, but then I remembered that the compression chamber had posed resistance from the first movement.
So the problem was all along the raceway of the compression chamber.

What to do?

​Of course, make another tool!

The reason is simple:
Hones are made to work on cylinders and jackets, but not when they are located 8" into a mechanisms tube.

So, I made an extension:

There are two hones that a gunsmith can use: Either the little stones that are made for honing motorcycle and other small motors, or the "Flex Hone".
Fixed hones, when properly extended and weighted, can do a good job of polishing and truing the internals of a compression chamber, but for mechanisms tubes where the uniformity of the inside diameter is not as critical as in the compression chambers, a flex-hone will do nicely.
It is NOT recommended for the inside of compression chambers because it cannot reach to the bottom of it.
Unless you can disassemble the compression chamber, do NOT use a Flex-hone on the inside of a compression chamber.
I like to use diamond-loaded honing oil, so what you see on the flex-hone is the extremely black "dust" that is the industrial diamond honing additive.

After some work, taking it slowly, measuring often and being careful not to overdo it, it became possible to assemble the whole thing.

The rifle feels like a vault, even if I had WANTED to button the piston, there is no space to do so. Of course vaults do not operate at 100 m/s (328 fps)

Now, would it be possible to hold this level of precision fitting from the factory? no way! A hand fitted gun costs a lot more than the run of the mill DIANA.

For assembly, I chose to use Ultimox 226 paste, as it is the only lubricant that can guarantee a good performance under the pressures that such a tight-fitting action will give for the first year or two.
Small price to pay for a good gun.

They say the proof of the pudding is in the eating, and so I tested the gun with open sights at 15 yards. I am sure there are better shooters than me with open sights, but the results are not half bad:

For effects of establishing "Provenance" I will say here that the above applies to the rifle serial number 25036871  and that I am sure that this provenance should be worth at least $1.98 above and beyond the BBA values  (private joke).

;-)

Keep well and shoot straight!









HM

If this sounds like the header of cooking thingy, you're right, LOL!

I am seldom enthused by the modern pellet trap offerings.

"Silent traps" that rely on duct seal to reduce the noise are a pain to clean the pellets from and, in the end, you are left with a lump of contaminated material that is impossible to recycle, or extract the lead from. Little shards/shrapnel are extremely difficult to find/remove.

Cardboard boxes filled with rubber mulch work real well, until you need to clean them/extract the lead. Dumping everything in water works so-so, as it is a long and messy process and you end up with a bunch of wet mulch that takes a few days to dry. If you put it into new cardboard boxes, these get wet and loose all resistance.
Also the raffia web that is most useful to hold the mulch in while allowing the pellets to enter but not allowing them to go out is not easy to get.

I've also tried the "curtain" type of traps, where hanging pieces of cloth are supposed to slow down the pellets enough so that the rear steel plate backer can stop them. Useless by the 100th round, curtains were replaced with genuine sown Kevlar cloth, in itself a pain to do because cutting and sewing Kevlar is not precisely easy. And it was still a mess.

Normal, "assemble yourself" pellet traps rated for 0.22" RF cal. have the great defect that they have a junction where the rear of the slanted plate and the horizontal plate meet, and lead shards/dust escape through there.. NOT ideal.

Those that are welded are, by far, the best option, but they are not truly portable, weighing in excess of 20#

​So, when I saw this pellet trap at a Cabela's store:

I was almost going to just jump over it, when something struck me: It looks VERY similar to the old "Cabañas" pellet traps that I used to use in México
Picked the box up . . . . Hmmm, light enough
How does it go together? Pretty easy.
Hmmm, well there is a well to catch the spent pellets!
Rating? apparently 0.177" pellets, but when you read the small print, it is 0.177" lead pellets at under 800 fps from a distance of at least 10 yards.
Still, the design was good, it had "Possibilities".

When I reached home, I took some measurements and contacted the good people at Online Metals to see if they would be so kind as to cut steel plate to measure.
They agreed, and so I ordered four 0.19" x 7" x 7 1/2"  ANSI 4130 annealed steel plates (yes I will be constructing a few more later) and they came out at $25 ea.
Great service and great prices. Online Metals recently became part of the Thyssen-Krupp corporation so, you could say that they know a thing or two about steels.  ;-)

In 3 days I had the plates and then "cooking" started.

Then the trap backplate was marked, punched, drilled and deburred:

Short Allen-headed bolts were inserted into the trap's backplate:

1/4" rubber grommets were used to space the plate and deaden the sound:

The resulting "air sandwich" can be seen here:

Then assembly took place as normal.

You can see that the short (10 mm's)  Allen bolts do not protrude from the plate's surface.

And if you do not want to use the swingers, you can use a standard target:

Do take the precaution to put a cardboard and a "foamy" backer behind the paper target. Between the two they will stop any ricochet and all dust and shards will remain behind the backers.

A suitably sized cork stopper can be used to plug both "exit" holes:

Methinks I'll  have to open a couple of good wines, LOL!

Anyway, it took about 10 mins to order the plates from Online Metals. And ordering the "Air Strike" pellet trap can be done directly from Do-All Outdoors or from a number of online retailers at between $17 and $20 per unit. Personally I would not spend more than 5 mins to save $3, but to each his own. Shipping may or may not add to your cost.

Marking, drilling and tapping, and then assembling everything took about 20 minutes.

3/16" plate will stop almost every airgun pellet, just do not use "penetrator" pellets, with steel balls, or bronze points, or other gadgets like that, and you will be fine.

While not completely silent, it is much easier to clean and to retrieve the lead from. Babies can sleep at two doors' distance and not be bothered by the noise.

Do NOT use for ANYTHING OTHER THAN AIRGUNS AT UP TO 35 FT-LBS ME WITH LEAD PELLETS

DO NOT EXCEED 35 FT-LBS MUZZLE ENERGY

ALWAYS WEAR SAFETY GOGGLES  WHEN SHOOTING AT LESS THAN 30 YARDS

I hope you enjoy this short project. I did!

Keep well and shoot straight!







​HM