DISCLAIMER:
It couldn't miss, ¿right?  LOL!

Some of my readers and friends have written asking "what gives" as per the criptic note by Stephen Archer of Hard Air Magazine in his IWA report.

Well, in the interest of "Full Disclosure" I am delighted to say that I have been appointed by DIANA as an external consultant.

This means that I DO work part time for DIANA as an external support/resource.
It also means that I am not an employee and, curiously, enough, I am under strict instructions from DIANA's new CEO to "remain a free thinker".

I will therefore continue my work with other brands of guns, optics, pellets/ammunition and, of course, precision shooting games like Field Target, Silhouette and, now, I will add some 3P Airgun, as I do believe it is the future of Practical Riflery in the USA what is at stake here.

As many of you that have known me for years already realize, I enjoy a long standing relation of trust and confidence with M&G (the company that owns the DIANA brand), as I have been a long time advocate of their products and design philosophies; and have acted as a "service station" of last resort when problems have arisen that are not solvable through the "normal" channels.
​
I visited the old plant in Rastatt a few times, had good relations with the Old Team Diana and enjoyed good, frank, and direct discussions with Michael Mayer a few years ago:

People often assume when they see a company that has been in business for 125+ years that the company "has it made".
Hmmm, not necessarily.
The abilities and corporate flexibility needed to survive two World Wars, two Global Depressions and the extremely traumatic event of German Re-Unification may not be enough to survive the changes in the market.

With the world's capacity to produce starting to outstrip the world's capacity to consume, the markets are changing drastically, and even more so the international market of guns.

Make no mistake, we Americans treat airguns as "almost toys", but in the rest of the world a gun is a gun is a gun. And in the specific area of airguns, America is not the largest market.
It is an interesting market, and it is one of the more innovative markets, but precisely because of this the challenges to a manufacturer are great indeed.
I will not go into the full history of the brand DIANA and of Mayer&Grammelspacher (real name of the company that owns the brand). That is an appropriate subject for another entry, and possibly, a whole book. BUT what must be understood by our readers is how a company goes under "Metamorphosis"  when it needs to be reborn, like the mythical Phoenix, rising from its own ashes.

So, let's go back a few years and start from there. When Herr Andre Wirth decided to leave DIANA, the owners (the Mayer family) decided not to hire another external CEO and instead promoted from within the General Sales Manager (Herr Martin Zedler) to be "Acting CEO".
Yes, DIANA's problems were mostly lack of sales, but then how can you sell a product that is out of touch with the market?
On top of that, Herr Zedler was not allowed to dedicate all the resources needed to upgrade and update the manufacturing facility in Rastatt and instead of going to CNC centers, the best he could afford was to use "multiple jig machining".
A short lived passage of a manufacturing expert from the automotive industry, was not enough to convince the owners to dedicate the huge amounts of money needed to re-tool all the production.

And still, under the guidance of Herr Zedler, DIANA survived well over a decade and still managed to produce very nice (the T/H line) and powerful airguns (the 350 & 460), break some moulds (the 280 and the 430), bring reliable gas spring technology (the N-Tec family), and issue their first PCP (the Diana 1000).

But, as in any baseball game, a few hits do not mean that you will win the game, and with continued drainage of resources, DIANA became a net debtor and slid further and further into debt.
So much so that a a couple of years ago, the company was sold "lock, stock and barrel" for the astounding amount of €1-00

Now, let it be perfectly clear: I am not criticizing the former owners. To really know why they did what they did we would have to be in their shoes and that is impossible. But, what can be stated are facts, and the fact is that the company had to be sold, relocated and a new workforce hired, with modern manufacturing skills, using new machinery.

With a little guidance from the German Government, a deal was struck.

Now, who were the brave souls that took it over?

The direct company that did is called German Sport Guns (GSG), but it is only a small, VERY small, part of the L&O group. The L&O Group has over 120 companies/facilities and has basically two branches: Textiles (non-wovens), and weapons.

The Weapons part reads like a "Who's WHo" in the world of weapons: SIG, SAUER, RIGBY, MAUSER, BLASER, SWISS ARMS. Quite a collection!
And to this, add DIANA.

Now, to the uninitiated, this might look like a funny thing: Textiles and Weapons together? What is the common thread?

To ME, the common thread is high technology fabrication processes. Precision Machinery, Innovative use of technologies and methods, unortohodox thinking leadership leading to quantum leaps in processes that benefit not only the user, but also the manufacturer.

In a world where companies are obsessed with "shares of the pie", this group has changed the game and is now looking into growing the pie for everyone involved.

And that is what DIANA plans to do in the future.

DIANA has decided to divide the line of airguns it markets into two: The "Action" line, where guns that are NOT of German design or manufacture will be handled, and the "Performance" line, where the traditional DIANA products will continue to be handled.

Within the "Action line" introductions like the Storm Rider and the Diana 250 are the first steps in a complete new focus on affordable products that will allow people on a budget (whether by conviction or need) to enter into airgunning with a quality product. And yes, quality means quality.

For those that have looked into the SPA airguns and seen the delays that it took to get the Storm Rider into the US market, the whole chain of events must now be clear. SPA is one of the more serious airgun making companies in China, their products are not bad by any standard and in some markets (notably Europe), have been making inroads through a reasonable balance of quality to price, but for the US market, they needed something extra: mainly a full support organization that would not let the consumers down when the need for spare parts and/or upgrades came along, and also a higher standard of quality delivered to the customer from the "get go".
Getting SPA to comply with the specifications and needs of the DIANA brand took a lot more time than expected, but I am happy to say that the end product is a little bit better than the "run of the mill" offering elsewhere. Besides, the participation of the two largest retailers in the USA in this whole reorganization of the DIANA brand's products also helps a lot:
On one hand you see Airguns of Arizona dealing the "Skyhawk", as well as the P-1000, while Pyramyd Air deals with the Storm Rider and UMAREX still deals with the mainstays of the brand, albeit now completely rebranded to RWS.

The Storm Rider has been the subject of several entries in this Blog, and will still be for another two or so, but for the time being, let it suffice to stress that the machine has a lot of potential that we will tap into with the help of several companies around the world.

Another interesting entry through the "Action" line is the Diana 250. Yes it is a version of the B-19, but there are two important points where there are differences:
One is the trigger. The 250 has a much better trigger than the B-19
The other is the pivot point; in the DIANA version the washers are NOT supporting the barrel, there are proper half inserts that support and stabilize the barrel for improved accuracy. Other companies could not be bothered improving the product, but DIANA did, and it is the shooters the ones that will benefit in the medium and long run.

A further point of interest in the "Performance" line is the complete change of manufacturing philosophy.
Sure the 48, 52, 54, etc. will still be made, but a completely new family is in the works and it will truly embody the "Focus on the Shooter" concept.
DIANA has decided to implement this focus by changing completely how airguns are made to this day, starting with the breakbarrels.
Remember that the group owns Blaser?  ;-)
Keep an eye out towards IWA 2019!

It will not be an easy road. There are plenty of technical challenges to overcome, two years of testing and improving the prototypes and we are still looking for ways to make it better; and, DIANA will still keep supporting those users that have the traditional products, as always.
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All in all, the future seems bright for the brand and for the shooters.

Keep well and shoot straight!




​HM

"Hen's teeth" and "Unicorn Horns"  are, usually, expressions referring to items that are rare, precious, or downright non-existent.
As such it is often applied to Spring-Piston powered rifles that deliver above 14 ft-lbs of muzzle energy smoothly, evenly, consistently and reliably.

Our initial tests with the LGV platform were very enticing, but most shooters that ordered them wanted something to shoot FT with, either in the International Division (WFTF Division), or the Hunter Division and that implied toning down the rifles to under 12 ft-lbs.

If you have not done so, I would recommend reading these five previous entries:

https://www.ctcustomairguns.com/hectors-airgun-blog/the-walther-sport-family 
https://www.ctcustomairguns.com/hectors-airgun-blog/swapping-the-walther-lgus-trigger 
https://www.ctcustomairguns.com/hectors-airgun-blog/a-yankee-tune-for-the-walther-lgu
https://www.ctcustomairguns.com/hectors-airgun-blog/a-yankee-tune-for-the-walther-lgu-second-version
​https://www.ctcustomairguns.com/hectors-airgun-blog/the-walther-lgv-a-second-look

But not everyone is a Field Target shooter. The world is still populated by a very large number of "general airgunners"; some of them with past experiences in shooting, but that have never shot an airgun.
Some of them are careful individuals that do quite some research before deciding on what to buy and which direction to take once they "leave port".

It was my privilege and pleasure to be contacted by someone well past his 60's that had enjoyed some success as a pistol shooter but that now wanted to try a long gun and, given the current trend in regulations, and ammo prices, decided that shooting pellets in his, rather large, backyard would be more satisfying than embarking on an "F" Class race.

Add to that the fact that he was, and is, a "Connecticut Yankee" and, well, we just hit it off.

We toyed with different ideas, from Dianas to AA's, going through HW's and Wallthers, but once all the chips were down and all the factors had been taken into account, we settled on a Walther LGV in 0.22" cal. that was to be converted into a reliable, accurate and simple to operate plinker. Knowing that it would have to pull Yeoman duty occasionally, to get rid of the squirrels that were digging up the Mrs's garden.

AND the whole project (lock, stock, scope and barrel)  had to fit into an under $1K budget.

The only choice we really had, was to use a Challenger Ultra action, make it as smooth shooting as it could possibly be, and settle on a SIGHTRON S-Tac 3-16x42 scope on solid bases.
By this time, it was clear that the gun would have to be equipped with the Anti-Bounce Piston (ABP).

Careful sourcing of the components and with the support of the manufacturers, we got together all the parts and started the process.

Usually, it takes a tin or two of pellets to get a gun "run in". And this was no exception, but after the initial cleaning and then the very careful initial routine of shooting and cleaning, it was clear that the barrel was a good one. Only then did I put the gun through the chrono.

To my dismay, the gun was putting out less than 10 ft-lbs.

Now, less than 10 ft-lbs may be great in 0.177" and in the hands of a World Class FT shooter that is only looking to drop the FT's at 55 yards. But for a budding airgunner, it would not do. Too much to learn before attempting such feats and, on top, due to ease of handling the pellets themselves, we had chosen the 0.22" cal.

But I had faith in the platform and so we proceeded with several tests to ascertain what would be the best powerplant for the purpose.

We tested springs from Walther, Vortek, Maccari, and Titan, and in the end, the best result was obtained with the Maccari spring coupled with the ABP.
Do note that at this time, ARH does not list anymore this spring.

From Top:
OEM Spring yielding 10 ft-lbs
Walther "12 ft-lbs" spring that yielded 11 ft-lbs
Maccari FP spring that yielded between 13½ to 15¼ ft-lbs
ABP piston
OEM piston

While at first looks there does not seem to be a radical difference between the OEM piston and the ABP,  because the ABP is built using an OEM piston, the real differences are inside:

The ABP is a skirted, but "Guideless" piston. The short stub of a "guide" that can be seen only centers the stem into the cocking sleeve in the trigger unit.
Final results were rather satisfying:

Sorry that I had to obscure the serial number, but customer's wishes are all important.

The black bulls are slightly under ½" across and all groups are groups of 5 shots taken at 35 yards

Particularly interesting is how accurate the Non-Lead H&N FTT Green are from this barrel, there was one shot off the group, but I am almost certain that was me.

Checking other pellets at a much shorter distance, given the weather-imposed limitations, also proved interesting:

As you can see, the JSB Exact Jumbo are great pellets in this gun, as are the H&N FTT lead ones.

Why the emphasis on non-lead pellets?

Because given the fact that winter is barely starting, my friend will have to start getting familiarized with his gun shooting indoors, and no matter what your age, no one should expose himself needlessly to lead dust.
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An interesting number in all this is that the peak cocking force is just 36#, so efficiency is quite good.

And so, with somewhat of a heavy heart, I packed one of my best "children"; having graduated into real life she had to go and do her duty in the hands of her new guardian.

I am sure she will be well cared for.

Keep well and shoot straight!




​HM

I usually do not post anything about a shoot until the official report has come out, but since it is the Holidays Season, perhaps everyone is making merry, as they should.
I'm taking a short break and taking advantage of the peculiar situation known to all when:

"It was the night before Christmas, and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse".

So, tonight, my Christmas gift to you all is a short view into an impressively well laid course in New England, specifically, the Pennsylvania location known as "Hawk Valley", part of the Delaware County Field and Stream Association, do note this website is under construction and therefore the FT section is not yet in there.

The Hawk Valley course is the latest addition to the long history of serious airgunning that has been going on at DCFSA, to give you a brief:
in 1985 (32 years ago), the first airgun range was established, it was a temporary arrangement until 1992 that saw a dedicated building setup just for airguns.
By 1995 the already well established Field Range was separated from the Airgun Range and given its own responsibilities, officers, schedule, etc.
For many years, the Field Range was  kept unchanged, made up mainly of bells and spinners, it presented the advantage that any member could go and shoot it on a weekday, or at some odd time (as long as there was daylight and the ranges were officially open). While that may not be within what some would call "Field Target", it did provide a wide base of airgunners, mainly interested in the offhand shooting typical to the Pennsylvania small game hunting crowd.
Officially, the Field Target Pennsylvania State Championship has always been shot at DCFSA, but DCFSA opted out of AAFTA many, many, years ago.
In recent times a few hard working and dedicated individuals under the main driving force of Mike Harris, have been at work in the Field Range at DCFSA; the result is a great collection of very challenging lanes with all sorts of variations in the shots: uphill, downhill, across gulleys, targets in the trees, targets in the ground, short and small KZ shots, long and not so big KZ shots, but above all, what strikes the shooters is the execution of the courses:
Tethered reset lines with pull handles
Numbered lanes and lettered targets
Permanent stake markers
and other aspects not quite so evident to the eye.

When we launched the Minutemen League back a few years ago, we visited DCFSA to try to convince them to join the league, alas, because the matches had to be AAFTA compliant, they decided very graciously to decline the offer.
But times change and new blood brings in new ideas and I really do have to recognize how much effort and work has successfully been invested in the courses.
As many say:  a picture is worth a thousand words, so here we go on a short visit as the December 3, 2017 shoot unfolded.

With the attendance of shooters from upstate NY, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland and Pennsylvania (and perhaps someone from NJ), after a reasonable period of sighting in and warming up, the shooters' meeting was convened:

The FT course is sited in the woods behind the clay/shotgun ranges. Yes it is peculiar, but not unheard of. Because the shotgun ranges can be active while FT shoots are going on, eye protection and a hat are more than strongly suggested.

It was a cold day, and there would not be any strong winds until the end of the match. A little foggy, but nothing to impair visibility of the targets.

Some of the lanes are setup at the very difficult uphill angle of around 20°. It is not high enough to use an unorthodox shooting position, but not low enough to make you comfortable with your normal shooting position. So I find it a hard situation. Perhaps someone has found the secret, I haven't.

Note that at the top of the lane marker there is a small cup that holds the timer.
Note the positional shot card and the pulls for each one of the targets (A, B, and C in each lane)

Do note that the lanes are numbered and the targets are designated by letters. The pull itself is designated by the letter that the target is marked with. NO excuses here for shooting out of order! LOL!

Next lane, same angle uphill:

By now, surely someone has already caught up to one of the peculiarities of this shoot:
We shot the course in a DESCENDING order. Yup!
We started on lane 2, then 1 and then we had to walk all the way to lane 10:

No easy shots here, the long target is at around 35 yards

A closeup of the kneeler targets. What is not obvious from the photo is that there is a "pathway" running obliquely between the intermediate target and the long one. Guess what happens when there is a little wind? LOL!
Please note the tethered reset strings. While this is something I do not like personally, I have come to accept it as a en expediency to not having as much terrain as we all would like. Close quarters invite string tangles, and those mean the even less desirable cold line. So, what needs to be done, gets done.
Do note, however one saving grace here: The tethering point is as close to the firing line as possible.

Another interesting lane. See how the MD as solved the issue of a sloping down terrain by setting the targets up in trees. I have a very low shooting position, probably around the 18" LOS height to the target, which means a 15½" direct line from bore to target. Didn't have any problems with the target placement at DCFSA.

A closeup of the target area, the long target is farther than 45 yards. ¿How much farther? I'm not telling ;-)

All lanes presented an interesting challenge.
This is what makes FT so much fun, By contrast, shooting always the same target at always the same distance, seems a little bit stale.

The close and the intermediate target are clearly visible. The far one not so much, being to the right and way beyond the other two. Note how the reset line is maintained clear off the ground, but still the distance between the eyelet and the target is a good one.

The line to the right

The line to the left.

All in all, a fantastic shoot. Very enjoyable and very challenging.

We were almost done with our shoot, when we suddenly heard the shotgun range getting active, VERY active, LOL!
That sure put some fire into the rythm and even those shooters that normally take their sweet time started to accelerate the pace, LOL!
The occasional pellet from the shotguns fell on the hats, and we could clearly hear the "shower of lead" that was taking place.

After the last shot had been fired, we convened at the container that houses the Field Range things and Mike did all the arithmetic which led to awards being presented. I will let Mike Harris post the exact details and scores, I'll just post here all those that received awards

Sean McDaniel, as usual displayed his customary good form in Hunter PCP

John Eroh receiving his award. That is not John's dog, LOL!

Eric Brewer proved why he is the National Hunter Piston Champ.

Sydney McDaniel brightened the day and the course, Good shooting!

Hans Apelles, always with a smile and the willingness to shoot and spend a day in the great outdoors with long time friends!

Dale Benson, offhand shooter extraordinaire and one of the few shooters that still insists on shooting all the course offhand.

Leo Gonzales, MD of the Connecticut Airgunners' Club and one of the young values in FT in the Northeast.

Brian Vanlieuw, our local Open PCP honcho.

Rosalie Paulsen, up and coming in the freestyle class.

And yours truly. that had a ball and thanks Mike Harris and all those that worked so hard to set up the course to this standard of functionality.

It must be said here that it is somewhat controversial that a course stays the same for a number of weeks or months.
And in a way I can understand the fact that if you know you have already shot a lane, it may not be as interesting, but there is another side to this and one that SHOULD be taken into account by MD's that have the space and the resources to setup a course that can stay for an extended period of time:

NOTHING BEATS PRACTICE!

And it is much more interesting to practice shooting at FT's, or at least in an FT-like environment than shooting paper. Yes some shooters can setup their own courses with a few targets (or many) in their own backyard, BUT, there is a value to the notion that a shooter can go to a range and shoot a course in a weekday, or for a lunch break; even if it's made mostly of spinners and bells, or other targets that do not need resetting (and therefore no strings). That course can stay put for a month or two and then changed.
This would allow more shooters to practice a lot more in a setting that more closely parallels a normal match.

If you have not shot at DCFSA lately, you owe it to yourselves to take the trip and shoot the Hawk Valley course, it is really a World Class setup with lots of long shots and terrain differences that makes even soft winds play peculiar acts on the pellet's trajectory.

And so, keeping in tune with the season's theme:

Happy Christmas to ALL and to ALL a good night!