​Sorry for the delay in getting to this point. I have been extremely busy with some ABP's, but those are done and hopefully, we can now get to work on other things. Though an ABP would seem an ideal addition to the 430L, LOL!
I need to find a a way to make them less complicated.  ;-)

Anyway, after a full tin of pellets had been put through the 430L, we started testing pellets:

We tested the old trusted standby's, as well as some innovative pellets that I received  from unexpected sources. Funny how things happen just out of the blue, but it is rewarding to see that the Blog is read and respected all  over the world.
Rifle is a Brazilian company, they make pellets in two different "categories" the sport line (which we would call "plinking" here and the Premium line, that we would call "shooting" in the US.
Their Sport line produced "minute of can" groups, not bad, but not what we are looking for.
Their Premium line, however produced some interesting groups.
COAL is a Central European company that makes pellets the old way: rolled. And for the technology, they make interesting designs, however, none of their offerings produced acceptable results from THIS gun. We will be testing them in other guns and we will be offering some advice to the "Rifle Company" because they do have the potential, they only need to polish up some points in their production.

Having said that, we will concentrate then on four different pellets for the 430L:

First, the Baracuda FT, a pellet that is not easy to make shoot well. It has a very rear-wards CoG (Center of Gravity), and therefore requires a somewhat "tight" rifling, but it seems the 430L likes them.
Because the group in the test target above was "tainted" by another group made by pellets that I will not even name, I shot another test group, but this time 10 shots:

On purpose, I didn't shoot anything else in this target.
Just to show how clean the group is.
Now, 11.3 ft-lbs is nothing to sneeze at, specially if part of the interests of the shooter is an occasional FT Match here and there. But because the BFT (Baracuda Field Target) is a heavy pellet (9.57 grs.) the MV  is rather slow: 731 fps.
Those of you that went to Pyramyd Air Cup, received two samplers of this pellet, classified by lots.
PLEASE, if you have not tested them, do so. H&N went the whole 11 yards to get market feedback, and they deserve our attention.
You do not need to make public your findings (I will not), but a short Email telling them what lot you found best, or if no pellets shot good from your gun, and what gun / lube / MV you are using, is good information for them.
They are NOT doing this as a marketing gimmick, they are really and truly interested in YOUR results. So, please, take the time to shoot some groups, measure them and send the data to H&N. As airgunners WE WILL ALL be better for it.
The BFT is an interesting pellet when it shoots well out of the specific airgun you are interested in because it has very little susceptibility to wind.
Part is due to the weight, and part is the slow MV, but also part is the design of the head...
Will your gun like them?
You need to test, after all, it is part of the fun!

Curiously enough, I found that this particular gun likes the 4.53's JSB's (only offered in 8.44 grs.). It shoots acceptably well  the FT Premium, but the EXACTS are truly amazing.

Do remember that the black "dots" are a little under ½" and do compare the hole made by the S-100 pellets  (A Match WC) that is truly 4.5 mm's across.
It was notable that the JSB's 8.44's / 4.53's went into two distinct, but very close holes. There are three pellets in the top right section and two in the lower left. But they are so close together!
This points out to the need of controlling the barrel's harmonics, OR, preventing outright the generation of those. In here is where the ABP would probably help.
The S-100's shot better than the RWS SuperMag (a pellet I have found to be very accurate at or above 12 ft-lbs, where the normal Match pellets start destabilizing). But still the Exacts did prove to be the overall best pellet.

As to the Brazilian offerings, the Domed proved to be better than the WC, not surprising at this distance:

Although I have noted the ME's for the pellets of interest, just to provide you with the data and not make you reverse calculate the MV's, they were:

BFT.- 731 +/- 3  fps
JSB.- 784 +/- 6 fps
S-100.- 815 +/- 5 fps
Rifle Premium "Round" .- 794 +/- 4 fps

Now, in case you are wondering why these groups were shot a 25 yards instead of the usual 35 yds/ 32 meters, the reason is the weather:

There is a song in Spanish that says:

"Thank you, Life, for giving me laughs and tears
Through them I distinguish joys from heartbreaks
Specially through the eyes of my beloved"

And so, we need to learn to live through the winters and the summers; without both of them, life would be somewhat boring.

Now, indoor shooting also offers some rewards:

This doesn't happen as often as I would like, but when it happens, it makes you feel Oh, SOoooo Goooooood! LOL!

The 430L is definitely an improvement over the 430 and the 440.
It shows clearly how the persons on the assembly floor can contribute to the products, if only management is willing to listen.
The added barrel and lever length make the gun an enjoyable experience.

Accuracy and Precision potential are there, and that is as far as a manufacturer can go, the actual achievement of that potential is up to the users.

Yes, there is still room for improvement but that will take a bit more than getting different parts together. It will take a re-design of the cocking linkages. We'll see where we get on that end.
On the piston end, the gun does exhibit a definite re-bound. A gas spring with its more constant-force curve would be one solution, but then we're back to the large cocking force needed, and straight from the start. Plus the challenges of making the piston a non-rotating piston are not easily solved.
Another solution would be an anti-bounce piston (ABP), we'll look into that later, but we need to re-define (and refine) the design.
The current Muzzle piece almost precludes the use of a Harmonics Tuner, or Harmonics Reducer, we will continue thinking about that, but it would be a funny looking contraption.

Hope you all are enjoying the seasons, the changes, and the challenges that life brings; after all, life is a trip and the final destination is not that enjoyable, ROFL!

Keep well and shoot straight!





​HM

First of all, and to let everyone down from the start, I am NOT going to post MV's for the time being, neither am I going to mention which pellets I am using, just be assured they are "mid-weights".
There is little sense in chronoing and defining a pellet in a gun that has not been "run-in". 

In part 1 we looked into the history of the rifle; and in part 2 we looked into the gun itself.
​
On this part 3 we'll go into those first crucial shots.

The first shots of ANY barrel are crucial to the accurate life of the barrel. In SOME guns, this accurate life may be as short as a few hundred to a thousand rounds (Wildcats, like the 0.22" / 338 Wby Mag), in some other guns, that accurate life may have the potential to be as long as hundreds of thousands of rounds (airguns in general).
BUT, unless you want to find yourself in the need of some heroic measures, like fire-lapping the barrel, then your best bet is to simply do it right from the beginning.

It does require patience and perseverance, but it can be done, and as long as you keep the final goal in mind it is not THAT bothersome. It just takes time.

What you see here is the first target shot with the 430L

There are 70 shots in this card, 65 in the group at the bottom, and then 5, one at each little chicken on top.
The shots were taken indoors at 15 yards (though the target was designed for offhand shooting at 6 yards, the small size of the animals makes it a fun target to shoot from the FT position).

The ruler is set to 12 mm's (a tad less than ½") and the process to create the group (and to start the run-in of the barrel) was as follows:

1 shot, clean
another shot, clean
repeat for 10 shots (so far, 10 shots)
Now take 5 shots, clean
another 5 shots, clean
repeat till you accumulate 10 cleans (so far, 60 shots)
Now take 10 shots (5 into the group and then one at each chicken), clean
So in this card we accumulated 70 shots.

Time came to get serious and to go to the Monday night airgun practice at DIFTA.
The range there is 10 meters, so I took some targets that are designed for 10 meters, and used one target from those supplied by the club to do some more "running-in"" 

Each group is comprised of 10 shots, after every 10 shots, the gun got cleaned.
All groups were shot offhand at 10 meters, as required by the rules of the range.

At the same time that the groups were being shot, the scope was being sighted in, after group 4 I reduced the magnification from 9X to 4X (which is about the same as using match iron sights) and proceeded to shoot groups 5 and 6.

It is clear that the gun is starting to settle, groups are becoming rounder, and more controllable.

The fact that group 6 is a "doughnut" speaks more about the shooter's limitations (fatigue and lack of practice)  than about the gun's performance.

So, by this time, the rifle has gone through 130 shots and it has been on a regimen of shoot 10/clean for 7 times.

Because the range session was coming to an end, I decided to shoot a silhouette half course (20 shots), and I would say that the result (14 out 20) is about what could be expected from a new gun and the lack of practice of this winter (there has been no Zimmer-Silhouetten shoot this year, too busy). 

I did notice, though, one peculiarity of the ZR Mounts provided: Every time I loaded the gun (standing) , my body pushed against the mounts a little, and that was enough to alter the POI.
On the last row (the rams), I took the precaution of resetting the ZR Mounts for every shot (by pushing it forward and letting it go), and that improved the repeatability of the POI.

So, there you have it, the first 150 shots of the new 430L

All in all, I would say that, based on past experience, this gun can/should yield groups of about ½" at 30 yards when properly setup and using the pellets that the barrel will settle into best.
The shot cycle is very nice and completely vibration free. It is quick and authoritative. Nothing "mushy" about the gun, the lockup or the shot cycle.

It DOES take a special technique to cock for extended sessions, as the effort is concentrated on just about 5/8ths-3/4rs of the possible cocking stroke. So a good, sudden, pull that can JUST get the gun cocked is the best way to deal with this.

The 430, the 430L and the 460 share the same lock-up, and so, I will be attentive to detect if this particular model suffers from the same "weaknesses" as those other models. Luckily, those "weaknesses", are well documented and easy to solve.

Am I happy with my purchase? YES!, most of the friends at the shoot complimented the stock, and the looks of the gun, and some even complimented the shooting, LOL! But then they are good friends.

At this price level ($300 + Sh) it is clearly one of the most accurate 0.177" cal springers in this power range.

With this, we're halfway to the 300 shots minimum that I would consider essential to be made under absolutely controlled conditions, once we reach the 300 number, we can open the gun (to do some "looksee" and decide whether it would be wise to get it tuned and to what extent); work on the mounts and on finding the magic pellet; and ,hopefully, add a better scope worthy of the long range capabilities of this little gun.

Keep well and shoot straight!






HM

Sometimes in life, there are certain events that have the "smell" of poetic justice.
And this one just might be the case of one.
Let's start with some history:

Back in the days of the "Old DIANA" there were two projects that were supposed to launch DIANA into the world's circuits by making guns specific to a niche market that was, for historical reasons, a very vociferous one: the British market.

Of course the main limitation there is that rifles cannot exceed 12 ft-lbs, and most of DIANA's offerings were easily over that.
Do note the wording of the law: "Rifles cannot exceed 12 ft-lbs."
This, under proper English means that you can have a gun you THINK is legal because you have tested it with all the medium weight pellets that shoot reasonably good and it does not exceed 12 ft-lbs, but then some smart cop that "has your number" comes at you with light pellets.
¿The result?  you guessed it: You have an appointment with Her Majesty's magistrates and a long, hard battle to demonstrate that you are not intent on mass destruction of the Empire's Subjects nor Institutions.

At some point in time, the UK industry, and some companies that export to that market, agreed to self-police and some PCP makers even installed Anti-Tamper devices so that they could not be blamed for "making it easy" on perps to break the law.
DIANA never agreed to that. Studies were conducted using anti-tamper shoulder screws instead of the pins that close the rear of the action and it was found to be prohibitive. Besides, the market for DIANA was (and still is, up to a point), outside the Britannic Majesty's Royal Domains.

So the next solution was to create a short version of some of the actions that could, in most honest cases, limit themselves to about 12 ft-lbs.

And so was born the 430 (as a short version of the 460); and the 280, a short version of the 34.
In essence they share the same piston body length, so you could say that the 430 is the underlever version of the 280, or that the 280 is the breakbarrel version of the 430. Historically speaking the 430 prototype was prior to the 280, though the 280 was commercially  launched before. So, you take your pick.

We came across the 430 when the Stutzen model came into being.

We have always liked the Bergstutzen guns. Light and medium powered, they are ideal for mountain hunting. And so we supported the model.

Even though we warned all the users that the action was limited to about 12 ft-lbs, some decided to ignore the fact and then complain about the cocking effort needed. Yes it was a stout effort, but the guns were never designed to be all day plinking guns.

Fast forward a few years and we come to the present, where the model had been almost relegated because it was a fairly universal complaint that it took too much effort to get only 12 ft-lb back.

BUT, a few of the people at the plant, decided to do something about it, and they installed a long barrel with the 440 muzzle piece, and that allowed a longer lever.
The 430L was born out of the experience and knowledge of the working man. The guy at the plant that tests hundreds if, not thousands of rifles. The guy that puts those guns together.

No engineering degrees, no "Herr Doktor" titles. Just plain common sense trying to make something better.

And so we come to the current state of affairs.

Some were sold in Europe to good success, and at IWA 2018, Airguns of Arizona decided to place an order.

This is the run that we will be discussing here.

I ordered one under (almost) a pseudonym. Why? I didn't want to risk getting a "selected" model. Too often writers and reviewers are given, even without their knowledge, specially selected guns. I wanted to make sure that I got the run of the mill.
I placed the order on the last days of November, and it arrived today, December 5th. Yes, UPS ground is not the the fastest route, LOL!
I am not a fan of unboxing reviews, but this one merits it because it could explain why some shipments of this particular gun are being delayed.
Gun came "double boxed" but double boxed to a TIGHT degree. It took pushing with the legs another smaller box and pulling with all my strength on the outer box to get one box out of the other.

Inside the inner box there was a generous layer of eggcrate foam and spacers made out of pellet tin shipping material:

Scope was mounted and gun was tested (of all things with Baracuda 10.6 grs.pellets) at 20 yards. Why that choice, I really don't know. Odd choice anyway and not representative of the gun's performance potential.
The ONLY reason I can think of is to protect the gun by preventing the dieseling that COULD occur using lighter pellets.
I have not checked zero, that will come at a later date. But it does point out to the fact the AoA is not shipping out boxes. It is actually doing some work to the guns, and possibly the packaging was provided by AoA because it is not the DIANA standard box, nor the new cases that will come online soon.
Another tell-tale aspect is that the serial number is not part of the box

Someone took the time and patience to cut it out of a "Generic" box, maybe a case of 10 guns (normal size for DIANA).
​
Anyway

The gun is a little longer than the "normal" 430:

And indeed, this length is dedicated to increase the possible leverage.
Compare the length of the levers in the Stutzen (bottom) and the 430 L (top):

There is about 2" more lever in the 430L
A different view possibly tells a better story:

With the fulcrum points fairly aligned, you can see that the 430L has a slightly "beefier" stock (that is fully ambidextrous, BTW), and somewhat more length of handle to grip from.

Now, the measured difference in the lever lengths is of relatively little importance unless we get a meaningful result.
The fulcrum point of the levers is about ½" back from where the action screws are.
In this way, the leverage ratio of the original 430 is approximately : 13" : 3½" that is 3.7
In the case of the 430L the ratio is 15" : 3½" (the cast fulcrum piece has not changed), so that returns a ratio of 4.3
Assuming a compressed spring force of around 170 lbs, then the cocking force of the 430 would be about 45 lbs.
The cocking force needed for the 430L should be about 39½ lbs.
MEASURED values for the 430L can be seen here:

Fishing scales might not be lab-accurate, but for the purpose, they are good enough and, above all, they establish a reasonable comparison level.

So, cocking force is reduced by 10%, will this be enough? I don't know. It all depends on the shooters.
For many, the underlever presents a more "ergonomic" way to cock a gun because they can use both arms pulling away and down from the body.

For me, there is still room for improvement, and that may come later in a special edition, but for now this is the offering.

Gun is not a lightweight (DIANA's never are, LOL!), weighing in at 9 # 13 oz with the scope and mounts provided in the combo.
My FT gun weighs in at around 16#, so to ME it is a lightweight gun, but better to let know our friends the weight and let them decide for themselves.
The "Premium" STYLE stock bears some analysis. In this picture the 430L is on top and it is compared to a 34k Premium.
As you can see, the 34k P​remium has a much more "American Classic" flavour to it, straight MonteCarlo, and toe line, slender pistol grip, specially towards the front end, white spacer and slenderer forearm.
On the top, the 430L shows a more "Teutonic" appearance, with the "Ebern" (Boar) back that blends the Monte Carlo to the general curves of the stock, there is also a slight curve on the toe line.
The checkering is also more "restrained", being shorter and less "dynamic".

What it does have, is a fully ambidextrous cheekpiece, and that is, IMHO, progress.
Minelli definitely knows what they are doing.
In the next picture, the 430 L Is on the bottom, and the 34k Premium is on top:

Which would be the correct (not to say "right") side for a lefty to look from.

All in all I think it is an agreeable gun to hold, to cock and to shoot.

The fact that the prototype was cobbled together at the plant from existing parts, and then that prototype was refined to what we are seeing today is the most interesting aspect of the whole thing.

How will it shoot? Dunno.

The process of cleaning and shooting and cleaning and cleaning and shooting will start next week, and it is a long, tedious, and serious process.
Only after about 300 shots, and some serious work to the mounts, can we expect to get any reasonable indication of the performance potential of this carbine.

Stay tuned . . . ;-)

Keep well and shoot straight!






​HM

This will be a completely OFF-TOPIC Blog Entry. So, if you are expecting something related to airgunning just skip it, LOL!

First of all I would like to share with all of you, my esteemed readers, that this blog reached an important milestone a few weeks ago. I am told by people in the know about these things that it is important in such a narrow interest field as ours:
For the first time in 6 years, this blog has achieved over 40,000 readers in the last 12 months.
Of these, 60% are new readers and 40% are returning friends.
So, I have to give thanks for that.
Thanks to all of you that read me, and those that comment about the blog, and those that recommend others to read the blog.
Thanks!

We also "went green" and for the first time our electric energy bill came in at almost zero! You can never get rid of the connection fee ($8.00) but seeing the bill drop to that level was greatly gratifying. Perhaps in this item a little more explanation is in order because it is a rather technical thing that MIGHT interest some of you.
When we moved from Connecticut to Maryland, part of the search for the house centered in a place that would have good solar potential. As much as I would like a cabin in the deep woods, it's not the best place to raise a family of 4, so we looked for a house with sufficient land to shoot, and run, and play, without too many trees,with lots of sun on the south facing roofs. We found what we wanted and after one year of settling in, we decided to install solar panels.
The obvious is that solar panels convert sunlight to electricity, what is not so obvious is that the electricity produced by the solar panels is DC, while the electricity you use in your household is AC (remember the Tesla vs. Edison controversy?), and so you need a special piece of equipment that's called an inverter. You may have, or seen those that are designed to run AC loads from your car's connections and, yes, they are more or less the same stuff, with one difference: Those that are made to run individual loads have no need to synchronize to a frequency or a power angle. Those that are installed in solar panel systems need to synchronize to the AC side of the power net.
And, mostly, this is the weak link in most solar power system designs. The cells are passive and quite resistant to weather and other stuff, the cables are simple, but the idea of concentrating all the DC power in one unit to invert it into AC was somewhat  disturbing for this Power Systems Engineer.
After some research, we found a local contractor company that utilized a distributed inverter technology. This means that every panel has an inverter, and that they are connected in a "daisy-chain" style with the last/first entry point that is the meter.
In essence, then, what you have is a group of small generating units, all "AC", all linked, synchronized, and in phase. If one fails, it simply does not provide power, but all the other elements of the array can keep on working.
An added advantage is that since every panel/inverter pair is "intelligent", they can be monitored / controlled / serviced remotely.
Lastly, and this is something that you would have to research in YOUR area, houses that are equipped with solar systems are now selling at a premium over houses that aren't. It may or may not be a factor in your decision, but it is something to know.
My wife, Veronika has a cousin that is a true "property shark", he is a very successful real estate person and when he came to visit recently, we had to tell him that the house had a solar system because this one is so unobtrusive.
Installation took two half days, we were not cut from the power net, and it was really "painless".
It was a good thing that our contractor understood that they were dealing with special customers and adapted to the requirements and conditions of dealing with professionals in the construction and power systems field.
If you are interested in a solar system, by all means, do not procrastinate. Incentives (reduced taxes and rebates) will disappear as the systems become more popular and the installations more prevalent.
Look for a LOCAL contractor to YOU. But always keep an eye on the quality of the system offered.
Service and support are also very important. SO, DO YOUR HOMEWORK and everything will turn out real well.

If you live in Maryland or Texas, you may want to contact the company that installed ours, otherwise, look locally and get several offers. Study them and then negotiate. Hard, LOL!

Another thing we have to be thankful for is that we are all healthy. NOTHING is enjoyable if you are sick. Not even sick leave, LOL!

I am thankful that my children have a lovely set of grandparents (Oma and Opa) on Veronika's side

I am thankful that I have good friends and business partners in DIANA, a long time dream of mine that this year came true.

I am thankful for the world of airgunning and Field Target that has allowed me to meet so many nice people.

Yes, there are tons of things to be thankful about. SO, HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

And thanks to you again.

Keep well and shoot straight!





​HM

It has been called to my attention that some users have complained about the loading of the Stormrider Magazine:

https://www.airgundepot.com/diana-stormrider-magazine.html

and

https://www.pyramydair.com/s/a/Diana_Stormrider_177_cal_Magazine/7897

To put things in perspective, there are  more than 2,000 Stormriders now in circulation worldwide. Getting 8 complaints out of 4,000 magazines isn't bad, but DIANA wants to address the main issue and come clean with a rather silly aspect of it:

WE (DIANA) are the ones to blame.

¿WHY?

Well, because we gave the instructions in the manual!

Yes we followed the designer's / maker's method, but we should have been smarter than that and printed the manual with an improved method.

When I first started loading the Stormrider magazines I didn't even look at the manual, the process was so simple to "guess" that I made the mistake of not checking what the manual said and intervene.

It was only when some friends pointed out the "clumsiness" of having to load the pellets into the magazines backwards (Skirt first), that I asked ¿WHAAAAAAAT?
And went searching for the manual (packed in the OEM boxes in the warehouse) to see for myself.

So, first of all, apologies to all our customers. There IS a BETTER method that is not the one that was printed in the manual. We/I should have identified that, but it simply slipped under the radar.

I cannot post a video so I will post here a step by step procedure, please be patient and try following it with magazine and pellets in hand.

​You locate the transparent plate UPWARDS:

​Now you turn the transparent plate COUNTERCLOCKWISE to its stop (here we are JUST starting the rotation):

​Then, holding the magazine plates (that will be under tension) you flip over the whole magazine and insert that pellet, and ONLY THAT PELLET, BACKWARDS:

​Rotate the transparent plate to the next empty chamber and then load the second pellet:

​It really is much simpler to do than to explain.

So, there you have it, an improved loading procedure for the Stormrider magazines where you can load the pellets forwards.
The ONLY tricky part is holding the plates in tension while you flip the magazine to insert the LAST pellet to be fired, FIRST, AND BACKWARDS.
From that point on all is smooth sailing.

Again, I want to apologize on behalf of DIANA and myself.

Hope this procedure will be useful, especially to those shooters that load HP's or other hybrid pellets (like the Baracuda Hunter Extreme of this pictorial) where loading them forwards is a great advantage.​

Keep well and shoot straight!



​HM