Category: Gear

The peculiar story of a "twice abandoned" D52

5/26/2026

A gun can tell a story . . .

IF you "listen".

Sometimes the stories are fun, and good, and even glorious.

Sometimes they are sad.

This one is one of the latter, but I hope it will have a good ending.

So, let's get started:

Back in May of 1993 a gun was made at the old "DIANAWERKE" factory in Rastatt:

The action was one with the "shared model designation" ones. It could be mounted in a simpler stock, or it could be mounted in an elegant, slender and checkered stock of slightly longer length of pull and montecarlo cheek riser.
One of the first "nods" from the industry to the increase usage of riflescopes in airguns.
Also, a continuation of a trend that was caused by a legal change in the German laws that restricted anything above 7.5 Joules (5.5 ft-lbs) to the realm of the "firearms licensed holder" decades ago.

We're talking of the 48/52 models:

The world back then still valued highly the use, and profficiency of use, of the Iron Sights.
Out to 30 meters/yards, the Iron sights are more than adequate. Proper use of the right hold for the target in question (whether paper, or feather/fur), will give usable accuracy and precision.
With practice and dedication, it is not that hard to be VERY accurate out to 50 meters as the, now defunct, "Olympic Free Pistol" discipline showed.
With a clear knowledge of the different "tastes" on both sides of the Atlantic, DIANA decided to offer a user selectable rear notch.
Using a spring loaded plunger to hold the rear sight plate in place, the user can select between two shapes (Square and U) and two sizes (small and large).
In practice, you simply push on the holding plunger from the front, and rotate the leaf till the desired notch is in place.

A steel ball under the graduated elevation bridge gives detectable "clicks" and prevents accidental shifting of the sight's position.

There is no spring in this sight because the whole body is made of steel and the forward "fold" acts like a flat spring.
Do note that the sight is adjustable for elevation and drift.

The front sight is also adjustable. To allow for the wide variance in pellet weights and power levels, the front sight can move forward and backwards along a dovetail ramp:

The front "korn" (grain) is metal and could be filed by the user to different configurations.

Overall, the DIANA 52 provides the shooter with a good platform. Powerful enough for American tastes and some hunting (up to Groundhogs/RockChuck, O'Posssa, Badger, and other animals of similar size), and refined enough for European tastes that dwell a lot more on target shooting at rural / weekend properties:

With a compact scope, it is quite a capable rifle, though modern trends towards large objective lenses and high mounts will make for the need for an additional cheek riser.

So, given all the advantages and the 20-22 ft-lbs power level, unkown up to the release of the 48-52 family, why was the gun abandoned the first time, and when did it happen?

Well a bit of forensics showed that the last time this gun was shot must have been, at least, 35-40 years ago.
How can we know that? Why can we be so sure?

Well, look at this picture:

On the left, the pellet that was recovered from the chamber of the rifle.

In the middle a "push through" pellet and on the right a pellet that was shot into a "soft catch" tube.

The "Flying Ashcan" pellet was discontinued by Crosman around the year 1990, the Premier having been introduced in 1992 and the pellet recovered was not even engraved in the rifling, meaning that somewhere along the cocking/loading/closing cycle, the gun was badly operated and broken.
It is a fairly common occurence that people think of airguns as toys. SO, they cannot be that complicated to operate, ¿right?
Well, no, wrong. If you do not read the manual and do not release the protection DIANA placed so that in the worst case scenario of something failing while you were loading the pellet you would still have both your thumbs, and tried to close the action, the cocking linkage bends.
Yes, you may straighten it, but next time you try to cock, it will break.
That cocking linkage is helping you pull back more than 300# of force. So, yes, once bent, it will break.

This is what caused the first "rejection" the pellet abandoned in the chamber, the gun relegated to a closet for almost 40 years till someone found it and sold it for cheap.

And this is how it arrived to our workshop, with no cocking lever linkage between the cocking lever and the compression chamber.

A fairly simple repair, it was quoted as Labour + cost of parts, and the then owner agreed.
Once done, we had a problem.
The total cost should have been something like $100. Except for the fact that, due to the change in import regulations, a $35 purchase from Germany became a $164 total bill.
And it is NOT about the Tariffs. People insist on this, but this is not what is killing the micro and small businesses that were starting to rely on the importation of PARTS AND COMPONENTS to "MAKE in America", finished goods.
Tariffs amounted only to about $10, the rest of the $129 were fees and more fees from the logistics company.

And THIS is what caused the SECOND rejection.

Instead of crying over spilt milk, I offered to buy the gun "non-functional / for parts", and restore it.

I turned a CCA/Composite guide for the OEM spring, added a tophat, and proceeded to tune it a little.

It proved quite a capable gun:

Easily capable of "minute of squirrel head" out to 30 yards.

It has the scuffs and marks of any gun that is this old. Some of them clearly from simple handling.

It wil be shipped in an edge-reinforced cardboard box with contour cut foam spacers:

I do hope this fine example of German Gunmaking craft will find a good home.

Keep well and shoot straight!

HM

4 Comments

The DoAll "Dialed Spinner"

4/24/2026

2 Comments

Disclosure:

The first "Dialed Spinner from DoAll was purchased from an online store.
The second version was sent under warranty by DoAll.

A bit of History:
Back in the year 2K, while I was barely starting to scratch the surface of this enormous "rabbit hole" of airguns, I came across an idea that was good, but clearly needed some strong re-development.

Yup!
Crosman used to sell a target comprised of 5 "sectors" that swung independently:
One central "bullseye" and 4 quadrants of a circle divided at 3, 6 and 9 O'Clock.
It was OK, except for two factors:
1.- It had been discontinued for years
2.- It was rated for their CO2 rifles and pistols (so, about a 13-14 ft-lbs max.)

When a year later I saw one at the Little Rock Airgun Show (AR), priced @ $50 (of year 2k $'s), I decided it was time to act.

And so, the "Quadrant Spinner" came to life:

A first production batch was made in Argentina and was thoroughly tested. Back then 20 ft-lbs were more than enough. These spinners were designed to be reactive enough at 12 ft-lbs, and "pellet proof" at 20 because we followed AAFTA's power limits and springers at 10,000 FASL were not particularly powerful. PCP's were JUST coming down in price enough to be contemplated.
This was the year 2002.

Fast forward 7 years and when I started moving to the US, I had to leave my beloved set of spinners behind.

Once established, I set about finding a company that would make the spinners because no one offered the concept.
And I found a company in upstate NY that would build them.
Sent pictures and drawings and even went up there (I was living in CT back then) to see the first prototype.

We agreed on the prototype, and the first small batch was made. That was in 2012.
When they arrived, my heart sunk. The maker had added a horizontal cross member above the upper quadrants "to make it more robust". Fine, but that prevented the spinner from spinning! ¿huh?
He also took the liberty to add a couple of gauges to the material, and make them "extra strong"; based on his experience with shooting, it was needed (I also think it was the material he had at hand). The increase in gauge also created another problem: the counterweights were now not enough to ensure a true "return to vertical" from a low power hit in any of the lower quadrants.
In any case, they were not as reactive as they should have been at lower powers, and the result of a good hit was a bit "underwhelming" when the bullseye didn't circle around even once (due to the "hard stop" added).

They DID their job; and that was to allow people to "sight in" without needing to constantly change paper targets, without making a mess of used paper, and allowing fine tuning of FT skills because the "bullseye" followed WFTF recommendations: ½", ¾", 1" and 1½"
A few friends still have those.

Our design then was copied by a few companies.
Yes, people are like that. Without any improvement, redesign, or even name change, some outlets started marketing them.

Issue with those crudely made ones (to comply to a low cost barrier), was that 0.177" pellets could get in BETWEEN paddles and not indicate any hit.
Of course, by then the user had used the target and there were no refunds.

"Caveat Emptor" and all that.

But I always kept a soft spot in my heart for the concept. I tried to resurrect the production to no avail (cost was prohibitive), and the idea went dormant.

One day, looking at other things (as usually happens), I came across DoAll's version of the old Crosman 444:

I started using it with good success at Palmyra, when we started shooting LR FT.
And it held well for airguns in the 50-60 ft-lbs range.
So, on an outing to check out some very accurate 22 RF rifles (a DIANA 22R bolt action, and an SPA Toggle Bolt), I took it along.

Hmmmm, the target had reached and exceeded its limits:

Even at 100 yards, these rifles can keep their impacts very close together, if not in the same spot, and that created a problem, especially when hitting a bit "high" on the bullseye.
Things look even more dramatic from the rear:

Even packing the target becomes a problem when it cannot lay "flat":

Now, we did manage to "pound it into submission" with a good "dead-blow" mallet and some paint:

But clearly, the targets could not be sold as "rated for RF's" without creating some sort of customer dissatisfaction.
And, it was in this spirit that I wrote to DoAll.
I stated that the targets worked marvelously well with airguns up to 50-60 ft-lbs, and that they COULD be rated for 0.22" RF Short, but not for LR, even Standard Velocity.

I had to admit that I wasn't expecting a personal answer from a large company, like DoAll but, surprise, surprise!

I received an answer in 2 days and the kind person that answered showed me their "improved" version:

I asked what gauge material they were using and he responded, candidly, that he didn't have that datum, but that he would send me one to test.
WOW!
Clearly someone interested and, knowledgeable of the MARKET, if not of the product itself, of the MARKET (and that is really his job as customer relations). He understood he was talking to a person that was willing to go the extra mile.
I promptly furnished my postal address and waited. Not much, the target arrived, just in time for the first snowfall..... grrrrrrrrrrr.

Over the winter there was no opportunity to test it at the appropriate range (100 yards), and THIS PAST winter in Maryland was peculiar: Early snowfalls, then a sort of very short "indian summer", then more snowfalls separated by a few days in such a way that the range was closed for most of the season.

Range started opening in earnest a few weeks ago.

So, taking advantage of a sunny and not quite calm day, but with tolerable wind, I headed out to the range and tested.
Using Aguila 40 grs, standard velocity ammo (about 1,080 fps) in both the "Competición" and the "Super Extra" grades in my two favourite RF's (an old Voere bolt action, and the SPA Toggle action), this was the result:

There are 30 shots in that target, see if you can count them.

Several hits were aimed at corners and edges and results were good.
Important part is that repeated hits at three different points in the vertical support of the "bullseye" created NO distortion.
There are 6 hits in that vertical portion, three pairs, exactly ¼ mildot (milDOT, not mRad) apart.
Reason for that is I wanted to see if the inertia of the heavy bullseye was enough to act as a "hold" on the rotating part, therefore creating a "bend", therefrom the three chosen places tested for a "mid-weight" hit, a ¼ skewed weight hit and an extreme top hit.
None of them had any effect.
The vertical element is as straight as ever:

AND, BTW, that steel is a full 6 mm's thick, just shy of ¼" thickness.
The twists and bends do act as reinforcing points in an effective manner.

Does this version of the target reacts as well as the older one for airguns?
A bit. It does flip completely over at 50 ft-lbs and 100 yards, but not as "energetically" as the older one.

I will keep both because they BOTH have a role to play in my shooting, if you come across some of the older versions, and you are interested more in airguns of 60 ft-lbs and under, do get it, it is a lot of fun and very useful.
If you are more into RF's or airguns in the 70-150 ft-lbs, do look for the new version.
Retailers are not making much of the difference, so it is up to the customer to ensure they are getting the "Ver 2.0". THE thing to look for are the twists and bends in the vertical supports and that the only welds are the spacer tubes between vertical hangers in the targtet. There are no other welds.

This target allows you to sight in and practice all at the same time.

Thanks to DoAll for their customer support and for putting on the market a product that does a needed job well.

Now, if they made a set of four.............LOL!

Keep well and shoot straight!

HM

2 Comments

The "Nano-Strike" an exercise in efficiency

2/20/2026

7 Comments

Disclaimer:
Modifications made to this pistol were performed by an experienced professional airgunsmith. And, proved safe in THIS gun.
No warranties are implied nor extended.
We have no control of what you do on your own.
If you do decide to make ANY modification to an airgun, be conscious of which elements are under force or pressure and realize that, even a "little pre-compression" or as little as 10 BAR's CAN cause SERIOUS bodily harm.
These modifications have not been reviewed, nor approved by DIANA / M&G, BuckRail, or ALTAROS Air Solutions
Again: Be careful! You are the only guardian of your health and safety.

"In the beginning"

When someone asked if I could take a look at his Bandit pistol, I sort of reluctantly replied with my usual questions:
1.- What's wrong with it?
2.- What do you want to do with it?

Answers came back forthrightly:
The regulator was not working properly
The person is a professional wildlife manager, mainly of iguanas and other non-native/invasive species in Florida.

Now, THAT piqued my interest and I offered to do the job for free as a support to the Wildlife Department.
My friend answered that that was not necessary, and he would pay for "whatever was needed".

Not often does a gunsmith get a "Carte Blanche" to create something outstanding, and so, the project started.

Upon receipt of the pistol I could see that something was not right.
Initial tests showed MV's all over the place. And a very low shot count (barely one magazine of 7 shots) between fills.)
So, a disassembly was in order.

The Process Starts

Part of the problem was the HUMA regulator and the "plenum" added. Dimensions simply didn't make sense, I searched in my ALTAROS regulator prototypes and found a very interesting one, vented and with the plenum already included. This was an experiment that did not pan out, but it could be the solution here.
Comparing the two "trains" I saw this:

At top is the HUMA regulator that seems very compact, but it wasn't working.The OEM valve on top was a bit smaller than the improved/HP Altaros valve (higher power), still, I decided to go with the OEM.
We also thought about using an extended tube, but the trigger arrangement would not allow it:

At the top is the OEM barrel, then the Stormrider-size tube and in the grip, the Bandit tube.

As you can see, the brackets that hold the trigger parts in place are different.

So, a decision was made to keep the tube but use a longer barrel to improve efficiency.
An efficient airgun seldom needs a mod. Ineffiicent airguns do.
And we planned to make this a very efficient airgun,
So, a Lothar Walther blank was sourced and we started on the preparation. A LOT of lathe and milling/drilling work goes into making a good barrel from a blank:
-Creating the shank
-Drilling transfer port and locator holes
-Making the glands for the Orings
- and, most important: creating a good "leade" that will allow the pellet to pass the TP and arrive to the rifling centered and unharmed.

After the shank is created and the TP has been drilled/milled, the "leade" has to be cut.

It's a slow process of trial and error, subsequent pellets are pressed into the leade to ensure that the pellet enters the rifling unscathed.

Once the head passes without any tear or undue deformation

A little more takes care of the skirt

Testing with hard (Tin) pellets gives you a better idea. On the left, the OEM barrel, on the right the Lothar Walther

A view of the L-W riflng (this one is a traditionally rifled barrel) in 0.22" for a smaller caliber and high velocities, the Polygonal work better.

The new barrel is as long as the OEM WITH the mod. The blank was 16 mm's OD, as we planned on using a free floated barrel initially.

Cutting the ORings for the barrel seal also merits some attention. The glands need to be sized so that the insertion/extraction of the barrel will not cut or damage the ORings, in this case a bit more depth had to be given to the left gland.

Once the TP is properly "registered", it's time to drill the locator holes for the top of the action.

And the feeding can be tested. I like the SSS (Single shot shuttles) more out of habit than anything else, but I have found the magazines, for the most part, are troublemakers.

Once the action was an assembly, we could dedicate to the power source, this is the "train" that we settled in: Altaros vented regulator with plenum and the OEM valve

We started with a low pressure in the regulator (100 BAR in this case)

The valve and regulator were inserted in the usual manner for Altaros regulators

Air tightness and reg setting were tested / measured and we proceeded with testing

After some adjustments in the FFH unit, we were getting some decent speeds (for an 18.52 grs pellet)

And I thought I was done with it, LOL!

My friend had found the BuckRail airgun accessories page and wanted the "full Monty"

After some conversations with BuckRail, it was clear that they could not build a custom version of their "handguard", so considerable slimming of the barrel, and enlarging of the barrel channel in the handguard were in order.
Because milling plastic is a delicate exercise, it had to be done slowly and carefully

Taking careful measurements we arrived at the max OD that the piece coud receive, got a special cutter and proceeded SLOWLY

VERY slowly

REALLY slowly. Using a Stormrider air tube and some wooden pieces, we managed to keep the plastic printed piece in good / rigid grip and alignment.

After reducing the OD of the barrel substantially, we tested the fit and ensured that there was no pressure on the barrel at any point. That everything worked and that the fit was proper.

We also fit the stock support (what in a firearm would be the "buffer tube") using a specially designed and made adapter, so that adjustability of the FFH would be conserved.

And this was the semi-finished product. Semi-finished because my friend now wanted a mod.

So, we ended up with this. I have to admit it is a nice, clean, "racy" looking carbine.

At the same time this project was progressing, a group of friends were starting a thread in a forum about modifications to the Bandit and another about "Compact" hunting guns.
Problem is that there is "compact" and then there is "COMPACT"
Take a look at this picture:

From the Top: Ful size Nova Liberty, then a 3P / youth oriented Stormrider, then an Avenge "X" in semi-bullpup configuration, then a DIANA SkyHawk, also a semibullpup, but with shorter barrel and an airtube, and at the bottom, the Bandit conversion with the stock collapsed.

From 46" to 27" different purposes, different power levels, different architectures.
Interesting array of options we now have in our airguns.

If we compare the Bandit carbine to the other two that qualify as "compact", we get this:

In this picture, the Bandit Carbine has its stock extended to "Adult size", and it is still shorter than the other two.

A few more pictures of details:

Attechment of BuckRail's stock support to the adapter

Stock extended

Stock and Grip Adapter setting

Junction of the forend/handguard with the grip adapter

Where it all comes together, action, barrel, handguard/forend, grip adapter, scope mounts and scope. Neat and clean.

And the muzzle end.

The results

All nice and dandy, yes, but what about performance?
A lot of airguns, especially in the low price brackets are very good looking, but when it is time to perform, they do not, so .... what about performance?

Well, I'll let the numbers speak for themselves:

From 230 BAR's (perfectly safe in THESE airguns) to the regulator pressure of 125 BAR, the little platform yields 14 perfectly good shots with sample Standard Deviations of between 6.1 fps to 3.3 fps over the 14 shots.

The efficiency of the power plant is quite good, yielding between 16.7 and 19.1 CC-BAR's/ft-lb

If we compare the efficiency of this little carbine to an AirVenturi "Micro Strike" (the only other platform that closely approaches this in dimensions and weight), as reviewed by my good friend Steve Sciali, the Micro Strike needs 41.8 CC-BAR's for every ft-lb delivered at the muzzle, so between 2 and 2½ times more effiicient.

I am already hearing some complainers voicing the objection: "¿Why care about efficiency? It's not like we handpump our airguns anymore, compressors are so cheap nowadays, why bother? Electricity is cheap!"

OK, yes, electricity is, in general, cheap; compared to what RF ammo costs. BUT, there are three aspects to be taken into account:
1.- Noise, if you are a hunter (as opposed to a game-sniper), you do not want excessive noise, and if an airgun is inefficient, where do you think the energy that is not put into the pellet goes?
Yes, some heat, yes; some vibrations (not so much in a PCP), yes, but mostly: NOISE!
Steve comments that only ONE of his umpteen mods was capable of reducing the sound signature to decent levels. So, noise is one of the concerns in an inefficient PCP
2.- Compressors' lives are rated in hours. Filling this little carbine's 31.7 cc's available volume takes exactly 2 minutes with a Port-Air compressor. Filling the 80 cc's of the Micro-Strike, would take 2.5 times those 2 minutes or 5 minutes. 30 (yes, THIRTY) fills of the Bandit Carbine will take one hour of your compressor life. TWELVE fills of the MicroStrike will do the same.
Inexpensive compressors will last about 150-200 hours between services. So, taking 2½ times the fill times will reduce the number of fills between services to the compressor.
3.- Simply good engineering.

Of course, to each his own. To ME, it is important, especially in a "pesting" operation, to be able to take two magazines of shots per each refill. It carries a better "rythm" in the hunt, and allows less bother and strange noises.
IF I had a small "pony" bottle filled at 300 BAR's I can easily get a week's worth of shooting from an efficient gun, not so much with an inefficient one.

In the end, what should matter most to the USER, is the performance on target.

We have had miserable weather here in Maryland for the last month. We're barely seeing again our grass, and the forecast for this weekend is about 7" of snow. So I accepted an invitation to an indoor range just to test this gun.
Took a few of my special targets and proceeded to zero, check, and calibrate trajectory for this little carbine

This is the 10 yard zeroing target

¾" high at 10 yards should be close at 15-> 20 yards, and I tested also the drop to 25, about 1"

Because the range is a "Pistol" range, the range officers objected to me shooting supported on the table. So all testing had to be done offhand:

5 shots at 20 yards, iguana is about lifesize, and the red circle is where, in my experience, you get a "lights out" shot.

Another 5 with a little heavier pellets

Last test with the Predator PolyMags, not heavier but slightly less efficient in the barrel, this points to the fact of having a good scope with multiple aimpoints.

Conclusion

It was a GREAT project, I enjoyed it immensely, even in the face of the huge challenge presented by the small reservoir and the intrusion of the regulator into it.
My friend tells me he is happy, and that is what matters.
Hopefully, he will find the time to write a small "Guest Blog" for us about his "escapades" with the Bandit Carbine that, now, has a new name: The "Nano Strike"

;-)

Keep well and shoot straight!

HM

ADDENDA
If copying is the sincerest form of flattery....

A friend is touring IWA.

But he keeps abreast of what we do here on this side of the pond.

And, he just sent me these pictures:

Should we say that "brilliant minds think alike" or . . .

It's going to be interesting to see the performance figures of this.

;-)

HM

7 Comments

The Chronology of Chronos.- Part 2

6/9/2025

6 Comments

When friends are real friends they are not afraid of telling you you're wrong ;-)

In the first part of this series I noted that my experiences with the small Radar Chronos had been less than satisfying.

Well, as soon as I arrived at the Sherwood Forest GP, I noted that I was clearly going to be disabused of my idea by a good friend.

;-)

After a somewhat disastrous first day, the local Competition Electronics Pro Chrono told me that something was different. From shooting in the 770's, my MV had dropped to the 730's.

Second day I changed range cards and connected much better.

In a discussion with a well respected UK airgunner and ballistician (he was a professional in the subject), I had to look back at my notes and realized that the first Garmin I had tested had been the Trainer (and that is going back 8 years). Similarly, for the LabRadar, my experiences dated from 11 years before!

Geeze, where did Time Go? ROFL!

To cut to the chase: between my friends Greg Shirhall, that had expressed from the beginning his total disagreement with my statement about small radar Chronos; and John Cerne, that is a veteran experimentalist, I had my work cut out, LOL!

So, after the GP competition was done, we set a Chrono testing range:

Our backstop would be the stump.
The rifle would be placed at equal distance from BOTH chronos, and the chronos would register the same string of shots.

At the end of the test (necessarily short because everyone was exhausted after two grueling days of competition), the results were pretty even:

The Garmin read an average of 766.3 fps:

The Athlon Rangecraft read 763.1

Now, 3 in 760 fps is 0.4% difference, and that would make NO DIFFERENCE in the calculation of any ballistic solution as far as FT is concerned.
I was a bit surprised that there aren't more numerical data than Max, min and Ave, but then both devices transmit immediately via BlueTooth the data to the owner's phones, so exporting that data to an Excel file should be no problem.

Arriving at home, I checked on my Caldwell and the results over a 20 shot string were (back to normal): 775.2 ± 2 fps.

Does the difference between 763-766 to 775 bother me?
Nope! there is a 1000' of elevation above sea level difference between the two venues, so that is perfectly in line with I would have expected from the CCA D-54.

Now, the 10 fps "lost" do not "jive" with the 30 fps that the Competition Electronics would seem to have indicated, but in general, I do not argue with reality. And I would think that the main source of error when using a "natural light" triggered chrono is actually the inclination of the light vis a vis the reading length. This is worthy of note as shooting down into the ground is a SAFE policy, but it may not be the best as far as chronoing goes.
That deserves more experimentation.

One thing that was VERY evident is that the newer Athlon Rangecraft chrono reads MUCH faster than the Garmin Xero. Again, difference and advances in firmware over the last few years. Not something to be too worried about if you are a springer shooter, but if you have a semi-auto, it could be an important factor to consider when making the purchase.

So, there you have it, I now can say that the MODERN small radar Chronos are as accurate as the old light screen based ones.

Progress!

;-)

Keep well and shoot straight!

HM

6 Comments

The CCA SSP, or the SouthPaw Super Plinker

5/20/2025

7 Comments

A special carbine for a good friend.

Yes, I KNOW that SSP stands for Single Stroke Pneumatic, but in this case, it means something different.
Just get over it, LOL!

First of all:

Disclaimer:
Modifications made to this rifle were performed by an experienced professional airgunsmith. And, proved safe in THIS gun.
No warranties are implied nor extended.
We have no control of what you do on your own.
If you do decide to make ANY modification to an airgun, be conscious of which elements are under force or pressure and realize that, even a "little pre-compression" or as little as 10 BAR's CAN cause SERIOUS bodily harm.
These modifications have not been reviewed, nor approved by DIANA / M&G
Again: Be careful! You are the only guardian of your health and safety.

Uuufff.- that's done.

A few months ago, a friend and I were talking about left handed airguns and I mentioned the DIANA 75, and I showed some pictures, he very candidly asked if I could build him a TRUE Left Handed PCP.

Now, my wife shoots left handed, and I do have a number of friends that are left handed.
I play Golf left handed, when I am "at bat" I can choose LH or RH, I do write RH'ed.

In any case, I am sensitive to the plight of the SouthPaw.

So, after some consideration I said: "Sure!", but it has to be a plinker.

WHY?

Well, because the only action that is available at a reasonable price that is truly left handed is the one for the DIANA Stormrider.
AND I would much rather spend $200 of my friends money, add another $100 for the regulator, then another $120 for a superlative L-W barrel, and $80 for the Free Flight Hammer, and have a truly special gun, than spend $600 in the lowest priced "convertible" action that carries a questionable barrel and valving.

So, the project was born, specs:

Platform.- DIANA Stormrider, wooden stock.
cal 0.177"
Power output.- between 11 and 13-14 ft-lbs
Good efficiency
Crisp trigger
Reasonably accurate
Scoped, no iron sights
Reasonably quiet, no need for an LDC

I will not bother you with the details of the disassembly, modifications and assembly, because we have done that in the past. There are several entries in this blog about the Stormrider.
For those that have not read them, here is a list:

https://www.ctcustomairguns.com/hectors-airgun-blog/exploring-the-diana-stormrider-part-1-the-trigger-and-the-power-plant-in-017745-mms-cal

https://www.ctcustomairguns.com/hectors-airgun-blog/exploring-the-diana-stormrider-part-2-the-performance-at-sub-600-fps

https://www.ctcustomairguns.com/hectors-airgun-blog/exploring-the-diana-stormrider-part-3-the-mid-power-region-800-fps-and-above-in-0177-and-20-ft-lbs-022-under-real-world-conditions-at-the-2018-pyramyd-air-cup

https://www.ctcustomairguns.com/hectors-airgun-blog/ken-wheelers-adventure-with-the-diana-stormrider

https://www.ctcustomairguns.com/hectors-airgun-blog/ft-rifles-for-small-frame-shooters

https://www.ctcustomairguns.com/hectors-airgun-blog/a-bb-gun-for-the-us-army-c

https://www.ctcustomairguns.com/hectors-airgun-blog/first-the-army-now-the-two-top-leos-of-the-nation

There is quite a lot of information in those entries. Hope you enjoy reading them.

Now to the results:

This is the finished product.

The scope is a generic "plinking scope" that is full size, but still is capable of focusing down to about 5-6 yards at lower magnifications, and 8 yards at 9X.

Scope is mounted as low as possible, using cantilevered, droop corrected, BKL Mounts:

And here is the Free Flight Hammer unit installed:

The polygonal rifling L-W barrel was crowned with a 6° target crown:

AND a left handed single shot shuttle was added:

So, a TRUE LH'ed rifle!

AND, how does it shoot?

Well the proof is in the pudding!

This is using the 9.56 grainers from QYS lubed with Pledge:

10 shots ea at 25 yards; very high winds (20 mph and shifting) precluded really good groups, you can see that the vertical dispersion is real small.

Using the same pellets lubed with T-9:

You can see a bunch of goups at around 0.5" O-O, and more "rounded".

So, I do think that T-9 seems a better lube for this barrel.

Do note that at this setting, the little carbine is yielding 15.7 ft-lbs.
Again, at that power level, the small (100 cc's) tank can give 55 good shots before going off the reg.

And how does it perform with OTHER pellets?

Well, not enough time to test them at targets, but to give you an idea of the flexibility of the system:

So, between 11 and 15.7 ft-lbs, this little carbine is capable of everything in between.

Which makes it an interesting setup.

Personally, shooting outdoors, the medium-heavies (QYS or BFT) are interesting even in strong winds.
For indoor shooting, or when the day is calm, a 7.9ér at 900 fps is nothing to sneeze at.

Poly barrels tend to like high MV's so I am sure that the owner will be playing more on that end of the scale.

It was a very interesting project!

Keep well and shoot straight!

HM

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Hector Medina

2012 US National WFTF Spring Piston Champion
2012 WFTF Spring Piston Grand Prix Winner
2013 World's WFTF Spring Piston 7th place
2014 Texas State WFTF Piston Champion
2014 World's WFTF Spring Piston 5th place.
2015 Maine State Champion WFTF Piston
2015 Massachusetts State Champion WFTF Piston
2015 New York State Champion WFTF Piston
2015 US National WFTF Piston 2nd Place
2016 Canadian WFTF Piston Champion
2016 Pyramyd Air Cup WFTF Piston 1st Place
2017 US Nationals Open Piston 3rd Place
2018 WFTC's Member of Team USA Champion Springers
2018 WFTC's 4th place Veteran Springer
2020 Puerto Rico GP Piston First Place
2020 NC State Championships 1st Place Piston
2022 Maryland State Champion WFTF
2022 WFTC's Italy Member of TEAM USA 2nd place Springers
2022 WFTC's Italy
2nd Place Veteran Springers
2023 WFTC's South Africa Member TEAM USA 1st place Springers
2023 WFTC's South Africa
2nd Place Veteran Springers

Hector's Airgun Blog

The peculiar story of a "twice abandoned" D52

The DoAll "Dialed Spinner"

The "Nano-Strike" an exercise in efficiency

"In the beginning"

The Process Starts

The results

Conclusion

ADDENDA
If copying is the sincerest form of flattery....

The Chronology of Chronos.- Part 2

When friends are real friends they are not afraid of telling you you're wrong ;-)

The CCA SSP, or the SouthPaw Super Plinker

A special carbine for a good friend.

Hector Medina

Archives

Categories

Hector's Airgun Blog

The peculiar story of a "twice abandoned" D52

The DoAll "Dialed Spinner"

The "Nano-Strike" an exercise in efficiency

"In the beginning"

The Process Starts

The results

Conclusion

ADDENDAIf copying is the sincerest form of flattery....

The Chronology of Chronos.- Part 2

When friends are real friends they are not afraid of telling you you're wrong ;-)

The CCA SSP, or the SouthPaw Super Plinker

A special carbine for a good friend.

Hector Medina

Archives

Categories

ADDENDA
If copying is the sincerest form of flattery....