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Exploring the DIANA Stormrider, Part 2.- The performance at sub 600 fps.

3/6/2018

7 Comments

 
Since no one, (until today, RR did) had expressed any interest in the higher power regions for this little carbine, I took the time and indulged one of my personal projects:
¿How would this little carbine fare as a youth oriented 3P Airgun "SPORTER Rifle"?

¿Why do I think this is so important?

Of all the shooting sports currently in practice, none is growing as fast as the Sporter section of the 3P Airgun.
Sponsored by a Council that includes the CMP, the Army Marksmanship Unit, the Marine Corps, Navy and Air Force. There are other civilian sponsors: 4H Clubs, Daisy, and Orion.

The Council reviews the rules and enacts them, but the rules have been pretty much stable for several years now, unlike some other airgun sports.
The Council also saw the importance of initiating the shooters under a "Sporter" Class, that is a severely limited class of rifles and so, it has all the makings of a practical shooting discipline for all.

Everyone that knows and/or has shot with me knows that I like most those disciplines that teach as much as possible, the practical elements of good riflery. They are skills that once acquired will remain with you for the rest of your life and will yield great satisfactions.

Once those basic skills are learned you can choose to go into a number of specialized disciplines with great success. Trying to jump into the deep of the pool without acquiring first good habits may create a lot more vices than virtues.

I firmly believe that we need to put more emphasis on teaching our youth to shoot, without young shooters, shooting itself will become an endangered sport.

And so, with that in mind, I set out to research what the Stormrider could do when tuned down to sub-600 fps as the rules call for.

I will not bore you with endless strings of shots nor the two tries that I had to make to get to the objective MV, two tries that took all of 15 minutes.

What I will tell you is that after the final configuration for the TP of this very limited power discipline was finalized, the shot count had gone from 50 to 90 shots per fill, MV's were 570 fps with JSB S-100 pellets and 530 with RWS SuperMag. Variations on the MV's were very low (under 1%) for the shot strings and so, consistency was there.
It's been many years since I have not had to test all the different head diameters of the Finale Match, or he R-10's, and so those two were the only two WC's I had on hand.
As the saying goes, the proof of the pudding is in the eating, and so I shot a few groups to ascertain what sort of accuracy/precision one could expect from the pellets and the clear winner (between these two pellets ONLY), was the JSB S-100 

Here you can see in the top left hand bullseye what a 10 shot group at 10 meters looks like
Picture
The bottom Bullseye is a solid "10", not perfect, not 10.9, but still a very good "10"

The group of 5 bullseyes on the right is an exercise, resting elbows on a stool and sitting on the floor.
Some good shots, some others not so good, but is, eminently, a "Very Shootable Carbine", for me to shoot a 90/100 at these targets is quite a good result.

And to finish off the test, but this time, completely offhand:
Picture
Apart from those two occasions where I used the wrong aimpoint in the scope's reticle, all shots landed exactly where I was pointing the gun at the moment of trigger release.

As I said, it is an eminently shootable carbine.

To finalize the test, it took 45 pump strokes from my Hill handpump to refill the air tube.

2 shots per pump stroke ain't bad.  ;-)

There are several modifications that will need to be made to fully qualify within the rules, and further refinements could be achieved with a larger assortment of pellets to test, but the capabilities of the machine are there, and that is always a good starting point!

Keep well and shoot straight!






​HM
7 Comments
RidgeRunner
3/8/2018 06:25:02

Hector,

LOL! You took your carbine the opposite way I have taken my AirForce Edge. By adding a piece to increase the volume of my regulated air chamber I increased the power to just under 12FPE with JSB RS pellets. It did drop my regulated shot count from over 100 down to about 25. This spring I intend to install an 18" LW barrel and see if I can adjust the regulated pressure up a small bit. If I can do such I intend to remove the chamber piece or at least make one that is smaller. Then I would like to replace the 9-1/2" reservoir tube with a 12" reservoir tube.

I also have modified the trigger to a nice, crisp release of considerably less than 1 pound with zero over travel.

All of my modifications I am doing to this wonderful little air rifle I do with the intent to be able to return it to stock should I desire as I have a grandson that I hope will one day take up 3P.

Reply
Hector Medina
3/8/2018 08:08:40

Hello RR!

12 ft-lb level is indeed a good level to play in. But I think your work demonstrates that the Edge is a limited platform to build on.
Don't get me wrong, I like very much the Talon platform, specially the SS version. I acquired mine back in 2002 and worked extensively with it. I even designed a valve that closed itself (no spring), with flow speed. It offered +\- 40 shots at 35 ft-lb with Barracudas out of the 12" barrel with great self regulation.

The Edge is the other end, and, to be quite frank, I would prefer to start a youngster with a more traditionally stocked rifle.
It's like taking your practice swings with two bats or with weights on the bat.
By overcoming a higher obstacle you get a better training.

And, I have always thought that it is better to tune down than to high-string up. But that's just me.

I may have to dig out my Talon and tune it to 12 ft-lb and see how it works.

;-)


Keep well and shoot straight!



HM

Reply
RidgeRunner
3/19/2018 06:35:22

Hector,

Right now my grandson is learning on a Daisy bb gun. After I am satisfied with how he handles it, I have other suitable pellet rifles for him to learn with. The Edge will be for competition should he choose to go that route since it is approved for such.

dan house
6/5/2018 14:46:19

Id love ot see the this gun become accepted as a suitable gun for 3p. Would greatly reduce the "cost of admission" for most folks. One thing though, as the sights on the factory gun gonna be acceptable or precise enough for 3P duty? Could there be an option for Diana et al to offer it with some type of target sights, or allow for a 3rd parties sights to be used?
and is there a part 3 Ive missed?

great work!

Reply
Hector Medina
6/5/2018 18:45:03

Hello Dan!

So far we are at the point where the gun is acceptable for "local" competitions and with prior MD approval.
Since the gun complies with ALL the rules, I do not see a problem in getting it to be used at more and more clubs until the Council has to rule on it.
We are working hard on getting a "3PA-ready" model (Regulated, with Precision Diopter Sights; Anschutz Rail; Adjustable Ambidextrous stock (Cheekpiece/LOS and LOP). Since the rails cut in the action are standard 11 mm's rails, you can use ANY sight that is ready for Olympic Match shooting. The front globe will probably end up being a Lyman 17A because it is less expensive and there are tons of custom apertures for them.
We are clear that we cannot come to a gunfight with a knife, and so, obviously, the "3PA-ready" version will NOT cost $200, but it will retail for less than other airguns that are already in the register AND substantially less than the PCP's that are in the register.

It will also be available in a left handed action (not much sense having an ambidextrous stock, as the rules call for if you are not going to provide for a left handed bolt).

"Part 3" has not been published and, for the moment, it will not be. It is made up of actual tests in the hands of young 3PA shooters and the targets they shot were phenomenal! Most of them liked this little carbine better than what they are using now (mostly Daisy Avanti's and CZ 200's)

But, I am working on "Part 4" which will be exploring the performance as an AAFTA FT gun. I had to interrupt the work to do the Mauser AM03 stuff that has also proven VERY interesting, but we'll pick up again the "Little Carbine that Could" in a short while.

Thanks for reading!

Reply
Rich link
3/17/2021 21:08:48

Thhanks for writing this

Reply
Hector Medina
3/18/2021 10:09:22

My pleasure, Richard!

Happy you liked it.

BTW, if you know of anyone that can code Android, I would be very happy for their contact info.

;-)

Thanks for reading!




HM

Reply



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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

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