G'd I miss IWA!
Every year the pilgrimage to the greatest "Weapons Exhibition" in the world is a thrill.
And, of course, spending some real-face time with my DIANA friends is a boon to boot.
BUT CoViD19 put a damper on IWA 2020 and IWA 2021, next year IWA 2022 has been programmed, but there is no guarantee.
Anyway, one of the more charming aspects about IWA is that you can interact with top notch gunsmiths from around the world. Not all are interested in airguns, but most of them understand the complexities of low power shooting.
Among the typical discussions is the eternal one about the "German" way and the "American" way. From sling placement and usage, to sights and stock shapes, there is always someone that claims to be "richtig" & "genau". :-)
Of course the reality is that we need to take the best of all the options available to us. And this post is a bit about that: Getting a German, medium powered springer to be a joy to shoot in a specifically American endeavor: Plinking with iron sights using economy pellets.
So, when a friend requested something to complement his scoped R-7, I thought: This is a good opportunity for a DIANA 280.
And so the project started some months ago, the guns were available then and they were procured.
One, in 0.177", cal has already been reviewed here.
And the challenge with this one in 0.22" cal was to make it shoot well with iron sights.
We went back and forth with different rear sights, but in the end, it was necessary to change the front sight to something that would allow proper head positioning, BUT, we still wanted to keep the gun as DIANA as possible, and so we changed the front muzzle piece to one that was made by DIANA for the larger guns to use the "Korntunnel" in the DIANA lineup.
However, there are no Fiber Optic korntunnels in the German world, ¿What on earth for? you are supposed to shoot ONLY at paper targets! You NEED BLACK! . . . . LOL! . . . Nope!
Enter Tru-Glo, an American company that has been making optical gathering front sights for some time.
That allowed us to use the Williams FP rear and add the Merit Iris for light and contrast control, but since the sight stop is located fairly forward, an extension to the eyepiece had to be manufactured.
The powerplant was changed to a Titan #10 spring in a custom composite guide; performance stats are located in the targets for those that need numbers.
Overall it was a great project, fun and challenging.
So, let's look at some pictures:
Every year the pilgrimage to the greatest "Weapons Exhibition" in the world is a thrill.
And, of course, spending some real-face time with my DIANA friends is a boon to boot.
BUT CoViD19 put a damper on IWA 2020 and IWA 2021, next year IWA 2022 has been programmed, but there is no guarantee.
Anyway, one of the more charming aspects about IWA is that you can interact with top notch gunsmiths from around the world. Not all are interested in airguns, but most of them understand the complexities of low power shooting.
Among the typical discussions is the eternal one about the "German" way and the "American" way. From sling placement and usage, to sights and stock shapes, there is always someone that claims to be "richtig" & "genau". :-)
Of course the reality is that we need to take the best of all the options available to us. And this post is a bit about that: Getting a German, medium powered springer to be a joy to shoot in a specifically American endeavor: Plinking with iron sights using economy pellets.
So, when a friend requested something to complement his scoped R-7, I thought: This is a good opportunity for a DIANA 280.
And so the project started some months ago, the guns were available then and they were procured.
One, in 0.177", cal has already been reviewed here.
And the challenge with this one in 0.22" cal was to make it shoot well with iron sights.
We went back and forth with different rear sights, but in the end, it was necessary to change the front sight to something that would allow proper head positioning, BUT, we still wanted to keep the gun as DIANA as possible, and so we changed the front muzzle piece to one that was made by DIANA for the larger guns to use the "Korntunnel" in the DIANA lineup.
However, there are no Fiber Optic korntunnels in the German world, ¿What on earth for? you are supposed to shoot ONLY at paper targets! You NEED BLACK! . . . . LOL! . . . Nope!
Enter Tru-Glo, an American company that has been making optical gathering front sights for some time.
That allowed us to use the Williams FP rear and add the Merit Iris for light and contrast control, but since the sight stop is located fairly forward, an extension to the eyepiece had to be manufactured.
The powerplant was changed to a Titan #10 spring in a custom composite guide; performance stats are located in the targets for those that need numbers.
Overall it was a great project, fun and challenging.
So, let's look at some pictures:
The first thing we did was to shoot the gun in, with the normal shoot and clean routine, this took some weeks of intermittent effort. We then shot some test groups to define the best pellet. Without a doubt, the JSB RS proved to be the one. This is a no-standard 10M target because of the colors, but the size is strictly regulation.
But the gun had an extremely low LOS, and the stock was completely inadequate. It took great effort and concentration to shoot groups like the one above, so we installed a small, appropriate telescope and tested other pellets from among the ones that ARE available.
Results were reasonably good, specially the H&N Excite Hammer, that is an "economy" pellet in the H&N line.
But the owner insisted on "Irons" as the gun was to be a "plinker". And so. we decided to test the flat Match style muzzlepiece DIANA makes for the 48->54 family, that did not look bad at all.
The space between the relatively thin barrel (15 mm's) and the external bore of the muzzlepiece cavity was taken up by a "Cello" finish Carbon Fiber tube.
At the rear, we installed a Williams FP/AG sight, but had to use the long slide of the GR sight to really give it latitude.
But the rear sight was too far forward to give a good sight picture! We had to make an extension.
This is the sight picture through the Merit Iris disc once the extension was added. You can clearly see the bright aimpoint from the TruGlo front sight, even against a white paper.
And then we took the gun to play outside!
After some warming up and sighting in at a more realistic distance of 25 yards, these are the results.
One of the things I really like about the Tru-Glo is that the amount of light you put "on target" is adjustable. You can reduce the brightness in an extremely bright day to a good level by turning the "shading" on.
Or you can have more and more light by "opening the shutters".
If there was truly little light in the day, then you can have a wide open window, taking in light from almost 180° of sky
This is the sight picture with a "fully closed shutter", yes it is bright, but by no means glaring.
And I do like the way the CF glossy finish tube shines! LOL!
In the end, this is what it is all about: a pleasant evening in the cooling day, with your S.O. so that she can create the targets for you. Some distance, some pellets, and have fun!
And if you REALLY have what it takes, then turn the can on end. The gun is more than capable. Will you be? ;-) Let's see!
Keep well and shoot straight!
HM
HM
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