Thanks for the review. About 65 years ago my older brother got a spring piston rifle for Christmas. From that day on he put pigeon after pigeon on the table as Pigeon Pot Pie made by our mother. Appreciate these memories, Merry Christmas.
Great Shooting Chuck!! Seems like a very smooth shooter too. My first Diana 48 also had the t01 trigger... Really crisp! Enjoy the special day tomorrow!!
You done good, sir. That's a beauty of a springer, a classic, never to go out of style. Also some great accuracy with open sights at 20 yards. I'm pretty much blind at that distance for open sights. Merry Christmas
Hello Sir, I hope you don't me telling you my story about two Diana Original Model 35's my father left me. My father was a super keen shooter, being interested in air rifles, shotguns and towards the end, black powder/muzzle loaders. I'm twin to another boy, so we were never allowed anywhere near. My brother wasn't interested but I was super interested and lost out. In those days, children were treated as seen and not heard and I suffered a lot from that. Initially, at a glance, I thought the above named air rifles were Weihrauch HW 35's, though on closer inspection realised they were Diana's. I researched these air rifles on the Internet and felt quite deflated that they werent seen as being great air rifles. There seems alot of videos from India making me wonder if Diana had a manufacturing plant there. I found these air rifles were superceded by your much more able Model 34, I think an iconic model. With this disappointment and my father in mind, I set myself a task. I aimed to overhaul both these air rifles and do things that generally people wouldn't see the point in doing. I was happy to be the Giunea pig. One was .177, the other .22. One was dated as 1978, I presume the other similar. I don't think they'd ever been dismantled as the springs could be seen looking underneath. The leather piston seals were well worn. I took them both apart. I'd read that they weren't great air rifles, operating around 8ftlb and eventually left behind and overtaken by their competitors. This enthused me and absolutely drove me to make these beautiful spring piston, break barrel air rifles the best I could make them. I'm no gunsmith, with super respect to gunsmiths. The .22 model looked to me like it'd been dry fired, so I replaced the main spring. I made them top hats out of delrin bar. I sleeved their spring guides and inside the piston as I didn't like their twangy noise. I replaced their leather piston seals with modern material equivalents, which I was lucky to source from Australia. I lubed the piston seal with moly paste. I lubed everything else and re assembled. I'm so so glad I did this. I benefitted greatly from watching an American gentleman on Utube who tunes many of his spring piston air rifles and it was probably he who gave me the strength to do this. Another benefit of this journey, was when the day came, and I tested both these air rifles out. I shot the .22 first, then the .177. They both shot fantastic and much much improved. Their twang was gone, moving to like, a zip noise. A point I'd like to make is, I much preferred the .177 to the .22. The .177 pellets flew much much flatter and quicker and I found the .22 much more sluggish and slower with more tradjectoryp. Manypeople think bigger pellet is better, though if they shot two identical air rifles in .177 and .22, I think they'd alter their opinion. This Model 35 is going to be a great hunting rifle for small vermin and they're both lightweight. They don't require a dive bottle, as a pcp would. I need to do more practice and be familiar with these rifles, but their potential is there, no question. I hope I haven't bored anyone with my story, I just wanted to show that you can do anything you want to if you try hard enough and theres lots to learn along along the way making us more knowledgable for taking on the journey. It's Christmas Day, here today in the UK. Is wish you all a Happy Christmas and thank you for reading my story if youve gotten this far and I hope I've enthused you to take on a journey you've always wondered about. Thank you.
Happy Christmas! Great shooting with a fine rifle, I have a Diana 24 which is comparable in size to an HW30, similar shape to your 34 with the same very well made iron sights. These rifles were made to a high standard of quality and have some of the smallest stamped letters I've ever seen.
Thanks for the review. About 65 years ago my older brother got a spring piston rifle for Christmas. From that day on he put pigeon after pigeon on the table as Pigeon Pot Pie made by our mother. Appreciate these memories, Merry Christmas.
Thank you for the nostalgia 😀👍. Merry Christmas ✝️🎄😃👍
Great Shooting Chuck!! Seems like a very smooth shooter too. My first Diana 48 also had the t01 trigger... Really crisp! Enjoy the special day tomorrow!!
Thank you Anton and you as well my friend, have a great Christmas celebration with your family ✝️🎄😃👍
Merry Christmas Chuck thank you for entertaining us with all your videos
Thank you so much and I'm wishing you and your family a spectacular Christmas ✝️🎄😃👍.
You done good, sir. That's a beauty of a springer, a classic, never to go out of style. Also some great accuracy with open sights at 20 yards. I'm pretty much blind at that distance for open sights. Merry Christmas
Thank you so much and Merry Christmas ✝️🎄😃👍
Gr8 shooting gr8 rifles they bring back many memories have a great Christmas 👍
Thank you. Merry Christmas ✝️🎄😃👍
Great shooting Chuck! All the more impressive with open sights in the wind. Take care.
Thank you Paul. Merry Christmas ✝️🎄😃👍
Hello Sir,
I hope you don't me telling you my story about two Diana Original Model 35's my father left me.
My father was a super keen shooter, being interested in air rifles, shotguns and towards the end, black powder/muzzle loaders.
I'm twin to another boy, so we were never allowed anywhere near. My brother wasn't interested but I was super interested and lost out. In those days, children were treated as seen and not heard and I suffered a lot from that.
Initially, at a glance, I thought the above named air rifles were Weihrauch HW 35's, though on closer inspection realised they were Diana's.
I researched these air rifles on the Internet and felt quite deflated that they werent seen as being great air rifles. There seems alot of videos from India making me wonder if Diana had a manufacturing plant there. I found these air rifles were superceded by your much more able Model 34, I think an iconic model.
With this disappointment and my father in mind, I set myself a task. I aimed to overhaul both these air rifles and do things that generally people wouldn't see the point in doing. I was happy to be the Giunea pig. One was .177, the other .22. One was dated as 1978, I presume the other similar. I don't think they'd ever been dismantled as the springs could be seen looking underneath. The leather piston seals were well worn.
I took them both apart. I'd read that they weren't great air rifles, operating around 8ftlb and eventually left behind and overtaken by their competitors. This enthused me and absolutely drove me to make these beautiful spring piston, break barrel air rifles the best I could make them.
I'm no gunsmith, with super respect to gunsmiths. The .22 model looked to me like it'd been dry fired, so I replaced the main spring. I made them top hats out of delrin bar. I sleeved their spring guides and inside the piston as I didn't like their twangy noise. I replaced their leather piston seals with modern material equivalents, which I was lucky to source from Australia. I lubed the piston seal with moly paste. I lubed everything else and re assembled.
I'm so so glad I did this. I benefitted greatly from watching an American gentleman on Utube who tunes many of his spring piston air rifles and it was probably he who gave me the strength to do this.
Another benefit of this journey, was when the day came, and I tested both these air rifles out. I shot the .22 first, then the .177.
They both shot fantastic and much much improved. Their twang was gone, moving to like, a zip noise.
A point I'd like to make is, I much preferred the .177 to the .22. The .177 pellets flew much much flatter and quicker and I found the .22 much more sluggish and slower with more tradjectoryp. Manypeople think bigger pellet is better, though if they shot two identical air rifles in .177 and .22, I think they'd alter their opinion.
This Model 35 is going to be a great hunting rifle for small vermin and they're both lightweight. They don't require a dive bottle, as a pcp would. I need to do more practice and be familiar with these rifles, but their potential is there, no question.
I hope I haven't bored anyone with my story, I just wanted to show that you can do anything you want to if you try hard enough and theres lots to learn along along the way making us more knowledgable for taking on the journey.
It's Christmas Day, here today in the UK. Is wish you all a Happy Christmas and thank you for reading my story if youve gotten this far and I hope I've enthused you to take on a journey you've always wondered about. Thank you.
Thank you for your story. I'm fully into my journey and have been for awhile now 😃👍. Merry Christmas ✝️🎄😃👍.
Excellent video. I've enjoyed seeing your progress with this rifle.
God bless you brother and your family. ☃️⛄
Thank you so much 😃. God bless you and have a great Christmas ✝️🎄😃👍
Happy Christmas! Great shooting with a fine rifle, I have a Diana 24 which is comparable in size to an HW30, similar shape to your 34 with the same very well made iron sights. These rifles were made to a high standard of quality and have some of the smallest stamped letters I've ever seen.
Thank you, Merry Christmas ✝️🎄😃👍 That Diana 24 sounds nice.
Nice rifle, Chuck! Enjoyed the vid, thanks for sharing! And have a Merry Christmas!
Thank you Shane, Merry Christmas ✝️🎄😃👍
Hi Chuck, Merry Christmas to you and you're family. I love what you do on you're channel, so I hope you keep recording and we can keep watching 👍
Thank you so much and I hope that you and your family has a great Christmas ✝️🎄😃👍
Gorgeous rifle I love my 34s and yes 12fpe is just fine
Thank you 😃👍
Great performance so far in windy condition
Thank you 😃👍. Yes, that wind 🌬️ was bucking.
Any wind cutter pellets in your collection?
Merry Christmas Chuck.🤠🎄
Lol 🤣. Merry Christmas Johnny ✝️🎄😃👍
Which is better HW80 or diana 34?
The HW80 is better built, but the accuracy might be close to the same.
😉👍🇳🇱
🙂👍