Anyone own a Diana 54 Air King

KDX

KDX

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I was thinking of maybe purchasing one of these in .22cal and was wondering if anyone has one and would care to comment.
 
I have one in 22, it's very accurate off a rest, but very very heavy to tote around and shoot free hand. They are said to be hard on scopes with the recoiless system putting stress on the scope both forward and back . I'm not that knoledgeable on airgins at all but it seems very well built & high quality.
 
The 54 will be easier on scopes than the 48 or 52 as it works like a sled smoothing out recoil.RWS/Diana never bothered fixing their main problem ...........poorly designed receiver for mounting a scope. With one like HW they would be perfect.
 
Thanks for the replys gentlemen. If I buy one of these is it worth the extra money to get the 54 over the 48 or 52? I don't mind spending the extra money (buy once, cry once), I'm just not familiar with these rifles.
 
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KDX said:
Thanks for the replys gentlemen. If I buy one of these is it worth the extra money to get the 54 over the 48 or 52? I don't mind spending the extra money (buy once, cry once), I'm just not familiar with these rifles.
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If you want to buy once and cry only once, buy a Weihrauch rather than a Diana. It's like a Cadillac compared to a Chevy (to use an old analogy).
 
KDX said:
I was thinking of maybe purchasing one of these in .22cal and was wondering if anyone has one and would care to comment.
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I had one for a few years but sold it. It was well made, accurate and powerful. A con if you are carrying it in the field is the weight. Mine had a BSA 3x9 Airgun scope and a dampening mount. I used if for field target, plinking at the cottage and hunting grouse. The side cocking mechanism can be hard for smaller children to operate.
 
KDX said:
Which model and why.
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My two favourite full power Weihrauch springers are the HW97k and the HW98, both of which I have owned when I was shooting air rifle. (Weihrauch, like Diana, makes models which are not full power. They also make sub-500 fps versions of many of their well-liked full power models.) The HW97k is an underlever, which means it has a fixed barrel and cocks by a lever under the barrel. These underlever models are popular among field target shooters, along with the Air Arms TX200, another very fine spring piston rifle, which I also had. The HW98 is a break barrel rifle, with an adjustable cheek piece. Both rifles are among the most accurate springers available. They enjoy Weihrauch's tremendous reputation for quality and reliability and they both have the excellent Rekord trigger.

The Diana rifle is among the heaviest springers made. While Weihrauch mills dovetail grooves into the receiver for scope mounting, as noted above Diana uses a different, functional but less esthetically appealing system to mount scopes (see photo below). The best advice for a scope mount for springers is to use a one-piece mount when possible and to use the scope mount stop pin to keep the scope from slipping. The Air King's recoilless system eliminates much of the recoil felt by the shooter, but the laws of physics demands that it doesn't eliminate the heavy recoil felt by the scope. As a result, the Diana 48 and 54 are often referred to as "scope killers". Be sure to use a scope rated for air rifles, as the spring piston's two way recoil is quite hard on scopes.

Something worth keeping in mind for anyone considering an air rifle is that MV's greater than about 950 fps do nothing to enhance accuracy.

Diana scope mounting system

 
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