Diana Bandit PCP Air Pistol Review

[MC2]

I bought this PCP for $179 as my first foray into the PCP pistol market. I am a rifle guy, but one must be proficient in all forms of arms. I will not recap the specs, you can read them easily from the interweb. I’ll provide you my experience.

The grip is large and if you’re on the smaller hand size, it will feel bulky. I’m an average schmuck, so it fits my hand comfortably. The sights were hard to see in my basement range, so I white doted the front blade making a vast improvement. It would have really been nice if the gun came with fiber optic sights. After a few weeks of open sight shooting, I mounted a Burris FastFire red dot sight. Aboard a picatinny rail I bought from eBay.

I fill from a fiber tank and a hand pump and shoot at 10m in a basement range. Over all the gun fills fast from a hand pump. Although I’ve not counted the shots per fill, my experience is that my arm gets tired before I run out of air. The trigger is nice right out of the box. I’ve not adjusted mine. I’m happy with the accuracy thus far, easily hitting the flag on the Air Venturi biathlon metal targets at 10m. Power is more than expected and causes the flags to pop down and back up on some shots. It is a quiet shooter. I shoot from the single shot tray.

Overall, this is a fun accurate economical first PCP pistol.

 

[JohnL57]

Nice review-I've been looking at one of those but the length kind of puts me off. Does it feel like a hog leg, or is the length manageable?

 

[MC2]

It is not over weight and is manageable. It is long and makes me feel like Harry Callahan aka Dirty Harry. The length helps with accuracy. I don't see me carrying this into the woods for pest control, but it is fun from my shooting bench. Shot to shot I did not notice any drop off until it got into the yellow zone on the tank.

 

[glengiles]

I purchased a 22 cal version and mounted a dot on it as well. I could not get the gun to group at all so I'm exchanging it with hopes for better results with gun #2.

 

[lenweber2]

Had my .22 for about 2 months. Did a trigger job on it by replacing the spring with a lighter(cig type) hint here I bought a new one and dismantled with a hammer(gets wild for a second outside on the driveway). Cut maybe an 1/8" off the spring, makes for a light trigger. The trigger is EZ to play around with no surprises but do any grip off on a good surface as there are small pins that are EZ in and out. Mounted a red dot and it will shoot a nickel at 10 yards and 1 1/2" at 21 yards with several pellets but single load any LONG pellet. Gets 22 or so full power shots per fill(filling from a SBCA watch the gauge it's a small tank and fills fast). One of the dirtiest barrels I have dealt with, some kinda brown grease maybe. Shot both tray and mag, after a couple 100 rounds the trigger and the bolt smoothed up.

 

[Glem.Chally]

I like it! Definitely want a pcp pistol sometime.

 

[Kempo_uk]

I purchased a 22 cal version and mounted a dot on it as well. I could not get the gun to group at all so I'm exchanging it with hopes for better results with gun #2.

Hey glen

Did you get your gun yet ? 

Mine is grouping well but I'm in the UK and our legal limit on pistols is 6fp and on a fill of 180 bar I'm putting 20 shots in the inch at 10 yards with an 18 grain.

But my trigger is stiff and I would like to up the fp a tad as my string is starting at around 510 and drops to 400 after 20 shots.

How did you get on with your second gun.

Ps in the UK this gun is £240 GBP and that's a lot of dollars.

Also the gun is called an pp800.

 

[SlimChance]

I bought one from Pyramid Air that is awful. Unable to get a RMA number so I'm stuck with it. I get keyholing pellets on occasion and when they do fly straight the point of impact changes rapidly. Unhappy all the way around.

 

[Glem.Chally]

I purchased a 22 cal version and mounted a dot on it as well. I could not get the gun to group at all so I'm exchanging it with hopes for better results with gun #2.

Hey glen

Did you get your gun yet ? 

Mine is grouping well but I'm in the UK and our legal limit on pistols is 6fp and on a fill of 180 bar I'm putting 20 shots in the inch at 10 yards with an 18 grain.

But my trigger is stiff and I would like to up the fp a tad as my string is starting at around 510 and drops to 400 after 20 shots.

How did you get on with your second gun.

Ps in the UK this gun is £240 GBP and that's a lot of dollars.

Also the gun is called an pp800.

Ended up getting an Artemis pp700s-a and so far very happy with it, have close to 1000 shots through it already. Mine was 300 canadian dollars so around 220 usd after tax.

Build quality is surprisingly good.



Edit: sorry i thought you were asking me i didnt look close haha.

 

[JAG1]

I'm sure lighter handle mod's will eventually make there way out as alternative grips

 

[Parrotculler]

I suggest you put a Robert Lane regulator into it. And if you want to get fancy: get the co2 version for 100 bucks and scavenge the sleeker synthetic grip + shoulder piece + additional magazine + ... And potentially the longer barrel that comes in that package as well ... They are all easily interchangeable.

I use mine for hunting at 25-30 yards. Decided to stretch it to 55m (60 yards) today ... My first 8 shots are below. 4 inch group with a simple red dot aiming device without magnification. Had to guess the bullseye at that distance! Shows that this gun has promise.