Okay, I'll admit it, I have a twisted affection for match rifles and pistols. I have not, and never plan to compete, but something about their quality always draws me. So this little gem popped up and found its way to me. It was sold with no mention of working right, but after several Diana pistols of this vintage, I expected the seals were toast and I wasn't disappointed. The big brown truck dropped it off just before noon and in typical fashion, I stripped it down immediately. The seals were the gooey and had long since passed on. I had seals from a previous order sitting on standby, so after a good scrubbing and scraping all of the crud out of the compression chamber, I fitted them and got it back together. My chronograph is out of commission at the moment, but it now flings a pellet at decent velocity. It's hitting high and left with 7.9gr Crosman pellets and covering 20 yards at a respectable clip. I'll never do it justice in a competition, but I just love handling these guns. This one has a bit of it's provenance in the form of some correspondence that indicates it was bought by a service member stationed in Germany in 1978. The date code is October 1976 and the original briefcase is in excellent condition.
The Giss mechanism is running as expected and provides a butter smooth firing cycle. Hopefully I'll get a chance to get my chronograph working right and I'll make sure it's running at normal velocity for one of these. I fitted the piston seal with only moderate tension in the in the compression chamber to keep it from dragging. Just wanted to share this with others that appreciate them.
Mark
The Giss mechanism is running as expected and provides a butter smooth firing cycle. Hopefully I'll get a chance to get my chronograph working right and I'll make sure it's running at normal velocity for one of these. I fitted the piston seal with only moderate tension in the in the compression chamber to keep it from dragging. Just wanted to share this with others that appreciate them.
Mark
