Diana 54. Open sights.

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   Hi Jason,

There is not really any rules for pellet and barrel marriages.
The best advise I can give you is try as many pellets as you can get your hands on, different weights, shapes, manufacturers, models, just keep trying them all.

Having said that some very general guidelines from my experiences are: (others may agree or disagree, but thats the beauty of a forum like this.)
1- guns in the lower powers (up to about 7 or 8FPE) like lighter for caliber pellets.
2- mid power guns, 8 to 15FPE, like standard for caliber weight pellets.
3- Higher power guns like heavy for caliber pellets.
4- Pellets also have preferences for speeds, the optimum speed for pellet performance is around 850fps, but pellets perform well anywhere from 500ish fps up to 900ish fps. Generally over 900 they will start to become unstable, but of course you'll always find someone who says his rifle shoots beautifully at 980fps...
5- Dont be fooled by the "devastating destruction, incredible penetration, superb accuracy" BS marketing that some pellets advertise. Try them and if the group tightly, theyr good, end of story.
6- If you are shooting out to 30ish yards most "hunting" pellets can be accurate, i.e. hollow point, spear point etc, but if you are shooting past that, usually round head "Diabolo" shaped pellets are the most accurate at longer distances.
7- As far as pellet manufacturers go, there are only two that I would reccomend, JSB and H&N. That is based solely on quality. RWS are not bad, and supposedly crossman are ok. I genrally avoid Gamo and other cheep brands.
Air Arms pellets, FX pellets, Cometa pellets and a few others are all made by JSB.
Gun Citys shop brand and a few others are made by H&N.

The only manufacturer that makes sample packs is H&N. JSB do as well, but I'v never seen them for sale in NZ.
Guncity stocks the H&N range. Finding JSB can be difficult, Rons is a safe bet, or online shops like NZairarms are not bad, bit pricy.

Stick with the big name manufacturers so you are working with better quality pellets, and then try as many as you can.

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RangerPete Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Senior Member Joined: 18 Apr 2023 Location: Cambridge. Status: Offline Posts: 884	Post Options Post Reply Quote RangerPete Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 26 Sep 2024 at 6:43pm
	Hi Jason, There is not really any rules for pellet and barrel marriages. The best advise I can give you is try as many pellets as you can get your hands on, different weights, shapes, manufacturers, models, just keep trying them all. Having said that some very general guidelines from my experiences are: (others may agree or disagree, but thats the beauty of a forum like this.) 1- guns in the lower powers (up to about 7 or 8FPE) like lighter for caliber pellets. 2- mid power guns, 8 to 15FPE, like standard for caliber weight pellets. 3- Higher power guns like heavy for caliber pellets. 4- Pellets also have preferences for speeds, the optimum speed for pellet performance is around 850fps, but pellets perform well anywhere from 500ish fps up to 900ish fps. Generally over 900 they will start to become unstable, but of course you'll always find someone who says his rifle shoots beautifully at 980fps... 5- Dont be fooled by the "devastating destruction, incredible penetration, superb accuracy" BS marketing that some pellets advertise. Try them and if the group tightly, theyr good, end of story. 6- If you are shooting out to 30ish yards most "hunting" pellets can be accurate, i.e. hollow point, spear point etc, but if you are shooting past that, usually round head "Diabolo" shaped pellets are the most accurate at longer distances. 7- As far as pellet manufacturers go, there are only two that I would reccomend, JSB and H&N. That is based solely on quality. RWS are not bad, and supposedly crossman are ok. I genrally avoid Gamo and other cheep brands. Air Arms pellets, FX pellets, Cometa pellets and a few others are all made by JSB. Gun Citys shop brand and a few others are made by H&N. The only manufacturer that makes sample packs is H&N. JSB do as well, but I'v never seen them for sale in NZ. Guncity stocks the H&N range. Finding JSB can be difficult, Rons is a safe bet, or online shops like NZairarms are not bad, bit pricy. Stick with the big name manufacturers so you are working with better quality pellets, and then try as many as you can.
	Walk quietly, but carry a big stick.

JasonEdward Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Senior Member Joined: 21 Sep 2024 Location: Waihi Status: Offline Posts: 94	Post Options Post Reply Quote JasonEdward Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 26 Sep 2024 at 3:04pm
	Thanks Pete, Nice shooting! You may be saving me some work although I guess every barrel is different...can you tell me where I can get sample packs of a variety of pellets or aren't they available in NZ or does someone in this group sell un-wanted part tins? I'm My local shop has only Gamo pellets and I've never read anyone who finds them the best... Currently I'm using H&N Baracudas at 10.65 gr in my .177 D52 on the advice of Ron but have nothing to compare them with yet.

RangerPete Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Senior Member Joined: 18 Apr 2023 Location: Cambridge. Status: Offline Posts: 884	Post Options Post Reply Quote RangerPete Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 25 Sep 2024 at 4:42pm
	The JSB heavies 10.34gr and the H&N Hunter 10.49gr seem to both agree with her barrel.
	Walk quietly, but carry a big stick.

RangerPete Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Senior Member Joined: 18 Apr 2023 Location: Cambridge. Status: Offline Posts: 884	Post Options Post Reply Quote RangerPete Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 25 Sep 2024 at 4:40pm
	Had some time today and needed a therapy session, so I put up a target at 10m in the lounge and tried a few different pellets in the D54 with her new more open open sights From the chrono work I last did, the Exact 8.44gr and the Heavies 10.34gr both had very similar numbers, both producing 11.4FPE, with the 8.44gr doing 780fps and the 10.34gr doing 705fps. I chose to work with the 8.44gr because I wanted the flatter trajectory for open sights shooting. Well after shooting a bunch of pellets to check groupings today, I'll have to switch to the 10,34gr, The Barrel has spoken... The 8.44gr group was not very impressive at all, especially for 10m! (I know I can do much better than that).The heavies group was an acceptable 12mm. Will probably end up testing both again, and again, out to 30. The suprise was the H&N Hunter (also sold as the GunCity Rabbiter), which is very close in weight to the Heavies at 10.49gr. Will have to include them in the 30 yard testing too. I'm also slowly figuring out what size and colour dot works best at each distance for aiming at with squinting eyes over iron sights.
	Walk quietly, but carry a big stick.

RangerPete Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Senior Member Joined: 18 Apr 2023 Location: Cambridge. Status: Offline Posts: 884	Post Options Post Reply Quote RangerPete Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 10 Sep 2024 at 7:38pm
	Edited by RangerPete - 10 Sep 2024 at 7:41pm
	Walk quietly, but carry a big stick.

RangerPete Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Senior Member Joined: 18 Apr 2023 Location: Cambridge. Status: Offline Posts: 884	Post Options Post Reply Quote RangerPete Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 10 Sep 2024 at 7:36pm
	Miserable day today, pouring with rain the whole day, so what better a day to spend some time with the D54. Stripped the rear sight and started to play around with apperture sizes and try brain storm a way to get a ghost ring fitted onto her. What I need to do is move the rear sight all the way back to where the dove tail is. That would maximise the radius??? (not sure if thats the right name for it) between the front post and the rear blade for maximum potential accuracy. But the rear sight is screwed onto the compression tybe with two screws that are 40mm apart, and the dove tail rail is held on with 3 screws that are each 48mm apart, so to fit the rear sight where the dove tail is would first need the dove tail to be removed, then a hole drilled and threaded 40mm from one of the existing holes, and I dont have to tools or the experience to do that. Second prize would be to not move the rear sight and just fit a "ghost ring" onto the blade. I played around with various size ghost rings (washers), some big enough to be called peep sights, and found the best diameter hole to look through with the rear sight 49cm in front of my eye. But how to attach it...??? Humm. Ok, third best option, get out the file and enlarge the "V" in the rear blade so it gives me a bigger sight picture, as big as possible so I can see as much of the target as possible. And thats what I did. (Ive got the tools and the experiance for that job... ) Next job was to work out the optimal size target to aim at, at different distances. For my eyes, and this rifles open sights set up, a 17mm "bull" at 5 yards is big enough to see and aim at. and at 10 yards, a 20mm bull is enough to aim at. Tomorrow I'll keep working it back to 20yards, which is as far as I can go at home. And I'll keep brain storming this ghost ring problem. I'll get there eventually.
	Walk quietly, but carry a big stick.

RangerPete Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Senior Member Joined: 18 Apr 2023 Location: Cambridge. Status: Offline Posts: 884	Post Options Post Reply Quote RangerPete Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 10 Sep 2024 at 7:36pm
	This is what I came up with as a 20yard (small circles) and 30yards (big circle) target to see and aim at with open sights.
	Walk quietly, but carry a big stick.

RangerPete Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Senior Member Joined: 18 Apr 2023 Location: Cambridge. Status: Offline Posts: 884	Post Options Post Reply Quote RangerPete Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 16 Jul 2024 at 7:28pm
	Been raining all week, but I got a ray of sunshine this afternoon and jumped outside with the D54 and a chronograph. She is a .177, so I tried a few JSB's... JSB Exact Monster 13.43gr. Average 541.6fps ES 21.8 SD6.2 8.75FPE JSB Exact Heavies 10.34gr. Average 705fps ES 11.5 SD 3.9 11.4FPE JSB Exact 8.44gr Average 780.7fps ES 11.7 SD 4.2 11.4FPE JSB Exact Express 7.87gr Average 828.2fps ES 19.4 SD 6.8 12FPE Next step is to try all of them for grouping at 30 yards and see which she likes best. Shooting her with open sights, I'm hoping one of the lighter ones will perform nicely for as flat a trajectory as possible. Just hope I can see a target at 30yards over those open sights... Will have to experiment with different size and colour dots to aim at. Might have to spray paint a neon orange tennis ball size dot onto white paper...
	Walk quietly, but carry a big stick.

xyon Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Senior Member Joined: 20 Dec 2016 Location: Canterbury Status: Offline Posts: 135	Post Options Post Reply Quote xyon Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 06 Mar 2024 at 9:45am
	Thanks for the story. My Diana 52 is my favourite springer
	--- My favourites springer - Diana 52 PCP - FX Wildcat III

RangerPete Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Senior Member Joined: 18 Apr 2023 Location: Cambridge. Status: Offline Posts: 884	Post Options Post Reply Quote RangerPete Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 05 Mar 2024 at 11:08pm
	Hi Myson, I won’t be putting a scope on her, well at least not till my eyes force me too 😂 She has earned the right to keep her open sights free and lovely 😂 The 56 on the other hand is a different story. They don’t come with open sights (like the HW97) so a scope will be mandatory. If ur thinking about getting a 54 Air king, I’d say do it. I owned a 48 for years and loved it, I’ve wanted to replace it ever since I had to sell it which is why I’ve ended up with these two 😂. Kruza, the barrel length is around 430mm. I’ll definatly do a little review of the internals when I open her up to clean and lube (not that I know what I’m doing 😂). There will be a short section on our springer afternoon in part 4 of the bunny factory, which will be coming out in the next few days 👍🏻
	Walk quietly, but carry a big stick.