Diana 54. Open sights.

I posted a “wanted” add on this forum a while ago, looking for a Diana 54 or maybe even a 56TH….
Well, would you believe I’ve ended up with one of each!

I have only just received the 56, so haven’t started playing with her yet. Ive had the 54 for about 3 weeks but I’ve had very little time to play with her. This review is going to be about my journey with the 54.

My Diana 54 is an older model, in fact it’s a very old model, it was manufactured in October of 1996!
And she is a .177 cal. I haven’t chronoed her yet, but I suspect she is pushing around 14fpe.
The front sight is all made of metal (yes, metal! You don’t see that on todays guns) and is on a sliding ramp so it is height adjustable. Back sights are also made of metal and are fully adjustable for windage and elevation.

I zeroed the open sights at 10m (shooting in my lounge), but at 46 years old my eyes are starting to go and I can’t see a 1cm black dot, indoors, at 10meters over open sights any more, so I decided I was going to put a scope on her.
The good news was that even though I could barely see my aim point, she was shooting one hole groups at 10m 👍🏻.

The action of a 54 is on a sliding sled which absorbs the “recoil”, making the rifle feel almost recoilless and very nice to shoot. The sliding action on this one doesn’t always slide, and the trigger defiantly needs a strip, clean, lube and then some first and second stage tuning (it is the old T01 trigger), but for a 28year old gun she was shooting nicely 👍🏻.

I mounted a 4-16x44 and on Friday I took her to a range to zero at 30m.
Well…. At 30m she was shooting VERY low. Cranked the scope all the way up, still low. Shimmed the scope and still 2 inches low which was very frustrating!

I decided to put her away until I could get some adjustable mounts and zero it properly.
I was feeling quite frustrated and disappointed at that point, and that’s not a good time to be trying to fix a problem, so she got packed away for the day.

The next day I invited a mate of mine to come rabbit hunting with me at a clients farm, a place I call “The Bunny Factory”.
If u follow my YouTube channel @PrecisionPellet, you’ll know about The Bunny Factory!!!
This was intended to be an afternoon of two mates getting out side, spending some time together and doing some hunting.
This was NOT going to be work!

So I decided we should leave the PCP’s and high tech thermals and infrareds at home and go old school and get our springers out .

My mate has an old 2007model Diana 350 Classic in .22, it’s a magnum and really hits with a thump! I planned to take my 2019 Gamo CFR IGT, also in .22.
As I was walking out the door I thought let me grab the D54, I pulled the scope off and if I get a chance I’ll see if I can hit a metal spinner at 10m…

It was a beautiful summer afternoon, we arrived and hunted for 2 hours, we each knocked over a few rabbits and had lots of fun. We went back to the Ute for a drinks break and I decided to pull the D54 out.
We had a plinking target out at 30m which we had been using to check our scopes so I took a shot at it… plink!
What? I couldn’t believe it. With out even holding over or adjusting the open sights!
Let me see if I can do that again.
Another shot, plink!
And another, plink, and another…!
WHAT???
I really couldn’t believe it!
That was 4 shots in a row aiming on, at 30m with open sights! I’d only got 3 out of 4 with the Gamo CFR, and that is scoped!

Well, I put the Gamo down and took the 28year old, open sight D54 out for a walk.

Man, did I have fun with that rifle!!!!
I haven’t had so much fun in years!
I was knocking over rabbits the rest of the afternoon at 20, 30, 40m and more, chest and head shots with open sights!
What a blast!
I went from being so disappointed with this rifle on Friday, to having an absolute ball on Saturday.
I will definatly not even think about putting a scope back on this beautiful old girl, she is going to stay just as she is.
And I can’t wait to get her out again. 😉

Pete! What a fabulous story!

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 👍🏻