Restoring an Old RWS Diana 25 ( .25 Calibre)

[essdee1972]

Moin, you ever knew a superb sample of humanity, good looks, great brain, etc. etc., but then he had some serious issue in life and lost everything? This AR reminds me of people like that!

And by the way, if you need to measure the bore, I bought a Vernier recently.........

[airgun_novice]

Dear Moin,

I remember we having talked about this piece in the past. Putting a budget to start with gives one a different perspective and often a cost-cutting or corner-cutting ideas thus bringing down the restoration value. The "con" I see of lugging that gun around is how on the earth you are going to convince the police, especially the one smart ones of MH, why it's .25 and not .177 or even a .22 - if you are taking it for target practice or plinking. Now from the pix posted,

1. I somehow think it's not purely a German made all the way but a Chinese influx induced. The stock and the butt especially gave me that creepy feeling. Does the metal clearly show that it's made in Fatherland ?
2. Lots of steel wool, elbow grease and sand paper are going to be needed to remove external rust. And that will leave the pitting about which you can not do much.
3. Cold bluing can be done with the Ballistol Kelvar/ Klevar - so that's the easy part in the whole process.
4. That gun and cal won't be used in any club - so leave /have it for "possession" effect and plinking. .25 ammo is available on ballistol.in site but the "brand name" says it all for which purpose it serves - hence refer to my point on explanation to cops.
5. Stock can be filled in with crayon chalk (like essdee1972) or other fillers and polished and reused - unless it's cracked heavily and has been attached/ held together by a metal joinder and glue.
6. Grooves can be dug in for foresight which in turn can be ordered from IHP (they probably have a few metal foresights still left in their inventory) or one of the other desi boyz like SDB etc. No big issue there. Rear sight can also be thus replaced.
7. Internals can only be ascertained after thoroughly 'opening' the action. It probably has a leather piston seal which has enabled you to knock those "pings" on the dish antenna. After cleaning out the internals and checking the shaoe and form of the main spring, you can determine if it needs to be replaced or simply cleaning and then coating with moly would do fine.
8. Piston seal can be replaced with synthetic if required. How is the cocking effort ?
9. Main springs come in from Rs. 300 and go up in a few 1000s depending on what you want to put in. You can still use it in Field Target shooting if the rules permit that cal. If .22 is allowed why not .25, but then FT shooting still has not caught on in India and dudes like us do it on the once-a-year outing at Japs.
10. After all the time and effort you would put in, why sell it ? Rather it would weigh in heavy on your heart to sell it. So resale value though up from what you invested as an almost junk plus restoring costs, would still leave a hole in your heart though it filled in your pocket.

Hope my 2 cents worth contribution gives your mind some rest.

regs
A.

[mercury]

ah well Moin....guess dating an air gun is not "elementry" ! but....

check out the link posted below. its on the M25 in .25 caliber. the poster goes on to state that the rifle " appears to be smooth bore" also dated 03 80. the F stamped on the gun need not be on your friends gun if it is the export stock. also . pity the pictures do not come up...but if you click on images for that page...the gun has a rear sight very different from yours/ kind of like a plate in a groove. bit , but your guns age ...unless you can find the stamp....could be earlier / later.

so , my only guess is that with the Diana being manufactured outside Germany for a while after the war ( Milbro / Original ) and than shifting back to Germany and back to their Diana name...there could have been some issues.

it is not the model 25 D...they had better triggers.

but whatever Moin...KEEP IT. work on it as a project and try and restore it. it is quite a rare piece and worth spending a bit to get it shooting well. remember the early .25 bores were very low powered....maybe 400 to 450 fps...so it would make a pretty good short range plinker and being an early Diana rifled bore an accurate 10 mtr shooter.

shoot safe.

http://www.airgunbbs.com/showthread.php ... 5-CALIBRE-!!!

[airgun_novice]

Dear Moin,

Forgot to add -

1. The rear sight is exactly what my Shanghai Industry B2 (.22) had which I "sliced" off at the base since it was tough to get at. Think it was cold-welded or something. The darn thing has only the elevation plate marked 10m, 20m, 30m, 40, 50m which you raise but no windage adjustment whatsoever. Let me look up and see if I have retained that 'patti' which you can slide in and make do.

2. The stock also is exactly like my Shanghai Industry B2 (.22) - from the grooves on either side, the color and the ribbed butt-end. I still have that stock in pieces which I can show you anytime we meet.

3. Check to see if it has a clip on the butt or two small holes (probably filled in) about half an inch apart in the butt (I can not make them out in pix - so may be they aren't there) for what sounds like "kairi" - belt I suppose. I was told (forgot by whom) that they were a chini AR speciality.

4. You can see the rifling very clearly and not smooth bore as mercury has researched for the original.

Definitely not that I am an expert, but then I guess is that what you have is a "Frankenstein" with the receiver being the only original - unless even that is stamped in PRC. Or may be I am watching "Pawn Stars" a bit too much. Good Luck.

regs
A.

[Katana]

Moin,

A quick reply: If you intend to sell it, do not restore it. Leave that to the enthusiast. If you intend to keep it, and enjoy it (they are thoroughly enjoyable!) then do so by all means.

It is difficult to peg a price on it, restored or otherwise. I suppose it would be up to both both parties to settle on a price, but be assured it's not going to fetch much. I would peg it at around 4-5k max, either way, restored or otherwise.

Parts are available from here https://www.gunspares.co.uk/products/24372/25/ , although parts from the IHP25 fit perfectly. Your main costs will be about 2.5k for blueing, about 1k for the internals from IHP and another 1k for the stock. The UK supplier, of course, has his costs in the stratosphere, at least for us in India.

I have restored a couple of the model 25 and model 27 for member 'charminar'. The model 27 has a little more complicated trigger mechanism, but nothing that cannot be done.

[kanwar76]

Katana ji,

Anybody does hot bluing in Gujrat? Can you please share any pics of blued guns you got done there?

-Inder

[Katana]

Gujarat Bandook Bhandar does hot blueing. You may contact Nishit Gupta on 09426001787 or 07926301400. His quality of work is good. If you have problems setting up anything with him do let me know. I'll have a word with him.

I had my own Diana 25 blued from him. I guess I'll take some pics of it and post them here for you to see.

[kanwar76]

Thanks Katanaji,

If you think his work is good then it must be good. Let me try if I get something near home otherwise I ll call him.

-Inder

[Moin.]

My sincere apologies on the delayed response. Thank you Mercury, AGN, Katanaji,kanwar et all for your most valuable feedback.

Thanks Again
Moin.

[brihacharan]

My sincere apologies on the delayed response. Thank you Mercury, AGN, Katanaji,kanwar et all for your most valuable feedback.
Thanks Again
Moin.

Moin
> Now that you've our "most valuable feedback" - What next?
> May I suggest that you show it to Doc. Shirsat & take his expert opinion...That's if its OK by you
Briha

[AnandNair]

Looks like a beautiful little restoration Project in hand. The rifle looks restorable unless the pitting/ rust corrosion has not made a hole in the cylinder.