New Diana Panther 31 Compact With Photos

[aravindc82]

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Hi IFG Mates!

My name is Aravind. I am from Chennai, but recently working and settled in UAE. I am an aspiring shooter, and wanted to buy an air gun/rifle for myself since my childhood days. After going through this forum for a couple of days I decided to buy an air rifle from Dubai.
So I went to Al Sayad near Deira City Center and saw a few collection of rifles over there. I finally picked a Diana Panther 31 Compact for myself with .177 caliber. I also picked some Gamo 4.5 .177 pellet tins, a target holder and a bunch of 5.5" x 5.5" target cards.
My first attempt to shoot was from a distance of 22 ft, shot some 11 pellets everything strikes within the target, and this was with the default optical fiber target settings. I am extremely happy with my purchase and I have to thank many of you who have contributed valuable information, that has helped me in my choice.

Requesting any of you to answer to my following queries:
1. I want to buy a scope for this rifle. Which brand/s should I choose (in order) and what specification?
2. Is it possible to carry my rifle to Chennai without hassles. I am not a member of any shooting club in Chennai.
3. If answer is yes to the 2nd question, should I carry it in a rifle bag or should I dismantle it and put it in my checking luggage. Will putting the gun in a checking luggage create any issues in the airports such as Sharjah and Dubai. What about Chennai airport during entry... will I face any issues? Is there a gun smith in Chennai who can assemble it again?

Attaching a few photos I took. Please have a look and give you comments and suggestions.

[aravindc82]

Some more pictures...

[FPSRussia]

Congrats for your new gun!Nice,Compact and beautiful....

[aravindc82]

Congrats for your new gun!Nice,Compact and beautiful....

Thanks fprussia... can you throwsome light on my doubts

[aravindc82]

Some more pics...

[aravindc82]

How did I end up buying an air rifle?

Well thats a big question! Buying/owning an air rifle was my childhood dream... for which I waited for all these years. My initial hesitation to buy an air rifle due to the fact that it might be cumbursome to carry it with me back to India, due to all the restrictions laid by the Indian govt/ customs and also the family members , was overcome by my desire to buy an air rifle to quench my thirst of owning one. I am not a member of any rifle association nor a professional shooter.

One might find this silly, all I ever owned were a series of plastic toy guns that shoots out plastic pellets/ bullets. But my ultimate aim was to buy a quality air gun in life... so since I am now settled in Dubai, I thought... whether I could take it back with me home (Chennai) or not, I just was passionate about buying one.

After reading this forum for a couple of days... I decide to buy one at Al Sayad opposite to Deira City Center in Dubai. Before going there I called their phone number and enquired whether they had a PCP gun which I ultimately wanted to purchase. Yes... they did have a Walther PCP Air Rifle. I went there and saw a couple of models they had (04/Jan/2012) they had on display a 3 Gamo rifles.. a Gamo Shadow 1000, a Gamo whisper x and 2 other models of Gamo. They also had Weihrauch models and Diana models. Unfortunately they did not have any hand pump for the PCP model. So I decided to go for a spring action. I saw HW57 and almost fixed to buy that... when another customer enters the shop and confuses me and I finally end up buying a Gamo Shadow 1000. It was way cheaper than Diana or Weihrauch models. It costed only around 845 AED, which he finally offered for 750 AED. I buy that and Gamo 4x32 scope and 4 tins of .22 pellets.

After coming back... I was still under confusion and wanted to go for the HW57... I called the shopkeeper that I wanted to change... he agreed and I went back to the shop. This time I wanted to buy a HW57 but he didn't have .177. So I finally settled for the Diana Panther 31 Compact... since it was compact and lighter but also powerful. Since then I have fallen in love with my gun.

So far I have just done target practice at home. From 22 to 23ft distance shooting a 5 1/2" x 5 1/2" target card (Gamo). And trust me the rifle is just amazing. I am just waiting to do outdoors with my gun. Only problem is that it requires too much effort to cock the gun and every day I cannot cock the gun more than 10 times as my hand start paining after that. I am just looking out for any tips to make the cocking easier. So mates.. this is how my purchase experience was.

A couple of more pics attached.

[aravindc82]

For the first time after 5 shooting sessions, I was able to get the bulls eye with my gun, from a distance of 23feet about 7 meters, on 5 1/2" x 5 1/2" target card without a scope. The center was hardly visible and was quite blurry when seen through the sights. Optical fiber on the rear and front sights of this rifle are really very helpful is taking a precision shot.
And the second image is of a plastic tag from a newly purchased garment... from the same distance as above and with just the sights, I was able to hit the target -4 out of 4 shots.

[striker]

Hi Aravind ,
nice rifle ,if your port of entry is chennai airport without valid rifle club membership your gun will be in warehouse for countless days ..

[mercury]

try different hold positions...especially on the fore end of the stock, and see if that helps with the grouping. if the p 31 is a magnum then the hold is important. in the pictures you posted.(obviously you were not shooting then), i notice you are griping the fore end of the stock.

my hold with magnum rifles is to rest the fore end in the palm of the hand ( no grip),; not to push the butt end into the shoulder...but hold it lightly to the shoulders; not grip the butt and gently ease the trigger through the two stages. this works for me. the follow through , as in all cases is to hold the position for a few swcond before lowering / reloading.

point is to let the rifle go through the entire recoil process on its own.

i found the right hold after alot of trail and error. on the magnum classic, with its long stock.. i rest the rifle on my palm directly under the 2 screws, which attach the action to the stock.

like i said this works for me on my rifle....find the hold position that gives you the best groups and stay with it. i have no idea how hold fussy a compact magnum would be, never having shot one!

[aravindc82]

Hi Aravind ,
nice rifle ,if your port of entry is chennai airport without valid rifle club membership your gun will be in warehouse for countless days ..

Somewhere in the forum I read that club membership is not required to bring the air gun via personal baggage. I have the bills with me (one is Arabic to show in Dubai/ Sharjah port, and one in English to show in Chennai port), I am also planning to take a copy of the technical specification of the gun, a print of the GSR991 notification text and also DGFT Notification No. 122005 dated 04072005 for details on Import Exemption.
Thanks for the advice, striker. I heard a couple of success stories with Bangalore, as the port of entry in this forum. Will that really work?

[aravindc82]

try different hold positions...especially on the fore end of the stock, and see if that helps with the grouping. if the p 31 is a magnum then the hold is important. in the pictures you posted.(obviously you were not shooting then), i notice you are griping the fore end of the stock.

my hold with magnum rifles is to rest the fore end in the palm of the hand ( no grip),; not to push the butt end into the shoulder...but hold it lightly to the shoulders; not grip the butt and gently ease the trigger through the two stages. this works for me. the follow through , as in all cases is to hold the position for a few swcond before lowering / reloading.

point is to let the rifle go through the entire recoil process on its own.

i found the right hold after alot of trail and error. on the magnum classic, with its long stock.. i rest the rifle on my palm directly under the 2 screws, which attach the action to the stock.

like i said this works for me on my rifle....find the hold position that gives you the best groups and stay with it. i have no idea how hold fussy a compact magnum would be, never having shot one!

@mercury thank you so much for the tips. I am really new to shooting and don't know the correct holding positions, also I got lost while reading all the technical terms that you mentioned. Sometimes I also rest the fore end of the stock with my palm wide open... I mean just resting it on my palm but not gripping, that really helps. My only problem now is the vision is almost blurred to view the center of the 5.5" x 5.5" target card from a distance of 23ft. I guess buying a scope would help.

One more thing is that, I am unable to shoot more than 10 to 12 times... cocking the rifle gives me cramps on my bicep joint... Can you give me some tips to cock without much pain in my biceps/ joints.

[mercury]

nothing technical in what i am suggesting. you need to to try and hold your rifle with different grips (lightly, firmly or just resting) at different different points on the stock. experiment and you will find that a particular hold (lightly, firmly or just resting) at a specific point( the front end of the stock or further back) on the stock will help in better grouping. you are also fortunate that you have easy accesability to quality pellets...which also helps.

i do not want to go into the entire dynamics of air rifle recoil.....only that with spring air rifles a light hold is advisable to couner the movement of the rifle.

i have no problem with two of my standard powered air rifles. the 350 is different, and i am having a little difficulty with it.

if you are having difficulty with the target size, you could add a scope. but again that needs getting used to. if the p 31 is a magnum, then your choice of scope is equally important. the magnums can destroy the inner mechanisms of the scope. basically, you need a quality scope with quality mounts.

dont worry about the cocking effort...you will get used to it. that by it self is, i guess aform of exercise; ten times with the right arm and ten times with the left!!!!!

[aravindc82]

Thanks @mercury, I followed your tip and found that holding the grip of the rifle without a grip, I mean just by resting on the palm, and just slightly sinking it onto my shoulder, gets me better shots.
As you said the pellets are of good quality, I have also washed them with isopropyl alcohol and soaked them in coconut oil, cleaned of the excess and stored them. I saw this tip in one of the websites.
Could you please explain a little more about what a magnum is for an air gun, I tried to search in the web but could get a proper explanation.
Moreover I was planning to go for a Gamo 3–9x40 or a Diana 3–9x40 scope. Which one would be better, or would a 4 x 32 do?

[ckkalyan]

Congratulations - Mabrook on your acquisition aravindc82 - Enjoy!

If you find cocking the rifle too much effort maybe you could consider purchasing a Co2 powered rifle as an alternate to PCP rifles. There is a chap called Kabir at Al Sayad opp City Center Deira who would be happy to assist you make a choice. There are a few disadvantages with Co2 weapons but worth considering.

[mercury]

very simply put, the magnum ( in regards to air guns) is a term for high powered air rifles. that is, the pellets travel at a higher speed (velocity) than the standard powered air rifles. this higher velocity translates into higher energy.

velocity is commonly reffered to as FPS....feet per second.
energy is commonly reffered to as ft/lbs....foot pounds.

this is not easy for me to explain without getting "technical"; but to calculate the energy, the weight of the pellet is necessary...just as much as you would need a chronograph to get the velocity. all pellets have different weights...and the weight of the pellet determines the velocity which leads on to determine the energy. the lighter the pellet the higher the velocity.

lets leave it at that. i checked the diana website about the p31.

the .177 version is rated at 1000fps. i would rate this as an adult air rifle not far from a magnum. but do remember all gun makers tend to inflate the velocity figures to increase sales; these figures are achieved by using very light weight pellets...as i mentioned earlier, the lighter the pellet, the higher the velocity.

realistically, with mid weight pellets you should be between the 850 to the 900fps mark. believe me that is seiously good velocity for a ,177.

the diana 3-9 +40 scope is the recomended scope by diana; but then my knowledge of scopes is very limited...as i prefer open sights. i have heard that leapers scope and mounts are very good ...especially for powerful guns such as yours.

also check with the dealer when buying the scope about barrel droop. diana break barrel air rifles are known for that. also get a scope with parallax correction. this i think is a must for new comers to scopes. this is technical and i can help some with barrel droop, but i am sure some one with more experiance with scopes on this forum can help out.

hope this has been helpful.

you are very lucky to live in a place with so many choices of quality products at retail price. i suggest you get all the accessiories for the p31 while you can and come back to India witn a vey complete kit.

shoot safe....that is a very powerful rifle.