Hello everyone, I am new to this forum. After a lot of searching on the web this looked liked the best place to ask some questions.
I was cleaning out my mothers house and came across a Diana Air Pistol Model No.5 It turns out my grandfather left it to me when he passed but my mother didn't like guns and forgot about it. That was about 20 years ago. Any how, the pistol looks to be in perfect condition. The box is mint, it has all the paper work / paper targets and even the price and something in I think German is still written in pencil on the outside ($16.95 usd). The wood handle is beautiful, the gun cocks, and fires but there appears to be a pellet lodged in the barrel.
Does anyone have any recommendations as to how to remove the pellet? Should I bring it to a gunsmith and have them give it a try? Can I purchase a replacement barrel for it and if so should I since the pistol is all original right now? Any advise would be appreciated. I would love to get this pistol back into working order and be able to fire again.
I have some pretty good memories of shooting it with my grandfather when I visited his house and it would be great to be able to use it again. It looks very similar to the pistol in the link but the end sight is not that large. It looks more like the pistol in this link. I can not post external links but I copied and pasted a picture from it. It's the pistol under the 'Diana Model 5' listed on the right side of your link. I will post pictures of mine once I get back to my house on Friday. Since the pellet in only about a 1/4' down the barrel should I try and push it all the way thru and out or should I try and push it in reverse and back out the way it went in?
If you can push it forward, from the breech to the muzzle. I wouldn't use any type of metal cleaning rod as it could damage the inside of the barrel.
Use a wooden rod if you can as it will not damage the soft metal inside the barrel. I'm betting you should be able to push it out without a major struggle. If it won't budge at all I might add a drop of silicone shock oil, if you have it, for lubrication. If you don't have silicone shock oil you could always add a drop or two of Crosman pellgun oil, but before you shoot the pistol be sure to run a patch or 2 down the barrel dampened with denatured alcohol so as to remove all the residual oil so it won't detonate when fired and damage the barrel. There are two Model 5's - The one pictured in the link, which is the more recent version, and a pre-war gun that resembles Slavia's and those El Cheapo Chinese pistols everyone should stay away from.
Remington Model 5 Manual
(Yes, they are that bad.) For the stuck pellet, it tells me that your pistol might have something wrong with it. To remove the pellet, I would try a couple of drops of pure silicone oil down the muzzle with the barrel pointed up. Let it sit for a day or two to let the oil migrate around the pellet. Any going into the gun shouldn't do any harm.
Only drops, not dollops. And only silicone oil or, if you have some, RWS chamber oil, being the same thing. Petroleum oil getting into the gun might cause it to diesel (bang!). After soaking, get a thin hardwood dowel or brass rod and lightly tap it against the pellet to push it back out to the breech. This is a bit easier than trying to work on a cocked gun, barrel open and driving to the muzzle. You don't know the condition of the sear, so a blow might trip the trigger and slam the barrel shut.
Once you have the pellet out, put a drop or two of the oil into the compression tube through the transfer port (hole where the air comes out opposite the barrel) and work the piston back and forth a few times without cocking the gun. (If you feel little a resistance or hear some serious scraping noises, you might have a broken main spring. Stop and think about sending it to a tuner.) Let it sit for the rest of the day. Again, one or two spare drops should not hurt it. I'm not sure, but the first of the new Model 5's might have leather piston seals, being from that time period.
The oil will help rejuvenate the seal if dried out. Should you have a synthetic seal, it will lube it. While you have the gun open, look at the breech seal in the end of the barrel around where the pellet is seated.
If the seal is just about flat, you might have an air leak. (If no seal at all - don't laugh, I've bought such guns - you will have zero compression to move a pellet.
You can order new seals or go to a hardware store and find an o-ring to fit. Ask on the forums for size and material.) Let's say you have a breech seal but it's the old leather type and flat as a pancake.
You can tease the seal out, shim and reverse it. For the shim, get some wound copper wire and take out a strand. Form it into a circle and pound flat. (Old trick I learned from an old guy.) At this point you are ready for a test shot. Get a Kleenex tissue and break it down to a single ply. Cock the gun, insert a pellet, close and then lay the tissue over the breech where it meets the compression tube.
This is for the famous 'tissue test' to see if the breech seal is leaking. If the tissue puffs up when fired, the seal needs to be shimmed further or replaced. If not, it is holding. That is, if your gun is spitting out the pellet.
If it does not or you have another lodged in the barrel, it's probably a bad piston seal. Again, off to the tuner or you can take a stab at rebuilding the gun, yourself. Lots of help here for that.
Rws Model 5 Manual
How about a picture? I am very excited too. As soon as I saw the picture on the box it brought back great childhood memories that I haven't thought of in a very long time.
Without sounding like too much of a newbie. I just want to make sure I have the terms correctly. The breech end is the end closest to the trigger and the muzzle end is the end the pellet comes out of. The only reason I'm thinking that way is the muzzle flash comes out the end of a barrel.
Am I looking at it right or is everyone reading this laughing at their computer screens right now? Should I try and spray any lubricating oil down the barrel to help with removing the pellet? WOW You guys are all great. I don't have the gun with me but I do have the book out of it.
Rws Model 5 Manufacture Date
It refers to a leather washer if that helps date it. It also has a polished grained walnut handle. Honeywell nz 2000 reference guide. I don't think it's a knock off becuase I can remember shooting it almost 30 years ago. And the quality is amazing. It says it was designed for target shooting and is a.177 bore barrel.
I'm not afraid of taking things apart. Just ask my Mom But I would like to have the gun looked over by a pro to make sure things are in order. Do you know of any good tuners on the east coast? I just talked to your Mom and she said to give the pistol to me.
I'll PM you with my address for shipping, please make sure you double-box it to protect it from damage. I wouldn't trust many people to work on that pistol, especially something like that vintage. Go with someone who has worked on guns for many years who knows them well.
All I can say is send it to David Slade (Airgunwerks), that guy has seen more than his fair share of Dianas and other guns over the years. It will take a couple of months, he's really busy for a good reason but he would know how to get that thing back in working order if it's not working. Like others have said, do it yourself if you're comfortable. If you're not comfy then shoot an email to David to see if he can do it.
I'm sure others will chime in with who to send to or whatnot. David is currently working on one of my guns so I trust him. If you choose to take it apart take lots and i mean lots of photos as there are many tricky little pieces inside. Id try a few drops of rws pellet gun oil in the chamber as it has a leater piston seal. Let the oil soak for a couple of days by setting it up where the oil gets to go around the chamber. As for the stuck pellet use a wooden dowel or a piece of brass welding rod unfluxed and tap ever so gently.
If it dont move soak it with rws oil and then try again 2 days later. Drive it backwards towards the breech as to not damage the choke at the end of the barrel. When you give up just pm me for my address and i will take it off your hands as she would look nice beside my diana 5. And no you didnt ask a stupid question as there is no stupid question but lots of stupid answears. Welcome to gta.