cAN YOU TELL ME WHAT I'VE GOT HERE??????? I would like to restore or at least partially rebuild this DIANA that I bought......... cheap,,,Only if I can find out what it is,,,or if I can get the nessesary parts ..The only stamp that is on it is the number 253 on the right side of where the forward bolt of the trigger guard screws in. It has the trademark picture engraving & DIANA...Made in GERMANY... It is a .177 cal/ 4.5 mm break barrel,with a front Iron sight,(rear sight and all attaching bolts missing,,,I know I will be climbing a steep learning curve .... I hope these pictures can help someone tell me what it is ......And IF It is Worth Rebuiding ///HELP........ANYONE HAVE A CLUE ???SUGGESTIONS..WELCOME ......................................................AND ..THANKS IN ADVANCE................RIVETS........ . . . .
That is a model 35 built in Germany before World War 2. I have two of them...one is just a rusty action with no sights, the other is a complete but even rustier action with rusty sights and a cracked stock!
I don't know that these are worth a lot of money but the sheer physical quality of the gun DEFINITELY makes it worth restoring. The clean, sleek lines and near-perfect handling of this rifle are just superb, to me it is one of the prettiest things Diana ever made.
One of my guns has no markings whatsoever except for the Diana logo. The other has a small date stamp ("6.31" i.e. June 1931) under the barrel block where it is hidden by the cocking link when the action is closed. There are many small differences between the two and quite a few of the parts do not interchange. Both guns were brought back by WW2 veterans I believe.
I am not an expert on pre-war guns by any means, but it is possible the rear sight may interchange with other makes.
The workmanship and finish on guns of this era never ceases to amaze me. Just look at the trigger guard alone--an exquisite piece of milled steel, hand-shaped, polished, and blued to perfection. If you bought something like this as an accessory for a modern air rifle, it would be a three-figure price by itself.
Note also the tapered barrel, a touch one never sees any more.
Didn't they inherit a lot of the German tools and parts? Recently read a bit on these and they used the 250 numbering series. Looks like the stock is also broken to the right of the spring housing.
There are a lot of English links to parts diagrams. I also gave Mr. Driskoll a contact for parts in England.
Milbro (real name, Millard Brothers) in Lanarkshire, Scotland made air rifles based on pre-war German Diana tooling from the late 1940's, until they went out of business in the early 1980's. At first they made straight copies of pre-war guns under the same model names, but later added updated stocks and triggers of their own design, along with new model designations.
But as far as I know, they did not make any versions of the model 35. The top of the Milbro line was derivatives of the smaller models 25 and 27. Mr. rivets definitely has a pre-WW2, German-made gun.
Possible sources for parts are Dennis Hiller and Chambers Guns in the UK, and John Groenewold in Mundelein, Illinois. (Redfeather, I did not get your email with Hiller's address, unfortunately! I understand he prefers to deal over the phone or by "snail mail" anyway.)
rivets, if you would like to email me off-forum, I would do my best to offer insights from the two pre-war model 35's I have on hand.
This is NOT a Milbro gun; it's an early 35. I have one that I bought cheap as a project, spent incredible amounts of time & money filing out a sight blade, hand-polishing away the freckles and getting a gunsmith reblue plus pro-made stock. The end result is a really admirable gun indeed.
Just thought, with the metal condition and the 253, it might be an early one. Mike, I will r-email you that address. Don't want to post it here, as it was given to me.
A question on stock cracks. Someone here mentioned that the cracked wrist is indicative of having the barrel come back up sharply. I've seen a couple lately with cracked/re[aired wrists, including a HW35 that just closed on AA, and wondered if this is something to avoid.
This site is one of the great references in airgunning on the web! I refer to it often.
BUT, the Diana model 35 shown here is the postwar version with ball-sear trigger. The prewar rifle in question, while roughly the same size and of course sharing the name, does not share a single part in common with it.
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