I've come to the conclusion that I enjoy working on old springers even more so than shooting them. My latest conquest came this evening after dinner.

I have an old Hyscore 801 (Diana 25)from way back when and although this little thing has always been my favorite, I have to say it's been a little lacking in the power dept. Especially considering that it's a .22 caliber. Still quite accurate but not alot of umph anymore. Maybe a little like me.

I broke it down and found an unused HW30 spring in my spares box along with an old, but still very healthy HW30 leather piston seal. The seal was too large in diameter so I bolted it to the piston and chucked the whole assembly in my drill press. I set the thing at 3500 RPM's and went to work with some 180 grit sandpaper tightly wrapped around a file for rigidity. After a couple minutes, the seal fit tight but very nicely. A little soaking in silicone oil and it was like new.

I then discovered that the HW30 spring fit the Diana guide rod nice and tight. I moly'd the piston ends lightly and applied a healthy dose of spring tar. While I had it open, I stoned down the trigger with an Arkansas stone. The end result is my baby is now shooting at 490fps with Meisters and now has a crisp trigger pull that I estimate at around 2 lbs.

I pass this information on for the benefit of anyone that has some old timers. Get them out of the closet and start enjoying them again! No scopes, no Delrin, no laser range finders, no pcp's, no plastic, just you and the gun, just like when we were kids. Beer cans were soldiers and coffee cans were tanks at 50 metres. Remember? Holdover became instinctive and happiness was having a pocket full of pellets.






Think Straight, Talk Straight

 Marcelo,

 Great post!

 Fact is, an 801 started this place!

 I bought a well beaten (not by me!)HS-801, in .22cal years back. I couldn't find any localised source for Diana info, so I got the idea to make one for everybody... Adding all brands/Makes to the Forum, just helped us all exchange more with eachother. Heck, even BB-Gun info is welcome! BTW, that old 801 is still one of my absolute "favorites"!

 The place blossomed well beyond my wildest dreams, with wonderfull people, helping eachother, exchanging info, and generally enjoying the Hobby of Airgunning! I am still flabbergahsted by you all!

 Thankyou for your wonderfull addition to our Forum!

  ZVP

and it's a sincere pleasure to contribute to it.

I've gleaned a lot of valuable information, and now, it's time to start paying back.

Please count on my continued support and I will keep you all informed on my upcoming projects.

This is my little piece of springer heaven, my sanctum from corporate pergatory and you are all welcome!

















Think Straight, Talk Straight

stock being paired up with. Having a lot of fun shooting a 27 I picked up recently. Great post!
Tom

The thumbhole is from my CZ 452. Before I got bitten by the spring bug, I used to do a lot of .22 rimfire shooting. My hobby has always been stockmaking.

Down below is the post I did on rimfire central if you're interested in knowing more.

http://rimfirecentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=84945

and this is the finished product


Regards

Marcelo

About two years ago, I was at a firearm show with a buddy, and found a tired and dirty 801, which I picked up in trade for a couple of junk chinese guns. Well, that little gun cleaned up REAL nicely. Even the main seal bounced back to life with a little silicone oil. I emailed JM with some guide and piston dimensions, and he sent me a spring. I believe it was an R7 spring.

That gun really changed my whole outlook on air rifle shooting. It cured me of magnumitis. Its so simple, so elegant, its hard to imagine making an air rifle with fewer parts.

By the way, it ain't a REAL 801 unless it says Made in Belgium on the butt!
Just kidding, beautiful work!

The original stock of my 1960s-vintage .177 cal. looked exactly like that of the Hy Score 801 in the pictures above, but it was broken, just like the rifle's rear sight, since the early 1970s!

RWS -- in Germany -- found me a new replacement stock for my D25 that required a minor modification for the action to fit, alongside a new piston/leather seal, new trigger, new hinge washers (those wafer-thin ones that go right-and-left of the bbl's hinge), port O-ring, rear sight and many wishes...Jim Maccari found me an R7 mainspring, which he sent with some heavy tar and a "maccari" black-and-gold sticker!

My revamped D25 is shooting like a dream. I consistently hit a clay (7"x4") brick @ 70 yards, every time. You can only hear a "THUD" and the pellet stricking the brick a split second later.

I love my rimfires, too, but the challenge of rebuilding my D25 and making it shoot again was positively thrilling.

Man, I just finished the restoration of a beater HW 55. It's soooooo smooth I just can't believe it. Those low to mid powered springers are an absolute thrill to clean up.

I can't tell you how much I enjoyed reading your writeup. It brought back that smile & has me pumped for my next project----cleanup & respringing a Diana 27 for my son. He can barely put it down & is really excited about how it's going to turn out.

Knobs

I'm very glad I found this forum. I've been on several other airgunning ones but this one so far has the most technical information. The people are very nice as well.

Let's help build this on up!