Hello,
I am new at this forum, and although I have been shooting air rifles and pistols for over 55 years (oops! there goes my age) I have never competed. I do shoot firearms competitively, and do quite a bit of practicing at home in the basement with air rifles and pistols.

I am interested in the RWS 54, and have been reading as much as I can about this rifle. There are online reports that recommend changing the main spring, modifying the trigger housing to achieve better trigger adjustment, and other improvements.

My main concern or question is that just about everything I have read is about a year old or older, and this makes me wonder whether RWS may have already incorporated some of the improvements. For example, I saw a photo of a new trigger housing and it looked just like one that was posted as having been modified. Also, there are references to TO-1 and TO-5. Are these variants of the 54?

Thanks for your help!

Hi there,
Im a great fan of the 54, having such one in 177" caliber.
Im restricting my inputs to my own knowledge. Im unaware of anything new from the last weeks / month's, if anything like that has occured.
Well, the main unit of the 54 has not been changed over the years (I think it has appeared somewhre in 92 to 94 ??). One can see some revisions of the manuscript that is grooved upon the main compression chamber, or sub-revisions of the rear sight, but these are almost negligible.
Regarding the trigger: The T01 was the main workhorse up untill approximately 2000 or so in many Diana rifles. It was changed to T05 version in the last few years. I think the principle of the holding latch inside was changed. Anyway, a simple external sign can show the difference by the safety shape: The old has a small sheet metal looped safety while the newer have a bulk stud. My rifle is a used 94 model with the T01 trigger. It never got any problem. The trigger can be adjusted for its 1st stage free travel, and for changing the releasing point sensitivity. It can never reach the smoothness of an olympic match rifle, but this is the same with all magnum and high power rifles. The forces of the mainspring makes the trigger be tougher.

The rifle has approx. 25 Jouls muzzle energy, puts it almost at the first rank in magnum rifles. If the mainspring is new, the 177" clalibewr may suffer inavccuracy since it flyies at 330 mps. Use heavy pellets or the 22" for high accuracy.

Enjoy it!!

mooscat

a 54(.177) with the T05 and have sold off another T05 54(.177) and T05 54(.22)...I wish I never ever sold the .22!!!

Anyhoo, I have tuned these guns anywhere from factory power levels of 20fpe for the .177 and 23fpe for the .22 down to as low as 10fpe with my current .177...Its now set up at 19fpe...

Nice guns for sure, If I were to do it over again and buy a new one and stick to one caliber, I'd go .22, seems smoother to shoot...

Regards,

Tony

I think you would be well pleased with a 54. I own a 52 which is a very similar gun except for the fact that the 54 has the recoiless design. If you think about it the guns being sidelever and with the recoil system of the 54 they are much like the older spring piston match rifles minus the trigger of course. I have now had the chance to own both the T01 trigger and T05, the new guns all have the T05 trigger which is not bad at all. The older T01 had 3 ball bearings which locked up the piston much like a air hose coupler, the newer trigger I am not real shure on its principle as I have not taken one apart yet to inspect one. The new T05 I have heard good and bad but from my own expirience the weight of pull is good on mine, there is only one adjustment screw in the new T05 for adjusting the amount of first stage travel where the older T01 had adjustment for weight of pull and sear engagement. However I had worked over a T01 to the max and to tell you the truth the new T05 is really not at any disadvantage in my own expirience with both triggers. I do not know of any revisions other than the new trigger mechanism. As far as changing out mainsprings this would be referring to what alot of people do is put aftermarket tune kits in these guns. The gun comes stock with a nylon spring guide and the stock mainspring. The tune kits come with metal guides a top hat or guide that is used in the piston so thus you keep the spring centered at both ends, have heard many good things about tune kits but have never tried one yet. My gun is shooting what I consider excellent, at 25 yards it is grouping about .25" and at 50 yards it has grouped as small as .50" but on average shoots around .75" to 1.0" groups. I also have been into airguns for many years but just got back into them this year and I am impressed with the Diana 48/52/54 airguns they are in my view a excellent gun.

I failed to say that the RWS 54 rifle I will be getting is a .22 (*)

I am looking forward to the 54, and will report back with my impressions and any questions I may have. Speaking of questions, will the manual included with the rifle have disassembly instructions? If not, where could these be found on-line?

Thanks!

(*) Interestingly, of the dozen or so air rifles and pistols I have owned, only one, a Crosman 600 (circa 1962, which I still have but doesn't work well anymore) was .22; all others hae been .177

Hi again,
There are several sites that describes it. Try Eddie Collowel's Diana 54 page. It is a very detailed and includes photos.
Others: just click Diana 54 parts list, Diana 54 assemblying or so...

By the way, my 54 in 177" caliber shows a different behavior with various pellets. Until now the German SpitzKugeln of Heandler & Natteran have got the best results. I suppose the sharp edge that is good for trans-sonic speeds + very tight production tolerances makes it (Gamo pro-Magnum with round head was much less accurate). This may be further improved with heavier and similar in tolerances good German pellets.

Good luck with yours..

I have the model 54. And it has no recoil at all and acuuracy is amazing scope or iron sights. I'd recommend it for all shooters. Good power along with accuacy.:D

Mooscat -

Re: Disassembling the RWS 54 -

I tried to find "Eddie Collowel's Diana 54 page" (googled it) and drew a blank. No page found.

Could you provide a link?

Thanks

Mooscat -

Sorry about that - I found it.

Actually, I had seen it before, but did not recognize the name. Those are nice pictures, but not much text as to how to go about it. Would you venture to say that perhaps the disassembly is self intuitive?

Thanks again.

Hi,
I dont have much time so I'll try to be short and focused:
1. First remove trhe wood stock trigger guard,
2. remove the cocking lever by extracting its pins.
3. Compress the back part of the trigger mechanism towards the barrel tapered plastc cone (see eddies images) with a compressor. Notice not to damage the external finisg by putting a soft ragg and using wood blocks.
4. remove te 2 steel pins, then release gently the spring by opening the compressor.
5. keep the gentle trigger pins in place with adhesive tape coating.
5. Extract the spring+pston+cylinder.
6. do the modifications
. return all back in the reverse order.

Note:
further dismantling of many other mechanisms is optional: sights, barrel sleeve, safety latch. I did not got into this here.
Also use web photos to view this visually.

Good luck!

Mooscat