This rifle continues to impress me at how well it shoots for the amount of money involved. Granted I have some work in the rifle but I can't really count that since I am able to do it myself and enjoy doing it. I shot this at 35 yards with JSB Exact heavies off a bench tonight. This was five shots.
How many shots did you fire before that group? What kind of scope did you say your are using. Do you have to readjust the scope much, due to the recoil?
Those 34s can be nice rifles, that's for sure. I'm assuming when you say you did some work on it you stripped it down and gave it a lube/polish to smooth things out a bit. Anything special to the trigger group?
"but I'll be needin' that gun, fer squirrels and such."
I have turned & installed screw cups. The gun was beginning to elongate the holes in the forearm and also was a problem to keep tight. It shot well when they were tight but would loosen every 75-100 rounds. I tore down and turned a top hat from brass (if you run a top hat the rear guide has to be shortened by the length of the top hat or the gun will not cock), replaced the seal (it was nicked at the factory during assembly), tarred the spring with heavy tar (use sparingly or it will make your gun temperature sensitive), removed what few burrs I could find (that was more of a break the sharp edges than anything else), reassembled and adjusted the trigger. The triggers on Diana guns are not as adjustable as a Rekord but are infinitely better than Gamo's and their ilk.
and it appears to be reasonably stable. I usually have to give it a click or two up/down or right/left every couple of hundred shots. I always avoided the BSA's until just fairly recently because I thought that there was no way a $75.00 scope would hold up on a springer and they may not on a 52 or 54 and certainly wouldn't on a Tomahawk or Patriot. On a mid powered gun however they appear to be fine.
I think you did a little better than I did at my very best and that was a few years ago now. lol Rested an HW77K and put five shots under half a dime at thirty yards. Wait, you did much better than I did!
I'm thinking of putting JM's buttons on my '46. A nice enough rifle but you probably know it could use a few fine touches. Nothing that it couldn't live without, just a couple...features to make it a little sweeter.
I just wish I could do that every time but most of the time I'll get 3 or 4 really tight ones and then get a spoiler in the bunch. They will usually stay under an inch though even with the spoiler.
Your 34 is shooting excellent, I had a question I was going to post and will here about the 34. I had owned one a few years back and it was stock parts and all, was wondering about tuning one and reducing the power of one to use indoors. I have never used any aftermarket parts and would like to tone one down and install aperture sights and maybe build me a custom stock for one as a winter project here. I do buy some of my lubricants from JM, however I am not certain of how much velocity could be reduced on this gun, anyone done this before?
one before but going in that direction could probably be accomplished by clipping coils from a stock mainspring. Just guessing but you would want to have 3/4" to 1" of preload on the spring to gaet to where you wnt to be. Pushing no more power than that you could grind the clipped end so that it was as flat as possible, just go slow so that you don't over heat and draw the temper.
Yeah I was thinking maybe along these lines since the 34 is a good gun to start with I feel it would make a nice gun for a what I might call a informal type target rifle. I may get one and give it a try, seeing how your gun is doing brought back memories of the one I had, though I had not done any work to mine it seemed to shoot pretty good stock, I could understand why you would install the cups for the forearm screws as I remember having some trouble keeping those tight even with blue loc tite. I never shot the gun more than one tin of pellets when I decided to try a different gun and sold it but the accuracy was there I remember which is impressive for a gun in this price range. Am very impressed with your group at 35 yards that would lead me to beleive the gun could really shoot at 10 meters as 35 yards is much further.
My 38 is at 9.5-10ft/lbs for indoors,I have played around with the tuning and found that by useing a quality 25 coil spring a piston sleave and two front thrust washers I can get single hole shots at indoor ranges and it is so smooth and quite to shoot no internal noise.
Hi Lee, thank you for the reply, do I understand correctly that you used a 25 coil spring then that was a ready made spring then? If you could let me know what spring you used would be appreaciated.
Why is it necessary to detune the 34 for indoor shooting? I shoot the 350 indoors. I shoot paper that hangs in front of a heavy-duty steel pellet/bullet trap. It's positioned 14.5yds away from where I shoot downstairs in my house. This trap is also good for .22 rimfire although I have not shot my .22 indoors yet but I will be sighting in a new scope on it soon. Steel traps are a little noisy but it doesn't bother me. I just shoot my airguns when noone 's home. With the right trap you don't have to detune any of your guns.
If I owned a 34, I 'd get the Maccari kit for it. I read good things about it and it should make the gun smoother and even more accurate. That's just what I would do.
I shoot my 350 0.22 inside as well but only at my silent trap. With the speed and energy the 350 throws off when they hit an outers steel 0.22RF trap the pellets explotde and lead dust is flying in that trap. With 2 small kids I prefer the safety of the duct seal trap. Years ago I didn't care. I've been around so much flying lead as I worked for a gun club (trap and Skeet) and reloaded for years.
I know Tom Gaylord has something on this subject on his blog.
The steel trap has cardboard in front of it to keep pellet fragments inside it. I have since stopped using it and only use the one on top.
I live in an apartment ! It's noticeably louder than the R7 , but no complaints from anyone . Near where I shoot from ,I've hung insulated Roman blinds from the ceiling on both side of the hall . It helps dissipate some of the sound . When I'm done shooting they roll up out of the way .
Thanks, what exactly is a duct seal trap? One of those where you replace the material every few hundred pellets? I think I 've seen one at PA but I thought they said it was some kind of putty material and I didn't know if my 350 .22 would penetrate it or not because most of these pellet traps are rated at <800fps.
Thanks for the info. I have kids too so I 'd like to be as safe as I can.
The Duct seal you get at Home Depot, Lows etc. You don't need to buy this from Pyramyd air.
It is sold in the electrical section. The stuff lasts for a long long time. I addd some from time time. The one you see I made out of 1x4 pine pieces measuring 12.5 in per side and with OSB on the back, screwed and glued with deck screws (24) and then some deck stain (red) I think I bought about 18 lbs of duct seal for about $2.50 a lb. Some of the duct seal was Ideal brand (black) and the rest is Panduit (spelling?)
The 0.22 350 is 21 fpe + and the pellets only penitrate 1/2" or less. Whe I am on and stacking them on top of each other it goes slighlty deeper but they all squash and flatten together and act like additional stopping power.
All in all much less mess than the Outers steel trap I used for ever before. I even used to notice small holes comming back through the targets from back spray lead particles untill I put cardboard up in front. Now just forget it I only use the duct seal trap. Here is Tom Gaylords 2 part blog on silent pellet traps.
Here is my other target I like to use in the back yard for testing sights, scopes etc.
It is a frame or box I put down over a steel rod I place in different distances. I have many 5/8" 316 SS rods in the 18"-20" range as scrap rod from work.
If you look in the back yard you can see a couple of rods in the ground and a swinging target back by the tree line.
Man, you are so lucky to have a back yard like this. I would shoot every single day. I live in a condo and occassionaly am able to shoot in a field from out my office window. Even then it is tricky and I have to be extra careful. I am lucky in the regard that I have woods within 1000 yards from the house that I can go shoot in. Full of deer, coon, squireels etc. A creek that will from on one end to the ocean and the other to the well remown " Back Bay" of Virginia. (But I am so lazy). I do have a gun shop 3 miles away, where I can shoot at 25 yards inside. $12.00 for a couple of hours. I hate it, hot, bad lightings etc. I love the outdoors. Any way, you should really be able to become a great shot and really become an expert on air rifles.
I have one problem shooting today. That swinger at 30 yards from the back door is under at least 12" of snow today and since Dec 1 when it snowed. Sometimes I take a shot at it where I know it is to knock some snow off but it rained ice a few days back and the snow cap is covered in a hard ice crust.
The steel rod next to the fire pit is at 20 yards and that is where I can sight in scopes. Then I can move it back to the stake next to the swinger and shoot at 30 yards. The property goes back in the woods a ways and drops down a bit. It is a creek flood plain and a creek runs through about 60 yards behind the house. Coyote, deer, Coons, Squirrel, among other critters abound. I even have a hawk that comes by form time to time. He might be eating some unlucky pests that have been hit by flying objects at a high speed. Most of the time I just take out Chipmunks (24-30 last summer with the TX200) that tunnel in the 5 bolder retaining walls in the side yards.
This is prime Chipmunk area:
This is where I'd rather be shooting when I can afford to build the cabin. Lot is 1.8 acres on Thousand Island Lake in Watersmeet MI, 5-1/2 hrs north of where I live. My 2 boys can't wait.
Man, you are so lucky to have a back yard like this. I would shoot every single day. I live in a condo and occassionaly am able to shoot in a field from out my office window. Even then it is tricky and I have to be extra careful. I am lucky in the regard that I have woods within 1000 yards from the house that I can go shoot in. Full of deer, coon, squireels etc. A creek that will from on one end to the ocean and the other to the well remown " Back Bay" of Virginia. (But I am so lazy). I do have a gun shop 3 miles away, where I can shoot at 25 yards inside. $12.00 for a couple of hours. I hate it, hot, bad lightings etc. I love the outdoors. Any way, you should really be able to become a great shot and really become an expert on air rifles.
No Randy it is one that I cut and finished off it is a John Knibbs Titan spring but if you wanted he would give you what size you asked for, look at his web site his springs are worth sending for.
Hi Lee, thanks for letting me know on the spring. Harry, I am going to do some expirimenting with a 34 as they are a reasonable priced gun, I could shoot it indoors as is, but what I am after is to try and turn it into a sort of match gun, I have older high end guns but are collectible guns now is all and no one really produces a spring piston match gun these days. By taking the power down to that of a older spring piston match gun I will probably have a gun with little recoil, plus I am going to buy a stock blank and create a match type stock for it, when I get this project finished I will post pics of it here on the forum, but I will say it is going to be a while because of all the work that will be involved.
ok I didn't know you 're taking on a project to turn your 34 into a match gun. Yes, definitely de-tune that baby and let us know how it goes! Have you thought about a really good trigger? I might want to call Paul Watts, JM, or a couple of other springer tuners to pick their brains. Maybe pretend you are interested in a de-tune from them and see what they recommend? JM has many different springs & guides to help you achieve what you 're looking for. That's who most tuners buy their spring kits from.
