FedEx He brought me a black gun in .22 caliber . I have to say that if this M34 Panther represents what other Panthers are ...at $150-170 it is the *most* under rated springer for the money . I am seriously impressed enough that I may not even so much as modify a thing on it (at least for awhile LOL ) . I'm not a fan of fiber optic sights - but I am hitting nickel sized 10 shot groups at 10m out of the box . Finish is Great , trigger is decent. Oddly smooth shooting - No twang? Where'd it go ? Every thing about it, is "tight". The D40 was loose as a goose and fairly harsh comparitively before it recieved a JM GRT kit and seal It does seem to be 10 feet too long ...but it shoots so danged good for the money, I'll live with it . Who was it that was saying "Buy all the Panthers you can NOW " ?
Congradulations on your 22. Panther. That is most definatatley on my list. Please let us know how it shoots. I have the 34 in 177. and love it. Do you have a chrony?
Droop ? um no ! I have the rear set to the lowest position and it hits dead on at 10m .Windage couldn't be adjusted far enough . So I *modded* the front sight by loosening the allen head set screw and tweaking the front sight rampband to the right @ 1/16"...now perfectly centered windage and elevation ...with plenty of elevation for Loooong shots. I'll be runnin the numbers this weekend to see what it is now as "new" and what it gets to in a tin or two of pellets .
It has to be the smoothest of my 3 (T'ja!) Dianas and pretty close to the vaunted R7 . Truly is an out of the box sweet shooter .
You said in your Jan 17 blog that you would wait to Mod the Panther that was at 4:50 PM and at 6:46 PM you said " So I modded the front sight by ........
I knew your blood would MMOODD the Panther
I was right, it is in your blood, you DIY MOD WIZARD
warren
and remember "it's 30% the gun and 70% the shooter"
Where did you get it from? MidSouth? I visited their web site yesterday and they had raised all the Diana prices again! I think the Panther is just under $200 now. Should 've grabbed it when it was $159!
I think Diana has stepped up their QC and they might be doing some extra debur or recalibrated their equipment or something. JM said his Panther feld very tight too. I think this might be a new breed of Dianas coming out of the factory.. sort of new & improved?
for a very good price . S&H was under $13 and was very securely double boxed . The Diana box eludes to better QC and it sure seems like it by the way it shoots.
A $50 increase on a $160-ish gun is pretty steep . They must be testing the waters to see if people will still buy them. Probably still worth the money , but less money for an improved product is always better at least from the buyers perspective.
I sighted the gun in - not really a mod just a turn of a set screw and a tweak of the ramp band. All factory parts that came on the gun are there and functioning . So it was more like adjusting any other open sight gun for windage .
The more I think about it the more I believe MSS made a mistake and rebooted their computer system or something and loaded the OLD RWS pricing.
I say this because the old cheaper prices were only there for about 3-4 days. I think they found out that they had made a mistake and put the new prices back in. Remember, the high prices were there before as early as 1/3 or so. Then all of a sudden the '07 prices were back in between 1/11-14, then back to the more expensive prices on 1/15. It definitely looks like they rebooted the system or did some maintenance the weekend of 1/11-12 and loaded an older file. I bet it was with all their items, not just RWS. When did you order yours on 1/13-14? I posted the MSS price lowering that weekend I believe (1/12?).
In any case, you made out like a bandit! And I 'm still waiting for my 850 from MSS that 's out of stock
It was late night on the 12th iirrc that I ordered it and only 4 business days to my grubby paws . Seems to me these pricing snafu's happen pretty regularly (as in I've noticed it before ) ,best to keep your eyes peeled and be ready to pounce on them. Just watch though MSS will put them "on sale" now at an even better price with $5.99 flat rate or free shipping
Quote Warren: " have you done any Mod's on the Panther already? say the truth"
Father I cannot tell a lie . I did chop down the Cherry Tree .
I also intalled an JM Arctic 34 spring , Apex seal and JM Moly lubed the piss outta anything that moved ....LOL Ordered McMaster Carr cap screws for the stock and sight filler plugs (anyone want a few minimum order was 100 ...I have a few extras ...) A nib Leapers Gen 5 6x BugBuster/AccuShot rings is just waiting for me to learn the open sights ...can't resist cutting the barrel down and an Apex MW is just sitting there leering and taunting me ... new hacksaw blade is singing "Cut me loose!" (to the tune of Loverboy's Turn Me Loose ) and I lost Bethesdas phone number !??? It sure shoots nice though ...no velocity loss to speak of within 10 seconds of lube tune - I expect it to "break in" sometime this weekend . Chrony results : 20 shot string 702 fps , 25.something es with 6 sd for @ 15.7fpe with 14.3g AccuPells 20 shots fell into 5/8" hole at 10m
I've got a recent production (01 07) classic m34 (wood stock) in .177. It's never had a twang, and after a few shots (say a hundred or 2) had become VERY smooth. Sounds to me (the shooter) like a pneumatic frame nailer. Droop is there, but well within the elevation range of my bushnell sportsman 3-9x32 (adjustable mount would be better, but I's cheap!).
I think the M34, be it black or brown, is probably the most underrated gun in Diana's stable. Woulda been nice, tho, had the classic version also come with fibre optic sights. But no bother, I removed them anyway, and scoped it!
you have no idea of what this gun will do and at $150.00 stock, tune it and you have 700 FPS of unadulterated precise power
still people go the other way, why??
RWS has a phenomenom in this gun but does not take advantage of it, they want to think the 54 AIRKING has it all or the 350 magnum is the greatest thing since slice bread
but the Panther will change this BIG time, still a 34 in black but a 34. wood or plastic same powerplant AWESOME
warren
and remember "it's 30% the gun and 70% the shooter"
He brought me a black gun in .22 caliber . I have to say that if this M34 Panther represents what other Panthers are ...at $150-170 it is the *most* under rated springer for the money . I am seriously impressed enough that I may not even so much as modify a thing on it (at least for awhile LOL ) . I'm not a fan of fiber optic sights - but I am hitting nickel sized 10 shot groups at 10m out of the box . Finish is Great , trigger is decent. Oddly smooth shooting - No twang? Where'd it go ?
