The Diana 350 Magnum in .22 cal...it has more possibilities than people realize for:
For the average shooter who pops at some cans and paper targets hanning a 2x4 BUT still wants a well made and highly accurate, spring-based, hard shoooting gun that can reach out to 50+ yards and take pests up to rabbit & fox-sized critters. It's mechanically basic and easy to work on and maintain at home for D.I.Y.'ers.
For the airgun enthusiast, it offers these points: For $350.00 (as an average retail price let's say) you get more possibilities for tuning to:
Shoot smooth with a bit of a power dropoff but VERY SLICK.
Shoot hard as a "magnum or super-magnum" by increasing the efficency of the working internal parts. (ex. custom rear spring guide in syenthetic/brass/stainless steel with a matching tophat, piston seal upgrade, mainspring upgrade/or stay OEM , T05 trigger tune, proper lubricants/tars, hand lap and crown touchup, more than enough quality already built into the gun to warrant custom-fabricated parts.
Leave it factory stock and you will have a very solid, high quality, REAL GERMAN gun that is hard hitting, easy to work on, and reliable; take care of it in a senseable way and it will last generations.
Tune it up and is just gets better...
Tune it for super magnum power and it roars like a lion without need of constant servicing!
The Beeman R1 in .22 is almost double the price of the Diana 350 Magnum, it DOES have the Rekord trigger, but it does not have the FULL SPECTRUM tuning possibilities! In this regard and in my personal opinion, the Webley & Scott Patriot (English or Turkish) which is about $100 more than the 350, has the next closest potential in .22 cal or .25 cal.
The 350 has a lot of followers. I've read enough reports where people who hung onto and shot the 350 almost exclusively attained unusually high accuracy even when left open sighted. Its definitely one of the hammers.
it is not the 350 and the 48 or 460, then what is it. Rick knows "let the sun shine" into my favorite and YES it is a Diana, TIM knows because he will get one soon, in 22 cal.
warren
PS: a riddle? not!!!
and remember "it's 30% the gun and 70% the shooter"
Hey Guys Tim here. I cant decide,I have 2.Favorite Dianas Two "4 H,ers)!!LOL. My 54&24. My 54 is a tack driver at 805 fps./14.3 CP. My 24 is a tack driver 535 fps/RWS Super Pnts. (54 22/ 24 177). Both will stack pells. one on top of the other, the 54 will reach out alot further. (20 ft. lbs. give or take) (muzzle). Both are my favorites! They are both great for differant purposes. Thanks guys here for the support/back up on the 54. I gave up trying to compete w/ Red Feather on comedy,even tried to think of how my competitive butt could beat him at something else! I got ya now my friend,, MYSTERY!! R.F. your going down!! The great Tim strokes his chrystal ball & says: One of the 4-H members here will soon back me up on just how sweet a 54 in 22 cal. is!! R.F.,, you cant tell the future,,I CAN!! LOL. Dont ask me any ?. Just stay tuned to this "Bat Channell"!!Tim. P.S. R.F. Im not talking about your 177/54. (Ill be working on my friends 54/177 tommorow) Diana just sold another 22 cal. 54, they just dont know it yet! Tim.
Hey Harv., Of course I have time to talk to you. Thanks so much for your reply. I would love nothing better than to pick your brain first hand! Two problems, I have niether your E-Mail or ph.#. E-Mail me, timmyj1959@yahoo.com Ill call you tommorow,dont know where your at,but I have free long distance!LOL. Look forward to talking to you Harv. Tim. P.S Thanks so much, once again my friends here make my day.
Harvey,
Not a day goes by that I don't take a look at Dianawerk to see if the greatest story teller on the web has posted a new story.They always take me to another time and always with a heart warming smile and memory of the days when I was a little whipper snapper with out a care in the world.
Just me and my Daisy 25 ,and sometimes my buddy with his weaker but looked the same slid action Daisy.No frogs were safe! When we hit the old pond behind the steel foundry. Two 10 cent packs of BB's and we were good all day.
When we ran out of BB's it was time to go home,or if we still had some left we had to be home before the street lights went on.
Sometimes we didn't make it and it was butt whipping time.The old man loved it I think ! He'd snap that belt all the way up the stairs behind me where the correction was about to take place.Then just before he started he always asked "DO YOU KNOW WHAT THIS IS FOR??" yep!!! cuz the street lights were on and i wasn't home."THATS RIGHT!! NOW BEND OVER AND DON"T MOVE"
Hey Bob/Rob. I wish I could tell storys like Harve & others here,I cant. If we were all sitting arond a fire at hunting camp I could get my point across. I remember screwing up & the sound of that belt "coming off"! Most likely it was cause I was out too late hunting squirrels or gathering tadpoles ect. Man the whipens I got!! I always thought my Dad was really stupid. By the time I was about 30 ,seemed to me he had learned alot. By the time I was 40, the "old man" had become a genious in my eyes! I quit my great job once I figured out the "old man" knew his shi$$ I sold my house & everything I ownend (Dad was sick). Not so bad at first. I put my meager lifes saving into a small sawmill. The belt whippen days were over,Dad & I were best friends. Dad helped me with my new sawmill busness. (Dad at the time was almost a millionare) Hard work my friends. Dad got sicker. All the wood from my little mill went to finishing mMom & Dads house. To make a long story short, me & Dad worked to finish that house together while he carried around iv bags. Together we finished it & my inspector friends gave us a final (C-O)& Mom & Dad moved in. Dad only got to "live" there for a couple weeks. Cancer took my Dad from me. We all were there when he took his last breath in his NEW house. I would take all the belt spankins I had,throw all my Diana & other guns in the trash, forget about my new house & property, If I could just have my Dad back. Mom just moved to AL. she sold the "Farm/house) for $835,000 You done good Dad. Tim.
My .22 Caliber RWS 48 is my favorite.That girl never fails to amaze me at its power first and second it can actually shoot better than I am capable of!!
Practic,Practic,Practic Oh did I say I need more practice??
Thats the problem with Mi. winters,its no fun shootin when your pellet finger and thumb get so cold you can not even feel the pellet..So ya wait and wait then pray for a warm day,when it comes out the door I go 48 in hand and two or three different types of pellets.(I always think its the pellets fault when I miss LOL!)But I know mine likes Beeman FTS the best.Never had a flyer with them either!"truth" but she will digest just about anything and put them in the bull everytime,it is me who makes the shotgun blasts in the target Te he he.
See Ya Guys I got to watch the news about Kawmi here in Detroit.The only Mayor in the USA who thinks the laws do not apply to him! JACK-A%&*S
I agree that the 48 is on4e of the most reliable Diana's ever made ! Doesn't matter if it's a 4.5- or a 5.5 mm. because this depends of the user. For nice long distance shots with a superb flat traject the 4.5 mm. ( .177 ) is OK but for hunting ( what the American's like !! ) the 5.5 mm. ( .22 ) is the perfect choice. I am happy to see that the 48 is very popular in your country, best regards from Johannis. ( the Netherlands ).
I think you all know what my favorite air rifle is so I 'll just say: what Curtis said.
Now I 'm making this choice based on the type of shooting that I do which is mostly hunting between 25 and 45yds, and the limited number of airguns that I have owned and friend's that I have used a couple of times which total maybe about 13 or 14.
Some of the "better" guns I have tried out are my friend's Beeman R1 and RX2. He just likes Beemans. The RX2 is a little more comparable to the 350 in power (-2fpe so it's in the 48/52/54 range). It's a nice gun but still has plenty of recoil, heavy cocking effort, and it weighs a ton, tipping the scales at almost 10lbs without a scope (9.8lbs). So price aside I still would not pick the $700 RX2 due to weight. My friend sold it a month ago because he needed the $ and doesn't do much shooting anymore but always complained about the weight. The R1 is a nice gun too and has a very nice trigger but it's still about a 9lb gun (unscoped), a little plain looking IMO, and is underpowered for what I use an airgun for but I wouldn't mind having one some day or even an R9 Goldfinger. But for what these guns cost, I 'll take the lighter 8.2lb 350 .22 with its light cocking effort any day.
I know the 350 has been stigmatized by a few as a hard kicking gun that breaks scopes that has average accuracy. That is just not true even in stock form. Because it's an Ultra Magnum springer, any problems like with the piston seal or other issue would magnify itself and cause it to break scopes. As some of us know and have discussed here in the past, a bad seal causing a harsh shot cycle is what breaks scopes. More importantly some of "these" people are not patient or don't know how to shoot properly, because if they did, they 'd get .34" CTC groups like Tom Gaylord did at 25yds when he tested a 350 .22 (w/scope). He even got it down to 0.30" CTC on open sights using Kodiaks at 20yds.
The 350 with a simple tune or just a JM spring replacement as Rick has done (and many others) who opted for a little power loss and a smoother gun, gets transformed into a smooth and extremely accurate springer.
To sum it up I 'll quote StraightShooters review summary of the 350 which is exactly what I have experienced with it:
["The opening word for any write-up on the Model 350 has to simply be "WOW"! Pellet after pellet shot in the 1000-1100 fps range. And more importantly, the accuracy and groupings were quite good for a gun of this power.
We found the accuracy to be quite good for it's power range and hitting the mark should not be much of a problem for the average shooter. Being as powerful as it is, there was a fair amount of recoil and motion and the cocking motion sounded a bit rough although it actually cocked easier than most rifles in this power range.
In summary, the gun is well worth the money for a hunter or person looking for a lot of power in a .22"]
First and foremost, has to be my 24 C /.177. Light, accurate, great trigger, my favorite plinker. Next would be my 75 U, unparelled accuracy at 10 meters. After that, my 46 Stutzen, accurate and PRETTY, what a joy to hold and shoot. 350 and 460 are HAMMERS, take me out beyond 50 yards with no problems. The 48's are a pair of workhorses, in .22 and .177 they have never missed their targets. The 46 underlevers in .177 and .22 are great paper shooters. The 34/36/45's fill in the gaps, but I have a special place in my heart for my 45 .20 cal. The Diana collection is up to 20 now, but I'm sure there are more to come.
Hey Guys, Thanks for bringing this one up again! I thank Missys Dad so much for opening my eyes to "older is better". Dont know if thats all right,some of the "new"ones are pretty good too. But,, my little "Princess Sue" (93 Diana 24) is at this time my favorite airgun!. The wife just said: Dad you have always liked younger women!!LOL! Princess Sue is a keeper! Tim.
