I have gave my 45 a service and basic tune today and have been pleasantly surprised at its performance.

It seems to be matching my 34s and is fun to shoot, I didn't realise its potential.
Barry.

PS early days though

Would that be one of the "S" series I've heard about? I think the Crosman 6100 (rebadged 45) might have used those. Old dogs can and do still bite.

Red I am not sure but it has RWS Diana mod 45 on it, also look at the trigger gard, that not the usual shape and I think that its the original one from new?
Barry.

I can't tell for sure from the picture. It does look like the same stock & trigger guard as the Crosman 6100, except I don't remember it having any checkering on the forearm.

Best Regards,
Sixto

Sixto I think its beach, the forend is just my stick on grip but it is interesting that you think that it is a crossman 6100.
I bought it years ago from someone at work and he told me that when he bought it that it was the most powerful he could get, so it must of been pre-HW80 so must be about a 1978-79 only guessing?
Barry.

Tiny (and I do mean tiny) little numbers on the left rear of the receiver at the stock line. Might be something like 04 78 (my 75's date). The trigger guard on the early 45's was square and there is a cross-bolt above it through the stock. When the 45 was retired there was still a demand for it, so Diana made up some 34's with a 45-profiled stock. The Crosman 6100 was the older gun and had what might be an "S" style stock. Few of those stocks made it into the USA, from what I gather, and they are a bit more fancy. I think the Crosman used the S version sold with the 45. Anyway, your compression tube marking will give you the month/year of manufacture. Let us know what it is.

Do a search on the American Vintage Airguns site for Crosman 6100. Someone had a Diana with a stock similar to your's and I responded it might be like the Crosman's. Should be fairly easy to find the thread and compare your gun to his.

Red I think that this is the one you mean, it looks like my one, its just a diffrent color wood.

I have a note of the numbers on my one, 484007 03 85
Dose this mean its a 1985 gun?
Barry.

Hey, you might even have a synthetic seal, too. Someone posted they thought late 1984 might have been the transition point to those. That's a nicely styled stock, BTW.

According to the Blue Book of Airguns, they started selling the Crosman import no earlier than 1982. I just don't remember RWS bringing in the 45 with that style of stock, but anything is possible.

Best Regards,
Sixto

It says the 45 was sold as the Original 45, in the UK and in the US as the Crossman challenger 6100, and the Beeman 250, and on the continent as the RWS 45 so it looks like it came from somewhere in Europe? Its a bit of a mystery gun.
Red, It deffantly has a leather seal.
Barry.

Howie from the GTA forum researched the M45 and posted this two pages below:

by the way; my 45 is 11-85 and with a leather seal

warren


This is a copy of what I found on the web, howie;; RWS Diana 45 - a bridge to the past

by B.B. Pelletier

Back in 1978, the airgun world was at the beginning of a velocity revolution. The FWB 124 had come to market earlier in the decade and was capable of almost 800 f.p.s. right out of the box. With careful tuning, it became the first spring-piston air rifle to break the 800 f.p.s. "barrier." Hot on its heels, the BSF 55 was soon tweaked to 860 f.p.s., and even the old lumbering HW 35 was capable of just 800 with careful tuning of certain rifles. That left Diana, a major player, as the only quality German house without a player in the big game.

Diana (this was before RWS became a major distributor of the line) had their model 35, a large breakbarrel they advertised as shooting 725 f.p.s. In truth, the rifle barely made 675, which was only 25 f.p.s.. faster than the much lighter and slimmer Diana 27. Tuning did nothing for the 35. It was permanently hamstrung by a too-short piston stroke. When FWB, BSF and HW went off to the races in the early 1970s, Diana was left standing at the gate. The model 45 was supposed to fix that.


Diana 45 was a large, handsome breakbarrel spring-piston air rifle. This one is from 1983 and has all the earliest features.


The 45 first came to market in 1978. Those were still the days when Dianas were being made by Milbro in Scotland, so instead of calling them Dianas, all the German-made guns had to be called Original when shipped outside of Germany. The first Diana 45 to come to America came as the Original 45 and sold by Air Rifle Headquarters. The basic rifle got 790 f.p.s. in .177 and could be tuned to deliver 845-860. It was an immediate rival of the BSF 55, though it cost about twice what the smaller rifle did.

The 45 was a departure from Diana styling in a number of important ways. First, and in my mind, most importantly, they unitized the trigger. Prior to this, Diana triggers were a swarm of loose parts that worked only because they were held in close confines by the spring tube. Outside the gun, they were separate parts. The 45 trigger was the first modular trigger their sporting air rifles had.


This trigger was Diana's first unitized trigger system. It was very adjustable for its day.


Another design element was the introduction of a long-stroke piston. That's where the 45's power came from. The rifle was also very large and had a more Western-style stock. By today's standards, it looks normal, but compared to the other air rifles available in 1978, it looked like a Weatherby among a bunch of military Enfields.

Diana retained their famous ball-bearing barrel-locking detent. That feature was so popular that Feinwerkbau had copied it on their 124. It made the gun open much easier than a similar rifle with a traditional chisel detent.


A comparison of styles. The Diana 45 cocking slot (left) had to be long to clear the one-piece cocking link when the barrel was broken for cocking. The HW 35 slot was much shorter because the rifle used a two-piece hinged cocking link that hugged the bottom of the action. The short slot was supposed to dampen vibration and be easier to install a sling swivel.


They stumbled with the piston and breech seals. By making them leather instead of synthetic, they gave away 150 f.p.s. Within five years, Diana (now called Diana everywhere and distributed by RWS) would bring out the models 34, 36 and 38. Each more powerful than the 45 and all, except for the walnut-stocked 38, far less expensive. It's difficult to sell an 850 f.p.s. rifle for $300 when you're also selling a 1,000 f.p.s. model for $100, which was the case with the Diana 45 and 34 in the mid-1980s. They added features like front sight inserts and walnut stocks. Until the 45 got its own synthetic breech and piston seals in 1988, it was an uphill battle.

That said, the big 45 still has a large following of enthusiastic owners. Of the Diana breakbarrels, only the 34 is loved by more shooters, and it was produced in far greater numbers. There were many different models of the 45, including a factory commemorative model with a walnut stock and an inset brass medallion.

The 45 remained in the Diana line until 2004. It's still shown on the German website, but it's no longer in the catalog. Models like the 350 Magnum have eclipsed the power of the final version by so much that it simply could not keep up.

Is yours a nice performer?
Barry.

Barry:

absolutely a perfect performer in .177 cal. with a leather seal, shooting 850 fps in .177 in 8 gr. pellets

just wish I had the 45 in .22 cal.

that would be a BLAST

warren

and remember "it's 30% the gun and 70% the shooter"