I've been lurking around here as time permits but felt this is something that might be of interest. Been waiting on this pistol since seeing it when the last Diana catalog came out. Finally got one last week and have managed to put over 1,000 pellets through it over the long weekend. It is all metal except for the grips which is a nice change from the P5. It is a bit heavier (5oz) but balances well with a red dot sight on it. The trigger is not fantastic out of the box but remove some of the extra lube, and adjust it and it breaks in pretty well. It will never be a match trigger but perfectly acceptable for field work.
Power is higher than the P5 Mag. despite the reduced cocking effort on the LP8. It is a solid 5fpe gun as reflected by the following chrony results...
Superdomes 8.4gr. 532fps avg.
Super H Point 6.9gr. 605fps avg.
I opened it up once the dieseling stopped and found it had been well coated with some sort of oil. I cleaned it all up and installed proper lubricants. I was quite pleased with the fit of the spring and guide. There is no guide in the piston but the spring is a tight fit there. Nothing but a thud right out of the box and the lube job offered only a slight improvement here. The breach on this gun is tighter than that of the P5 and it does have a nice choke. Sizing the pellets indicates that there is another 30 or so fps to be found with the Super Domes by opening the breach slightly.
All in all, I am pleased with the purchase.
The internals are well made and it is very easy to work on. I look forward to seeing how it does over the long haul.
Russ S.
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