Comparing Mandarins to GrapefruitsThe "Neo" version is a rifle made for PROFESSIONAL OPERATORS of shooting galleries. They are popular in German "Kirk-Messe" and they have a counter. The shot number is registered when you start and when you finish, and you pay for the shots taken. You need to smash 5 or 10 ceramic "stars" (about 1" in diameter) to get a prize for your girlfriend.Some of the old Mod 30's are still working after MILLIONS of rounds.The "Oktoberfest" is for end users. NO counter, no CNC machining, no precision fitting. Yes there are several iterations, and the new ones seem to be doing better than the initial ones.Ammo should be 4.4 mm's, H&N makes those by the TON, perhaps they are not widely available here yet, but I suspect that now that the guns have become more widely available, ammo will follow.As ANY "dual ammo" airgun steel BB's will work, but the special 4.4 lead ammo will be more accurate.Barrel IS rifled BTW.HTH, have fun!HM
Seems like it would make more sense to have made a bb gun that could function on the bbs widely available here already ? (4.5 .177)Won't the rifling of the barrel slowly be destroyed by steel bbs, copper bbs etc if one just uses standard available Crosman, Daisy, etc?Is the Neo version made by Haenel? I saw some of the german users referencing if you wanted a quality model to buy the Haenel version, they were just all jumping on this as it was 'cheap'. Certainly read plenty of 'this not being the diana of old' and 'diana should stop putting its name on this stuff' from that German website.
I had it out for a better try out late this afternoon. Had some soda cans hanging on a piece of nylon cord about 18" long. A good hit at 10-12 yards really makes them jump. Fun to stand up and shoot them rapidly.
JG airguns sells 4.5mm lead balls which may fit. They list it as being a projectile for the octoberfest. Finding appropriate ammo in the US does seem somewhat problematic as the H&N excite are not easily available and even when they are, test results with those seem to show it made not be the best bb for them. (a bit loose in the barrel from Gaylord's testing).https://www.jgairguns.biz/jg-airguns-c-30_37/rb44-44-round-ball-lead-balls-1-lb-approximate-950-rounds-fo-p-8233.htmlThe only interesting aspect of this gun is of course the cocking action. This gun definitely gave me an itch to own something low power, unfortunately the siren's song of the oktoberfest is sung in mandarin, so I felt the best way to encourage tradition was to purchase german made and have ordered an HW30.