I have had no issues with the plastic parts on my Diana springers, until now.I noticed how the front sight bead on my D48 sits at angle against the front sight base, instead of flush, as it obviously should be. It turned out the metal bead had deformed the plastic base rail. As the first photo shows, the bead sits flush on the rail, when the grub screw that tightens the bead against the rail is loose. The second photo shows what happens when the grub screw is tightened: a forward tilt appears. The third, unfortunately unfocused pic shows how the plastic rail has simply given way to the tightening pressure created by the metal bead.A front sight bead on a sliding ramp must be securely tightened against the base, if any kind of accuracy is to be expected. With this particular D48, early recoil and shaking were so severe that the stock screws needed substantial tightening after every shooting session. I would’ve lost the front sight into the woods if I hadn’t screwed the bead on tight. At any rate, I didn’t use excessive force, only enough to tighten the bead on the rail. In retrospect, I should’ve removed the front sight entirely for the duration of the break in, to save the perishable plastic from deformation. One thing is certain: if the front sight rail was steel, none of this would’ve happened. It would blow to buy a new entire muzzle piece for the new gun to fix the issue. Maybe a slight epoxy coating, strategically needle-filed, would work to fix the rail, if epoxy is compatible with the plastic Diana uses in their airguns. Other than that, I'm not sure how to undo the damage.
Jeff is right.The old metal front / muzzle pieces have INTERNAL dovetails to align the front sight, the new ones have a "Flat" molded inside for the same purpose, and the barrels of the old rifles have the dovetails, while the barrels of the more modern guns have the inclined flat.They CAN be made to fit but it is just as complicated as cutting sight dovetails in an HPM and installing a front sight with level (Which I have done in the past). SO, not an inexpensive "fix", but an elegant one.Keep well and shoot straight!HM
If my D48 has a damaged piston seal from the factory, that makes it a full 100 % of Diana springers in my arsenal. Given that the OEM piston seals I have are way oversized, I'm not exactly thrilled at the prospect of replacing the still-new seal, with attendant deburring, sizing etc. Long hours ahead before I have a shooter, after already long hours of breaking in.