Diana 350 arrived! And trouble...

[WHITEFANG]

Common thing with the angle breach block. You can receive the seat area buy you have to go slow.
TR ROBB offers an andjustable seating tool.

Here is 1 of mine. I have made several of these. You can grind the tip of the arrow point to get your depth and or for the caliber.
The pellets do not completely seal. Load a pellet seated in seat. Barrel broke open , hold a light at the breach end and look down the barrel. You will see the light of the unseated pellet.
Once the pellet is in motion the pellet skirt flars to make the seal.

[AG72]

Thank you WHITEFANG! Now thats a big tooth...

[WHITEFANG]

Anytime I can help I'm around.

[dtdtdtdt]

If you want antlers for knife and other handles.  Go to a pet store.  They have bins of of sawed up deer and elk antlers that they sell as dog toys.

You'd be surprised at how nice some of them look. 

[AG72]

Put another scope on her with a dampa mount and went to the cabin for some testing, very cold day, was -2.5 c this morning and windy, but meassured out 25 meters and set up some targets and tins to shoot at, zeroed the scope and shot some papertargets, wow this gun is a challenge to shoot accurately, very very sensitive on how you pull the trigger, you just cant pull it like with my other guns, you have to squeeeeeze it very gently and continue until the release, and do this consistently, if you don't the pellets goes away right or left, if done right you get rewarded, only shot 4 targets cause of the cold but the last one shows promises that i am on the right way

[mpbby]

"(..)this gun is a challenge to shoot accurately, very very sensitive on how you pull the trigger, you just cant pull it like with my other guns, you have to squeeeeeze it very gently and continue until the release, and do this consistently, if you don't the pellets goes away right or left, if done right you get rewarded (..)"

Exactly my case!  Mine is 0.22 and, instead JSB, she prefers the HN FTT.

[AG72]

"(..)this gun is a challenge to shoot accurately, very very sensitive on how you pull the trigger, you just cant pull it like with my other guns, you have to squeeeeeze it very gently and continue until the release, and do this consistently, if you don't the pellets goes away right or left, if done right you get rewarded (..)"

Exactly my case!  Mine is 0.22 and, instead JSB, she prefers the HN FTT.

I have not tried those yet, but will do

[WHITEFANG]

Your shooting a true magnum gun and only a 28mm piston. Many can not shoot this gun. Trigger adj is important.
Having had 4 of these and there clones I know all about that gun inside and out.
.177 is hot in that gun. All mine shoot crosman 10.5gr in .177 well. 22 is the better choice for me in all the Diana magnum guns 350/48/460/54. The 54 is as close to a pcp as it gets in the magnum. But it's in a sledge system.
Ever 350 had droop. I used the RWS/DIANA DROOP 1 PEICE mount and consider it to be good enough that I've used that mount on other brand guns. My 350 and clones were not scope eaters.

That's a gun you have to bond with. That gun will shoot off a bag great. I never had accuracy problems. Never had to choke hold the gun.  After market springs do help tame the gun but in factory state it is still good. JMO

It takes practice but as mentioned you will be awarded once you and the gun date for a while. RWS superdomes  will shoot out of that gun plus many other choices of pellets.

[dtdtdtdt]

To help with the scope breakage problem.  I suggest the RWS ZR mount.  I have one on my RWS 54 in 20  caliber (Hector Medina built) working great.  I have a .177 RWS 54 too with an RWS Lockdown mount - soon to be replaced with another ZR mount the is being tuned by Hector-Medina. 

Both shoot well.  The .177 likes the Beeman Kodiak Match at 10.6gr at about 850f/s. 

I tested over 80 different pellets with the RWS 54 and the FWB 300.  The 54 likes other pellets too but the Kodiak Match was most consistent.  I posted the test results several times here. 

The 350 and the 54 have similar power plants so shoot quite comparably except the recoilless nature of the 54 makes it much more stable and forgiving.

I have the t06 trigger.  The length of the trigger pull was a bit of an issue for me especially after Hector gave me a few LIGHT springs that puts the trigger pull in the 10-12oz range.  I was able to drill and tap an adjustment screw into the T06 that easily gives a much more manageable length of trigger pull.  A couple mm versus 1 cm.  It helps a lot.

[WHITEFANG]

The only Diana that has a similar power plant is the 460. Both have longer strokes than the 48/52/54

The 350 edges the 460 out by a bit in the stroke but all have the 28mm piston. The 350 has the most recoil of all I listed.

[Yogi]

To help with the scope breakage problem.  I suggest the RWS ZR mount.  I have one on my RWS 54 in 20  caliber (Hector Medina built) working great.  I have a .177 RWS 54 too with an RWS Lockdown mount - soon to be replaced with another ZR mount the is being tuned by Hector-Medina. 

Both shoot well.  The .177 likes the Beeman Kodiak Match at 10.6gr at about 850f/s. 

I tested over 80 different pellets with the RWS 54 and the FWB 300.  The 54 likes other pellets too but the Kodiak Match was most consistent.  I posted the test results several times here. 

The 350 and the 54 have similar power plants so shoot quite comparably except the recoilless nature of the 54 makes it much more stable and forgiving.

I have the t06 trigger.  The length of the trigger pull was a bit of an issue for me especially after Hector gave me a few LIGHT springs that puts the trigger pull in the 10-12oz range.  I was able to drill and tap an adjustment screw into the T06 that easily gives a much more manageable length of trigger pull.  A couple mm versus 1 cm.  It helps a lot.

Dave,

I think the ZR scope mount is a Diana branded item.  Hector knows for sure.

-Y

[mpbby]

Yes, 'Diana Bullseye ZR mount'

As far as I know, the other option to help the scopes is the Sportsmatch dampa mount - DM60 (1" tube) or DM70 (30mm tube).

[dtdtdtdt]

Whitefang:  I stand corrected.  I should have said similar power not power plant!  My 54s are in the 17-20fpe range, similar to the 350 and 460.  If I chose, I could beef them up a bit but no need.  When I compared velocities for different pellets on the straight shooter OUR TAKE pages for the 350, 460, and 54 with my measured results on the same pellets, they were close enough to be able to compare them directly as being in the same power ranges. 

Yogi: Of course you are right! I use Diana and RWS more or less interchangeably disregarding the contractual differences of who sells them where! 
The ZR base is Diana Branded while the Lockdown is RWS. The 54 is RWS while the 56 is Diana but both share the same platform. 

See why I am confused???


By the way, I finally met Hector at the Pyramyd Match last weekend.

All that being said the 350 is a fine looking and shooting rifle.  I just prefer the side-cock with recoilless mechanisms.  I'm too lazy to master the artillery hold!!!

[AG72]

Thank you all for all your help, very nice of you! I will try the ZR Bullseye again now that i now how sensitive she is with the trigger, if not working i will buy another Dampamount, will also try some more with the RWs superdomes, h/n ftt and order some brown boxed crosman 10.5, i will also shoot her from a bag and try the artillery hold, i have only used my triggerstick and rested the gun at the front stockscrews directly on, no hands or gloves under the stock

[AG72]

Went out to shoot again with the zr bullseye mounted, 25 meters and resting the gun at a bag at my ironingboard, first target shows shot with the gun resting at the front stockscrews, then the middle of the gun and then close to the triggerguard, i rested my left arm under the gun at the ironingboard in front of the triggerguard first targets was grouping low, then a bit higher when i rested it in the middle, and higher at the triggerguard, as you can see she want to be held close to the triggerguard, the image with 3 targets was held so, first image was 4 shots in a group and then ofcourse a flier so shot another one in the group, next 2 first shots was high so adjusted the scope but to much so i hit low, adjusted again and got 10 shots centered, next target are 5 shots in a tight group, all shots at 25 meters, very pleased with the result and that i don't have to spend a bunch of money on another mount, the zr works perfect! Now i need to try different holds with the triggerstick to see if the accurasy can get better with that cause it is easier to cary... And try longer distances

[dtdtdtdt]

The ZR base is very solid but is intended to protect the scope from recoil damage and really has little effect on accuracy.  The first version was a bit sloppy in the rod/spring combination and limited accuracy a bit.  Hector Medina tunes these by putting teflon buttons against the rod to keep them from moving side-to-side.  He also trues the bore of the mount to minimize stress on the scope body.  I have one of those and as I said, another on the way!!

Another suggestion.  Straightshooters.com sells a kit of 18 different pellets with 25 of each kind for about 30 dollars. They range from light to heavy with some being lead-free.  I suggest testing any new rifle with such a kit to see what weight range the gun likes best and what kind of velocity/energy you get. 

You will find that the energy is usually just about the same as that is controlled by the piston/spring combination not the pellet.  When you find a big difference, there may be something wrong with the particular pellet itself!! I have made this recommendation many times to many shooters to test a range of pellets.  My .177 54 likes the 10.65 Beeman Kodiak Match best and its twin the 10.65 H&N Barracuda Match.  Beeman rebranded the H&N pellet.

I attach the results of my pellet testing from 2015 for your information. 

Happy shooting.

[AG72]

Thanx Dave! I have read that test you did, very good info, i had the same "issue" with the zr bullseye on another gun as i had on the 350 so therefore i thought it was bad, but as in most cases, it's me behind the wheels being the trouble... Try, learn, fix, move on to next problem...

[mpbby]

Once the most friendly pellets are detected (including head sizes), I think that the consistency resulting from holding/resting is a continuous teamwork between the shooter and the rifle.

To the 350 .22 (synthetic stock), and currently, it's seeming to ME that the (easily repeatable) way should be..

- best rest is on my relaxed palm, with or without a glove (arm pending and also relaxed); depending if the back of my hand is on a soft or hard rest;

- the point of support near the trigger guard;

- with the trigger hand, thumb loose and the 3 fingers pulling in order to have 'some' pressure on the shoulder; the pressure should be just enough to keep the reticle more stable;

- just a shy touch with the cheek.

[dtdtdtdt]

The reason I like the rifles with sledges to manage recoil better is that I don't have to spend weeks learning the idiosyncrasies of the free-recoiling rifles.  All the reading I have done suggests that the magnum springers are worse than the lower power ones. 

I had a break-barrel that I had to relearn to shoot every time I took it out.  It was a POS that I bought cheap and had no success with.  chinese Walther Force 1000?  I think.

A couple friends who bought into the Gamo high velocity game gave up in disgust even after hours of coaching. 

I don't have a 22 but have one of Hector's limited run 20 caliber 54s.  Once I got it broken in, I have had 100% hits on chipmunks (all head shots) at 30-35yds.  Accuracy nearly as good as my FWB300 at 30yds. 

I posted that a bit ago, I think on this site. 

[HectorMedina]

Went out to shoot again with the zr bullseye mounted, 25 meters and resting the gun at a bag at my ironingboard, first target shows shot with the gun resting at the front stockscrews, then the middle of the gun and then close to the triggerguard, i rested my left arm under the gun at the ironingboard in front of the triggerguard first targets was grouping low, then a bit higher when i rested it in the middle, and higher at the triggerguard, as you can see she want to be held close to the triggerguard, the image with 3 targets was held so, first image was 4 shots in a group and then ofcourse a flier so shot another one in the group, next 2 first shots was high so adjusted the scope but to much so i hit low, adjusted again and got 10 shots centered, next target are 5 shots in a tight group, all shots at 25 meters, very pleased with the result and that i don't have to spend a bunch of money on another mount, the zr works perfect! Now i need to try different holds with the triggerstick to see if the accurasy can get better with that cause it is easier to cary... And try longer distances

Jörgen

I'm glad you're happy with the ZR Mounts.
It seems to me you have a 3rd generation set, which are substantially improved over the first two.
I also note that you are using a scope that is not common in the US: Delta Optical's Stryker,

¿how do you like them?

The process of Accurizing a ZR Mount starts with truing the rings to end up with proper lubrication after installing two Teflon buttons to allow for zero play and still low friction.
If you are satisified with the current degree of accuracy, then just pay some attention to the lubrication.
Go to EBay and buy a little bottle of a lubricant called "Liquid Bearings" it is one of the few lubricants I trust when steel rides on aluminum at high speeds, and use it sparingly on your ZR Mounts "rails".
This will prevent the aluminum from being eroded by the steel and will make your ZR Mounts remain accurate for some more time.
Specially in a hunting gun that sees relatively little use, the OEM ZR Mounts are enough, if you were to  shoot for extreme accuracy, or shoot a LOT (a bout 15,000 and up rounds per year), then I would recommend getting those mounts Accurized.

If there is anything I can help with, let me know, now that I have located this thread I will check on it for updates.

Keep well and shoot straight!



HM