Resurrecting an old DIANA 54

[HectorMedina]

And the intricacies of replacing a scope rail:

https://www.ctcustomairguns.com/hectors-airgun-blog/resurrecting-an-old-diana-54-c

Hope you enjoy!





HM

[Roadworthy]

Okay, I'm really impressed.  For the time spent on that one I suspect the user would have been money ahead to buy a new gun.  Thanks for the information though, it was most informative.  It seems to fall under the heading of "don't try this at home".

[Sky]

Glad to see a new blog post!

It seems like a lot of work. Is it possible to just strip it, tig or braze a new rail on, and re blue the whole mess?

[JuryRigger]

A labor of love on that one, LOL!
Glad to see the blog up and running; an impressive and informative read.
Thanks for posting-much enjoyed!
Jesse

[dtdtdtdt]

A real challenge!  Clearly a test of both your patience and determination and the depth of your customers pocket!!! 

I do like the idea of mounting the scope as low as feasible to take advantage of the flatter trajectory at the shorter ranges for hunting or FT type shooting when range estimation is more difficult. 

Thanks for sharing..

[HectorMedina]

Thank you all, my friends!

This is the first post that has been copyright registered, couldn't post it until the Library of Congress returned the number, but now that it HAS been registered, I have now the tools to get that low-life/SOB that was copying my posts.

From now on, content on all blog entries will be copyright registered. Sad that we need to do this, but we do not live in a perfect world.

Anyway, to address your very good points:

Dave.- My friend (and customer) had a sense of guilt that had to be relieved.  ;-) 
Besides, while it  was not a cheap job, it wasn't more than buying a new gun. And the new one would not have shot like this one. So . . . scrap and buy new and then invest in the work that needs to be done, OR "resurrect" this one.
At least this one has a story.

Jesse.- Thanks for your kind words.

Sky.- The problem with ANY process that requires heating a tube is that you risk a lot. You NEVER know how well relieved are the internal stresses, and the heat may release some and tighten some others with the resulting "twist and warp" of the tube.
Once the tube is not straight and uniform, the gun may or may not function as it should. IF the gun is an ACCURATE gun (and this one was), then the logical thing is to preserve as much as possible of the original alignment and characteristics of the working parts.

Thomas.- Yes, "Do NOT try this at home", LOL! IF the rail in a DIANA is loose, send it to a Pro. Half the work would have been prevented/saved if the original rail had been preserved.
What few people know is that the rails get "mated" to the mechanisms tubes with two rather large dimples that get pressed in. So each rail is UNIQUE to the specific gun it was put in.

As I told Dave, it is an expensive process, but one that has provided good results over more than 7 decades and hundreds of thousands of guns. Pity that it had to be abandoned for the next generations.

To all, thanks, keep well and shoot straight!






HM