Diana Model-75

Diana Model-75 - Cutaway Display.

See also this Crosman Medalist 1322/1377 cutaway 

See also this Diana mod 10 cutaway

See also this cutaway Diana LP6.

See also this Webey Senior cutaway.

See also this cutaway Diana LP6.

See also this article on a cutaway Original model 27.

See also this post of three cutaway models

With thanks to Cory for these pics:

Diana Model-75.

Here is a model 75 with an unusually beautiful factory stock:

Diana Model-75 Universal.

With thanks to Mike H for the first two pics.

Diana Model-75 HV.

HV stands for "höhere Visierlinie" or 'higher sight line', hence the raised comb and elevated sights.

Diana Model-75S.

Late model T01 with beech stock and a mod 100 diopter.

Diana Model-75K - RWS Branding.

Diana's running boar model. With thanks to Mike H for these pics.

The expert on 10m competitions, Jim Edmondson, has said this about the 75K:

<b>"The Diana 75K, along with the FWB300S-RT, Anschutz LG-380K, and even rarer Walther's LGR-RT, were made specifically for competing in 10 meter Running Boar (now called the politically correct "Running Target") event. Some FWB 300S-Rt's and all Walther's LHR-RT's have thumbhole stocks ... the Diana 75K's were sans thumbhole. The initial Running Boar target featured an image of a healthy pig but has changed to the traditional bullseye target today...

10 m Running Target is one of the ISSF shooting events, shot with an airgun at a target that moves sideways. There are two forms of the event: the regular form where a number of slow runs are fired first, followed by the same number of fast runs, and the mixed form where an equal number of the two types of runs are fired, but in an order unknown to the shooter. The target travels a distance of two meters, and is visible for 5 seconds (slow runs) or 2.5 seconds (fast runs). Rifles are held at the waist until the target moves then raised to the shoulder - thus the wooden buttplate to avoid sticking. The men's regular event replaced 50 m Running Target on the Olympic program starting from 1992, but after the 2004 Summer Olympics it was again taken off the program, leaving the Running Target shooters with no Olympic events at all. World Championships still occur in Europe.

Running Boar/Target rifles are made to shoot with scopes - restricted to fixed 4X. The reticles are double vertical posts for gauging target movement. A new RT scope from Germany run about $2000. The triggers were normally single stage, 500 g. snap versions, but the new rifles have more conventional single stage trigger adjustable down to 100 g. or so. All Running Target rifles I have seen come with the adjustable cheekpeice and stippleing at the end of the forestock, to allow for where the unconventional "long-arm" hold. Long posts on the cheekpeice are necessary for the "heads-up" position required in RT/RB shooting. Heavy muzzle weight sets were provided to promote smooth follow through while competing.

Unlike FWB, Anschutz, and Walther's. The Diana 75 recoilless springer models (75, 75 T01, 75 HV, 75 U) are always oil-finished walnut (the others have a lacquer top coat and may not be walnut)."</b>

Diana RWS model 75K left hand

Diana 75 Universal schnittmodell (cutaway)

See also this Webey Senior cutaway.

See also this cutaway Diana LP6.

See also this article on a cutaway Original model 27.

See also this post of three cutaway models

and another one on eGun:

Diana Model 75 (late model T01) 

Diana Model-75HV - RWS branded 

With thanks to Ian.

Diana Model-75 cutaway (Beeman Collection) 

Pics copyright Rock Island Auctions.

An amazing reunion - finding a familiar Diana Model-75 

This is the story of Robin C's long search for the Diana 75 his wife used to win medals when she was a member of the Great Britain international shooting squad. Pics of the rifle follow.

The original “Original” story, was [my wife] was in the GB Ladies Air rifle squad from 1975 using an Original 66. Every one else in the squad, men and women used FWB, or Walther, but she liked the Original. It fitted her as she is small 5 ft 3”, and I’d extensively modified it.

 

She got steadily better and was started to get results when the news of the 75 came out, I contacted Dykes who were the importers and enquired. They were very keen as she was GB squad and they saw a marketing opportunity, but they had a problem. It was early ‘77 and the first were going to be “Dianas”, which they were not allowed to import to the UK, the name then owned in the UK by Milbro so none expected until 1978.

 

But they pulled some strings and got one only in mid 77, it was marked as an Original and she got it. They are huge, and I shortened the stock maybe 2”, and made a longer trigger link to bring it back, and skeletonised the trigger guard to clear the trigger which came back though it, to give a perfect trigger reach for her! Later made a built up square top cheek piece in polystyrene and covered with grey suede.

 

She lit off with it, her standard soared and loved it and all in the squad were impressed as well with it. Then a few months later she shot it in the 1977 British Championships at Cardiff in mid-October. The Championships then were were two 40 shots (40 was the standard then) and the top 20 of the aggregate qualified and shot again in the final on the Sunday. Halfway through her first shoot, the loading lever jammed half open and was locked!

 

I took the rifle to the Dyke's trade stand. As they were new, no-one there knew anything about them, but they had been given another 75 for display only, not to be sold as the sale ones were not due until ‘78. We took her action out, switched it with the display one in her stock and with her sights and trigger mod, and I took it back to her. She continued, won her class and qualified for the final!! The jammed one was on display for the rest of the week end, no one really knew it was jammed, just part open for display!

 

She shot that rifle for another 5 or 6 years, won her first international medals with it, two silvers at Intershoot in Holland, and many more, until she changed to a Walther LGR and sold the 75 to a lady club member.

That’s the history until we tried to find it about ten years ago as it's the only one of her air rifles after it she did not keep. The lady we knew, but she had sold it some years later to a young 14 year old lad in the club, who we or she did not now know. The search was on and lasted, I think, about 7 years!

 

A couple of years ago I gave up and started to build a replica, bought an early 75 and did all the mods I’d done on the original, the most difficult requiring the most research and effort was making replica equipment control stickers.

 

Then the first of the coincidences. A good friend in our air club had bought a 75 and later bought a home-made case that had a GB squad sticker on it, so he wondered if I knew whose it was. The case was clearly one of hers, made by another club member back in the day, so very distinctive, but the rifle was clearly not hers, very standard. So I was not really interested in the rifle, but he gave us the case It was a bit mystifying.  We thought the case was the one she had her LGR in and had sold when she got a new case.

 

When the replica was finished, and now in her old LGR case, the friend came to see it, and brought his 75, I looked at the date and number of it, and Arghhhhh! It was  a very low one, a three figure one, and was 05/77 date. It was an Original not a Diana so it had be one of the two she shot in 77!  He agreed to a swop and it went in the replica stock, so now we had a genuine looking replica, but with one of the actions she used! It was either the jammed one or “her” action. I thought it was most likely the “jammed” one as it had evidence of a repair to the linkage, but by two big coincidences, she had one of her cases, and now maybe one of the actions, but most likely the first jammed one! If it was, it had done a long route from Dykes on that trade stand, must have been repaired, sold, and 40 years later come back via a friend with a lucky coincidence!

 

We thought that was it. But oh no! Nearby in Norwich, a “young lad”, now nearly 50, took down from his loft his rifle to see if his now 14 year old son was interested. He wasn't, and he looked on the internet for info on the original 75 and to see if he could sell it. He saw my searching posts, and realised he had it. He contacted us and we bought it. Yes it was the original Original 75, the seals now putty, the polystyrene cheekpiece now wilted, the stock grubby, but the action oiled and clean. The only defect was the equipment control stickers he’d taken off. He was the lad the lady sold it to. It had sat in first his father's loft and then his own for 30 years!

 

The serial number was a little later than the other, and it was dated 09/77, so it's the one she had all her success with, and the one that was robbed from the trade stand! And it was in her original case, complete with most of her international stickers! So now we have not only her original rifle, complete with the original stock and case, but also a replica stock with the first “jammed” action also in one of her original cases!

 

The action is now at a good local restorer who is rebuilding it with all new seals, he said the springs look like new. They will be, her last event with it in the ‘80’s was in Germany where M&G had a trade stand, and they rebuilt it for her before the event, just as a matter of course (as they all did in those days at big events). The stock I have restored, and the cheekpiece, and used the replica stickers and some original stickers I had or made for the replica, so when I get the action back it will be as she last used it!

 

[The pics show] her shooting it at a Cardiff British Championships, I think in 1982. There is a pic of the Original, and the rifle as found fresh from the loft this year! Plus pic of the trigger set up, and her shooting the replica, and the replica with her last modern one. None yet of the final restoration

 

She changed to a Walther LGR in 1983 and that involved the Original as she shot very well with it in Germany and it brought her to Walther’s attention. She had many years out of air, but continued to shot Internationally smallbore and 300 meters and still does at 73! 

 

She had a fun air comeback in 2012 to 2014, coming 2nd in the British Masters Championships twice, and winning the veterans Championships twice, before retiring again from air to concentrate on smallbore and full bore prone. Turned down a place in the GB 300m team for the World Championships in Korea in 2018, then aged 68. She said she only wanted to shoot for fun now.

 

But it was air that started her, and now she has her Original 75 back that started it all, to live alongside her pre-production Walther LGR Junior Special, and her Walther LG400 special fitted in a Walther Junior stock.