The Diana 25s were made in Germany before the war (Im sure there must be plenty on Dannys site about them) , but as part of the reparations after WW2 , they were made by in Scotland by Milbro.
The German one is a better gun to my mind , due to having 2 pins at the rear of the cylinder, one to hold the sleeve in place and one for the trigger pivot (or am I thinking of the Bsf version?) . The British ones had one pin for both jobs which makes it harder to get the trigger in place
. Other than that the guns are more or less the same. I actually have German 25, stamped 7/51 on the stock, which is 5 months before they officially were allowed to start making them again after the war. They were banned from making them due to the Teutonic tendency to invade France, I believe
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The German one is a better gun to my mind , due to having 2 pins at the rear of the cylinder, one to hold the sleeve in place and one for the trigger pivot (or am I thinking of the Bsf version?) . The British ones had one pin for both jobs which makes it harder to get the trigger in place
. Other than that the guns are more or less the same. I actually have German 25, stamped 7/51 on the stock, which is 5 months before they officially were allowed to start making them again after the war. They were banned from making them due to the Teutonic tendency to invade France, I believe.
The earliest British one I've seen, I cannot find a date stamp on, although on the cylinder it is stamped "British Made" rather than "Made in Great Britain". I'm not sure if this is a knock on from the "Festival of Britain" in the summer of 1951. It should have barrel shims on the breech block although mine hasn't got them on-----yet.
They came with the Diana "ramp sight" rear sight, which is often broken or missing, but a substantial fore sight. I am not keen on the "ramp sight", a version of which was also fitted on Mk1 Bsa Meteors and very early Webley Falcons. Later ones came with a very small scope ramp screwed on and you could get a 3x magnification scope for them. I think they did a starter kit with this in.
The front stock screws are not very substantial either and are often missing or have been replaced with self tappers, electrical screws or anything else anywhere near.
The triggers are not bad on the gun. Its a better trigger than the similar sized Bsa Cadet. They can shoot quite sweetly, where the bigger model Diana 27 can be a bit harsh.
Often the varnish on the stocks has flaked like onion skin
------similar to the smaller 22 and 23 models.
Later on the guns were updated/ changed around , having a spot welded scope ramp and had a safety catch added ( that silly, easily broken, triangular thing on the RHS)
As part of the Milbro 70's series the gun became the G25, which still had the "ramp sight" and then the G46? which had the little plastic rearsight.
For the purposes of this post (and please no talk of later German Original models) lets stick to Pre G25s.
A nice little well made plinker , a little more refined than the Bsa Cadet but not as substantial. A starter gun for many and still a fun plinker for a lot of us.
The British made Diana 25 
