Milbro / Diana production records.

[ogilkes]

Milbro, or at least the pellet company, used to be

Unit 4G
Carfin Industrial Estate
Carfin
Motherwell
Lanarkshire
ML1 4UL

Which I am assuming was close to the original location of the factory which was also on this industrial estate. Not much left now, its mostly a housing estate https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&tab=wl&authuser=0

I have always wondered about the 55 too. I did wonder whether Milbro simply took a design for an underlever that Diana never managed to produce pre-war and made it, possuibly even using up parts that were manufactured, hence the short production run. Or were they simply trying to 'be' Diana in the UK? Whatever it was there only real attempt at innovation. I rather like the post 1964 guns, nice stocks and generally quite nice to shoot though. Interesintg read here:

http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/e...nv00011582.jpg
http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/e...wApril1995.jpg
http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/e...v000115811.jpg

By all accounts there was a great deal of muttering in German circles about the loss of their trade mark in the uK, hence the buying back of it asap when Milbro wnet bankrupt.

Anyway, Milbros reputaiton as cheapies has meant that few seem to survive in decent condiiton. Most you see for sale are increadibly battered, the result, I suspect of teenagers using them to destruciton in the back garden and then abandoning them in the shed.

[flatrajectory]

To quote Garvin .. "I also wonder what Diana made of Milbro, which apparently had little of the German company's drive to be the best that it could be, despite the British company having something of a head start in the 1950s. Then again, perhaps having to start from scratch with new machinery helped Diana quickly overtake Milbro, with its old-tech pre-War machinery and designs! It's hard to imagine Milbro having come up with the technological wizardry that made the recoilless Diana 60 such a magnificent piece of machinery, for example! " ...unquote

Spot on with that observation Danny, regarding M&G having to start again with new machinery.That is exactly what happened in Japan with the motorcycle industry.Whilst British makers churned out the same old models they were making before the war, the Japanese had to start from scratch after the nuclear devastation. Honda installed the latest machinery and automated assembly lines and we all know how that turned out for the UK motorcycle industry.
Pete.

[trevor1]

We in NZ,had a very "Best Buy British" ethic in the postwar years. Milbro and BSA were THE 'commercial" brands.The former guns seemed mostly handled by hardware stores and were regarded as "kidstuff". I well recall graduating from Milbros to BSA(a Cadet Major) in the 1950's.
Webley always had a limited market,the MkIII was expensive,and so were the pistols and their Junior rifle was made by Milbro.
German rifles, by Diana,HW and Falke, were welcomed as "quality affordable" weapons. As I recall,they outsold all the brands. The advent of the Weihrauch model 35 in particular,was a milestone here.
The arrival of Crosman and Benjamin CO2 pistols around 1959 diminished the appeal of spring-powered handguns. I recall my local sports stores simply not selling the likes of a Diana/Webley or Hyscore pistol from one end of a year to the next.
Brands like Sheridan and Daisy were always available here but never became very popular.
It has all changed now!;-)PCPs and Softies...

[flatrajectory]

Ollie,
Thanks for those newspaper clippings, they make interesting reading.
What we need now is for a former Milbro employee to turn up with all the production records and serial numbers.......!

Pete.

[Powderfinger]

The Milbro Diana's never seem to have been as highly regarded as BSA's and Webley's even at the time. I suppose BSA and Webley's were not just better made but also had the cachet of names associated with the exciting subjects of motorbikes, warfare and firearms. Milbro Diana's went out of production at a time when there was not as much interest in old airguns as there is now. In the 1980's, there were classic airguns stacked up in the corner of our local junk-shop; guns like that would be snapped up in 2013. Without the networks of collectors linked by the internet, there was probably less interest in the Milbro Diana company's demise and few people who would or could have tried to secure the production records. If an airgun factory closed down now, I suspect there would be a very quick response by collectors seeking to get hold of the production records [Does anyone know what will happen to the Theoben records?]. The illustrious history of BSA and Webley has ensured that all the products of those two companies have been studied and those two companies have survived (albeit in limited form) into the age of the internet. It is a shame that the Milbro Diana range went out of production but I suppose it is accurate to say that they were regarded a British Leyland level of workaday product rather than an aspirational Jaguar or Morgan.

[Gamocfx]

Interesting stuff Ogilkes! I cannot recall the air gun mags ever doing a piece on the history of Milbro...maybe they should? Newbie question what was the under lever G55? I have it in the Blue book but never seen one, was it any good?

[ogilkes]

The 55 was a small underlever gun that looked very similar to the Diana Model 50, not just in the arrangement of the underlever but also the form of the stock. Some models had an automatically openin loading tap, aka the Airsporter 1, some had a wooden 'hand guard' over the fore part of the barrel, and some seem to have had a double pull trigger, though this remains to be confirmed. Production run seems to have been limited, its quite unusual to find nowadays. It was never wonderful, but it did its job. There were rumours, I think reported in Hilliers book, of a model 100 underlever, based on a spare parts drawing, but no-one, I think, has ever seen one.

One thing to remember about Milbros was that they were not only an airgun producer, by far the biggest part of their business was, I suspect, the other sports supplies, fishing, archery (the wonderful aluminium catapult) and so on, a search on will reveal a load of odds and sods for sale. So I suppose investing in airguns was perhaps not the first prioroity. The acquisition of a lot of the Dianawerk machinery as war reparations (removed first by the French in whose zone the factory was, and then bought for a song by the British, there was one of the Milllard family on the relevant committee I believe) was, given Millard Bros. pre-war sales of Diana products, an opportunity to cut out the original producer and make these popular items themselves. Of course at that stage of history, there was no guarantee that Germany would be permitted to produce arms of any sort for a very long time indeed. I wonder what year Milbro produced its first products?

Guy, my inbox now has space!

[trevor1]

Interesting stuff Ogilkes! I cannot recall the air gun mags ever doing a piece on the history of Milbro...maybe they should? Newbie question what was the under lever G55? I have it in the Blue book but never seen one, was it any good?

http://www.cinedux.com/airgun-articles-m.php

There is a picture of a 1964 Diana G55 rifle on this page.

[flatrajectory]

http://www.cinedux.com/airgun-articles-m.php

There is a picture of a 1964 Diana G55 rifle on this page.

That G55 looks very nice actualy,Trevor. I think I want one. chance would be a fine thing.

Pete.

[Gamocfx]

This is fascinating...thanks for the link, it actually looks rather nice! Maybe it was for the best that they closed the factory? If they were not concentrating on airguns they would just keep producing the air gun equivalent of the Allegro?

[trevor1]

I had an automatic 1500cc Allegro.I could engage gear then get in and out of the driver's seat before the darned car moved!!!Trev

[Gamocfx]

Haha...I like that tale Trevor...you know as a youngster I actually liked the look of that car!

[ggggr]

I bought a rifle off here about 3 years ago. It was a cobbled up 55 in a 25 stock, with a jubilee clip over it. The cylinder had a rough weld on it as well. I cut the front stock screw bracket off a dead B2 and got it welded to the hybrid's cylinder.
It shot ok but the cocking arm kept dropping down because of a worn plunger. I bout one and fitted it but with my arms being crap, struggled to push it and refitted the older rounded on. Bugger if I can find the one I bought to alter it.
The 55 is based on the 27. Think of it in terms of Airsporter and Mercury.

[ogilkes]

Good stuff. That's a great site. That particular G55 is the more elaborate version, I have one without the upper wooden 'hand guard'.

http://www.cinedux.com/airgun-articles-m.php

There is a picture of a 1964 Diana G55 rifle on this page.

[Garvin]

I'll bet that Milbro G55 pictured by Trevor has something in common with the pre-War Diana model 30, which presumably Milbro was familiar with.