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Thread: Worst Diana

  1. #16
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    ggggr is online now part time super hero and seeker of justice
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    Quote Originally Posted by TonyL View Post
    Strangely enough, a friend of mine told me a few months ago that he has a freebie rifle for me.

    It's a Milbro Diana.







    I've not been to collect it yet.
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    A little repetitive I know, but important enough to be worth mentioning twice.

    The price is right. You can always pass the gun on. The buggers are surprisingly accurate.
    Think of it like a fat bird with specs-----------you might enjoy yourself but you don't have to let anybody know
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  2. #17
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    I wouldnt bother ....a regular old Mercury was a lot better.
    There was a real issue when Milbro called their guns Dianas ...pressumably to get them seen as similar to their German high quality counterpart but they got around it because Diana was a company name in Germany but not a specific model name. So Milbro Diana should be the correct name not Diana as a singular name.
    The guns share nothing with the Diana company.
    A cheapy Diana 34 would utterly trounce it for fun and i just never believed the rave review in AGW for the G80 at the time ....it was poor.

  3. #18
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    Quote Originally Posted by Hsing-ee View Post
    If it is a Series 70 Model 71 do collect it and I will swap it you for something or other springish.... That was the best one they made so I believe.

    Like this one ... https://forums.pigeonwatch.co.uk/for...09-1973-diana/


    Check this out, nostalgia fiends...

    http://www.network54.com/Forum/66438...ue+and+the+G79
    Interesting, I have just picked up one of those antique "riflecopes 29", looking for a vintage rifle to fit it on.

    Baz
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  4. #19
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    Quote Originally Posted by clarky View Post
    I wouldnt bother ....a regular old Mercury was a lot better.
    There was a real issue when Milbro called their guns Dianas ...pressumably to get them seen as similar to their German high quality counterpart but they got around it because Diana was a company name in Germany but not a specific model name. So Milbro Diana should be the correct name not Diana as a singular name.
    The guns share nothing with the Diana company.
    A cheapy Diana 34 would utterly trounce it for fun and i just never believed the rave review in AGW for the G80 at the time ....it was poor.
    Milbro didn't get around it exactly because it owned the trademark in the UK, bought cheaply via the French along with Diana's machinery during the post-war reparations.

    But I agree with the thrust of what you say - Milbro was definitely trying to piggyback on the prewar Diana reputation. Also, it's fair to say that after WW2 Milbro's guns did share something with the M&G Dianas - because most of its airguns were based on prewar Diana designs, also inherited along with the name and the machinery.

    Only in the 1970s did Milbro start producing its own (pretty awful) designs, I think. (True, before that the Milbro G55 rifle and G4 pistol - perhaps the company's only claims to some airgun respectability - were 'unique', but were derivative and drew on designs already tried and tested elsewhere, IIRC.)

    I stand to be corrected on any of the above - I've made a point of not deliberately learning anything about the Milbro company, which I'm afraid I consider something of a national embarrassment.
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  5. #20
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    That reminds me.. my Dad has one of these (not sure which variant):

    http://cinedux.com/resources/Milbro%...0s1394x730.jpg


    Better than the G79 I had, but nothing special. Are they worth anything ? It's quite an interesting, curious design.
    Always looking for any cheap, interesting, knackered "project" guns. Thanks, JB.

  6. #21
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jon Budd View Post
    That reminds me.. my Dad has one of these (not sure which variant):

    http://cinedux.com/resources/Milbro%...0s1394x730.jpg


    Better than the G79 I had, but nothing special. Are they worth anything ? It's quite an interesting, curious design.
    Jon - a definitive article on those pistols by John Milewski from p.36 in here. Not sure of values though. Not much I suspect, unless a rare variation, boxed, minty etc.
    Vintage Airguns Gallery
    ..Above link posted with permission from Gareth W-B
    In British slang an anorak is a person who has a very strong interest in niche subjects.

  7. #22
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jon Budd View Post
    That reminds me.. my Dad has one of these (not sure which variant):

    http://cinedux.com/resources/Milbro%...0s1394x730.jpg


    Better than the G79 I had, but nothing special. Are they worth anything ? It's quite an interesting, curious design.
    Protek had a couple on sale recently for, I think, £50-70.

    I have seen them go at auction for hammer prices (not including premium and tax) in the £25-40 region.

  8. #23
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    Thanks both.

    Price sounds about right. Will just as soon keep it for "design entertainment" value...
    Always looking for any cheap, interesting, knackered "project" guns. Thanks, JB.

  9. #24
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    I had a diana sp50 years ago,it was useless really worse than a gat gun lol

  10. #25
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    Quote Originally Posted by Hsing-ee View Post
    If it is a Series 70 Model 71 do collect it and I will swap it you for something or other springish.... That was the best one they made so I believe.

    Like this one ... https://forums.pigeonwatch.co.uk/for...09-1973-diana/


    Check this out, nostalgia fiends...

    http://www.network54.com/Forum/66438...ue+and+the+G79
    I have a reasonably good one going spare.

  11. #26
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    The Series 70 Model 71 was not bad, but it was basically the same powerplant as the Series 70 G79. This was imho, the nicest Milbro ever made, nothing special, no Olympic performer for sure, but I think better made and more powerful than the Meteor which was really its competition. Nice well shaped aluminium trigger, decent stock and a fine pointable plinker. Milbro (in Motherwell) were a solid enough engineering company. Unfortunately it was soon cheapened, plastic foresight replaces steel etc.

    Sadly the G80 series, those of the awful plastic trigger (though I am told by devotees that its not bad if you can get one properly set up) were pretty appalling. The trigger unit was always loose, or worked loose pretty soon, stock screws split the stock, just badly conceived.

    One must be fair to Milbro They were what they were, a opportunistic acquisition, seemingly with the complicity of Webey, of a competitor at that time on its knees, and I do not imagine for an instant they set out to produce world beating designs (though they had designers). Milbro were after mass sales of cheaply produced guns, as part of a general sporting products line. Thats what is interesting about the G79 in its original form, a lot of investment was put in to produce it, new plant, new designs, ad that the new dawn was unsustainable.

  12. #27
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    Quote Originally Posted by ogilkes View Post
    One must be fair to Milbro They were what they were, a opportunistic acquisition, seemingly with the complicity of Webey, of a competitor at that time on its knees, and I do not imagine for an instant they set out to produce world beating designs (though they had designers). Milbro were after mass sales of cheaply produced guns, as part of a general sporting products line. Thats what is interesting about the G79 in its original form, a lot of investment was put in to produce it, new plant, new designs, ad that the new dawn was unsustainable.
    Fair points, Ollie. I don't suppose a German Milbro equivalent would have been any different in exploiting eg. BSA or Webley plant, designs etc, if the roles had been reversed. Imagine how galling that would have been for us Brits, to have the name of a great British company sullied by association with inferior products after losing a war. Talk about kicking a man when he's down!
    Vintage Airguns Gallery
    ..Above link posted with permission from Gareth W-B
    In British slang an anorak is a person who has a very strong interest in niche subjects.

  13. #28
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    Have just watched a G79, with no sights, sell for £260

    A request though. I need a G79 or 80 for some spares ( hence said auction), after the barrel and linkage, internals and plastic trigger unit. So condition not important and cheaper the better. Anyone got one?

  14. #29
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    MILBRO Things

    I've lost my Milbro "CUB" rear sight. Anyone got a spare up for sale or trade??

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