Quote Originally Posted by andrewM View Post
Thanks Johnnyone! I find this forum most useful for sounding out problems and receiving feedback. I then deposit the subject rifle with Protek and make a point of informing readers of the diagnosis and solution. My own skills are poor in this department but that does not mean I do not take a careful interest in the technical activity! Protek, meanwhile, only deal with airguns, so that is their single focus.

It might be worth your while trying to find the circlips, assuming they were in working order, as finding individual replacements rather than bulk replacements could be difficult.

Meanwhile, I have found what seems to be a near mint 45 in .22 and will travel to inspect it next week with a view to purchase. I gather it was made in 1984. This will complement my .177, which I will collect next week from the repair bench. I have always found these to be first class rifles and, I gather, the leather washers were amongst the last used, given the manufacturers had moved to synthetic. On the other hand, I think they had produced these washers at their best and they worked well. It seems they need the very minimum of lubrication, unlike, for example, the old Mk3 or Airsporters, which almost required oil as part of the firing cycle.

This collecting thing is rather dangerous and I think I must try to call a halt at about 10 rifles. That said, I am nearly persuaded to try a modern springer to see if there is much difference. I suspect there is little. When I showed a friend my recently purchased FWB 127, he thought it was as good as and perhaps better than his HW97. I suppose there is so much that can be invented in the process and then it becomes rather difficult to improve, other than via the trigger or balance or, perhaps, recoil.

I am also tempted by the Anchutz 335, of which I have read good things.
Afternoon Andrew,
yes feeding back is good and very useful. A ready supply of those circlips should be Chambers or possibly Knibbs. I'm hoping to place an order a bit later. For what they are they are a bit on the expensive side but on other hand to have an outlet sit on items that may or may not get bought or be much demand for is undoubtedly not a cheap process and they want to see a return on these items. Especially for guns no longer in production.

Your discovery of a near mint example is excellent news. With the years rolling on and some of these older guns putting in the miles (shooting wise) a nice clean example can be hard to find- even on guns that were relatively popular back in the day. As you rightly say they are first class rifles and the care and attention given in their manufacture is evident when you strip them down. The leather washers are pretty good but I'm not a huge fan of them and try and change them for synthetic whenever possible. That said if not broke then don't fix it and I have a couple of very clean and well performing examples I will leave well alone. Walters in his book is bemused by Diana's choice to go with leather when others within the range had already gone the synthetic route. As indeed almost all manufacturers had by then. Only Diana know that answer and as Walters also conjectured one can only guess at what the gun is capable of if it has a decent parachute type synthetic washer.

Collecting is indeed a very addictive activity. Having set my goal to pick up only those German sporting rifles that I couldnt afford as a kid, I have gone way past that on my journey. Strayed way off the path and along a few blind alleys too! The FWB Sport is indeed a fine rifle as you already know. You wont go far wrong with a 335 either- but beware of over springing them as the stock fixing lugs have a rather anti social habit of departing from the compression cylinder.

Dave