What model is this Diana?

[Hsing-ee]

Thanks, found it in Hillers book, obviously the guy in the gun shop had it wrong. Do these have any good qualities or are they just cheaply made rifles?

It's one of the most Communist rifles you can get hold of. FEG used to make these things in Hungary while it was dominated by the Soviet Union; the company still exists now it is back in the happy pastures of capitalism, but now it makes Mauser-type centrefires for wealthy hunters. During the Cold War the Eastern bloc countries used to sell consumer goods like this to the Brits at a bit of a loss so they could get their hands on some exchangeable currency.

The Tornado is a heavy, agricultural tool with two mainsprings one inside the other. This is a terrible arrangement and is best replaced with a guide and a single mainspring. It has a heavy trigger and a spectacular design fault in the form of a loading tap lever which points forward from the tap, thus it is easy to get it out of alignment. Some people have expended considerable energy on 'tuning' and improving them, but generally their efforts have not been rewarded and the rifle is best kept as a plinker. As far as I remember the cocking has poor mechanical advantage and the piston head is rivetted on which makes improving the gun a machine-shop job, and all in all it's a bit of a clunker.

They were seen as typical Communist products; sturdy, ugly and not very efficient, but which would still fire after being run over by a T-34 tank and then left in the bottom of a swamp for a year. I'm surprised there's one in America, must have been brought in by the CIA for study. On the BBS it's pet name is the 'Hungarian Swamp Donkey'. The break-barrels that FEG made were a bit better so I believe.

[draitzer]

I've seen a couple versions of these FEG / Relum / Telly underlevers here in the USA, one (maybe a later example?) had the squared-off slabby stock. They may have been imported by Precise Imports Corporation who marketed several Communist air rifles under the brand name "Minuteman". They are definitely a great example of Eastern Bloc crude but effective execution, however I disagree about their durability under a tank attack as one of mine had the cheesy tap lever broken right off.

P.S: The guy listing the two rifles clearly has no idea what they are, but to draw attention he titled them with names he's heard somewhere.

Don R.

[Hsing-ee]

I've seen a couple versions of these FEG / Relum / Telly underlevers here in the USA, one (maybe a later example?) had the squared-off slabby stock. They may have been imported by Precise Imports Corporation who marketed several Communist air rifles under the brand name "Minuteman". They are definitely a great example of Eastern Bloc crude but effective execution, however I disagree about their durability under a tank attack as one of mine had the cheesy tap lever broken right off.

P.S: The guy listing the two rifles clearly has no idea what they are, but to draw attention he titled them with names he's heard somewhere.

Don R.

That has got to be the most ironic branding ever, considering the original Minutemen as defenders of liberty and the Cold War missile of the same name!

The tap lever was intentionally sabotaged by quality control so Westerners would be forced to buy another one ..

[Rickenbacker]

The guy listing the two rifles clearly has no idea what they are, but to draw attention he titled them with names he's heard somewhere.

Don R.

Sounds plausible.

On a different note: Do you know anybody who might be interested in a nice Cadillac Eldorado?

moskvich Capture.jpg

[Bluefan]

Sounds plausible.

On a different note: Do you know anybody who might be interested in a nice Cadillac Eldorado?

moskvich Capture.jpg

Any history with it

[Benelli B76]

Just been renovating 5 of the Tornados. There were two types of piston and trigger designs in the 5. Power output on these is poor even with the double spring they use, I found they perform better with one decent spring. Guys over here just like them because of nostalgia, they had them as youngsters in the 60's and thought they were great at the time.

Baz

[IMG][/IMG]

[Hsing-ee]

I borrowed one when i was a youngsterand it was complete crap compared to my Dad's BSA Meteor. You really had to be taken in by the 'two springs, so its like it's cocked twice, innit?' and the general size and fearsomeness of the gun, plus the poor mechanical advantage that made it feel like it had a really strong set of springs and then the vibratory discharge making you think it was paaaarful..... But where the Meteor would shatter pellets to tiny fragments at 20 yards, the Tornado just kind of squashed them, and was about as accurate as a Webley pistol.

[45flint]

Thanks for all you help. Quickly decided to stay with collecting better brands. I see a BSA light or Webley Mark 3 in my future.

[trajectory]

I've only had one Relum Tornado which I bought knowing it needed work doing to it. The old thread of what I did to it & the advice I got might still be on here. It needed the barrel fixing back in, the piston was tight in the cylinder, not the piston seal but the outer diameter was too great for th internal diameter of the cylinder. I dumped the small inner spring & it seemed to make little difference to the power but it smoothed up the cocking action. Just don't understand the two spring set up, .... very simple mechanisms, weak in some areas though. Wouldn't say you can't improve them with work but in my experience it's a lot of work & effort. A bit of fun if you've got the time & aren't expecting wonders at the end. Ive not used mine since I came to the conclusion I'd gone about as far with tinkering with it as I wanted & more tinkering wasn't giving any noticeable improvements. Glad I had a Meteor as a lad.

[Geezer]

I think the classic 70s/80s tune for these was to bin the twin springs and use one from an Airsporter. Is that right?