A .177 Milbro / Diana G80 recently came into my possession (it should have been a Diana 38 but was described incorrectly by the auction catalogue, but that is another matter). The rifle shot quite smoothly and power seemed to be on spec. But I always like to make sure all is OK, so a strip was done. Thanks to Guy (aka ggggr) for his excellent guide (threads 84, 85, 86 in 'The Idiots Guide').
The strip showed up a couple of non-standard modifications that I thought I would share. The wobbly trigger housing gets a mention by Guy and others. On this rifle there was no wobble as two small coilsprings had been placed on the trigger housing retaining pin, one each side, sandwiched between the housing and the cylinder. Quite effective.
The second change was that a disc, about 1cm diameter x 3mm thick had been placed inside the cocking link; the link is folded steel so has a central groove. The disc was simply put in the groove and could slide up and down the groove and rotate. It was prevented going too far in the groove and getting stuck by a couple of small blocks judiciously placed either end of the groove. In practice, this 'roller' stopped contact between the underside of the cocking link and the action and was very effective.
The previous owner of this rifle had clearly believed in grease. I cleaned out enough to fill an egg cup from the piston, cylinder and around the spring. The spring seemed good so I just cleaned it and replaced it;
adding a piston sleeve to the cylinder on the way (good old beer can again). Relubed and all back together, the rifle is very nice and smooth to both cock and in operation. Performance is around 605 with AA Field 8.4 but rises to around 750fps for Geco (Hobby equivalent) at 7gn for around 9ft lbs.
There was no foresight on the rifle but I have almost completed making one. A bit of steel bar ... actually part of the square bar that door handles are fastened to in order to operate the door catch. Then dovetails filed in the bar and a small foresight (found in box of bits) fitted. The end of the barrel has a tapped hole so fitting the new sight is no problem. The underside of the bar was filed to a round profile to match the barel curvature and finally smoothed with a round stone on a Dremel. Looks quite acceptable ....
End result is a nice little rifle. Now, what can I do next ...
Cheers, Phil