Diana 35

[dair]

The Diana 27 seems a popular rifle on a lot of forums. It's certainly a nice rifle and and is about the perfect size but why very little talk about the 35? I have both and find the 35 to be a slightly larger deluxe version. It's not enough bigger to make much difference to me. Mine is branded with the Winchester logo and my 27 is actually marked Hy-Score 807. The Winchester has a bright red recoil pad and the 807 has a round gold Hy-Score medallion inletted into the butt and a Monte Carlo style stock. Other than that I think they are pretty much mechanically the same as other versions. I don't have any others to compare to so I can't be sure. They seem equally accurate. My 35 has a 16mm barrel compared to 15mm on the 27. The 27 has a fixed hooded front sight where as the 35 has a nice target globe with interchangeable inserts. I don't know if that's the way all are or if it's just different specs that might have changed over the years. The Winchester 435 was made in 1970 and the Hy-Score 807 in 1979 so anything could have happened. They shoot at about the same velocity. In fact the 27 shoots about 20 fps faster with the same light pellet but slightly harsher too so I'm wondering if they may have upped the power over the years or is it the 35 isn't shooting up to spec? Mine is shooting about 650 to 660 fps with light pellets and it still looks almost brand new. Couldn't have been fired much. It shoots so smooth and consistent over the chrono I don't care and I'm not touching it other than the fresh lubes it got. If I could only have one of the two it would be the 35. One thing I like about these old Dianas is that the cocking arm doesn't rattle and make noise like most all of my HW springers. Don't know if all Dianas are like that but mine certainly are. Why doesn't HW install some thin synthetic washers or maybe reduce the tolerances so they aren't so sloppy? Maybe they could learn a bit from Diana (M&G).