Diana model 30.
This report covers:
- History of the report
- Description
- Loading
- The balls
- Not a target gun
- Sights
- That’s it
- Summary
Today I revive an older report on the Diana model 30 gallery gun.
History of the report
When I first reported on the Diana 30 in 2018 I was using a borrowed rifle — and yes, this is a rifle. Even though it shoots round lead balls, the model 30 barrel is rifled. That borrowed rifle had not seen much use since new and the loading mechanism got jammed when I attempted to shoot it for velocity.
The owner of that rifle is a busy man and his airgun is still jammed six years later. But an opportunity to purchase a well-used model 30 popped up last year and I sprang for it. The rifle I purchased came in its original box with the instructions and all the tools needed to operate the rifle. Unlike the rifle I had borrowed, this one has almost 100,000 rounds on it. In other words, this one has been a working gun, and that means a lot — I hope!
The counters on my new/old rifle. The one on the right counts the number of shots since the rifle was loaded. The gallery customer pays for those shots. The counter on the left is the total number of shots on the rifle. It’s used for scheduling maintenance by the gallery operator.
Since the last report Diana has brought the Oktoberfest Gewehr to market in the United states and I have reported on it five times:
Oktoberfest Gewehr Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
While that rifle is similar to the model 30, there are differences. I won’t discuss on them in this report, but I linked to that five reports and you can read them if you are interested.
Description
Since it’s been a long time between reports I’ll describe the model 30 rifle for you again. It’s a bolt action repeater that feeds from a gravity-feed tubular magazine. The bolt operates similarly to that of the Oktoberfest Gewehr.
To cock the rifle the bolt is swiveled up…
… then rocked pulled back to cock the mainspring.
Loading
The 4.4mm lead balls are inserted into the front of the tubular magazine.
Balls are pushed into the front of the tubular magazine. The rifle comes with a ball pusher for this.
Tilt the rifle muzzle down and if there are balls in the magazine you’ll see them through the windows cut into the front of the tube.
The balls
Before we advance, a word about the ammunition. Since the last model 30 loading mechanism jammed, I want to be sure the balls I load into this one are not too large.
Some 4.4mm lead balls.
I measured all the balls before loading them into the first model 30 and all were smaller than 4.4mm. I did that because I had borrowed that rifle and didn’t want to cause any problems with it.
None of the lead balls I shoot are as large as 4.4mm.
While measuring lead balls in my inventory I discovered that all the European lead balls are smaller than what is printed on the tin. I guess that’s similar to American BB manufacturers calling steel BBs 4.5mmm when they are 4.2 to 4.3mm. At any rate, I know for a fact that nothing I put into that first model 30 caused it to jam.
Then someone contacted me and told me that a batch of model 30 gallery guns was made poorly and often had loading problems. That’s why it has taken me a long time to work up the nerve for this report. In the end it was the large number on the shot counter of my new/old rifle that pushed me over the edge. I figure if this rifle has shot almost a hundred thousand times it’s probably not a bad one. We shall see.
Not a target gun
The Diana model 30 is accurate as a shooting gallery gun, but it’s not a target rifle. A Daisy 499B BB gun will probably outshoot it at 5 meters. Maybe I will test that to see.
I reckon this rifle is more like one of the Winchester slide-action shooting-gallery rifles that were so popular here in the US up through the 1960s. In Europe, where the laws governing shooting are more restrictive, a .22 rimfire is not allowed in many places but a model 30 Diana is welcomed.
Sights
The model 30 has finely adjustable sights, front and rear, as a gallery gun should.
The rear sight blade adjusts up and down for elevation.
Loosen the screw and slide the front sight left or right for windage. Remember the shot will be in the opposite direction of the front sight movement.
The customers were not expected to adjust the sights. That was the responsibility of the gallery operator. And if it is like every shooting gallery I’ve been to, the sights would be off just a bit and the shooter would have to use Kentucky windage to hit the targets.
That’s it
I have you all caught up now, so hopefully in the next report I will shoot this rifle for velocity. I am oiling the synthetic piston seal today in preparation for that.
Summary
The Diana model 30 gallery rifle is a unique airgun. Few Americans have ever seen one and fewer still have shot one. I hope this one is robust enough for that to happen.
You UK and European readers can help me on this. I’m not familiar with the sort of distances a Diana 30 shooting gallery might entail. Here in the US I have seen everything from 10 feet (in a small trailer/caravan) to about 25 feet in a building. That’s 3 meters to 8 meters. What are your experiences, please?
“The Diana model 30 gallery rifle is a unique airgun.”
BB,
Yes, for sure; it’s unique and quirky and a fascinating piece of airgun history.
I hope this new rifle shoots well for you; I’m eager to see the next reports on it. 🙂
Blessings to you,
dave
The good old days…
Now a daz this would be a rechargable light sabre. We have digressed.
-Y
Hello BB,
I only saw the trailer-type of shooting galleries over in Germany and France, the 10 feet / 3 m version. This doesn’t exclude that others exist, but personally I never came across.
Pops,
Thanks for that!
BB
Tom,
Is there nothing in the manual that came in your rifle to suggest how to unjam the previous rifle?
Siraniko
PS Sections Sights 2nd picture caption: “Loosen the screw and slide the front sight left or right for windage. Remember the shot will me (be) in the opposite direction of the front sight movement.”
Siraniko,
Thanks. I fixed it.
BB
Here in the UK I’ve never seen a gallery at a “fun fair” (carnival) which was over 10ft. I’d imagine 6 yards would be the practical maximum for this gun.
Ade C,
Thanks for that. You and Papa Schultz are two votes for 10 feet.
BB
B.B.,
You asked readers in Germany and the UK to give distances that the gallery airguns were shot at; i’m in the USA now but when i lived in Germany the Schießbude were without fail 3×6 Meters. At the Stuttgarter Hotel Dachswald the 19.5m long indoor Kegelbahn was covered and half the length or so was used as a shooting lane with their gallery airguns and Zimmerstutzen.
shootski
shootski,
Thank you.
BB
Really enjoying this series.I remember shooting Winchester 1890 / model 90 rifles at fairs as a youngin. These were usually chambered for .22 short only. At the same fair you could also find booths using Daisy 25’s for shooting games . I submit the Daisy 25 is the all time smiles per dollar heavy weight champion.
SSC,
Yes, Winchester 1890s were what I remember, as well. That was when shorts cost less than long rifles.
BB
This is an interesting series. I read the first two reports and have a question. The photo of the shot count meters shows 175 on the [resettable?] meter that is used for charging customers. However, the total shot counter that is used for knowing when to service the rifle only shows ~137. I am guessing that these two meters operate from two different points (sensors) in the shot process. Under normal circumstances, logic tells us that the total shots should never be lower than the customer shots. However that gun had issues which caused it to not discharge a ball sometimes. BB, have you investigated the meters and how they work? Can you give us some more information to explain this curious situation? Thanks for all you do. I always learn something from these blogs.
Elmer,
I will describe how the counters work when I figure it out myself. At this point I don’t know how to reset them.
BB
Just a guess but the shot counter might be the cause of the jammed ball. Or clue to where it’s jammed.
Well now, ain’t that strange. Not. My post is not here. I love WordPress, I love WordPress, I love WordPress…
BB
Thank you for the report. I just love BB guns.
Looks like a current production Neo 30 is about 1,400.00 USD and is available in Germany for sale. It might be interesting to test your version against a Daisy 25. This model Daisy is what I remember as a child at church carnivals in New Jersey. 10 feet is what I remember as the distance.
Carnival shoot out – US vs Europe – 10 feet – just need to pick the targets.
Curious to see how $1,400.00 stacks up against $45.00 for the carnival experience.
Kind Regards
jda001
jda001,
Now I’m curious, too! 🙂
BB
jda001,
The Daisy 25 and/or the Daisy 499 may be able to outshoot the Diana model 30, but how many shots will they stand? This air rifle has been shot almost 100,000 times and looks to be new. I will take the Diana over the Daisys any day.
RR,
…and you just suggested tomorrow’s topic.
BB
Ridge…..Et tu,Brute ? 😉
🙂
Ridge Runner
Given the price difference, a better question would be – How long can you shoot 30 Model 25 BB guns. Even if the gun gets 10k shots, the investment would be 450 vs 1,400 for the same number of shots.
I do agree with you, I think 1,400.00 would be fine for the experience but my question to Daisy would be, how can you add improvements to the Model 25 to make it comparable to least to the Oktoberfest.
Kind Regards
jda001
jda001,
Tomorrow. And, you have NO idea! 😉
BB
jda001,
That is not the point. You could give me 1,000 Daisy 25’s and I would give them all for one original Diana Model 30. You could change that to 1,00 Daisy 499’s and I would still do the same. I have a 1959 Daisy 99. I have no further needs or desires for Daisys, but I do have a desire for an original Diana Model 30.
My Chinese 25’s shoot better than I hoped for. I have shot early models a long time ago and soon I hope to a nice one to rebuild.
Ah well. My post was congratulatory to BB for finding another older model 30 Diana. I had given serious consideration to buying one of the new Dianas, but they were not as well made as the old gallery guns. That was indeed a most wonderful find.
From the pictures of this particular blog, I would say that this one has been well cared for. I am looking forward to what BB has to say about this rare (at least in the USA) vintage air rifle.
Those Winchester 90s musta been the ones a ‘lil FM was allowed to shoot at amusement park galleries; if his “rememberer” remembers right, these were tube loaders; FM and friends called the rimfire shorts “U-bullets” because the letter “u” was stamped at the bottom of the cartridge case. That was his first firearm experience.
Ironically, mom and pop wouldn’t let their boy shoot anything thru his Daisy Red Ryder, so it was used as a play-gun; it made nice loud reports with the muzzle-cap removed.
I was in a German shooting club that operated a shooting gallery on the local city fair. We used the Diana 30. They are very expensive (cost as much a a Olympic match rifle!), but are built like a tank. They are made to shoot 100.000s of shots.
Typical target distance is about 2 meters.
I shot our Diana 30 at our 10 meter lane for fun, on a pistol target. I was surprised about it’s accuracy.
Ah ..one day someone had the bright idea to bring something new to the city fair and replace those airguns with match crossbows! He completely underestimated how powerful such crossbows are. It was absolutely dangerous, I operated the shooting fair – show must go on- and am lucky I survived..
Mel,
Thanks for that report on the distance.
BB
I was interested in the today’s Diana Oktoberfest back when BB reviewed it, but stepped away with the not so great accuracy and seemed to be bb picky. Well thanks to BB for stoking that flame again. So I go over to PA to read all the reviews now. The reviews look really good overall (I always look for middle ground, throwing out the reviews of 1/2″ groups @ 50 yards to the pile of junk shoots 30 fps). Looking at BB’s review back then (https://www.pyramydair.com/blog/2022/12/diana-oktoberfest-gewehr-bb-rifle-part-five/), it agrees with most of owners about German Lead BB’s did best. But what I didn’t see in the report was any Gamo Lead Round balls? Maybe they would do good and much cheaper. Either way the Great Enabler is enabling when he isn’t even trying too 🙂
Doc
BB/All
When looking at all these “lead” bbs, Shot gun shot size BB shows .180 ” or .457mm. My question, is shot gun shot very consistent in size? I would assume they are not.
Doc
Doc,
Shotgun shot is not as consistent as the lead balls we shoot.
BB