How about a little look at the "little " Diana 24D compared to the venerable Diana 27. This is also just a chance to play with the new forum and see how pics and ease of use go. I registered in about 5 minutes with ease, and posted a test pic with ease on another topic thread. Pics aren't great and composition is poor, but this is only a test with some info too.
Well , the 24D is a match in size and feel for the 27. They are the nearly identical in length and weight and feel in the hand. Indeed, the receiver tube dimensions look nearly the same, and the barrels look as though they may even interchange.
Interesting new to me acquisition that was fun to play with and tune. The very short stroke on the 24D has me even thinking that a Diana 27 piston and cocking link may interchange. Maybe time for some frankenstein experiments.
Hello Mike. Yes, you are exactly correct. The first picture shows it well also. 3 fingers fit the grip just like it should. I just happened to have both guns standing sided by side in that rack, and noticed how similar they were. The 24D actually feels just like the 27 but with a "proper" grip. Perhaps that is why the 24D is a much desired gun.
The quirk of the 24D though is its super-short stroke. It still gets mid to upper 500s fps. It just leaves me wondering what 10mm extra added to the short 52mm stroke would do. That would put it right with the HW30. Actually I feel that the short stroke was a cost cutting measure as the 24D has the same piston and cocking arm as the 26/28. Some day I may try the 27 piston in it if the piston rod button looks the same. Both have the 3 ball trigger. The barrels even look as though they might swap which would be interesting.
That is very interesting. I measure the 27’s piston travel at about 77 mm so that is quite a significant difference. My 27’s consistently get velocities well over 600 FPS, 680’s with light .177 stuff, making them pretty hard hitters for such a welterweight.
I would guess the modern model 26/28 is closer to this detail than is the 24 (though I’ve never owned any to check first-hand).
Another detail I really like on the newer guns is the longer, stronger scope rail with a “shoulder.” Compared to the thin spot-welded rail on the 27, it should work better for both scopes (the mounts won’t be trying to pry the rail off the gun), and match sights (the dovetail is higher so you can slide sights over the end cap).
