Page 4 - Diana 54 Air Reviews

Everything you hope it is! Accurate and powerful! That's all you need. .22 is the way to go. The anti-recoil works brilliantly. Hard to go back to all my other air rifles when I'm shooting this one. I almost feel like it's unfair when I'm hunting with this thing!

Yea, it's heavy. Deal with it!

500-1000 shot break in period. Still more accurate than anything else you have with the first shot out of the box and it only gets better. If you can spend the money, it will be the last .22 springer air rifle you'll ever need to buy. RWS HP, Predators, and RWS Superdomes have given me the best results. Tried just about everything out there to be sure. Make sure you get the correct scope stop mount.

Brianag618; This is the 5th springer I have in my collection (RWS Panther 34, GAMO Whisper & CFX, Crosman G1 Extream. Also a 1960's Sheridan 5m/m Pump up) and the RWS 54 is 2nd to none. It has become my most favorate Springer to shoot. The Re- Coil Less design is nothing but fantastic, and is extreamly powerfull, and accurate. Unlike other springers there is NO kick to it or spring twang. Once you have it sighted in and using either a By- Pod (mounted to the stock only) you will be hitting ctr to ctr hole on hole hit easly out to 35/40 yards w/o any trouble at all (MY limit on my property, need to get to a range to see what she will do out to 50/75/100 yards).

I am not a great big fan of wood stocks, wish it came with and optional composit (Plastic stock). Also I have large fingers which makes it just a little hard to slip them in to load my pellets. Be nice if someone could come up with a tool to make it easier to load. Other wise I would not change a thing.

The RWS 54 side lever is not a light weight Springer, it is a bit on the heavy side, and you will need some type of shooting plate form like a By- Pod (Mounted to the stock only and seperate from the stock mounting screw) or Try- Pod, or a shooting stick, to help hold this shooting machine while shooting. This is from a 5' 11" 225 lb man. To try to shoot this gun free hand you better be a weight lifter. As for pellets, mine likes the Crosman Heavies 10.5grm and the RWS 9.3grm Supermags'. Anyone buying this springer would be wise to have the Jim Maccari XLR2 kit installed in it (Note the seal DOES NOT COME WITH THE KIT so do not forget to order and APEX Lrg Seal at the same time). The kit changes out the spring to a Mod High Power Spring, a new Rear Spring Guide and a Special Front Spring Guide. I found that it helped even out the power of the gun and a much smother action to the Re- Coil Less feature of the gun. If you are not a scope user, you will like the fact that both the front sight and the rear sights are fully adjustable. The front sight blade has an Allen set Screw that lets you slide the sight blade forward or backwards depending on the distance you are shooting, a nice little feature, and it also has the T-05 trigger that is adjustable for trigger pull. Over all this is one Hell of a Springer but not for light weights.

I like having no recoil, i liked having a group size of a dime at 25 yds with predator pellets and the crossmans also. At 50 yds both pellets were a .750 of a inch group. I liked the side cocking, i think this will kill many bushy tales this year.

i would like to see the trigger a little lighter, i have not checked yet to see if this was adjustable.

this is a .22 cal.

The RWS Diana 54 is the smoothest spring-piston airgun other than a TX200 or a hand-made Whiscombe (no longer available). The 54 does have a tiny bit of vibration when fired, which the TX200 doesn't, but the 54 is without recoil and the TX200 does have a small kick. If you can overlook the small bit of buzzing, the 54 is very superior in its firing characteristics. The 54 is also the most accurate of all spring-piston rifles--fully the equal of the TX200 and the Whiscombe and surpassing all others. Even in .22 caliber, the 54 drills them all into one small hole. It's a 50-yard spring gun. When you add to this the power that only the Whiscombe exceeds, the 54 is truly unique. I also like the extravagant checkering on the stock. You'll never see more checkering on a factory airgun.

The 54 is not for lefties. Too bad there isn't a lefthand model made.

I recommend getting the 54 in .22 caliber to take full advantage of the available power. In .177, the rifle shoots too fast to be accurate at long range with anything but heavyweight pellets. Be sure to get a Leapers Diana scope base, because the 54 can have some barrel droop.

Everything, seems like it's made very well. the accuracy is superb. ans the action being recoiless makes a huge differance. with break action's how you hold or rest the gun matters, this shoots effortless. kills are one shot perfect. All the way up to raccons. I've had the rifle for more than a year and love it. i use a leapers 3-9 x 40 mil-dot scope which makes longer shots effortless knowing where to aim. i use beeman silver arrow pellets which seem to work the best. i have tried others but these work the best killing thinskinned or toughskinned animals alike.

The only thing that might be nice for people that use open sights is to add a tapped set of holes just in front of the scope mount to re position the rear sight for a longer sight picture if possible or offer a scoperail mounted sight.

I have hunted for a long time with all types of guns and ammo and although people like the idea of a head shot with a pellet gun, a heart lung shot is king. you will have no problem penetrating. I waited for three squirrls to line up all three went down 1 pellet. So penetration is not a problem.

Side Lever. Fun to shoot. High Velocity. Accurate in the limited firing I have done. The recoil aspect, is there really any recoil in an air rifle? I have the RWS 300R and there is no noticeable recoil. But, there is a jump. And this rifle compensates for this jump with remarkable efficiency. After firing this rifle for awhile, I switched to my RWS 45. The first shot startled me, I was surprised how much I jumped when I fired the RWS 45. Back to the RWS 54, the loading port was easy to place a pellet even for someone with large fingers such as myself. I always wanted a Side-lever, and this one fits the bill for a seemingly reliable and robust rifle. It's made in Germany, usually for me a sign of quality.

Everything. I am disappointed, with clarifications. The rifle, like myself, is large, but the gun seems to be larger still. I am 6'2" and 275 lbs, with hands proportionate for my size. Yet the rifle is almost more than I can comfortably handle. I would think that German Engineers could have made it more sleek. Oh, and the German Engineering part, I was surprised to see that the trigger moves as the action does. This places the trigger forward in the trigger guard and it moves rearward when fired. If in 1911, Colt was able to design a Semi-Automatic handgun with the trigger in front of the magazine and the sear in back of the magazine, I would think that in the 21st Century, RWS could design (or have designed) an Air Rifle with a stationary trigger capable of matching with a sliding action when the action is in its firing position. Combined with an overly thick wrist on the stock and the trigger is an uncomfortable reach. The trigger is synthetic, yet it is rounded in shape, seemingly made for ease of manufacture and not for performance. The trigger has creep while being pulled, but releases well without undue effort. The Stock has the appearance of being mechanically shaped, with the leading edge of the cheekpiece having a squared angle rather than a graceful curve. I am not pleased with the color of the stock, although it is uniformly applied and without flaw. The leading edge of the stock, underneath the barrel, seems to be pointlessly large, tapering at this point may have produced some elegance in the air rifle. The rear sight has a roll pin that falls out as the rifle is fired. Shame, shame, shame. The sight radius is too short. (I use open sights rather than a Scope). And, drum roll please, I am aghast at this one. My $631 RWS 54 (I bought an returned one for $540) uses a BARREL SLEEVE over an inner barrel. I never expected to see this. I would have imagined that the barrel was one piece as with almost all Air Rifles except some Daisy Models. This is actually repulsive to me. This rifle's accuracy is sensitive to the ammunition used. Good grouping with some, extremely bad and way off center (elevation and windage wise) with others. My RWS 45 fires the same ammo that shows the great variances in the RWS 54 without much difference in point of impact. Interesting. Oh, how about writing a user's manual that is actually for just this gun? Do I need information on Break Barrel Rifles and Side-Cocking Rifles, it is too much to ask for a simplified instruction manual for JUST THIS GUN?

Considering a Christmas Present for a loved one? Although this is a nice rifle, consider the RWS 46 Stutzen, similar to the RWS 300R. The RWS 46 Stutzen is an underlever that has a loading port for placing the pellet. Seems more elegant than this rifle. So far, and this is my second big purchase with Pyramid Air Guns, everything has gone fine and the communications are excellent.

beautiful and flawless etching of Diana on the reciever, over all detail superb, it is recoil-less, very easy to shoot accurately quickly, just a beginner I got groupings of 1/2 inch at 20 yards while sighting-in using Beeman Kodiaks .22 - best I've ever shot, its made in Germany - nice to have something not from China, I find it easy to cock, I am very, very happy with it.

offer a model with no sights - I only use scopes

I understand an improved scope mounting rail is in the works for 2008, however I have had no problems. I mounted a Leapers full size SWAT 3-12 X 44 30mm with a Leapers one piece high profile with the scope stop hanging over the front edge as mentioned in the articles - so far outstanding service. Some have mentioned they don't like the 'feel' of this rifle and I've realized it probably because of the nature of the sliding rail system making it recoil-less. At first I thought something was loose - but no,,,designed that way. For me, a very small price to pay for having such superb accuracy easily with no recoil. I am in love with this rifle. It is heavy with a full size scope, a shoulder sling is in my future for this one.

Accuracy, stock, safety position.

Sights and trigger could be a bit better.

This is a heavy rifle but boy it sure can shoot. I've got 25-30 squirrels so far (.22 cal). Seems to particularly like RWS HP and Dome pellets, both of which have proven lethal to small game. I have yet to mount a scope but have no problems out to 30 yards with iron sights. If you're hunting the .22 eclipses the .177!

I've had my '54' for two years plus now and have never regretted spending the extra money. This is one fine piece of airgun workmanship. The wood is of the highest quality. The steel has a deep beautiful bluing that you won't have to worry about coming off. The mechanism works flawlessly. I love the power this airgun posses. I also appreciate the fact it has no recoil. I think every serious airgun enthusiast and collector should own one of these. I've shot probably one-hundred rounds through my '54'. Now that's not a lot to some people but it's enough for me to know the gun is worth the money I paid for it.

You don't mess with perfection!!

If you have taxes coming back this year then set them to one side and buy this airgun!

No recoil at all!! Super smooth shooter freehand or from a bench rest!! Not hold sensative like other springers. A very impresive looking gun!As with all my RWS guns Nearly PERFECT!!

Nothing! This is where everyone complains about plastic triggers, well folks, this is 2007 DEAL WITH IT !! My GLOCK is mostly plastic !!

This is a serious hunting air gun and not LIGHTWEIGHT!!If you are like me and go on longer hunting adventures you will want to invest in a nice sling. My hats off to Pyramiair!! P.S. It is doing an HONEST 20 + ft. lbs.!!

Accuracy and sidelever cocking. Shoots a wide verity of pellets very accurately (8 grs. or heavier in .177)

Trigger pull would not adjust to less than 9 lbs. This is a nice rifle, it needs a better trigger. An adjustable cheekpiece would be nice.

Nicely finished. No felt recoil, stock remains motionless when discharged. Superb accuracy. Leapers 3-9 X 32 AO scope with a Leapers Accushot 1 piece mount using recoil pin in rear stop hole on rail with a .048" shim under rear end of mount to zero scope. Nothing has moved or loosened in 400 shots.