Diana k98 opinions?

[Raden1942]

The Diana k98 is starting to call to me. It looks like a fine rifle. I am wondering if any of you have one and if it's its a good rifle? I love all the replica guns from different companies but many feel cheap or have plastic parts. I know Diana is a great company especially when you consider their springers but most of their pcps are Chinese so I'm just checking. 

 

[readyfisher9]

I have shot or owned many of the top spring air rifles. Best of the best is the HW97K. Behind that the FWB 124D , and the HW35E. Many good air rifles out there, but hard to equal a Weihrauch air gun.

 

[Moog]

I've been interested in that one too. I've owned and used various M-98 Mausers over the years and think it would be fun to have an air gun version.

I've never had the Diana K-98 but some of the common complaints I've read are that it is front heavy and awkward to load. If you get one let us know how you like it.

 

[JW652]

Got one (.22) on an impulse buy a couple of years ago and am glad I did. Have had a lot of Dianas over the years and am pretty jaded when it comes to springers. But right out of the box it made me smile. Solid construction; wood and steel (and a tad of plastic); great sporting trigger; plenty of power; and; quite accurate. Was going to scope it, but it shoots so well at 50 yds with the factory sights and old eyes that I have decided not to. 

A surprisingly nice rifle. A keeper.

 

[VETTNUT]

I got mine about a year ago and only shot it about 20 times to be sure all was ok. It was so I shot the last 10 shots over the chrony and @ 20 yds. FPS was 785 and SD was 5.1. Open sights @ 20 was about 1" and I consider that very good at my age. Put it back in the safe and thought that I might scope it later since I have more than I can shoot to start on another one or maybe sell it. As JW said above-- A surprisingly nice rifle.

 

[phillip]

For those who may be interested, I just saw that the .177 version is on sale for $269 at Numrich Arms. Seems like a pretty good price.

I might point out, though, that they will not ship to several states. Idiots.

They apparently refuse to ship to California, among other states, which has zero restrictions on airgun purchases and ownership (at least for now).

 

[Moog]

That's a very good price. I'm almost tempted. I just saw them going for $400 on Pyramid Air.

 

[Raden1942]

I live in CA. There is no airgun laws prohibiting sale or shipping in CA. A notable exception is San Francisco city. They have a special law. However Walmart will not ship to me even though I live an hour away fron sf! Wtf! I tricked them once by ordering an urban online for 229 bucks and having it shipped to a neighborhood market. I tried again later but they fixed the loophole. It's so lame. It's bad enough when laws keep you from getting something but when companies self regulate its just not cool. Anyway pyramid always does me right and I'm going to get my next gun from airgunproshop.com they treated me very good last time and I owe them some business for it. At any rate I would agree that hw is a better rifle but I really wanted one for its looks. The k98 is my second favorite ww2 bolt action and it looks like a decent replica. I'm interested in what parts are plastic. Trigger guard? 

 

[Ripper]

I was kind of interested in the rifle too.I remember when you could buy the real Mauser’s at surplus stores in the mid 70s for $30 give or take five dollars considering the condition.I ended up buying a 8 mm for $25. It was my first deer rifle.I sold it a couple years later but still have my British Enfield 303 that my uncle gave me.

 

[Wischo55n]

I bought one of those Numrich Arms sale K98s (0.177 caliber). Really like the looks of it (well, except for what appears to be a plastic trigger guard and fore-end band). Shot well too, until it suffered major failure at less than 100 rounds that is...

The "hinge pin" (connects cocking arm to the compression tube) fractured. Result: cannot cock gun and wood stock split for about 4" length at the under-lever slot. The part appears totally inadequate to handle all the force applied to it when cocking the gun, so I don't have a lot of confidence a (Warranty I hope) repair will last.

One other issue with my K98 is how insecure the cocking arm latch is. A fairly minimal 'bump' (like placing the gun's fore-end down a bit too hard onto a bag on the bench) will often release the lever to drop down. I also found the lever sometimes dropped down at the shot (just like the loading lever was prone to do on certain old black-powder/percussion revolvers).

Disappointed in these issues, as otherwise the gun seems real nice, though I think I'd prefer a 'de-tuned' version(maybe 700 fps in 0.177) as I don't see a need for "Magnum" power in a gun like this.