Oh Great, and just when I thought I had it all figured out, but you know what, I really don't care at this point, I have a stable of Weirauch rifles in .177, .20, and .22 cal., and several other medium priced break barrel rifles, and a couple of budget priced air rifles, I like to play around with the cheapies, do trigger jobs and tweak them to get the best out of their potential.
However, I am fussy about what I purchase, I like wood stocks and finely blued metal, no plastic stocks or coated metal, and very few plastic parts, I'll accept the plastic true glow adj. sights, and the Diana two fifty checked all of those boxes, if figured the basic rifle might be worth it, I'd rework a horrible trigger, replace the cheap junk bundle scope with a decent lower end Hawke or UTG scope and go from there.
So, when I received the two fifty I was excited to find out what I had purchased for $99.99 and how much work I would have to put into it to make it a fun shooter, the unboxing went well, I was pleased with the rifles fit and finish, and the Diana marked scope looked to be of much better quality than I expected, I inspected the rifle carefully cleaned the bore (it was loaded with factory anti-rust protectant) and mounted the scope, the following day I took it to the range accompanied by my adult son who is heavy into high end PCP rifles, he was shooting a new PCP .30 cal. rifle, I was sighting in my new Diana two fifty and testing some pellets to see what the rifle liked.
I wasn't expecting to be impressed upon the first firing, but it was far from what I was prepared for, the trigger was not horrible at all, in fact it was very nice for first stage travel and crisp, smooth let off, and the scope though a fixed 4 power was exceptionally clear, and the it is mostly all metal and the turrets functioned wonderfully, and have a return to zero function, cocking it was a bit heavy but not abnormally so for a magnum level air rifle.
Sighting it in, first at 10 meters took only three adjustments and about 10 shots, the rifle shot best with midweight H&N FTT and Benjamin single die pellets, at 10 yds. it stacked pellets one on top of the other, at 25 yds, it gave me clusters (all shots touching), a few shots in various targets of opportunity on the 50 yd. berm showed that the two fifty had exceptional accuracy potential.
Over all, in my opinion the Diana two fifty is a keeper, for an inexpensive Chinese made air rifle it's performance is way above it's price point even at it's $190.00 MSR., my adult son who is used to shooting his $2,000.00 PCP rifles was so impressed with my Diana two fifty when he shot it on that range day that he ordered one for himself as soon as he got home.
So, to all the nay sayers who would bad mouth this cheap little Chinese rifle, I say actually shoot one and get back to me.
