Diana Diana P5 Magnum & Bolivian Rosewood

[Bear-of-Grayling]

Just acquired this Diana P5 Magnum. I have had many Diana pistols over the decades. The German made ones are disappearing. Mostly China these days. Being a lefty I have always hated the plastic right hand grip panels Diana used on their pistols. I prefer an ambidextrous (wood) grip as I switch hands to cock and load then switch back to shoot. I had left hand, wood match grips decades ago and didn’t like them at all. Very uncomfortable when cocking and loading. So, I finally made wood grips. Bolivian Rosewood. Fits my extra large hands good. Looks better than plastic to. IMHO
before and after

 

[marflow 777]

the Diana P-5 came first and the Diana 5GM came next same pistol but the power levels of the P-5 were correct and the 5Gm were a lie
and yes the target grip that fit the 5G-6G-6M-P5-5GM are small but you are better off with them if the pistol has them
there were factory grip like you show as an option and yours are very nice
at some point someone made aluminum back caps for these pistols i have one on one of my 2 i own
always thought that shot a bit harsh, i should open one up and do some work

they are a worthwhile pistol to own

 

[Bear-of-Grayling]

the Diana P-5 came first and the Diana 5GM came next same pistol but the power levels of the P-5 were correct and the 5Gm were a lie
and yes the target grip that fit the 5G-6G-6M-P5-5GM are small but you are better off with them if the pistol has them
there were factory grip like you show as an option and yours are very nice
at some point someone made aluminum back caps for these pistols i have one on one of my 2 i own
always thought that shot a bit harsh, i should open one up and do some work

they are a worthwhile pistol to own

This one shoots very mild. Easy to cock. Fantastic trigger. Nice fiber optic sights. Haven’t done an accuracy test yet. Will update. Like the idea of an aluminum cap. Picture?

 

[sjs]

Beautiful grips, eager to buy a P5 myself but was wondering about the accuracy. Look forward to your update.

 

[marflow 777]

the trigger on all the 5 and 6's have the same trigger setup and they can be setup with the grip frame off and just set the sear adjust and pull the trigger
that trigger will not work if the adjustment is wrong so it is easier to adjust on the table uncocked
i have seen one other aluminum cap i believe but were i don't remember this one now that i look at it could be a one of a kind but whoever did it knew what he was doing because of the detailed work
and i have 2-P-5 and right now i have no idea if they are different from the 5G Mag, i do know the 5G mag never was even close to the FPS unless you shot very light pellets, i will have to do some parts comparisons

i have made some bottom shelves our of both wood and aluminum with screws epoxied in the right grip panel and nutted off with acorn nuts but even with them in place my 105mm hand just fits

well this answers my question there is no difference, but the pistol is a keeper and those that own one or two will be happy to do so
now i am not a fan of fiber optic sights, i believe them to be imprecise, if they were more accurate than standard open sights they would be found on target pistols which they are not but you get what come with the pistol so love them, hate them, or make due

one other note, the black grips are no longer available to my knowledge, brown grips have been hard to find if at all so owners take care of them
VA was making wood grips for the pistol group but VA has stopped making grips altogether at this time, i was checking on 4 sets that i have been waiting for and was told in an email from him

enjoy you pistol

mike in Washington state

 

[Bear-of-Grayling]

Update:
Changed the screws to black steel. Stronger and looks better than brass. IMHO

 

[sjs]

Too much for me to take, went ahead and ordered one.

 

[Bear-of-Grayling]

Too much for me to take, went ahead and ordered one.

Shot it yesterday a tiny bit. At 15 yards off hand, I wanted to see where it was shooting. Shot several in a jagged hole. Was impressed. Went back to 35 yards and compensated for the sights (did not make adjustment yet) and nailed a soda can first shot. Today, I plan on a true velocity and accuracy test. Will post the results. Where did you order one, because this pistol was discontinued in 2009?

 

[sjs]

That makes me think I may have bought the wrong thing. I got what was called a Diana P-5 from Amazon and it is supposed to be here today. Also, it was pretty cheap, which is another clue. Anyway, I have a few CO2's, a SSP and a multi-pump and wanted another pistol of spring piston design, so I will be glad to have my first springer pistol (unless it turns out to be complete junk).

 

[Pale_Rider]

That makes me think I may have bought the wrong thing. I got what was called a Diana P-5 from Amazon and it is supposed to be here today. Also, it was pretty cheap, which is another clue. Anyway, I have a few CO2's, a SSP and a multi-pump and wanted another pistol of spring piston design, so I will be glad to have my first springer pistol (unless it turns out to be complete junk).

They in fact do call it a p-five but it is nothing like the original p-5 which was made in Germany. You can find that Amazon p-five for $40 from wholesale distributors like this one: https://www.knivesdist.com/Defender...-Barrel-Pistol-With-Plastic-Body_p_14660.html

It might not be that bad of a pistol being that the company(snowpeak airguns) that produces it is known to make some good airguns: pp700, pp750/notos, p35.

 

[Bear-of-Grayling]

That makes me think I may have bought the wrong thing. I got what was called a Diana P-5 from Amazon and it is supposed to be here today. Also, it was pretty cheap, which is another clue. Anyway, I have a few CO2's, a SSP and a multi-pump and wanted another pistol of spring piston design, so I will be glad to have my first springer pistol (unless it turns out to be complete junk).

I have read up on that one. Probably will need some trigger work. Good videos out there for it. Looks very simple. May just be a bargain. Keep us updated.

 

[marflow 777]

well Diana has done what should never be done, named a new pistol with the same name as an old pistol
the new Diana P-5 if you keep it will need some trigger work, i have both calibers and have made it an okay little pistol but it is no Diana P-5 from the past
when i saw you post you ordered one i was thinking from where

 

[marflow 777]

it is interesting when a post is made like here and you have the pistol and have not even looked at it for years
and get to shoot it and find it has a problem not so much in how it works but the barrel has been shimmed by someone with something i cannot remove
to much shim means the barrel is pointed down and that means you have to run the rear sight all the way up and run out of adjustment
i have been using 2.5mm x 7mm breech Orings and i thought i would install a new one at first only to find i was way worse the old one is 2.2mm and that is too much
the barrels have a spline on them and the pistol i am working on, no spline is visible
don't know what i am going to do at this point but the Dremel might be bought in to play

my point in all of this is, that how the barrel closes is very important and with the P-5 or 5G Mag your rear sight adjustment is very little and after trying to remove it and shim it the little screws will not move

just some observations and as i have stated before i HATE fiber optic sights

 

[sjs]

Didn't mean to hijack your thread BoG but since you asked, I did get it today and for $60 I am pleased with the pistol.

It is certainly no magnum at about 400 fps. The look and feel is much like my Diana Chaser, though the grip fits me much better. It took me a while to learn how it wants to be gripped (medium, not light) and the POI change between different grip holds is huge. The trigger pull has long creep but it is smooth, consistent and fairly light.

I first got the irons zeroed and needed the rear to go way over to the right. Then I removed them and mounted a 3 MOA red dot. At 10 yards over a bag it shot poorly with all my Crosman Premier pellets but did well with 7.0g Meisterkugelns, R10 Match, H&N Barracuda Match, and H&N Sport. It did very well with JSB Match S100 and JSP Match Middle Weight. It did outstanding with JSB Match Exact 8.44g.

All were a single 5 shot group and I didn't measure them because I was using a shoot n see target to just get a quick feel for the pellets it might like. Those targets make the holes look much larger individually but make the groups look like one hole even though regular target paper would not show them touching so the groups were surely larger than they appeared but still, I could see the pistol can shoot.

I like it. I wouldn't want to shoot a benchrest or 10 meter pistol match with it but it is a good pistol for general target shooting and plinking. Don't know that it would have the power for any pesting.

BTW Marflow 777, no fiber optics on this one.

 

[marflow 777]

well, it sounds like they have fixed the trigger for Diana but a longer trigger adjustment screw could be used and that is a good thing and no fiber optics on that P-5-SP500

 

[Bear-of-Grayling]

Nice looking pistol sjs. I still may get one for the use of a dot. At that price, you can go wrong. I did chronograph some different pellets yesterday. Didn’t do an accuracy test yet. Had to loctite the screws and set overnight. These 7.0 Hobby and Basic ran very good. The Basic I have found are like the Meisterkuglen and much cheaper. Used them in league shooting decades ago when they were called Geco. I did drop in a drop of chamber oil. Being a used gun, I want to establish a good new base line. Now getting over 600fps. Dieseling. Shoots good. Will do an accuracy test when it calms down. Keep us all updated on your P-five. I’m sure others would like to know.

 

[sjs]

Thanks for the pellet tip.