Does Anyone Own and Actually Shoot A Diana Outlaw With Any Success?

[ray6520659]

My dad bought one a little over a year ago. Shot OK for a hundred rounds or so right out of the box, after that, nothing but problems.

First is the regulator. They call it a regulated gun, they really shouldn't be permitted to call that a regulator. I was experiencing 200 fps extreme spread over 10 shots. Don't even consider the first couple of shots after the rifle had been sitting for a while, get about 600 fps on the first shot if you are lucky. Pulled it apart, any half baked/shade tree air gun smith with any knowledge at all could see that the regulator was not fixable, really didn't qualify as a regulator. It was assembled dry, no low viscosity silicon lube on the piston o-rings, piston was stuck pretty tight, had a heck of a time getting it apart. Once apart, tiny seating surface, bunch of nylon seat material burrs on the seat/sealing disc. And, the sealing disc was drove down in the recess in the end of the piston to the point wear it couldn't possibly make contact with the sealing surface. OK, no problem, put a Huma regulator in it, solved that problem.

Next issue is the fill valve, if you can call it that. It's just a tapered/counter sunk head screw with an o-ring under it, a flat is machined on two sides of the threads to let the air in. The way it works is when you fill it, air pressure roles the o-ring up the taper to uncover the holes created by the flats on the threads. Then the air pressure in the tube mashes the o-ring into the holes to seal it. Problem is, after a couple of months, the o-ring gets deformed where the air pressure in the tube pushes it in the slot and it leaks, won't hold air any more. Every couple of months, tear it apart and replace the o-ring.

Then there is the barrel attachment. Very loose fitting hand tight threads on the breech end, loose fitting shroud on the breech and barrel end. The barrel is very thin and has a lot of flex. Long story short, don't even look at the barrel wrong or your POI will change. It's so bad that when I lay the rifle on the left side to pump it up, first couple of shots POI is to the left. After that, if I leave it on the bag/bench and don't move it, will group fairly well. I may be able to turn some delrin bushing on my lathe to fix that issue.

I wish I would have shot a couple of tins of pellets through it right after he purchased it. If I would have put a thousand rounds through it before the 30 days was up, would have returned it to AOA, thanks but no thanks! Too late for that now, I need to find a way to make it work.

 

[JohnL57]

I was looking at that one in .25, think I'll save up for something proven! There doesn't seem to be a lot of feedback here about the Outlaw.

Thanks for your info!

John

 

[USAFANG6799]

I was ready to buy one because I read many good things about the Outlaw. It was one of those PCP's that had all the things I was looking for in a PCP in that price point.

Then the NOVA Liberty came out with basically same needs I was looking for and was about $200 less.

Sorry to read it has not been a shooter for you and I'm surprised given all the good things I read about it.

You might want to talk to the dealer you bought it from and ask them what they recommend to fix the outstanding issues.

 

[MadCamper]

Yes I had one in 22 cal,25 yd groups were horrible. Tried a dozen different pellets. 3 to 6 inch groups. AOA took it back. Saved a little more and bought an HW 100, laminate stock,full length,22 cal.

 

[prfssrlee]

Hi there, I recently purchased an Outlaw in .25 off the classifieds here. When I got it, it was horrible - over 200 fps variation within a single 9-shot mag. Also, it slowly leaked air. I've never been inside a regulated gun before, but figured this was a good chance to learn something. Initially, I just played with the HST and couldn't get it to behave at all, then became more adventurous and started taking it apart. One really nice thing about this gun is that it is very easy to work on, even for someone like me who had never gotten up the nerve to dig deep into a regulated gun before. Once completely disassembled, I wiped everything down then ultrasonically cleaned everything in isopropanol. Then regreased lightly. The hammer and the brass sleeve the hammer slides in were particularly "gunk-coated". I also found two fine brass shavings in the threads of the regulator. I poked a fine drill bit through all the regulator holes to clear them out too. Then reassembled. The leaking stopped but I still really didn't understand the proper tuning process. I emailed Hector @ CCA and he was very helpful and patient. Basically, he told me to be systematic and patient, and don't try to skip steps in the tuning process. Eliminate variables, make small changes and think about the results as they relate to the changes made in the settings. I basically decided not to change the pellet (25.4gr AA DF) or the transfer port (not confident enough to make that permanent change), and only adjust the regulator screw and the HST screw. Then I started doing shot strings. I went through over 900 pellets and alot of air - but that's partly because I didn't know what I was doing and at first just changed things around trying to "stumble" on the right answer. Finally, I got a nice string at lower power (avg if 732 fps with an es of 19 for 64 shots). That was less power than I was looking for, but at least it was a really nice string shooting from 220 bar down to 90 bar. Then I set out upping the reg pressure and adjusting the hst. Ended up with the graph below, which I'm quite happy with. 38.5 fpe for 35 shots and an efficiency of 1.31 fpe/ci. That's not super efficient I know, but it's 4 full 9-shot mags then refill. The 36th shot is off the reg at 816fps. avg/std/es is 825.83/3.11/1510 (for 1st 35-shots), and I shot the whole string at a target 18 yds away. That 35-shot group at 18 yds measures 0.47" edge-to-edge. I'll start looking at accuracy next and take the shooting distance out to 45 yds this weekend and also try other pellets.

So I agree that when it came, it was horrible - but at least this particular gun tuned up really nicely and the design is so easy to work on that I'd encourage you to take the plunge and pull it apart. Mine was very dirty inside, and like I said, had some brass shavings on threads which were causing leaks and probably also causing the inconsistent velocities. Also, if you email Hector at CCA, he is super responsive and helpful. That man knows alot about tuning guns.

Good luck!

Quick edit: the settings I ended up at for the shot string below are 4.75 turns on the regulator screw clockwise (which puts the reg right around 123 bar), and 4.25 turns on the HST clockwise from when the hst screw sits flush with the back of the receiver block. that is, screw the hst until its flush with the receiver block, then go another 4.25 turns clockwise for my setting. That still leaves alot of pretension possible (at least 3 more full turns are available with the gun still able to cock and fire). So I might actually try bumping the power a bit more after I check the accuracy out to 45 yds this weekend.

 

[RTEXPRESS]

I have a .22 Outlaw which I purchased after watching Steve's review. I did have a couple issues with it at first, one of the pins in the trigger group wasn't pressed into the back plate properly and fell out jamming the trigger which was an easy fix. The other was the air pressure slowly bleeding down, so I pulled the air cylinder apart and the o-ring under the screw in the cap was damaged. It was possibly filled to fast or over pressured when it was tested. The opening the screw goes into has 2 square slots on each side what I think these are for is if the cylinder is way over pressurized it would force the o-ring into these slots causing it to fail and bleed off the pressure. The HPA comes in from another opening so that's the only think I can come up with that O-ring is for. Anyway I replaced it and haven't has a problem with it since. One thing I did was give the barrel a really good cleaning and then ran several brands & weights of pellets through it until I found one(s) it really liked. H&N Terminators are my go to for pesting, at my 35 yard zero it was grouping 10 shots under a dime provided I was on my game. For the most part it isn't to pellet sensitive it likes JSB jumbos but doesn't care for slugs. I plan to pulling it down and doing some work to the trigger assy to see if I can sharped up the break a little and putting in an after market Huma regulator. The stock one is working fine I'm getting around 60 shots off a full fill but would like to see a little more FPS out of it. One other mod I have done was with the moderator mine didn't come with any baffles which I guess is normal I know the one Steve tested they came with it in a bag but not with mine. So I sent it over to the guy's at TKO22 and they were able to install their Stage 5 baffle system in the stock moderator. This made a noticeable difference in the sound when fired the pellet impact is louder than the rifle so it's very back yard friendly. I also noticed about 20-25 FPS increase in muzzle velocity after it was modified. Overall I'm very please with the rifle and it's been a good entry level PCP for me to learn on.