Diana Mod. 60 .177 cal Rifle

Diana Model 60  .177 calibre rifle

This is an extremely beautiful gun I was handed down from dad.  I pulled it out of the gun safe and brought it to FL to shoot toy soldiers, pencils, and golf balls (turned out golf balls are not a good idea)with a friend in his linnae and to generally re-familiarize myself with.  Unfortunately it has to be, like my other problems, considered "down" because of little or no power. 

The breech seal was quite worn and I was able to purchase a couple from Umarex, USA for only a dollar.  This did not do the trick and that leaves me with the probability that the piston seals are shot.  A little blogging and I learned that they dry-rot, and this gun has been in the safe a long, long time.  So I am in the process of obtaining the seals and enough information to determine whether or not I can handle the repair, or whether I had better have a facility do it.

The exploded diagram.  The model 65 and 66 had locking levers to maintain positive locking of the break-barrel.  The 60 does not. 

Crosman C1K77 .177 cal rifle

Crosman C1K77 .177 calibre rifle

This rifle belongs to a friend, Chuck. It is a simple, inexpensive break-barrel .177 which has a surprising amount of power.  At 50-feet it will put a pellet through 1/2 inch plywood!  Chuck likes to shoot at plastic toy soldiers in his linnae, and with a scope we are able to hit them quite readily.  We were also clipping the erasers off pencils lined up in holes drilled in a 2 x 4 at that distance.
The problem was that when we went to shoot it, it failed to cock the piston.  I assured Chuck that I was a capable entry-level gunsmith and we proceeded to take it apart with a Swiss army knife.  Naturally we found that the main spring had broken and travelled up along itself.

I found this exploded view on the internet, which was very helpful.  A parts list corresponding to the numbers is also available at Crosman.com and it turned out that we could order a new main spring for a little more than five dollars.  I ruined the end cap, which turned out to be plastic and that cost another five or so, but the rest was not difficult to put together, until we got to reassembling the trigger mechanism to the main tube.  I fought with this issue for weeks on and off until it finally dawned on me just how to put it back in place.  Until that point the gun would cock but not catch and it would have to be taken completely apart again to discern why.  It is just the nature of the way the barrel fits on the stock.  In the end, the repair was a complete success and Chuck has been shooting it for a season with no problems.

Here is another helpful view of parts.  I became very, very familiar with the trigger, as I took it completely apart and put it back together again in my adventures.  A fun gun indeed, for just plinking, but Chuck was amazed at the comparative performance of one of my German rifles, which could knock the hands off the toy soldiers at the same distance!