RWS (Diana) Model 45 Notes.

Just a few notes about putting the rifle back together.

I polished that rusty washer. Reassembly was largely the same as disassembly in reverse except as shown below. I lightly lubed everything and smeared a little silicone oil into the leather piston seal to get it to swell a little.


First try at reassembly. Ok, this was maybe the fifth time as I had longer pins, had a pin in the other slot, etc. in various permutations.


A slave pin is inserted in the springy part of the safety. This keeps it spread open so I can push the retaining pins through.


Back together with one pin in place.


But the slave pin was impossible to align with the hole. So I looked at the exploded view some more and figured that maybe I had the spring clip upside down – so I put it together as shown. At some point before this I did manage to get it together but the safety was stuck and wouldn’t move.


I also put the slave pin in the forward detent position (which would be “fire” rather than the rear detent position (“safe”).

Punching out the slave pin with the retention pin. Yay. I probably re- and dis-assembled it 20 times figuring this out.


A short slave pin for the trigger – the pin that holds it to the stock has to pass through and this helps.


The pin in place.


Note that the plastic caps for the pins are different on the Original 45 I showed earlier on the blog. These are countersunk with the flange outside. The caps on the RWS have the flange side in. I have no idea why.


The rifle together I turned my attention to the scope mount.


Pushing off the dovetail clamp.


A broken screw, a spring and lots of dried lacquer.


The pieces.


I was able to unscrew the screw holding it with pliers. Finally something easy.


Some new clamp screws fitted.


I punched the location of the scope stop screws. The setscrews are pointy (dog point). So I figured I’d replace them with cup point screws.


Made the punch mark slightly larger.


Spot drilled.


I then drilled shallow holes the diameter of the setscrews. They should sit in the holes and not move. The dog point screws did nothing to keep the scope mount from shifting. You can see evidence of screw marks on the rear of the scope rail.



All done. I shot a little and the velocity is the same (about 730fps) as it was before. So no improvement. I could probably soup it up by replacing the spring or fitting a synthetic seal but why bother? It’s peppy enough. I am wondering if I should have replaced the breech seal though. Maybe soon.