Diana Mk.IV in cocked position.
Diana Mk.IV.
Model: MARK 4
Maker: Millard Bros. Ltd., Carfin, Motherwell, Scotland.
(Address at time of manufacture).
Date: Above variation from the late 1950's to the middle 1960's.
Valuation: £15 - £45.
Details: Appears to be the first model Mk IV airpistol.
Fixed foresight and rearsight, note similarity of foresight to pre-war
Diana/Haenel foresights. Single pull trigger as opposed to double pull on
later models. Available in rifled or smoothbore barrels. Top of cocking
lever stamped "MILBRO - MARK IV - MADE IN GT. BRITAIN". Base of butt
has what appears to be a date stamp "7 62 A". This type of stamp also appears
on other Milbro products, i.e. see Diana Model 25 in companion book
"Air Rifles". Advertised length 11 inches and weight
11/2 lbs. Price in 1960 for rifled model
£4/19/6 and for smoothbore £4/18/6. Available in
-177 only. Trigger has intersecting sear so cannot be fired when being
cocked. Length of barrel 4 5/8 inches. Serial number
not visible.
The above design was patented in 1937 and made in Germany
by "Em-Ge" and called the "Zenit". They also produced a repeater model.
Production ceased outbreak of WW2, but some may have been produced just
after, these would appeared from the Russian Zone of Germany. For further
details of the original patent see "Guns Review", July, 1980. On
airpistol with date stamp "2 64 R" the top of the cocking lever is stamped
"DIANA MK IV MADE IN GT. BRITAIN". An even earlier model dated
September 1957 was sold in an odd shaped box with six sides that roughly
followed the outline of the airpistol, it also had an adjustable rearsight
with a slider and ramp.
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Diana Mk.IV in cocked position. |
Diana Mk.IV. |
Zenit repeating air-pistol (obsolete)
Plate 10 includes two illustrations of a pre-war German repeating air-pistol.
The lower picture shows the method of cocking, and the upper, the weapon ready
to fire. This pistol is no longer in production. It was the
EM-GE 'Zenit' Model M and was available in -177 calibre. The magazine
held ten pellets and these were fed into the breech one at a time at each
cocking of the pistol.
 Zenit repeating air-pistol. |
 Method of cocking. |
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