Definitive Guide to Diana Chaser

The Diana Chaser has a lot going for it. Compact, lightweight, and deadly accurate, The receiver, co2 chamber, barrel, and trigger are all made of metal. The grip is made from a textured composite material. The rear sight is a standard notch sight and is fully adjustable for windage and elevation. All these make the Diana Chaser is a great option to add to your arsenal. Ready for anything, you could also pick up the full kit and configure it into three distinct designs. The kit comes in a custom padded case with almost everything you need to store and reconfigure the Diana Chaser CO2 air pistol to a rifle or carbine.

Getting the Chaser ready to shoot is very easy. Simply remove the front cap from the CO2 chamber, insert a 12G CO2 cartridge, replace the cap and secure it as tightly as you can by hand. There's a removable assist bar in the front of the cap. Remove that and use the holes on the side of the cap to finish tightening up the end cap to puncture the CO2 cartridge and charge the gun.

The Chaser uses a left-hand oriented cocking bolt to cock the action. It ships with a removable single shot tray, which can be replaced with a small magazine. The .177 model has a nine-shot magazine, where the .22 caliber model uses a seven-shot magazine

Once you have the CO2 loaded and you've cocked the bolt, simply place the pellet in the tray and close the bolt. The trigger has a very predictable break which should please most shooters. From a fresh CO2, you can expect to get about 25 good, powerful shots. After shot 25, you'll find that the velocity begins to decrease slowly. You should get between 40 and 50 shots at most, but only if the ambient temperature is in the 80's and you take your time between shots. If you are shooting at close range, say 10 yards, then look to replace your CO2 every 40 shots or so.

On paper, the velocity for the pistol tops out at 525 FPS. We achieved that easily with 8.2-grain JSB Simply Pellets, which are an economy wadcutter pellet. The first 25 shots all registered above 525 FPS with a max velocity starting at about 550 FPS.

Diana Chaser Micro-Carbine Configuration

The first stage of the new configuration starts by adding the skeleton stock to the pistol. This is done by loosening the screw in the bottom of the grip and removing the grip cap. Then, to install the stock, simply slide it on the bottom of the grip and replace the screw.

In this configuration, you essentially have a micro carbine. It makes the Chaser very stable and easy to handle, improving accuracy. We used a Hawke Red Dot sight for our tests as it would easily work in all configurations. Our pistol accuracy tests were conducted at 10 yards using the Chaser configured as a micro-carbine, shooting the JSB Simply Pellets. We got very consistent five-shot groups, as you can see below.

Diana Chaser Rifle Configuration

Taking the Chaser to the full rifle is very simple. The first step is to remove the rear sight from the pistol. Once you remove the flat head adjustment screw, you can remove the two Phillips head screws, and the site comes off easily.

To remove the pistol barrel, you'll need to remove three set screws in the top of the receiver, located in the front rail. Please note that the center set screw is longer and used to properly index the barrel with the transfer port. Pay close attention to not mix them up.

When you remove the pistol barrel, make sure to also remove the breach o-ring, ours was an orange-brown color, as you'll need to use that when you install the rifle barrel. When installing either barrel, use a little silicone oil on the barrel o-rings, which are very tiny and delicate. There are extras in your parts bag if you need them.

Once the rifle barrel is installed, you can lock down the set-screws, using the middle index screw first to align the barrel. Lastly, you can position the barrel band and secure it to the CO2 chamber.

Performance

Now reconfigured as the Diana Chaser rifle kit, the operation is exactly the same. However, there are some critical performance differences. First of all, there's a dramatic decrease in noise volume. As a pistol, the Chaser registered 110 on our DB meter a few feet from the muzzle. In the rifle configuration, helped by the fixed moderator, we saw that number drop to 86 DB. That's a major drop in perceived volume, and it's very noticeable from the bench.

Regarding velocity, we saw an increase of 120 FPS using the JSB Simply pellets. As a rifle, we saw a maximum velocity of 670 FPS with an average velocity, across the first 25 shots, of about 645 FPS. We didn't see, which was surprising, a significant improvement in accuracy in our 10-yard tests. As you can see below, our five-shot groups were nearly identical to those we got from the pistol barrel.

Where there was a noticeable difference was in the usable range. We didn't set up paper targets, but we did shoot some resettable targets at 30 yards, and where the pistol struggled to make contact, the rifle was nearly 100% on target. Perhaps with a traditional optic, we may have seen a noticeable difference with the rifle at 10 yards.

Summing Up

The Diana Chaser is a perfect backyard shooting platform. It produces good power and very good accuracy, along with the ability to change to fit your needs makes it one of the best values you can buy. It's compact and lightweight, which is ideal for smaller or younger shooters.

Please get in touch if you would like more information on the Diana line of airguns, including the Chaser. We are always eager and ready to help.