Diana 48 has been on the market for many years. Now I got one to take a closer look at it.

How precise is the rifle? How handy is the side cocking system and how is it compared to Diana’s other sidelever rifles? After all, Diana 48 doesn’t have a recoil system like Diana 54 AirKing Pro!

I’ll answer all these and many more questions in this exciting test!

Specifications of Diana 48

Diana 48 is a spring-piston air rifle with a fixed barrel. It’s equipped with an adjustable rear sight and front sight, but scopes can also be mounted on the built-on 11mm prism rail.

Diana 48’s stock is straight and has a flat cheek piece on both sides, optimized for shooting via the open sights. It’s therefore perfectly suitable for both left- and right-handed users. The beech wood is smooth and has neither stippling nor fish skin. The butt plate is rubberized.

Shooting with Diana 48

Diana 48 is a spring-piston air rifle with a side lever. The end of the lever is rubberized and therefore comfortable to grip.

The air in the piston is compressed. When cocking, the breech chamber opens and you have access to the barrel end, into which you can insert a .177 (4.5mm) caliber pellet. The side lever is secured against back stroke, thus protecting the shooter from injury. When you have loaded the pellet, you can deactivate the cocking guard by pressing a small lever and return the cocking lever to its original position.

Now you just have to deactivate the automatic safety that activated during cocking.

Then the shot breaks as soon as you pull the T06 precision trigger.

The cocking process is easy to do. You don’t need a lot of strength. Quite different from Diana 54 AirKing Pro which requires a lot more strength. I assume this is due to the lack of a recoil system that is used in AirKing Pro.

Therefore, the rifle produces a recoil which I would rate as medium to high. However, despite the clear feedback that the shooter gets, I was quickly able to achieve accurate results with this air rifle. It behaves absolutely predictably and isn’t sensitive when it comes to holding it.

I used, as always with Diana air rifles, the AirGhandi’s Finest. In the shooting test in the video, you can see for yourself how well the combination harmonizes. The pellets also fit tightly in the 44cm barrel. Once you have pushed them in, they won’t fall out again.

My conclusion

Once again, a rifle has positively surprised me! It comes across as pretty plain, but after you’ve been shooting it for a while, you realize how well the individual components are in tune with each other. You quickly get used to the side cocking system. Since it can be operated with virtually no strength, the rifle is also well suited for smaller shooters, in contrast to Diana 54 AirKing Pro.

Due to the fixed barrel, you can mount long scopes on it.

Whether you prefer using the front and rear sight or a rifle scope, shooters of both preferences should take a closer look at Diana 48.

In fact, I enjoy shooting with side lever rifles a little more than with ones that have a recoil system. However, fortunately, our preferences are different.

How do you like the rifle? To the owners of a Diana 48: did I forget to mention anything?

Thank you for reading!

The air rifle is available from my partner from action-shop24.de! You can order it directly HERE.

I hope you will also visit my store at www.jabolo.de. Maybe you need one or the other thing from there.

See you next week!

Yours, Andi