The Diana 54 AirKing Pro is the latest version of a long-running classic. It’s a great buy for the airgunner wanting an unusual spring/piston air rifle.
At a price of $740, the AirKing Pro in its beautiful red laminate stock is near the top end of the pack for a spring/piston air rifle. Also it’s far from a new design, the Model 54 has been around for many years.
Yet this remains an outstanding air rifle. It’s powerful, the test gun delivered great accuracy with a wide variety of pellets. And it looks beautiful!
If you can bear to do without the red/black laminated stock and will settle for plain beech, the price falls to $660.
The Diana 54 AirKing Pro I tested proved to be both powerful and accurate in .177 caliber. You can compare the results I obtained to those for the .22 caliber gun tested some time back by Gordon Smith.
Muzzle Velocity peaked at no less than 1269.01 FPS with the lightest Predator GTO alloy pellets. They were accurate, too.
Maximum velocity with lead pellets was achieved with the 7.0 Grain RWS Hobby pellets. But accurate, they were not!
Underscoring the AirKing’s power, most of the pellets I tested pellets equaled or exceeded 1,000 FPS: the only exception being the heavy – 10.65 Grain – Baracuda Match pellets.
Such Muzzle Velocity numbers produce a high Muzzle Energy that’s around 19 Ft/Lbs for the majority of typical mid-weight lead pellets. The highest Muzzle Energy was delivered using H&N Field Target Trophy pellets. In this case, no less than 19.54 Ft/Lbs was achieved.
That’s well above the manufacturer’s claim and very strong performance for any spring/piston air rifle in .177 caliber. It was also very close to the maximum power of the .22 caliber model. That is a surprise!
Equally impressive is the ability of the Diana 54 AirKing Pro to provide great accuracy with a wide variety of pellets. This is not a “pellet picky” air rifle. Overall, the best accuracy was achieved using 8.44 Grain JSB Exacts, although others were very close.
Sub half Inch groups for 10 shots at 25 Yards are easily possible!
The T-06 trigger delivered a very light pull weight. It was also extremely consistent, varying almost imperceptibly from 1 Lb 2.3 Oz to 1 Lb 3.9 Oz. The average was 1 Lb 2.9 Oz, as measured using a Lyman digital trigger pull gauge. That’s perfect for all practical purposes.
As is the case with most spring/piston air rifles, the Diana 54 AirKing Pro is not fitted with a shroud or moderator. With mid-weight (~ 8 Grain) or heavier lead pellets, noise level was judged to be as expected. That’s fairly loud: marginally backyard-friendly if your neighbors are not too close.
Needless to say, the light alloy pellets caused the gun to sound like a .22 rimfire! Their very high Muzzle Velocities exceeded the Speed of Sound (approximately 1100 FPS) and therefore caused a loud sonic boom. You will not want to try this in your backyard with others around and no ear protection!
This is not a complaint about the AirKing Pro as such. However it’s typical of high-powered .177 caliber air rifles when used with light pellets – even if they are fitted with silencers.
If you want to go “old school”, the Diana 54 AirKing Pro is supplied with a set of traditional open sights. The rear sight has click-adjustable elevation and windage correction capability. The front sight provides additional elevation adjustment by including a dovetail-mounted front post that slides along an inclined ramp.
Are there fiber optic inserts on these sights? Definitely not! Traditionalists will be happy about this, too.
For this review, I installed a Hawke Airmax 30 WSF 4-16 x 50 riflescope. This was mounted onto the AirKing Pro using a solid pair of Hawke Match Ring Mounts.
In spite of the Diana 54’s reputation for fierce action recoil, the scope stayed in position correctly for the whole review period (and more). The Hawke scope also showed no ill effects from the AirKing’s recoil.
Overall, this was a very successful pairing of scope and rifle. At 13 3/4-Inches long, this scope was about the maximum length that will fit on the gun without interfering with access to the pellet-loading port.
Yes the Diana 54 AirKing Pro is heavy. With the Hawke scope mounted, the gun you see here weighs-in at no less than 12 Lbs 7 Oz. So this is an air rifle that requires a strong – and probably also large – shooter.
However the weight balances well for off-hand shooting. In some ways the weight even makes the gun easier to shoot as the weight seemed to dampen natural operator wobbles – at least for me.
But now a word of caution…
The fixed barrel, sidelever action of the Diana 54 AirKing Pro requires the shooter’s fingers to be inside the open, sliding breech to load pellets. This is just as it has always been with every sidelever springer!
Yes, the Model 54 is fitted with a mechanical anti-beartrap mechanism plus automatic cocking lever safety and that automatic trigger safety. However every knowledgeable airgunner ALWAYS loads these guns with his/her arm between the open cocking lever and the body of the gun. This is to provide additional protection should – by some unpredictable mischance – the action suddenly slam forward during loading.
To be fair, I have never heard of this happening with a Model 54. But if it did, the result would definitely be immensely painful and likely result in the loss of fingers!
So the Diana 54 AirKing Pro owner MUST learn to load this gun with care and with his/her arm in this “buffer position”. At first it can feel unnatural, but you’ll soon get used to it and do so. If you have any doubts, AoA’s experienced staff can help you out.
So if you’re in the market for a quality spring/piston air rifle – the Diana 54 AirKing Pro is great value for money – whichever caliber and stock you choose!
And did I mention that it’s beautiful???
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