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Air Gun Home Forum Index » General Air Gun Questions and Topics » Help with ignorance    View previous topic :: View next topic  Help with ignorance   Posted: Tue Jan 18, 2011 3:58 pm cheez Member Joined: 17 Jan 2011 Posts: 24 Location: Chattanooga, TN Like I said before I am new to the whole airgun thing. I am however trying to learn. Will someone tell me what the difference between a Umarex/ RWS and a RWS/Diana is? I am shopping for a better rifle and I run across these two designations for what appears to be the same gun. Thanks   Posted: Tue Jan 18, 2011 4:06 pm fritz Silver Status Member Joined: 25 Nov 2008 Posts: 2444 Location: New Jersey- outside of Philadelphia Umarex is a worldwide importer that handles many things, AFAIK they import nearly all firearms related things. RWS is another importer I believe. I cannot find much information on them. Seems like they export the guns from Germany, then Umarex takes over. Diana is the actual manufacturer. The full name is Diana Mayer & Grammelspacher. http://www.diana-airguns.de/ _________________ "I never set out to be wierd, it was always everyone else who called me it" -Frank Zappa Speed is impressive, accuracy is deadly. It's not that I'm not a people person, it's just that I'm not a stupid people person.   Posted: Tue Jan 18, 2011 5:52 pm AirGunEric Site Admin Joined: 20 Jan 2007 Posts: 6930 Location: "Out There" fritz wrote: Umarex is a worldwide importer that handles many things, AFAIK they import nearly all firearms related things. RWS is another importer I believe. I cannot find much information on them. Seems like they export the guns from Germany, then Umarex takes over. Diana is the actual manufacturer. The full name is Diana Mayer & Grammelspacher. http://www.diana-airguns.de/ Close- but a few clarifications: Diana is a manufacturer, it manufactures everything branded "Diana". "RWS" was the US importer of all Diana products, until "UmarexUSA" was formed a few years ago from the previous RWS corporate entity. Before that, many Diana guns were marketed with the name "RWS"- as in "RWS 34" or "RWS 48" etc. etc. Umarex (in Germany) is a parent company for a bunch of gun-related manufacturing companies- they own the Walther name and the Hammerli name, and carry the airgun/bb gun "rights" to use other names such as Makarov, Beretta, etc. on their products. UmarexUSA is actually a completely different company, but I have no idea how much of it (if any) is owned by Umarex in Germany. So- in response to the original question: UmarexUSA is a distributor that was formerly named "RWS". They have the exclusive distribution of all the Umarex products in the US and Canada and some others- such as Diana. Diana is an independent manufacturer in Germany. "RWS" and "Diana", for the purposes of identifying a gun, are essentially interchangeable. For a short time right after UmarexUSA appeared as the Diana distributor, the name "RWS" was not used on things, but at some point they started it up again and eliminated using the proper "Diana" name- I assume in some bizarre attempt to confuse customers and help insure they will remain the Diana distributor in the future (by having customers be confused as to what the brand actually is- i.e. if people believe Dianas are actually "RWS" and then the name goes back to "Diana" as a result of UmarexUSA losing the distribution agreement, there would likely be more confusion and a (hopefully temporary) loss of sales in North America. The very fact that Umarex also sells Chinese made copies of Diana rifles under the name "Ruger" should be an affront to Diana, but I guess UmarexUSA has them tied up all sorts of different ways at this point(?) To complicate things, Umarex sometimes puts the same gun out under multiple names: for example the Hammerli AM850 and the Umarex AirMagnum 850 (the "RWS AM850" name some people have attached to it is actually incorrect, but means the same thing as well- but this is only being done by individuals and has nothing to do with the companies involved in manufacturing or distributing it). To understand exactly what guns are distributed by UmarexUSA- look over their website http://www.umarexusa.com _________________ ` I'd say "I care." But I'd be lying. Canadian Airgun Supplier: http://www.scopesandammo.com/storefront   Posted: Tue Jan 18, 2011 8:29 pm cheez Member Joined: 17 Jan 2011 Posts: 24 Location: Chattanooga, TN Ok so if I see a gun labeled Umarex RWS 460 Magnum it would be a decent gun to buy?   Posted: Wed Jan 19, 2011 6:15 am AirGunEric Site Admin Joined: 20 Jan 2007 Posts: 6930 Location: "Out There" cheez wrote: Ok so if I see a gun labeled Umarex RWS 460 Magnum it would be a decent gun to buy? If it's a side-cocking German-made springer, then yes- it would be a decent gun to buy. _________________ ` I'd say "I care." But I'd be lying. Canadian Airgun Supplier: http://www.scopesandammo.com/storefront   Posted: Wed Jan 19, 2011 6:45 am cheez Member Joined: 17 Jan 2011 Posts: 24 Location: Chattanooga, TN Thanks Eric. I'm going to buy something good real soon. Just got to decide between 3 or 4 different guns. I'm still heavily in the research phase.   Posted: Wed Jan 19, 2011 8:29 am walter Veteran Member Joined: 12 Nov 2010 Posts: 181 Location: towson md. cheez- if you focus on the german and english made rifles i think you will find a winner. good luck. _________________ modified 1377c. first gen. Beeman hw97k. 177.cal.   Posted: Wed Jan 19, 2011 11:17 am bobtodrick Member Joined: 05 Jan 2010 Posts: 51 So...if RWS is just an importer...who makes RWS pellets?   Posted: Wed Jan 19, 2011 2:18 pm AirGunEric Site Admin Joined: 20 Jan 2007 Posts: 6930 Location: "Out There" All 'RWS' labeled products are made by Diana. This is all a carryover from when the company 'RWS" was the importer of Diana products, for whatever reasons, they used the same "strategy" as Beeman had done with Weihrauch rifles and H&N pellets. Here: http://www.diana-airguns.de/index.php?id=124&L=1&width=1024&height=600 _________________ ` I'd say "I care." But I'd be lying. Canadian Airgun Supplier: http://www.scopesandammo.com/storefront Help with ignorance     Air Gun Home Forum Index » General Air Gun Questions and Topics You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum All times are GMT - 5 Hours   Page 1 of 1   All Posts1 Day7 Days2 Weeks1 Month3 Months6 Months1 Year Oldest FirstNewest First  Select a forum Main Forums----------------AirGunHome Q&AGeneral Air Gun Questions and TopicsPicture GalleryTarget Shooting: Casual, Fun and CompetitionHunting, Pest Control, Varminting People/Events/Airgun Issue Discussion----------------Introduce YourselfThe BS TopicClubs/Events/Regional/Political Airgun Issues Maintenance, Modification and Reviews----------------RiflesPistolsAntique, Collector and Novelty AirgunsBB GunsPellets/AmmoOpticsAccessoriesAirgun Smithing Buy, Sell or Trade Forums----------------For SaleWant to Buy   Note: If you are seeing "Please enter your username and password to log in." 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