Canadian Airgun Forum

Daisy 880 Review

Introduction
A few days ago I did some shooting with forum member Ricksplace. After the 3 hour shooting session was over he handed me his Daisy 880 rifle to take home and play with for a while. The rifle had to be evaluated, like most airguns that pass through my hands...lol.

To be honest, the Daisy 880 is a low priced, cheapo air rifle with more plastic than metal. The plastic parts include the stock, receiver, trigger, bolt body, bolt handle, front sight and pump arm. The rear sight is stamped metal. The rifled barrel is a thin metal tube inside a sheet metal shroud that has a visible seam down the bottom. The shroud is meant to take on the appearance of a thicker barrel.

The 880 likely already sounds like junk. Good points include the metal bolt probe, which was a pleasant surprise. The trigger isn't too bad either considering the price of this rifle. It's a heavish pull compared to a high end air rifle but definitely not too bad. The pull has a bit of creep that feels like a first stage. The let-off feels crisp and very predictable on this example. I didn't mind it at all, considering the price point. The rifle comes with adjustable "iron" sights and an 11mm scope groove on the receiver.

The 880 was designed to shoot both BBs and pellets. It has an internal 50 BB reservoir and a magnetic tip on the metal bolt probe to ease loading. Pellets are loaded single shot.

Pumping effort on this rifle is so easy that I can pump it to 10 with only my index finger. Pumping to 4 strokes is extremely easy and beyond 4 isn't really much more difficult. This is something that really shocked me. I'm accustomed to much more pumping effort after the first few strokes.

Price? Pyramyd Air sells this rifle for only $45.95USd and the refurb rifles for $34.99USd. I haven't even checked the prices on Canadian models but I assume they are detuned for our market. The rifle that I am testing is an American full power example.

Specifications
Calibre = .177 BB or pellet
Length = 37 5/8"
Pull = 13 3/4"
Barrel = 20 1/2"
Weight = 3 lb 1.6 oz

Velocity
The Daisy factory velocity rating is 800 fps for BBs and 665 fps for pellets. Airgun Depot rates them at 750fps for BB and 715fps for pellet. Tested velocity is as follows:

JSB Exact - 8.4 grain
4 pumps = 514, 515, 514, 517, 517 fps
6 pumps = 594, 596, 596 fps
10 pumps = 678, 682, 682 fps

RWS Hobby - 7.0 grain
10 pumps = 731, 726, 723 fps

As can be seen, the velocity is very consistent with this rifle.

Accuracy @10m
I was only using the iron sights for the accuracy testing. Better results might be achieved with optics.

5 shot groups from 10 metres measured ctc
Excite Hammer (4 pumps) - .80", .75", .75", .75"
JSB Exact (4 pumps) - ..75", .95", .95", .75", .70", .60"
RWS Meisters (4 pumps) - .80", .50", .90", .80"

JSB Exact (10 pumps) - .80", .72", .62"
RWS Hobby (10 pumps) - .31", .60", .36", .55", .63" - average = .49" ctc

Many of the "4 pump" groups showed slight stringing. The "10 pump" groups looked more round. Maybe this was because I cleaned the barrel before the "10 pump" groups. Possibly the "4 pump" groups would tighten up a bit with further testing. Different pump counts may provide even better accuracy.

No testing was done with H&N pellets, JSB Match or any of the other popular RWS pellets. Possibly another pellet or head size would give tighter group averages. I'm done with pumping for a while!

Final Opinion
Not bad at all for $50USd. It gives well over 700fps with pellets and under 1/2" ctc average accuracy at 10 metres. The rifle size feels fine for an average adult and it's fun to shoot! Apparently this test example has been loaned out many times and has seen countless BBs and pellets. It has required no repairs and is still shooting fine.

Cheers

I watched Todd pick up (for the first time) my Crosman springer and shoot a 3/4" group (3) at 20 meters offhand. I can't do that, and it's my rifle!

Real nice review! And a great time shooting.

You pumped 680 strokes just for your published groups. Pumpin Plastic!

FYI the gun had 8000 bbs and a few tins of pellets through it or about 30,000 pump strokes before Todd did his review.


Rick.

_________________
Theory is when you know how something works, but it doesn't.
Practice is when something works, but you don't know why.
In my shop, Theory and Practice are combined!
Nothing works and I don't know why.

Two lathes and too many projects

Here are the RWS Hobby targets... 10 pumps... 10 metres... iron sights... 5 shots each target... 3 groups could be covered by dimes... the other two were slightly larger.
.31, .60, .36, .55, .63 --- Average = .49" ctc

A superb review on the Daisy 880.

Well, I was in the USA a couple of days ago and picked up a Daisy 880S of my own. It's a good deal at $44.95 USd for the rifle and a cheapo 4X Daisy branded scope.

I checked accuracy this afternoon. I started with the 10.5 Crosman domes because I heard they are great in the 880. I didn't think so. I had to work to get a couple of good groups with the Crosmans. Then I tried RWS Superdomes and JSB Exact 8.44gr. I still have several others to try but the accuracy is already looking reasonable.

Groups at 10m (5 shots ctc)
Crosman Premier 10.5gr heavies - .68", .77"
RWS Superdomes 8.3gr - .54", .58", .40", .62", .38", .68", .60"
JSB Exact 8.44gr - .20", .68", .56"

Velocity(fps)
JSB Exact 8.44gr - 659, 659, 662
RWS Superdome 8.3gr - 661, 660, 666
RWS Hobby 7.0gr - 702, 704, 703

My top 5 groups with JSB Exact average exactly 1/2" ctc.

My rifle is a little slower than Rick's by a bit more than 3%. Mine is new and his is a year old with about 10,000 shots through it.

The .20" group with the JSBs looks sweet! Some of the groups actually had an obvious flyer but they still measured okay. One pellet made some groups 1/2" to 5/8" rather than a big ragged hole. It could be the cheapo skinny Daisy scope but I'm not putting the blame there.

I'm not done with trying to wring out good accuracy from this cheapo rifle. It's a lot of fun to shoot and only weighs 3 pounds. It definitely needs better optics!

Looking back on my records, the chrono numbers I got when my gun was new were bang on Todd's with his new rifle. The faster speeds on mine now must be from break-in. No mods have been done to my rifle. Interesting to see no accuracy fall-off after 8000 bbs.

Nice addition to your review, Todd. Thanks!

ps: What differences do you notice between my high mileage model and your new one?

edit: Since most of those bbs were shot by my neighbour's grandson, I'm guessing he pumped it more than a few times for each shot. There could be as many as 50,000 pump strokes, (maybe more) on the gun. Any noticeable wear on the pump assembly as compared to the new one (without disassembling anything)? The only maintenance I have done to the gun is regular oiling with 10/30 motor oil on the pump head and friction points. I think I cleaned the barrel once or twice, but I found it shot bbs better with a dirty barrel.

_________________
Theory is when you know how something works, but it doesn't.
Practice is when something works, but you don't know why.
In my shop, Theory and Practice are combined!
Nothing works and I don't know why.

Two lathes and too many projects

The only difference between the two rifles seems to be the white dot on the front sight of mine. There is a little divot at the top of the blade with white paint in it. Otherwise the rifles look identical. The pump linkage and all appears to be the same. Pumping effort feels pretty much the same now.... nice and light.

During the first couple of hundred shots, my new rifle was stiff to open during the pump cycle. The latch at the end of the handle needed to break in. There was quite a bit of friction on the cross spring (latch pin) and it was noisy. The latch has worn in properly and seems fine now.

Since my initial review I have been shooting the Daisy 880 quite a bit.

The barrel on the 880 is actually a .30" soda straw size that runs through the fat shroud that gives the appearance of a normal size barrel. According to other owners, the skinny barrel gives best accuracy when shimmed inside the shroud to help stiffness. I shimmed with many wraps of electrical tape in the middle of the barrel and several flat rubber plumbing washers at the muzzle end (washers modified). I also used some 400 grit paper to carefully polish out the transfer port opening and the junction at the barrel-to-breech.

The rifle felt quite light at slightly over 3 pounds so I added some weight. Around thirty .44cal lead balls were dropped into the buttstock, smothered in silicone. Another sixteen .375cal lead balls were added to each side of the forestock. The weight came up to 4 lbs 6 oz with a balance point right under the loading port. A full sized scope should put the weight at around 5 pounds.

Finally I adjusted the parallax on the cheapo Daisy 4X scope. There is a ring inside the end of the scope that easily moves to set parallax. I also learned that it's important to keep my eye directly behind this scope. If I'm off a bit the target gets blurry and accuracy suffers, although it is never perfect with this $5 piece of junk.

Accuracy After Modifications
--- 5 Shot groups from 10 metres with 6 pumps --- April 9, 2015
RWS Hobby (7.0gr) - .30, .21, .21, .31, .38 ----- Ave = .28" ctc
RWS Superdome (8.3gr) - .29, .19, .27, .33, .30 - Ave = .28" ctc
JSB Exact (8.44gr)- .33, .24, .30, .18, .33, ---- Ave = .28" ctc

--- 5 Shot groups from 10 metres with 6 pumps --- April 23, 2015
JSB Exact (8.4gr) --.27, .19, .40, .29, .35, .20 --- Ave = .28" ctc

Notes - Two of today's groups had definite flyers that were likely my fault. This opened up the groups to .35" and .40" but I included them in the average anyway. I adjusted the scope for the last group that I shot today. That's why the POI is in the black.

Velocity Tests
JSB Exact (8.4gr) - 6 pumps = 575 fps
JSB Exact (8.4gr) - 10 pumps = 660 fps
RWS Hobby (7.0gr) - 10 pumps = 705 fps

The Daisy 880 is a very reasonable shooter, especially for $45USd (with scope).

This afternoon I did some 20 yard indoor shooting with the Daisy 880. Forum member "ricksplace" was shooting as well.

For all 20 yard groups the 8.4gr JSB Exact was used. I almost don't believe the accuracy. The two large groups had very obvious flyers that were likely pilot error... but I included them anyway.

.34, .52, .29, .48, .63, .34, .47, .49, .22, .69 = Ave .45" ctc

The top 8 groups averaged only .39". This doesn't makes sense. The same pellet averages .28" at 10 metres. If I extrapolate the 10m (33') distance average I should be getting .51" at 20 yds (60'). Even with the two bad groups I am averaging under 1/2" at 20 yds. I'm not complaining but it doesn't sound believable. Maybe the pathetic Daisy 4X scope has less error at the longer distance or maybe I got 8 fluky groups. I'll have to do the test again sometime at 20 yards, as well as test at 30 and 40 yards when the outdoor temp warms up.

----- 5 shot groups - 20 yards - 6 pumps - 575 fps - 8.4gr JSB Exact -----

I did some 30 and 40 yard benchrest shooting today with the Daisy 880. The wind was mild but still frustrating at times. I still have to measure up all the groups so I’ll report back another time. They look good! I will add them to my growing review.

At the end of my shooting session I tried 4 pumps on the Daisy at 40 yards. The wind was mild but still gusting at times. I had to carefully squeeze off at the right time. At 485fps the pellet can be quite sensitive to wind. My first group measured 3 3/8" for 10 shots, but 8 of the 10 went into 2 1/2". The second group measured 3 1/2" but it had one bad flyer. Without the flyer I had 9 pellets in 2 1/4". I'm guessing that on a dead calm day, with a good scope, I should be able to do 2" for 10 shots at 40 yards with 4 pumps. They just lob into the target...lol... but it's fun!

I did some shooting yesterday too but it was too windy for anything serious. Just for fun I shot the 880 with 4 pumps at a 23oz can pasta sauce from 50 yards. I got 3 hits out of 5 shots. I can actually see the pellets in the air. The short video was taken with a cheapo 4X zoomed camera so the can is visible.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPB8Ee5KSvU

Daisy 880 with 4X Daisy scope (3/4" tube)
Groups were measured. I did okay at 30 yards but I think the poor Daisy scope made 40 yards a bit too challenging. The wind may have messed up the 40 yard groups too.

The 30 yard shooting was done at 6 pumps and 40 yards done at 10 pumps. Maybe 6 pumps is more accurate. I did try two groups with 6 pumps at 40 yards but the groups were 3” and strung out horizontally (wind issues). I’ll have to try 40 yards again when the air is dead calm and the rifle wears a higher quality and higher magnification scope.

30 yards – 0.77, 1.09, 0.99, 0.90, 0.87, 1.02 --- Ave = 0.94” ctc

40 yards – 1.94, 1.89, 1.88, 1.51, 1.83, 1.73 --- Ave = 1.80” ctc

Cheers,
Todd

Under 1" at 30 yards on a breezy day from a $45 rifle. Good grief.

_________________
Theory is when you know how something works, but it doesn't.
Practice is when something works, but you don't know why.
In my shop, Theory and Practice are combined!
Nothing works and I don't know why.

Two lathes and too many projects

That's some superb and spectacular shooting indeed. Todd Cooper is truly a master of airgunnery.

It ain't me... it's the rifle. All I did was a couple of very minor mods. The rifle was shot from sandbags and I watched the wind conditions for the best instant to shoot. This 880 is stupid accurate for the price! LOL