Lol, i have 3 new air rifles now and haven't bought one myself yet.
My gf got me a 392 and a 1377...one for birthday and the other for Christmas.
Today i recieved a Walmart gift card from my brother in Co. with instructions to go buy a Daisy 880.
He has several airguns, but the only one he has two alike of is the 880....one scoped and one for iron sight shooting.
I had one with metal reciever back in the early 80's and it was a shooter for sure. I turned it over to my sons, so it's long gone now.
I've read a lot of mixed reviews about them over the last couple of years...mostly good, but a lot of complaints about the plastic or composite stocks and a hard trigger.
I couldn't believe what came out of the box for $35.00!
The finish on the reisin or plastic reciever actually looks great and seems very sturdy for what it is.
The scope rails seem to line up centered with the top of the bbl. shroud and it actually has very usable sights with the front being very straight with no lean to one side or the other and has a white dot on it.
Of course the rear is adjustable for windage and elevation and is metal. The ramp it sits on for elevation adj. is reisin or nylon, or whatever the reciever is made from i guess.
Considering what the reciever is made from, i'm sure care should be taken if taking apart for trigger work, modding, or whatever, to keep from stripping the screw holes out, but i get no sense that anything is going to fly apart from normal usage.
The fitting of the stocks(forend and shoulder) is well fit to the reciever with an excellent fit where they all come together.
The bolt cocks the gun very positively and inspite of what i've read, i had no problems rolling the pellets into place. You do have to cock the bolt to place the gun on safe or to pump air into it.
The trigger on mine is great as far as i'm concerned. Yes it does feel pre-loaded and has a bit of travel....but, you can "feel" when it tightens up...at that point it breaks clean with very little pressure at all.
It was dark when i got it home, but had to try it out. I just set up a target at 5 yds. and put the first 5 daisy wad cutters in a slightly rounded hole. I was sitting on the floor with rifle rested on a chair with my rear bag under the forend.
I did flare the skirts on the daisy's with a ball point pen a bit.
The sights came already adjusted to dead center and about 1/2" low.
Crosman 10.5 gr. piranah's did the same and crosman hp's went into about a 1/4" hole at a perfect 6 o'clock right where the sights were.
Yeah, just 5 yds. so far, but before long i'll run it from 20 to 50 yds. and report on it.
Again, for $35.00 i'm impressed so far with fit, finish, and the fact the sights were centered out of the box. Looks like China is taking some time and care putting these little guns together?
Shooting at distance will tell me more very soon, as in do i need to tape mod. the bbl. under the shroud, or do something about the trigger, etc.
We'll see if the accuracy falls apart at distance first.