Daisy 880 Air Rifle With Scope, Brown

I purchased this for my son’s 10th birthday and he loves it. My parent’s have an old (very old) Red Ryder style BB gun that my son has been shooting for a few years and he’s really been enjoying it. But, sometimes you can throw the BB faster than what the gun will shoot, so I figured it was time for an upgrade.
It’s funny how much time I put into researching which BB gun to get. Probably just like you, I looked at all the models offered by Daisy and Crosman, and even some of the more expensive brands. When I started reading reviews on how smooth the trigger pull was on expensive $500 pellet guns, I knew I was in too deep. So my decision just came down to remembering how much fun I had with my Daisy BB gun when I was a kid and the fact that BB gun couldn’t have cost more than $17…..so I got my son a Daisy pellet gun for $40.
This gun has lots of power for the dollar. I don’t remember as a kid my gun having this much oomph, but this one shoots really well. We set up a target at about 30 feet and after a few adjustments, the grouping was about 2 inches. This was using the flimsy, plastic scope that came with the gun. I don’t know how long (or if at all), the scope will hold it’s zero, but for the 50 or so shots we made, it did OK.
It’s a variable pump, so the more you pump it, the stronger it gets. The instructions say don’t pump more than 10 times or you could damage the internals, which is just fine because around pump number 8, it starts to get pretty hard for my son to pump it.

All in all, I think this is a fantastic BB/pellet gun for the first time shooter at a great price.

My 12-year old Son has been saving his lawn-mowing money all summer and was finally able to afford this great 10-pump BB/Pellet gun. Alas, we found it $20 cheaper (including the scope as sold here) at a big-name discount store after we had taken it out of the package and started using it.

Now, about the rifle:

Though it feels a little “cheap” due to the mostly plastic construction, this is to be expected at this price point. With care, this rifle should last my son for many years to come.

The scope leaves something to be desired. I’d recommend finding your best deal on just the rifle and then purchase a better scope separately. (It’s best to learn to use iron sights first anyway.)

As for accuracy, once we had the sights adjusted properly, we could easily hit 16 oz cans and water bottles from 50 feet away using pellets or BBs. Naturally, as we increased the distance, we found pellets to be much more consistent.

Compared to a $500+ air gun, this is a toy of course. For the price though, it is a nice little rifle and a great way to begin teaching kids how to handle firearms safely.

I should point out that the minimum recommended age for this air rifle is 16 years old. I’ve been working with my son on safe handling of firearms and he only uses it under my supervision (when not in use I have a trigger-lock on it and it is stored in my gun safe). This air gun has plenty of power and should only be used under adult supervision.

UPDATED 4/25/2023 with a new tip on optimizing your Daisy 880!

UPDATED 02-10-2023 to be more concise, and added some more of my findings!

Do’s & Don’t s:

* If you are having problems with accuracy, I highly recommend cleaning the barrel! I have seen YouTube reviewers that even clean the barrel of newly purchased guns!

* I have noticed that pellets seem to be more accurate than BB’s, especially at further distances where you might need a scope. I have shot at a can about 30 paces away with BB’s using a scope, and never seemed to hit the can, but then I switched to pellets and placing the cross-hairs on the can just like before, and I started to actually hit the can!

* Also for accuracy, I recommend resting the gun against something solid to help steady your aim! This is really apparent when using a scope at a target a good distance away, you see your cross-hairs going all over the place! I got a bi-pod, but returned it and got a tri-pod, which seemed to steady my aim much better!

* You might try using a bore sight kit to get a better idea as to where exactly your bore/barrel is pointing compared to your sights! This might be more useful for guns that shoot more expensive ammo, but it is interesting to try, plus, bore sights are only about $20.

* Do get a gun cleaning kit. I got the Raiseek .177/.22 Cal kit, which seems to do a pretty good job. I also got the Lengo wool felt cleaning pellets (good for a quick ‘clean’ by shooting through the barrel after a pump or two, just be careful where you point and shoot still!), and the Outers cleaning patches (these are the perfect size for .177 caliber barrels), and the Hoppes 9 Elite gun cleaning kit for the cleaning solution as well as to oil the gun. As you move the cleaning rod through the barrel, you should notice it twist, which is good, since that means the rifling is in good shape in the barrel!

* Do use Crosman Pellgunoil to oil your gun where indicated in the manual/on the gun. They say to be careful as to which type of oil to use, since some oils can damage/dissolve the rubber seals/gaskets. From what I’ve read, this oil is safe to use in pellet guns, and it isn’t too expensive, around $4 or so.

* Do clean your pellets to keep your barrel cleaner for longer, especially if you dump out the pellets and see a lot of lead dust at the bottom of your pellet container. Check YouTube for videos on this. Sifting out the lead dust in a plastic seign and washing them (outside, not in the sink!) is a good place to start. This may seem rather anal, but I bet professional shooters pay attention to these tiny details!

* If you use BB’s, do use zinc or copper coated BB’s. Don’t use Crosman Black Widow BB’s that are cobalt coated, because the cobalt breaks off in the barrel and dirties up the barrel, and messes up your accuracy. Also, you probably shouldn’t use steel BB’s, since steel on steel may be rough on the rifling. Don’t bother using Gamo lead BB’s, since they don’t stay in the chamber, but rather roll down and out the barrel!

* Do get a suppressor/silencer/moderator/lead dust collector(LDC) to silence you gun. I got mine from Buck-Rail, and it does suppress the sound down a bit! The adapter and suppressor was $24, including shipping!

* Speaking of loading pellets, do drop the pellets into place rather than rolling them into the chamber. They always seem to spin around backwards when rolling them in!

* Optionally, you can get an optical front sight for the 880, but only if your gun is out of warranty and you are mechanically inclined, since the easiest way to remove the front sight is to partially take apart the gun. Check YouTube for videos on disassembly/reassembly. Trust me when I say that it is near impossible to just pop out the front sight without taking the gun apart partially!

* Also, after you pull back the bolt to cock the gun and load your choice of ammo, be sure to push the bolt forward until you hear it click. The older/original 880 didn’t have this ‘click feature’. Not pushing it forward all the way seems to leave air still in the gun, which I suppose you could shoot another round without having to pump it again, but you won’t get the full intended power!

* Of course, you have to pull back the bolt to cock the gun AND to pump it full of air. It isn’t like the Crosman 13XX or possibly other airguns where you can pump up the gun full of air without cocking the gun first!

* Do upgrade the scope to a Winchester 4×32, and also get the Monstrum Dovetail V2 see-through scope rings! The original 4×15 scope is 3/4″ in diameter, which the Monstrum V2 scope rings are for 1″ scopes. The Monstrum see-through scope rings fit nice and tight on the 880, as well as on the Winchester scope. Also, the Winchester scope can be adjusted with your fingers and has ‘clicks’ instead of just a screw, and is clearly marked for direction (up/down, right/left). Also, the viewing area is much bigger/better too! Being able to use either the scope or the open sights is really nice, plus you have a little more room for loading pellets.

04/25/2023 – I noticed that my Daisy 880 didn’t have resistance in the last few inches of closing the pump arm when pumping it up, at least compared to my Winchester 1977XS, which I just thought it was due to the better quality of the 1977XS, but I found a video on YouTube that talked about this exact same issue. It turned out that I needed to follow his instructions on just oiling the pump head seal, which I did, and now I feel resistance during the full length of the pump! The name of the video is called “Daisy 880 O-Ring Repair, Fix, Oil – Oil Type, Pump fix” and the channel is called “Daisy 880 Fanatic Fix It”, which I highly recommend checking out if you notice this same issue with your 880. My 880 seemed to be quite lacking in oil.

I hope these tips, tricks, and tools help you enjoy your 880 even more, and turns you into a real sharp shooter!