The printing on the box stated that the rifle had a muzzle velocity of 800 feet per second for a 0.177 pellet. Using Crossman pointed pellets weighing 7.9 grains, I fired a string of ten shots over my chronograph. The average muzzle velocity was actually 898 feet per second. The cocking effort on this break barrel air rifle was about 39 pounds . The open sights were crude but workable. The scope pictured on the rifle in the above photo is an inexpensive Leapers Scope which I installed later on.
| Winchester Daisy 800X Air Rifle | |
|---|---|
| Action | Break barrel spring piston air rifle |
| Caliber | 0.177 |
| Projectile | Lead Air Gun Pellets Only. The use of steel BBs or lead free pellets may cause damage to the mechanism. |
| Barrel | 17.7 inches Rifled |
| Overall Length | 45.0 inches |
| Weight | 6.6 pounds |
| Cocking Effort | 36.1 pounds |
| Sights | Blade Front, Tangent Open Notch Rear, 3/8 inch groove to fit rimfire scope mounts |
Trigger Pull Adjustment - Winchester Daisy Air Rifle
The big fly in the ointment with my purchase was the rifle's horrendous trigger pull which measured just over 14 pounds. I had used it a few times after I bought it, but it wasn't until 2009 that I had taken the time to work on the gun.
Although it is not mentioned in the user manual, I found that there is in fact a trigger adjustment screw just in front of the trigger.
Unfortunately the trigger adjustment screw that came with the rifle was non functional1 since it was too short to make contact with the mechanism. A number of internet posts on various websites, would seem to indicate that this is a common problem with both the Winchester Daisy 800X and 1000X air rifles. I measured the screw and found it to be 0.570 inches long. The screw diameter was 0.114 inches with 48 threads per inch which corresponds to a 4-48 thread.
Fortunately I found this to be a rather easy to fix. Searching through one of my parts boxes, I found a replacement screw with the same diameter and thread about 3/4 of inch long that I no doubt had salvaged from a record player or some other electronic device. The length was just about ideal, with it I was able to reduce the trigger pull to about 4 1/2 pounds.
The Break In Period
Most authorities on airguns will tell you that to achieve the best possible accuracy from a spring piston air rifle, it is generally necessary to fire 500 to as many as 2500 pellets before the parts in the mechanism start to smooth out and mesh together.
That has certainly been my experience. When I first started using this rifle, it produced an average muzzle velocity of 898 feet per second with a 7.9 grain pellet which was considerally above the advertised muzzle velocity of 800 feet a second with a 7.7 grain pellet. There was however a wide variation between the high and low muzzle velocity values which resulted in a fair amount of vertical stringing. A couple of years and several hundred pellets later, I have found that the group size fired from a sandbag has shrunk to about 3/4 inches at 25 yards. In January of 2011, I chronographed the air rifle again using the using the same type of Crosman 7.9 grain pointed pellets, the muzzle velocity has diminished somewhat to an average of 752 feet per second but by the same token, the standard deviation of the muzzle velocity has also shrunk to 6.2 feet per second. The cocking effort was also slightly reduced to 36 pounds.
1. Very likely the trigger adjustment screws for the Daisy rifles were made purposely short to prevent the end user from altering the trigger pull. The motive, doubtless was to limit possible product liability claims. Unfortunately this means that these rifles will not function well as target rifles out of the box.
Daisy Outdoor Products "Operation Manual Winchester Models 500X/600X/800X/1000X/522X/722X/85X22 Break - Action Pellet Rifles " Daisy Outdoor Products http://www.daisy.com