Daisy 901 vs 35.... mods?

I am looking for a dedicated steel bb (only) shooter, so the Daisy model 35 with its smooth bore may be a good option, but I was thinking of a 901 for its larger size....does anyone know if a model 35 smooth bore barrel could be fitted to a 901? Or possibly even a Daisy 499b barrel?
I have noticed the pink camo model 35's are often $15-$20 cheaper, and I would not mind painting one of those a custom color as well, just wondering if I may wish I had gone for the 901 if there is a relatively easy way to make it an accurate bb only shooter, (I do enjoy modifying bb guns) but am not familiar with the 901 or 35, I do have one of the discontinued Daisy BSA 1910 bb guns (1 pump) and was impressed with its accuracy, but I miss placed it in a move, I am sure I still own it....somewhere, lol, any advise would be appreciated!

 

I have a daisy 35, I've now two years shoot great lite weight also open site has windage..it took me a while to get it accurate but now great at 75 feet only 6 pumps.. I never pump a gun over 7 times..

 

Thanks Paul, I have pretty much decided to get a model 35 for my immediate bb shooter needs, I may add a 901 after Christmas if they go on clearance sale.

 

If you have a place to shoot inside a building say 30 feet only pump about 2 times it will be fun...I never pump any of mind over 7 pumps.. I still have my 1972 Crosman 760 still shoots today.. "HAPPY SHOOTING"

 

I picked up a camo Daisy 35 at tractor supply tonight, I cleaned the bore and lightly oiled, it seems to perform very well, but My eyes seemed to have gone down hill considerable in the last couple years. I can easily ring my 12" gong with bbs at 45-50 yards every shot, but my fine iron sight work days are behind me. I may order a low power scope to help my eyes.
I did shoot some rounds thru my chrony and the results where quite interesting. These numbers are with 10 pumps:

-Standard Daisy bbs are average about 611 fps

- Marksman bbs average about 662 fps

When I was young we used to think if you pump slowly, you get more power, the thought was if you pause for a moment with the pump arm open, you would get a better fill as all the air will Have time to rush in...I pumped slow with a long pause of 2 seconds with pump arm open and actually got a few fps slower....so I pumped as fast as I could and got a high of 692 fps!
Now what I think is happening is when you compress air it is heated, hot air expands and cool air contracts, when you pump real fast the air is hot in the gun and you have higher pressure, if you wait to shoot for some time the air in the gun will cool and you will get a slower velocity.
I will not make a regular practice of fast pumping, it is not practical and consistent velocity is more important than chasing speed, but it was a fun experiment!
I am looking forward to getting a scope for this little rifle and testing its accuracy on some small targets

 

If only you could improve the trigger.....

 

Well....I DID improve the trigger, just last night!! I can not take credit for the mod, there is a guy over on GTA forum (Ronno6)that has Just developed a Sweet trigger kit for the Daisy pump guns, it was developed for the Very popular 880 but much of the internals are the same on my Daisy 35 and also the 1977xs and 901. The kit was not difficult to install and Greatly improves the triggers on these guns. Stock pull can be in the 6-7lb range and now my Daisy 35 is only 10 oz trigger measured on RCBS trigger gauge.
My 35 seemed to respond really well to the kit, most Daisy triggers will be in the 1 to 1.5 pull range after kit install. This kit address's the real problem with daisy triggers and is a permanent fix.
The kits are so new to market, I actually got some pre- production kits to test. I think they will be available for anyone to purchase in the next couple weeks or so. I Highly recommend the kit.

 

More on the model 880 trigger kits can be seen here: Ronno's Daisy Trigger Mod Install "Pic Heavy"

I also used parts from one of Ronno's 880 trigger kits in a 1985 Daisy model 880. It was made before they started using the flat spring. The pull went from 3-3/4 lbs. to 1-1/4 lbs. The kits are not designed to be used in this type of valve body, though, so my installation was different than what would be encountered with a newer gun with the flat spring valve body. Regardless, I am very happy with the results.

Relocated and shortened sear spring


Sear installed


Return spring now where sear spring used to be

 

Yup, that's the one! Thanks for posting that link Cobalt 327!

I did not get as good of photos as Cobalt, but I will try to post what I have of the 35 trigger job. My kit parts are sitting inside the green roll of tape, there are several slight variations of this kit and a few folks are testing to see what the favorite kit is, but they all perform the same basic functionality

 

This is the new spring guide boss mounted on underside of sear.

 

I did not get a good photo of the new spring boss inside the the frame, this photo is of the kit installed, new spring location and the gun is cocked....for those folks interested, it might be good to follow the link Cobalt posted for more info.

 

Thanks for the pic's..this is neat..

 

No problem, the kit will transform a Daisy pumper from "kind of boring".... to....."OOH BABY"!!!!

 

Wow, that looks SWEET !!

Anyone interested, shoot me a note: [email protected]

 

Just read this post. Wondered how u came out. Looking at a 901 —try to fit the oversized bbs in the rifled bore, see if it can be made to shoot—bbs “acceptably”.

 

For what it's worth, I tested a new production rifled 880 and a smoothbore model 1910 (originally a SPP modified to be a MPP) for accuracy using BBs and found the 1910 is better at all distances. Pellets are just the opposite.




There’s a typo in my post above, it should read “I also used parts from one of Ronno's 880 trigger kits in a 1975 Daisy model 880.” Not 1985 as I had typed.

 

Hay Cobalt, what size (brand) bb did u use in the 880? Wondering if the Marksman will chamber? Would they improve accuracy in the 880? Thx

 

Sorry for not seeing this until just now.

Testing for accuracy was done with standard Daisy zinc plated BBs from Walmart. FWIW, my smoothbore 1910 will shoot the Marksman BBs.but the rifled shot tube of a new production model 880 won't allow a Marksman BB to roll through it, so I didn't try shooting them from it for fear of a jam.

 

Wonder how the Daisy "Precision Ground" premium BB's would work?

They seem slightly larger in size than some old Crosman BB's I had.