Chad Kentner brings us his review of the Daisy 599 Target Air Rifle. You can check-out his video below, too. Take it away Chad…
It is not often that the US Market is the first to see a product produced in Europe. However this has been the case for Daisy’s newest edition to their target air rifle lineup.
The Daisy 599 Target Air Rifle is built in the UK. It comes standard with a Cold Hammer Forged BSA barrel, adjustable stock, removable quick fill air cylinder, two stage trigger and match sights. The price comes in at a very reasonable $595.00.
As you may have guessed from the barrel, this rifle is also being marketed by BSA as the BSA Silver Star. That model is available in both .22 and .177 configurations and was introduced after the Daisy version this past February.
You might be asking yourself, why would I have any interest in 10M target shooting?
Well, many people are! And in my experience, it is one of the best training methods for all types of shooting situations. That’s because it forces one to control your breathing, strengthen your core, and – most importantly – develop trigger control.
All three of these will help with accuracy in benchrest, Field Target, hunting or even the impromptu plinking session.
I have been using this particular 10M air rifle for several months now and have really enjoyed the accuracy, quality and ease of use.
Beginning with the beech stock, you will notice that it is ambidextrous. There’s stippling for additional grip, an accessory rail under the foregrip, adjustable comb and a shoulder pad that not only adjusts for height, but length of pull too.
The wonderful part is that there is enough built in adjustability to not only fit someone of adult stature (6’0”) as well as youth shooters.
The breech features a modern straight pull T-Handle bolt, a generously sized loading gate, and a dovetail sight rail.
The Daisy 599 also comes with a two-stage adjustable match trigger. There are four screws on and around the trigger housing. These allow you to adjust the first stage, sear engagement, second stage weight and second stage overtravel.
So you can set just the right feel and a trigger that is crisp, consistent and just to your liking. Another aspect of the trigger that I liked is the ability to adjust the angle of the trigger blade to fit your specific trigger pull. As a personal preference, I don’t particularly like a straight trigger blade, for example.
Another interesting aspect of this air rifle is the air cylinder. First and foremost it is easily removable and comes with the valve built into the cylinder. Daisy also supplies numerous o-rings in the box for the potential need of a reseal during a match and looks easy to do so by an average airgunner.
A plastic cap covers the fill port and it uses a standard BSA fill probe to recharge the cylinder. Don’t forget the quick disconnect fitting for your fill probe if you order the rifle as one is not supplied.
The owner’s manual says that the HPA cylinders of the Daisy 599 Target Air Rifle are also power configurable. The cylinder shipped with the air rifle shoots at around 6 Ft/Lbs of energy.
However it is always nice to to have options and this got me to digging further into this. Although the Daisy website doesn’t state anything about additional cylinders or adjusting the one it came with, more information was available on the BSA website where it states that cylinders are available in both 6 and 12 Ft/Lb. versions.
I hope that in time Daisy will bring 12 Ft/Lb cylinders into the U.S. market too.
Having all of the makings of an excellent air rifle, we have yet to cover the information that is most important to both me and you as a shooter. That is to know if the Daisy 599 is accurate, how many shots to get and how does it feel from a shooter’s perspective?
Beginning with the chronograph data, I was able to shoot 152 shots off a single fill in .177 caliber.
Of those shots I noticed three distinct patterns based on fill pressure. The first third of the fill was shooting around 540 FPS, the second third of the fill was shooting around 550 FPS and the last third of the shot string was shooting around 555-560 FPS.
This may seem like a considerable spread to some. But keep in mind that at our distance of 10M this has little to no impact on shot placement of and at this price I am very happy.
Knowing that this particular rifle was shooting consistently over a long period of time made me excited as to what it could do on the range. To garner the best results and to take as much human error out of the equation as possible I started with shooting the Daisy 599 Target Air Rifle off a bipod.
Grouping outdoors at 10M wasn’t even a real task for this air rifle. It was shooting a single hole using RWS wadcutters each and every time I tried.
Of particular importance to me is the option to not only shoot this rifle with a diopter sight, but the ability to add a scope too.
Mounting the MTC Optics Mamba Ultra Lite 3-10×40 scope on the Daisy 599 allowed me to take this 6 Ft/Lb rifle out to 25 Yards. As one might expect with a lower power air rifle, groups did begin to open up slightly…
After trying a variety of pellets, I found using JSB Exact Express 7.87 gr. pellets provided the best results. The best group of the day consisted of 3 pellets through one hole and two that I pulled a little to the left for a group size of .33 CTC.
I wouldn’t be doing this rifle justice without actually taking it to one of our local 10M clubs and giving it a go. Back in March, I was able to meet up at Germania in Columbus, Ohio for a match.
On my first outing with the Daisy 599, I was able to best my previous top scores with a new personal best of 63.5 as scored by the Orion Scoring system. This was not only a personal best, but was also good enough for third place on the night!
I attribute much of the improvement to the rifle and the comfort level I was able to achieve with the adjustable stock, nice trigger system and of course the Cold Forged Barrel.
Whether you are a member of a high school rifle team (JROTC, 4-H, etc…), local competitor, or just was to practice with a well balanced and accurate rifle; the Daisy 599 Target Air Rifle may just be the rifle you have been looking for.
The post Daisy 599 Target Air Rifle Review appeared first on Hard Air Magazine.