I'm an adult veteran, also a senior, and wanted to get back into the sport of competitive target shooting and figured I'd start off at the bottom so that if my physical limitations prevented much advancement in the sport then I wouldn't be out much money if I had to stop.
Well, I found it to be a very enjoyable bb gun. I do wish it had a stock option like the Adult Red Ryder so it would feel a little more full-sized for an adult. But as is, it's ok. It has fiber optic sight on the front which is nice. Empty it's a bit light, but once you pour in enough bb's to make it at least half-full, or more, it becomes much more weighty and balanced which I like a lot as that helps with aiming stability in the standing position. The velocity of the bb's seems to be pretty good as they give a good crack sound when they tear into the targets on my 5-meter indoor range that I practice on with an eye towards competitive shooting one day.
I knew prior to purchase that this has a polymer lever on it rather than the metal on some models like the Red Ryder. I don't mind that, the lever feels solid and durable. I've had no issues with anything so far.
This bb rifle is a smoothbore and fires only bb's. As such, accuracy will be a little less than what you will get from something like the Daisy 880 which has a rifled barrel and fires pellets that are more like bullets than bb's. Still, for this model 1999, it's pretty accurate for a smoothbore firing bb's which sometimes have a tendency to wander. On a 5-meter bb range and regulation target you should have no trouble getting a group of 5 bb's all on the target, most will likely be around the black 8, 9 and 10 rings, though I've found it difficult to pick up a 9 or 10 (bullseye) ring hits but I'm also probably not the most accurate marksman out there having just come back to the sport in the last month after more than 30 years of not shooting at all.
As far as cons, two things I should mention. First con is that the coating on the rifle is a gloss black. It's looks pretty, but there are times when overhead lights, or even the sun, can put a reflection on the rear sight which can affect your ability to line up the two sights for the best possible aim. I intend to dull the shine a bit on the rear sight to remove that distracting reflection. Second con is that the rear sight doesn't have adjustment for windage. However, the rifle shoots fairly straight, I've mainly only had to adjust for elevation to match the point of contact to my point of aim to hit the target in the same general area.
Only other thing I can think to mention is the fact that sometimes you'll get a misfire from a bb failing to load. I consider that a fault of the bb's feeding into the chamber. They seem to like to stick together and jam in the magazine area. I just give a quick shake to move the bb's around and it goes right back to firing normally.
I recommend this is you're just looking for something to have fun with.
