I didn't know this action had taken place.
But, when I learned the fact the model was dropped, I made a concerted effort to buy a New Old-Stock example.
Long story short ... I found two at New England Airgun Inc. - without hesitation ... bought both.
After shooting the Daisy 953's I realized, I should have bought one a long time ago.
5-Shot at 10m
Aperture Sights
Standing with Arm Supporting Forend Steadied Against Rest
Inexpensive Crosman Wadcutters
The single-stroke pneumatic with a clip-feeding mechanism is a lot of fun to shoot.
Not having to fumble with loading the small .177 pellets is a real convenience for an older fellow like me.
And, makes firing-off a shot-string quick and without loading frustration - love this feature.
Out-of-the-box, the trigger isn't bad.
But, for competition use ... it is very-lacking a light-trigger.
And, certainly could benefit from the Pilkguns trigger modification.
But, for my purposes ... plinking, informal target shooting, bug-busting and practicing general marksmanship the 953 works well-enough.
I'm more than satisfied with the over-all performance of my 953s.
In the near future, I plan-on scoping one of my 953s and installing AR-15/M16 style peep sights on the other.
I like peep sights.
The OEM aperture sights are fine.
But, they don't allow for gauging missed POIs ... the rear sight assembly covers too much of the sight picture.
Daisy 953 RIFLE PERFORMANCE STATISTICS
Trigger: OEM
Pull: 4lbs-5.8oz AVG (4lbs-7.5oz MAX / 4lbs-4.2oz MIN)
Name: 953
Pellet: Crosman Destroyer
Weight: 7.4 gr.
Shots: 5
Average: 426 ft/s
SD: 2 ft/s
Min: 424 ft/s
Max: 430 ft/s
Spread: 6 ft/s
I was surprised to find the domestic-market 953 produced more-velocity than the Canadian 953C Cadet rifle (Average: 352 ft/s).
By the way,I mounted a scope on one of my other 953s ... yep, I have a couple more.
When I found the little rifle had been discontinued, I thought it would be a good idea to stock-up on what I could find.
I just love the repeater capability via clip-feed ... don’t like fumbling with tiny pellets when I plinking or while engaged-in recreational target practice.
The rubber side-feed clip sometimes is a little-sticky.
But, I find coating the clips with powdered-graphite reduces the frequency of this little-inconvenience significantly.