I had an 853 for a couple of years, dandy rifle. Very accurate. The pneumatic system was great, absolutely no felt recoil (which is odd when there is NONE) and a decent trigger. Good balance for offhand shooting. The indexing for the magazine took a little practice, and a deliberate effort to work right...but did when you got the hang of it. The 953 is an econo-version of the 853 and as far as I know, very similar. I'm not sure the barrel is the same grade, but I have a hunch that (other than the stock) most of the other components are shared.
I'm very familiar with this air rifle. Used in the Canadian Cadet Marksmanship program. They don't look well made but I was always impressed by how accurate they were. The best Cadet shooters could shoot scores in the high 90's The 10 "ring' on the standard Cadet scoring target is a dot. Range 10 meters. Our unit had 10 on the scale of issue and we had few maintenance problems. They were used a couple nights a month during the training year.
Hundred and twenty seven bucks sounds like a great deal. We had the odd parent who wanted to buy them for their son or daughter to practice at home and I was told they retailed for about $250. Maybe manufactured by a company called Avanti now.
Well the ones that used in the Cadets is the 753C.
I'm asking about the 953.
Was that an inadvertent typo?...(753C)
Cadets most definitely use the Daisy 853C
Check out TSC stores as they often have sales on the Daisy 953 going for less than $70.
I xwould say go for it. I've just got a DAISY 953 from D&L this weekend and it shoots one ragged hole at 20ft with Williams peep sight and target front globe, prone support. You will find tons of info, trigger mods, disassembly procedures and dedicated owners on the internet. I'm happy with mine and looking to get a higher model like 753 or 853C with wooden stock and Lothar Walther barrel in the future.