The Daisy Red Ryder BB Gun
Daisy Red Ryder BB Gun
Back when I was a kid (just after the ice had receded from North America, if I remember correctly) I wanted a Daisy Red Ryder lever action BB gun. I think EVERY lad of my age wanted a Daisy, and not just ANY Daisy, either, it just HAD to be the Red Ryder. After all, that was the one shown in the comic books ads. (How times have changed. Gun ads in comic books were no big deal.)
To make it worse, Bobby, the neighborhood troublemaker kid, DID have a BB gun, and yes, it WAS a Red Ryder.
Not that I was without firearms/weapons of my own, some of them rather awsome in hindsight. For example, I made a steel rod spear launcher out of a piece of 1 1/2" steel tube and surgical tubing. It would shoot a 3' long 3/8" steel rod over one hundred feet, straight up! It would have probably dropped an antelope at a hundred yards, maybe more, but I digress....
Anyhow, every Christmas I eagerly looked under the tree for a package of a size that might contain a genuine Red Ryder. Christmas after Christmas, no luck, no BB gun, no Red Ryder.
Then my folks decided we should move out to the country and live on a farm.
When I was asked if I'd like to live on a farm, my first question was "Does that mean I get to have a BB gun?"
My parents, figuring that if they didn't get me a BB gun, eventually I'd probably build myself something far more dangerous instead. Some of my previous experiments with home-made explosives had already made them a little nervous.
I still don't know why. I never blew up anything important, and on top of that, a lot of times my "experiments" failed to explode at all!
When my dad finally brought home a box for me, just about the size of a BB gun, I could hardly wait to open the package. When I opened the box, it was a Daisy BB gun. A Daisy PUMP BB gun. It wasn't a Red Ryder at all.
I did my best to appear happy and so forth, but it didn't come easy. I took it out and shot it a number of times, and it was a good BB gun, in hindsight maybe even better that the Red Ryder model. Somehow my heart just wasn't in it.
I finally wore it out, to where the rivets holding the pump mechanism gave way, and it could no longer be cocked.
Looking back, I probably did learn a lot about firearm safety, sight picture, trigger pull, and so forth, with the Daisy pump BB gun, but it was kinda like learning to drive in the family station wagon, or kissing your sister.......
Back when I was a kid (just after the ice had receded from North America, if I remember correctly) I wanted a Daisy Red Ryder lever action BB gun. I think EVERY lad of my age wanted a Daisy, and not just ANY Daisy, either, it just HAD to be the Red Ryder. After all, that was the one shown in the comic books ads. (How times have changed. Gun ads in comic books were no big deal.)
To make it worse, Bobby, the neighborhood troublemaker kid, DID have a BB gun, and yes, it WAS a Red Ryder.
Not that I was without firearms/weapons of my own, some of them rather awsome in hindsight. For example, I made a steel rod spear launcher out of a piece of 1 1/2" steel tube and surgical tubing. It would shoot a 3' long 3/8" steel rod over one hundred feet, straight up! It would have probably dropped an antelope at a hundred yards, maybe more, but I digress....
Anyhow, every Christmas I eagerly looked under the tree for a package of a size that might contain a genuine Red Ryder. Christmas after Christmas, no luck, no BB gun, no Red Ryder.
Then my folks decided we should move out to the country and live on a farm.
When I was asked if I'd like to live on a farm, my first question was "Does that mean I get to have a BB gun?"
My parents, figuring that if they didn't get me a BB gun, eventually I'd probably build myself something far more dangerous instead. Some of my previous experiments with home-made explosives had already made them a little nervous.
I still don't know why. I never blew up anything important, and on top of that, a lot of times my "experiments" failed to explode at all!
When my dad finally brought home a box for me, just about the size of a BB gun, I could hardly wait to open the package. When I opened the box, it was a Daisy BB gun. A Daisy PUMP BB gun. It wasn't a Red Ryder at all.
I did my best to appear happy and so forth, but it didn't come easy. I took it out and shot it a number of times, and it was a good BB gun, in hindsight maybe even better that the Red Ryder model. Somehow my heart just wasn't in it.
I finally wore it out, to where the rivets holding the pump mechanism gave way, and it could no longer be cocked.
Looking back, I probably did learn a lot about firearm safety, sight picture, trigger pull, and so forth, with the Daisy pump BB gun, but it was kinda like learning to drive in the family station wagon, or kissing your sister.......
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7 Comments:
My parents got me a genuine "Daisy" BB gun for my 7th birthday when we were living in the wilderness of West Miami, Florida. It was wilderness back in 1949.
That weapon and I were inseperable for years and I toted it around the neighborhood pretending I was Wyatt Earp huntin the Daltons.
Got the BB's in a red cylinder about the size of a 12 ga. magnum shell. I think there were 50 or 100 BB's in it.
Yup, them Daisy air rifles were advertized in the back of comic books along with ads for "Jack Armstrong" body building programs and "stamps on approval" for kid collectors.
Then again, that was before the Liberal "anti-gun" lobby existed.
Great post, Mr C. I remember my Daisy fondly as well. At the local Wally World, I witnessed about 30 of those fly off the shelves within about 15 minutes this weekend. There'll be lots of happy kids this Christmas, I'm thinking.
Never had a Daisy. Dad got me a Crossman Pump instead. Still have it, and though its seen much better days (it needs to be reblued for one) it still functions as designed. Saw a very similar model at the store the other day, but the quality of materials wasn't nearly the same. its a shame.
Mine is steel on steel with a nice wood stock and forend. This is plastic on steel with some faux wood stock (a laminant) and a cheap plastic forend.
Don't shoot your eyes out.
Great Post. One brother had the Daisy lever action and the other brother had the pump. Beings I paid for mine I got the lever action and wore it out so there was nothing to save and then wore my brothers lever action out; but in hinesight I think the pump was a better gun. I was one of those that also got the "Stamps on Approval" from the comic books.
Just a muse from an old man!
Red Ryder bb gun came out in 1938 I was 8.By no means would my parents buy me on of those (put your or some one else eye out)Happy ending I bought one for my 70th birthday now 80 and still look at it.It sits by the fire place.I have a 1894 Winchester carbine 30/30 that is in the closet go figure.Red Ryder was my favorite comic strip
With its solid wood stock and foream and lariat ring with a leather thong, 70 years later, the Daisy Red Ryder is the spittin' image of the one you cherished growing up with.
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