The Demise of a Daisy BB Gun

[ogilvyspecial]

The recent thread, "My Boy's First Gun," made me think of my old friend,
a Daisy BB Gun that I got back in the 1960's, which was the type that had
those thick, lightweight, wooden stocks on it.

I had a lot of fun with that BB Gun for about 20 years, which all came to an
end one day in the mid-1980's when a "stranger happened upon the scene."

A close friend & I were out in my yard just messing around with my BB Gun
when a car came up the driveway. My driveway is 200 yds long so we sit
back off the road & people just don't usually drive up here for no good reason.

So this car comes up and a guy neither one of us had seen before gets out and
it doesn't take us long to know he's high, drunk, or both, who knows.......

After a few minutes it became apparent that it was time for him to
leave so we dropped the usual "subtle hints," all to no avail. It was about
this time that the guy grabbed me by my shirt with both hands and since
this was something I had trained to deal with in Martial Arts I did an
"inner sweep" using both arms and when I broke his grip I shoved him back.

Just as the guy was recovering from that my friend stepped forward and
butt stroked the guy across his upper jaw with my BB Gun. I'll never forget
seeing & hearing that butt stock fall on the cement of my driveway..

I can't remember any of us saying a word afterwards. We just stood there
looking at each other for a few seconds before the guy got in his car and left.

After he did I turned to my friend, who was still holding what was left
of my BB Gun and asked / said, while pointing at the gun,
"Did you have to hit him with that?! Anything but that!"

I will give my friend credit, he did that butt stroke like it was a choreographed move,
hitting that guy just as he had started leaning back my way like he was going to
continue his antics. My friend's move made him change his mind real quick.
I guess that's what friends are for eh......

I sure miss that old BB Gun..........

 

[jbull380]

If that had happened today it would have been reported to the police by a neighbor as an active shooter attacking motorists with an assault rifle.

 

[rimfired]

Still have a few from long ago. I even have a 104. Daisy stopped doing repairs on the old guns years ago but there are some resources out there. Both for repair and for wood replacement stocks and forearms.

 

[HAWKEYE10]

I still have mine from the 50's and it still shoots. Don

 

[airman]

Shame to bust a good gun. That was a good friend anyway. Do you still have him?

BTW, I think it's spelled Daisy and they are still in stores.

 

[brucev]

The Daisey B.B. gun holds a particular place in my memories. When I was 8 years old my identical-twin brother and I were both given Daisey B.B. guns and U.S. Army Mussette bags. Over the years my Mussette bag and B.B. gun went missing. Then, about 2000, I found my B.B. gun hanging on a nail in the utility room of my parents home. I cleaned it up, loaded it up and found it shot very well. I used it to introduce my daughters to shooting. Later, when my brother was in the final stages of cancer, he wanted to make a trip to the range. He was to weak. So, we put him in a chair in the back yard. My father helped him hold his head up while my little brother cocked and handed to him that B.B. gun. After his death, I gave the B.B. gun to my sister-in-law for her to use with my brother's son and daughter.

 

[ogilvyspecial]

Still have a few from long ago. I even have a 104. Daisy stopped doing repairs on the old guns years ago but there are some resources out there. Both for repair and for wood replacement stocks and forearms.

Mine was like the bottom gun.......

 

[ogilvyspecial]

Shame to bust a good gun. That was a good friend anyway. Do you still have him?

BTW, I think it's spelled Daisy and they are still in stores.

The friend eventually moved back up to northern Michigan, where he
was originally from, so I haven't seen him for awhile.

This was the same friend that shot me with low based Game Loads out
of a 12 gauge while we were rabbit hunting. Some other friends thought
I was nuts because I continued hunting with him after he "popped me"
but I figured we are all human & make mistakes. I think him shooting me,
inner left thigh that didn't break the skin, bugged him more than it did me.....

I thought I had Daisy spelled wrong, thanks for the clarification, I went and fixed it...

 

[rimfired]

Ogy, Bottom gun is a Model 99 also known as the "Target Special". First introduced in 1959

 

[ogilvyspecial]

Ogy, Bottom gun is a Model 99 also known as the "Target Special". First introduced in 1959

Thanks! I had that gun all of those years and while I may have known
that at some point in time, it was long forgotten.

I'm guessing that the wood used in the stocks must have been pine?
I know that it was lightweight and busted easy. How easy is something
only a stranger I met one time could tell me. The wood on mine broke
right at the base, where those 2 screws come in from the sides.

 

[Sprefix]

In spite of your broken treasure, I still like the friend stepping up and giving him an adjustment. I wonder if he would take another one(BB gun or just a heavy board) and go to D.C..........?! HEY HEY!! Not what you think.....could be a rabid squirrel there or a muskrat that needs a wallop.

 

[ogilvyspecial]

In spite of your broken treasure, I still like the friend stepping up and giving him an adjustment. I wonder if he would take another one(BB gun or just a heavy board) and go to D.C..........?! HEY HEY!! Not what you think.....could be a rabid squirrel there or a muskrat that needs a wallop.

Even though he broke something I was fond of there was no way I could
get mad at him for it, for a couple of reasons. First & foremost was that he
had my back, secondly his move was a sight to behold.

Timing, technique, it was as if he had done something like that everyday his
entire life, right down to the way he stepped back afterwards to view the results.
All without saying a single word.......

If that would have been an Olympic event he had been competeing
in he would have received a solid 10 from this Judge.....

 

[joeintexas]

The BB gun post brought back old memories for sure. It is amazing what happens to mold our personality and our character. When I was the ripe old age of 7 my best buddy got a daisy bb gun for his birthday but he didn't have any bb's, well that wasn't going to stop a couple of davy crockett wanna be's, we headed for the local 5 and dime and both of us cuffed a nickle bag of bb's and away we went to shooting. To make a long story short my dad and his dad saw us shooting and asked us how we came by the bb's, we told them we stole them...well things went downhill in a hurry, they loaded us in the old station wagon and to the store we went, we both had to go tell the owner what we did. It was decided we would work off the debt, we swept that store for 5 hours the next saturday! That was the first and last thing I ever stole!!

 

[labworm]

I owned a pump, second from the top in the picture.
I remember buying it like it happened yesterday, cost was $9.95.

My two friends and I begged my sister into buying 3 of them for us, as we were under age.

The 3 BB guns eventually disappeared, and also one of my two friends.

Tomorrow I am picking up my other friend for the day, I think we will have fun discussing it.

Thanks for the post, great memories attached to those Daisy BB guns.

 

[Biginge]

Great story Ogy. Who amongst us has not poured the BBs from the tube, into ones mouth, and then forecfully blown them into the magazine tube of the Daisy? Never giving one minutes of thought to the rust creating situation we were creating. Additionally, who amongst us has not half cocked a lever Daisy and them pulled the trigger? Man, that hurt when lever slammed back to the wrist of the stock. Love those memories.

Regards

Bill

 

[rimfired]

I owned a pump, second from the top in the picture.
I remember buying it like it happened yesterday, cost was $9.95.

Lab, A model 25. They started producing them in 1913 and continuously did till 1978. They were well known as the most powerful of all the Daisy BB rifles. All were also take-down versions another unique characteristic. Have fun with your visit!

 

[Black_Sheep]

I'm 52 and still posess the Red Ryder my brother and I shot as kids. It belonged to Dad when he was a kid so it's hard telling how old it actually is. I remember being able to watch the BB in flight on sunny days, it made calculating "Kentucky windage" pretty easy. I'll have to get some pictures of it after dinner...

 

[jrm53]

Daisy BB gun stocks

I still have my Red Ryder 1000 shot in the gun safe. But on the stocks, Daisy moved to Rogers Ar in 1958, at that time there were not many jobs here it was a very popular place to work, I could not get on there but in early 1960 I worked for a cabinet company that had a contract for Daisy stocks, Daisy furnished the tooling and jigs and large two headed shapers for shaping the stocks and the rest the shop already had. We made gun stocks for them until mid 61 when I was laid off. The wood they were made from that we used was from down around Little Rock I think and was mostly sweet gum we got it by the truck load green and stacked it to air dry and then planed it to thickness and blocked it out and shaped it , cut the lever groove and sanded both sides and delivered it down to Daisy about 3 miles away. The wood came from where they hunted because we planed a lot of buck shot and copper jacketed bullets in the planer, I would make a 1000 to 1100 a day. I was 20 then and very thankful to have a job, worked the 3rd shift for 1.00 per hour. Jeff

 

[labworm]

I still have my Red Ryder 1000 shot in the gun safe. But on the stocks, Daisy moved to Rogers Ar in 1958, at that time there were not many jobs here it was a very popular place to work, I could not get on there but in early 1960 I worked for a cabinet company that had a contract for Daisy stocks, Daisy furnished the tooling and jigs and large two headed shapers for shaping the stocks and the rest the shop already had. We made gun stocks for them until mid 61 when I was laid off. The wood they were made from that we used was from down around Little Rock I think and was mostly sweet gum we got it by the truck load green and stacked it to air dry and then planed it to thickness and blocked it out and shaped it , cut the lever groove and sanded both sides and delivered it down to Daisy about 3 miles away. The wood came from where they hunted because we planed a lot of buck shot and copper jacketed bullets in the planer, I would make a 1000 to 1100 a day. I was 20 then and very thankful to have a job, worked the 3rd shift for 1.00 per hour. Jeff

And only you get to tell that story, which to me is just great.
Thanks

 

[Bert Man]

Another happy Model 25 pump shooter here. In 1957 I received one for Christmas as my first gun. Not as cool lookng as a Red Ryder but way more powerful. Carried it hunting with my Dad where I learned safe gun handling. Shot it almost every day in the back yard and spent almost all of my allowance buying BB's at a neighborhood hardware store. Any shooting skill I've managed to acquire over the years started with that old Daisy.