Cork guns?

[PerpetualStudent]

Started a book on airguns and they mention very briefly that Daisy used to make cork guns. And my Dad has mentioned a time or two playing with cork guns when he was a kid. That they would shoot dirt clods. My google searches don't turn up much. And the current "pop guns" sold by cabelas and the like are not in the same ballpark. So I thought I'd ask you guys.

Did you guys play with cork guns when you were kids? What do you know about them?

[rancher1913]

The one I remember, the cork was attached with a string, you stuffed the string in first then pushed the cork in. It used air pressure to shoot the cork. Do not remember the brand

[country gent]

THey were basically the older bb guns without the center tube but a barrel of a dia for a cork stopper about 5/8" or so on the big end and these were pushed in the end snug ( for best accuracy you wanted them square also) and when fired air pressure pushed them out and they would fly free a distance of about 40-50 feet. Some fairs used to have gallieres with them to shoot for little prizes.A few light Styrofoam cups or small wood blocks and a hand rail you were set to go. Some of us over time acquired a bread bag full of these corks. In a bind they would double as fishing bobbers also.

[Smoke4320]

THey were basically the older bb guns without the center tube but a barrel of a dia for a cork stopper about 5/8" or so on the big end and these were pushed in the end snug ( for best accuracy you wanted them square also) and when fired air pressure pushed them out and they would fly free a distance of about 40-50 feet. Some fairs used to have gallieres with them to shoot for little prizes.A few light Styrofoam cups or small wood blocks and a hand rail you were set to go. Some of us over time acquired a bread bag full of these corks. In a bind they would double as fishing bobbers also.

Yes that brings back memories .. we used to set little green plastic army men up and shoot them with the corks
If the dog got any of the green men and chewed them up those were ceremoniously disposed of via napalm attack (gas and a light)
Hey we were kids
growing up at the height of the WW2 movies and TV Shows !

[country gent]

Seen a little air gun the other day for shooting marshmellos also, real close to the old cork guns there. There were the spring powered that shot those little discs spinning like a Frisbee. A bag of the miniature marshmellows would make a fun days playing.

[MT Chambers]

I remember them from shooting galleries at fairs, they would put your cork in crooked so you could not win a prize.

[BK7saum]

I remember having 2 or 3 of them. My cousins and I would go to war in the living and dining rooms shooting each other with corks. Had a pretty good sting to them on bare skin.

[Kestrel4k]

The one I remember, the cork was attached with a string, you stuffed the string in first then pushed the cork in. [...]

And of course, I remember that the /very first/ thing we would do with a new one is to cut&remove the retention string, lol - I'm sure everyone else did the same.

[Multigunner]

I had a muzzle loading Deringer that fired round cork balls propelled by a Greenie Cap.

Years ago I found my old pump action rifle type cork gun that had disappeared when I was a youngster buried in the backyard. How it got there I'll never know.
It is a very old gun, much older than I am and built as solid as an MP40.
The steel is thick, tough, well heat treated and heavily nickel plated. The stock is of wood apparently impregnated with red barn stain. After decades under ground the wood remains good as new.
Only damage other than a few speckles on the plating is a missing fore end and a short section of the barrel near the muzzle is slightly spread from when my older brother stuffed a .45 ACP cartridge in it a fired it , the stub end of the piston arm acting as a firing pin.
They don't build them like that anymore.

[popper]

Replace by nerf guns. The one I remember was short, had the string on the outside, pretty poor but probably got it at some hillbilly souvenir shop.

[Paper Puncher]

A thumbtack stuck in the end of the cork gave it a bit more down range energy for knocking down those wood blocks till the carney caught on.

[William Yanda]

I can remember a Christmas gift, long gun which shot a reconstituted cork ball, about 35-40 caliber. After the initial balls were lost it served as a non working prop. That was probably late '50's.

[Bmi48219]

I find myself with a seemingly endless supply of wine bottle corks and have been toying with the idea of making a pneumatic or spring powered cork gun for my grandson. Anyone seen any plans for something like this?

[Kestrel4k]

I find myself with a seemingly endless supply of wine bottle corks and have been toying with the idea of making a pneumatic or spring powered cork gun for my grandson. Anyone seen any plans for something like this?

Huh! I seem to have an endless supply of wine bottle corks as well, lol - will keep an eye on this thread.

[Multigunner]

A duel was once fought over a dinner table by two men with derringers. Both were drunk so the host who owned the pistols loaded them with a pinch of powder an a chunk of cork from a wine bottle.
I don't remember all the details but those present found the whole thing hilarious.

[beemer]

Mine looked like a daisy air rifle, you pushed the cork ball into the muzzle. If I remember correctly came with a plastic powder horn to carry your corks and a Davey Crockett coonskin cap. Just didn't get any better than that, hasn't crossed my mind in years. That would have been about '57.

Dave

[Minerat]

Like this? I think mine was $5.00 now you can have a new one of only $95.00

http://www.carnivaldepot.com/corkguns.html

Attachment 198696

[Dryball]

Years ago, on a trip to Colonial Williamsburg, dad bought me a long rifle that used a cap to shoot the round cork balls. If you have corks you could probably use a punch to punch out a bunch of cork slugs and get you a marshmallow gun.

[Multigunner]

For the round cork ball shooters a substitute ball could be made from paper mache' .

Dilute Elmer's paper glue with plenty of water, moisten tissue paper in the solution then carefully roll this into a ball of the proper size. A little experimentation would determine just how much paper should be used for the properly sized ball.

I just remembered a spring powered bean shooter I had as a kid. These used beads of what looked to be plaster with a paint coating. The pistols that used these were double action repeaters with a very long light trigger pull. The fore runners of Air Soft.

[Bent Ramrod]

The one a friend had was like a sheet metal double barrel shotgun. You cocked it (with some effort) by breaking the action ("REALISTIC ACTION!" screamed the ads) and put the corks in the muzzles.

Stung pretty good at four-five yards if you got shot by one.