Cork guns?

[RGrosz]

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.

Remember those, one year at the Clay County Fair, a bunch of us kids had them. When we ran out of ammo, there was the soybeans seed companies that had their displays of bean seeds slowly disappear. But some how we had plenty of ammo from then on. oh the memories.
Rob

[MusicMan]

Pea shooters with seed peas of the proper size hurt like he!! when you got hit by them, probably as much or more than cork balls.

[too many things]

wow with all you real old farts and dont know what they were .guess your mind went with the wrinkles
have 2
will see how long it takes for a guy that still has a mind to show up

[Grantb]

I received a double barrelled cork gun one Christmas (1961?). The barrels were metal and the stock wood - quite a sturdy toy. The mechanism was cocked by breaking open the action. If I remember correctly, there were two triggers. It was passed down to my two younger brothers and after that I have no idea what happened to it.

[ghh3rd]

I'm surprised that I don't remember them. I do remember those .22 rifles at fairs though.

When I was 10 yrs old (1963) my parents took me to Elitch Gardens park in Denver. They took a rest on a bench and I begged for and got a quarter and left. I came back two more times for a quarter and disappeared with my 75 cents.

When they caught up to me they were horrified to find me at a booth with a .22 rifle in my hands. I was shooting rounds into the air while complaining to the attendant that the rifle was broken... all of the bullets were coming out of the side when I pulled the trigger.

They said he was just standing there looking bored, letting me shoot without any concern.

[jimlj]

I remember the cork guns at the county fair. They looked like Daisy pump action BB guns. For 25 cents you could shoot until you tipped over a prize. Anything of any value was on a weighted target so it wouldn't tip over. I took a cork and hollowed it out and filled it with smashed pellets. The weighted cork hit the target with a dollar bill taped to it so hard it sent it flying. The attendant was shocked I was able to tip over the target and he had to give me a dollar. A few minutes later he hollered "hey kid, I found your cork."

[Drm50]

I remember the cork guns at the county fair. They looked like Daisy pump action BB guns. For 25 cents you could shoot until you tipped over a prize. Anything of any value was on a weighted target so it wouldn't tip over. I took a cork and hollowed it out and filled it with smashed pellets. The weighted cork hit the target with a dollar bill taped to it so hard it sent it flying. The attendant was shocked I was able to tip over the target and he had to give me a dollar. A few minutes later he hollered "hey kid, I found your cork."

A #4 shot carefully pushed into a hole in the center off cork, made by ice pick, will give the cork
the guts to knock prizes off shelf. Me and several buddies did this at a VFD carney with our own
corks we snuck in. No only were we winning, our corks were mixed in with Carney corks and there
were a lot of people winning. To the point they shut down the stand. Probably my first adventure
into hand loading. Data was supplied by a great uncle.

[w5pv]

We use too have what we called china berry guns which were fun to play with.They consisted 0f a hollow tube and a plunger.You would load one push it up the tube a little ways and then load another behind it and hit the plunger sharply this would push the first berry out with a pop.I don't remember how far or how hard they would shoot

[Ithaca Gunner]

The one I had as a kid looked like a Daisy lever action. The corks soon disappeared and were replaced by moist dirt clods, apple cores, or packed snow. I remember chasing each other around with those things stinging each other and any target of opportunity, (semi feral barn cats were usually the victims).

[Multigunner]

I had a little cork shooter pistol made of stamped sheet metal. After losing the corks I made match stick and sewing needle darts with paper fins with ends bent to hold the dart centered in the bore. it was surprisingly accurate out to 20 feet or so.

[35 shooter]

We use too have what we called china berry guns which were fun to play with.They consisted 0f a hollow tube and a plunger.You would load one push it up the tube a little ways and then load another behind it and hit the plunger sharply this would push the first berry out with a pop.I don't remember how far or how hard they would shoot

My dad used to make those for me when i was very young. I remember he would only use a small limb from a sweet gum tree for the ram rod, because the end of it would "fuzz" up and seal the air off so well.

All the kids in the neighborhood would get together and have china berry wars.
Same thing with the cork guns after we cut the strings off the corks.

Cork guns were nothing compared to the china berry guns lol. Those china berries could leave quite a welp on a fellow sometimes.

[RayinNH]

I remember them as a kid in the early 60's. Every year the firemen would have a fund raiser that ran a week long. They were your typical carnival games but the booths were manned by the fire fighters. The cork gun booth's targets were cigarette packs lined up on a shelf. For a quarter you got ten corks and tried to knock the packs of off the shelf. If you knocked a pack or more off they were yours to keep. This was in the days that if your father sent you to the store for cigarettes and you were tall enough to put the money on the counter they sold them to you. More often than not you didn't knock them off but I did win a few. Great fun as a kid. I went most nights of the week long event as it was three blocks from my house.

[Paul24]

JC Higgins Cactus Kid from the late '50s it came with 42 caliber cork round balls. I still have it.