Daisy Red Ryder

[gunarea]

Maybe this should have gone into Equipment Reviews but here we are.
Decided to get out my forty year old Pact chronograph just to dust it off and make sure it still worked. My buddy, Ken, had never seen a chrono and was curious about it. Took the machine over to his place and decided to check out our BB guns. He and I both have classic Red Ryder BB guns. His wife has the carbine model with a blue stock and fiber optic front sight. Although none of them came close to the advertised 350 fps, they gave results unexpected. Four different examples were tested. All data was derived from ten shot strings over Pact 24".
30 year old "Diamond Edition" Red Ryder. 185 fps avg velocity SD 4.3 fps
New Carbine model 268 fps avg velocity SD 1.9 fps
New Red Ryder (Kens BB gun) 265 fps avg velocity SD 3.3 fps
New Red Ryder (my BB gun) 263 fps avg velocity SD 2.4 fps
These toys are being used to topple inch and a half metal targets at 25' with surprising accuracy. The newer guns seem to be superior in performance. Shooting is shooting and a good shot is a good shot. If your not having fun, you are doing it wrong!
Roy

[LenH]

I tested my airguns over an old chrony. Both shot under the advertised fps. I have a Diana 430L and a Weirauch HW50. both shot 100fps under the advertised
"Shoots up to FPS". Still more fun than not shooting. Even if a can of H&N pellets are nearly $14/500 it beats the heck out of not shooting.

[BigAlofPa.]

I plink at cans in the house during the winter. With my red rider. Good fun.

[Monobill]

Air guns were important early training for my boys growing up. Now grown and gone and responsible gun owners carrying on the sport they started with there pellet guns.

[country gent]

I have used my rws 1 177 single cock air rifle to verify the chronographs set up before use testing. So I know im set up right and getting the correct readings.

One thing with the red ryders and most air rifles is the lube on the seals can make a difference. A drop or 2 down the barrel of a medium weight oil like 20 weight and left to work in for a few minutes can make a increase in velocity, remember on the upper ends air rifle to use a non dieseling oil.

[Shawlerbrook]

That Red Ryder started something with me that ended up with me owning 17 lever action rifles. Must have killed hundreds of chipmunks and red squirrels as a kid.

[gunarea]

It is just a color but my girls like it.

[Spedsterguy]

My first Daisy was a mod# 105. It was made with out a forearm, it was just metal at the front. I always wanted a Red Ryder. One day a friend of the family gave me is sons Red Ryder BB gun. He had went off to collage and did not want it anymore. I think I was 13 when I got it. It was a lot of fun back then. I wish I still had it

[Texas by God]

Growing up on a dairy farm the Daisy BB gun was a great cattle and dog training tool. Still is. And before you ask, YES- I have been shot with one - so I know exactly what it feels like. Red Ryders are an American staple.

[bpatterson84]

You had a disappointing childhood if you didn't have the occasional red ryder BB gun war with your friends back in the day! That said, I better not see my boy pointing one of those at somebody!

[JWFilips]

My Dad bought me my first Daisy: it was a 99 target special Thought me how to shoot receiver sights and interchangeable globe front with inserts!
Actually use that combo today on many of my mil surps!
As a child I was a dead eye shot on poor song birds which I now regret! I did get a lot of them
For a B B gun that thing was accurate!

[TyGuy]

I had both a cheap Daisy and a Red Ryder as a kid. The cheapy was the more accurate of the two and I fed my cat more than a few starlings with it. She knew what the BB gun meant and would sometimes snatch the bird out of the air before it could hit the ground.

[Spedsterguy]

I always thought that my mod#105 had more power than the Red Ryder. Gosh talking about this makes me want to buy one of each. It brings back a lot of great childhood memories

[Alferd Packer]

Always liked 3 in 1 oil, but Mom's sewing machine oil really made that Red Ryder shoot hard for a while.
I'll bet you can get 350 fps with a few squirts of that!
Old Red always shot so hard I thought it would shoot itself apart.
Try it with yours!
The 3 in1 was thin, but that sewing machine oil said it had graphite in it and it was like the lock oil they used to sell.
Mom said it always made her machine run better and she'd hide it from me.

[fcvan]

I got my Red Ryder for my 14th birthday, my Rem 870 for my 13th. One was a tool, one was a toy. Dad wanted me to be mature enough for the toy. I made a pellet trap and shot at paper plates, even took and old bird shot bag and made a sand bag. I think my Dad and his buddt shot that thing more than I did while we cast and barbecued.

We moved to a 10 acre farm a few years later, that Red Ryder got much more use on lizard hunts and such. When I moved out, I think I left it hanging in the closet. Many years later, it had been moved to the garage then the barn, then back to the garage, think tin building that leaked some. My Red Ryder is in pitiful shape after that abuse. Stock needs refinishing, metal works are worse than patina. I an half tempted to buy a newer Daisy, rob the innards and refinish what I can, probably powder coat it.

A dozen or more years ago, I was visiting my parents around Father's day, and we went shopping for gifts. He appreciated the usual Father's Day gifts, but never expected to get a Red Ryder and a box of copper plated BBs. He always kept a 22 lr bolt gun by the back door for gophers, and the Red Ryder for other things. They moved off the farm (still own it) and into town. The Red Ryder is hanging on the Garage wall like some kind of trophy. He always looked at gun shows, found something that would look good, but turned out to be roo good to hang so it went in the safe. Hang one on the wall was Mom's idea, she was decorating. Funny that the one he hung was a Red Ryder, just like the one his Dad gave him when He was a boy, and why I was given mine. Decades later, the circle came around.

[GooseGestapo]

re: BB gun wars.

I was 13 and left a classmates house in another neighborhood on my bicycle headed home after working on a class project. Ran into several hooligans having a BB gun war. Got hit three times before I could exit the field of fire.

Promptly retrieved my Benjamin mod 3030 CO2 repeater from a basement closet, loaded it with 30 BB’s and new cylinder. Got on my younger brothers bike as it was easier to ride w/o hands.

I managed to empty the magazine on three perps! Also managed to evade the cops that accompanied the ambulance that responded.

My older brother who was off in college came home the following weekend. He related how he’d read in the local newspaper that three were taken to the hospital with BB gun injuries. Asked me if I knew anything about it. I shrugged my shoulders and said I’d heard about it.......
Still have the Benjamin!!!! Takes an odd size cylinder so hasn’t been shot in decades.
51yrs ago so statue of limitations has run. Besides, I was still a juvenile...

[Multigunner]

I bought a 70's version of the Daisy Red Rider years ago at a salvage store for 10 bucks.
I had got it as a wall hanger though it does shoot about as good as it probably did when new, meaning about half as well as the original Red Rider guns did.
I tried replacing the spring with a slightly stronger one, but the metal parts were too thin and soft to allow that.

Some of the older CO2 guns used a 8 gram capsule rather than the 12 gram that most use these days. You can still get 8 gram capsules since these are used in several types of carbonated drink dispensers and whipped cream makers.

My early Crosman western style revolver was manufactured to use an earlier version of the 12 gram capsule which differs from the modern standard by having a shoulder below the neck as well as a bottle cap type seal.
The original seal relied on a large diameter O-ring that engaged the thicker portion of the neck.
My Crosman was luckily modified to use modern capsules by a previous owner.

[HollowPoint]

I got my first one when I was in elementary school. I think I was in the fifth or sixth grade; can't really remember exactly. I don't know what ever became of that BB gun either.

In my early sixties I got a wild hair up my butt and bought two more. One was going to be my feral cat deterrent and the other was going to be used as a guinea pig for some mods I had in mind. Neither gun came close to the velocities listed on the box so for one of them I drove down to my local Ace Hardware store and bought the spring wire to make myself a slightly more powerful compression spring. That brought my initial velocities up to just a foot or two over four hundred FPS. Those velocities lessened down to an average of 360 FPS after shooting it a bit so that the home made compression spring sort of settled in.

The other Red Ryder I bought was set to have the spring replaced with an after-market gas spring similar to those found on more modern break barrel pellet rifles. The gas-spring I used as my first attempt at this spring swap was way to powerful. I mean WAY to powerful. The plastic trigger components crumpled under the strain so I put that particular Red Ryder project on the back burner; and there it's been for the past few years. I'll get back to it eventually.

In the mean time I made a couple of 3D resin printed mods to my feral cat deterrent Red Ryder. I don't have the photos I originally took of those mods but here are some links to those photos that can be found on my Instagram account.

One is of my little Daisy wearing the dedicated BB gun suppressor I printed up for it and also one for the 3D printed scope mount. I mounted a cheapy BB gun scope on it and it's turned out pretty good for it's intended purpose. I don't want to kill any of these feral cats. I just want them to know that my place is off limits to them, that's all.

My apologies to any cat lovers among us. No offence intended.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CAbv2noBcEa/

https://www.instagram.com/p/CBKFVcsBL49/

https://www.instagram.com/p/CBQyv3aB9RU/

HollowPoint

[gunarea]

Hello all
I am being prodded into commentary. The name of the game is Mini Steal. It is the kid friendly version of Lawn Steel. Designed by Robert Francis with the intention of allowing his grandchildren to participate in a GAME he loves. Robert took his idea and made the parameters to suit conditions present. His modifications of Lawn Steel rules were given the official Harumph of ILSA board directors 21 years ago and have remained intact. Although I am not the author, I will defend his intent just as I have always towards the usurpers of any game rules. My reaction to the fun suckers who wish to modify, alter, adapt, adjust, add, delete, or change parameters in order to gain gratification is this; Do you know why Elephants are grey? Cause that's the way it is! The game was offered for enjoyment of play. This a GAME, we PLAY, please don't suck the fun out.
The simple Daisy Red Ryder action, unmodified youth models, are the only accepted air rifles for play. NO* Daisy offers a fiber optic sight on some models and is acceptable for use on all. NO* Upright seated position is the shooting posture. NO* .177" steel BBs only. NO* Except for Lollipops, all targets are 2" high by 1.75" wide. NO* Lollipops are 1.25" high by 1" wide. NO* From muzzle to closest target is 25'. NO* There is a video coming showing the target presentation. NO* Cocking the rifle before shot acknowledgement is a foul. NO* Lack of projectile expulsion is not viable as a turn mulligan. NO* Playing the game involves a lot of laughter. NO* Quite a bit of it is directed at those crying about loading component shortages and prices. NO* $30 bucks and you are equipped the same as the residing champ. Also that same investment will see you through about 300 games of Mini Steal. My cost to produce a full set of targets and stand, was under a hundred bucks. In the video you will see growed *** people laughing as they shoot these kids toys. Shooting is shooting! Good shooting is good shooting! Cheap fun is the best fun!
The NO* is the answer to the myriad of questions being asked by people who think they are so special that rules should be bent to accommodate their personal wants. NO* Play or don't, it is awful fun!
The video link is in section, Wheelguns, Pistols and Handcannons. International Lawn Steel shooting, thread.
Roy

[beezapilot]

I have an old bullet trap designed for .22's set up in my shop and a nice variety of air guns. It is a nice break from making sawdust and swarf to shoot for a few minutes in the middle of the day. I only shoot pellets in the shop as the random piece of lead in machinery is a lot less a problem than a piece of steel, and BB's will ricochet out of the trap more often than the pellets. Like you say, shooting is shooting. My wife works at the local hospital and I end up teaching her friends to shoot. Same sight picture, same safety protocol, same skills - then off to the range for recoil tolerance. Some years ago I picked up a King 5536 "Thousand Shot" BB gun- the forerunner to the Red Ryder, I'd hate to put that on a chrony, after firing I think you might could walk out and catch that BB still in flight.