Quigley`s very first rifle.

[MBTcustom]

I love BB guns, I decided to make a vernier sight for my red rider just for S&G. It works pretty darn good too.
http://i1120.photobucket.com/albums/l481/goodsteel/IMG_3073.jpg
http://i1120.photobucket.com/albums/l481/goodsteel/IMG_3074.jpg
http://i1120.photobucket.com/albums/l481/goodsteel/IMG_3075.jpg
http://i1120.photobucket.com/albums/l481/goodsteel/IMG_3076.jpg
I was shooting it at 100 yards with the sight elevated like it is.
Too much fun!

[Hamish]

yer killin' me son!!! Like to choked to death laughin!!!


-------------

(rather envious of being able to make a nice sight, by the way)

[waksupi]

That will make you learn to read the wind! I had a vernier on a gallery pump .22, that was good out to around 350 yards before I ran out of sight.

[Bullet Caster]

That's notin' but KOOL. Guess I need to set up my old .22 and .17 pellet rifles. My .22 Crossman is still accurate to this day and I got it when I was under 12 years old. The best Christmas, ever. Lol. BC

[MBTcustom]

I was out back a minute ago, pinching the trigger. I can cover a pop can all day @40 yards. The trick is not torquing the rifle in any way which is very easy to do with a red rider. I was covering a barrel lid @ 100 yards too.
I love this sight! I made the windage adjustments with opposing 7/16-20 threads and although it is bulky, its solid as a rock and easy to adjust. I may have to build a falling block to put under this 'un.

[HollowPoint]

I can't believe it! I just bought my second ever Daisy lever action BB gun last week. It's the RedRyder model.

I bought it for the sole purpose of trying to tweak it to a higher level of power. I'm either going to install a Marbel-Arms tang sight or go with the old vintage Glenfield 4x15 scope off of the second "gun of any kind I ever owned." My eyesight isn't what it used to be.


Right now I'm just waiting on the new Gas-Spring I hope to be replacing the factory steel spring with.

I've already taken it completely apart just to see what makes it tick. It's a simple design that I'm pretty sure I'll be able to increase the performance on.

The very first gun of any kind that I ever owned was a Daisy lever action BB gun. I'm happy to hear I'm not the only one.

HollowPoint

[MBTcustom]

Hey, trigger time is trigger time.

[Shooter]

You have waay too much time on your hands :-)

[JeffinNZ]

You'll shoot your eye out.

[MBTcustom]

Not when the target is 100 yards away!

[Hamish]

You'll shoot your eye out.

Twice in one day.

Tim, is there a set screw for the windage?

[MBTcustom]

No, that's my own design. two opposing 7/16-20 screws with 45 degree centers cut on the tips of them, and the sight itself has two 90 degree countersinks on both sides for the screws to bear on. Its a really big version of watch jewels. In order to adjust windage, I loosen one and tighten the other, give either one a small turn, and the sight collapses freely. Its much more robust (albeit bulky) than the store bought ones. I want to make mounts for several diferent rifles so that in order to put the sight on another rifle, all I have to do is loosen one of the windage screws and swap it, piece of cake!
Also, the blade is pressed into the mount, so if I need to adapt it to another platform, all I have to do is knock the two pieces apart with a little heat, and press on another pivot piece.

[nelsonted1]

Dad's first guns was one of pump Daisys that can be adapted to shooting corks like at the county fair. Grandma nearly had a stroke when she noticed black marks on the ceiling. Dad had shot the flies on the ceiling with a cork. Took Grandma weeks before she caught on.

I was a little kid at the county fair watching the tight-fisted middle school guys shoot at watches mounted on pieces of 2x4 in the cork gun booth. I figured out there was no way to knock the heavy 2x4s off the plank but I could, if shot right, knock off the boxes of Cracker Jack. My brother and I went through all the cork guns to find the best one then proceeded to wipe out their inventory. I even talked the woman running it into giving me the box the Cracker Jacks came in. The last 1/2 hour or so Dad and a neighbor were watching me dismantle the booth. When we left the neighbor asked me if they would think of turning the Cracker Jack boxes sideways. I was told if I put down the rifle I would be done shooting so bathroom-itis got kind of urgent toward the end. When I quit I got banned. I am still bewildered by the universe bereft of geniouses other than me to go after the Cracker Jack boxes. I was getting them three for a dime.

TED

[nelsonted1]

Dad graduated from the temporarily impounded bb gun to shooting a .22 pistol with the neighbor kid on the way home from school. They bought a big sack of .22 shorts at the hardware store for 15 cents. He said 1/2 didn't go off. I still gawk at him when he said the hardware store people thought nothing of selling sackfuls of .22 shorts to 3rd graders. Dad said the most fun was shooting at insulators on the top of electric poles.

TED

[HollowPoint]

As a kid, I remember going over to my cousin's house and taking my RedRyder BB gun with me. I stayed over night cause it was the weekend.This was back when "The Beverly Hillbillies" was airing on TV.

That friday night we watched an episode that depicted the characters, Uncle Jed and Jethro target shooting in their back yard in Beverly Hills.

Being experienced back-woodsmen and excellent marksmen, these two characters grew weary of just shooting at bullseye targets so they started driving nails into some wood planks from long distance by ricocheting their bullets off of a nearby surface and onto the nail-heads.

As a sixth-grader with a BB gun, I thought that was cool as heck so the next morning my cousin and I went out back and set up our own nail-driving targets. We were trying to ricochet the BBs off a cement block and onto the heads of the nails that we had partially driven into the big tree trunk in my cousin's back yard.

We must have been standing about ten yards away from the cement block. No safety glasses, no safety anything; just the will to mimic what we'd seen on TV.

The first four or five shots were actually ricocheting pretty well into the vicinity of the three nail heads we were trying to hit. Then it all went to hell pretty quickly.

The little girl that was riding here bicycle in circles in the back yard next door suddenly let out a blood curdling screem and started crying to beat the band. "Mommaaaaa!"

My cousin and I knew right away what had happened. My last attempt at ricocheting my BB into the head of one of those nails hadn't even come close. Apparently the BB had hit an uneven spot of the cement block and veered off in the direction of that little girls right butt-cheek.

We ran into the house and hid my BB gun under my cousins bed. Then we went into the living room and turned on the TV; acting like we'd been there all along; doing our best impersonations of the wonderful children our parents wished we were. Out of necessity, we put on our most "Angelic Faces."

A couple of hours later when we thought it had all blown over, we went back outside to reconnoiter. That same little girl was sitting on the front porch of her house with a mouth full of candy and a small plastic bag that held even more candy.

Of course, we went over to casually ask what she was doing. She said that her mom had given her that candy cause a bee stung her on the leg as she was riding here bike in the back yard. She really didn't know that it wasn't a bee that had stung her, it was a B--B that stung her; out of my B--B Gun.

Her mom gave her the candy to get her to stop crying. My cousin and I had spent the better part of two hours watching TV because we were afraid if we went outside we'd be in trouble for accidently shooting that little girl with my BB gun.

Now here she was with a bag full of candy. It just didn't seem fair somehow. In our minds, we had just done her a favor by stinging her like that. And she wouldn't even share her candy with us. What a jipp.

We couldn't even shoot my BB gun any more for fear that her mom would see us and figure out what had really happened to here little girl.

I couldn't wait to get back home to my own Happy Hunting Grounds.

Man, the stories I could tell you about my first Daisy RedRyder BB gun.

HollowPoint

[MBTcustom]

I ended up shooting the red rider quite a bit over the long weekend. First I discovered that with proper sights, it is much more accurate than I originally thought. Next, I found out that it has definite accuracy limitations. Just using the regular silver BBs, I can get about a 2" group with a few fliers if I use absolutely picture perfect trigger control and hold the rifle lightly. The best I was able to do was tag the can 7 times in a row at fifty yards.
I believe that through my insane modification to this bb gun, I have inadvertently discovered an impressive shooting aid. The level of control it took to hit that can was on par with shooting a normal rifle at long distance (like 45/70 at a 6" plate 600 yards away).
It is quite addictive and I know this is going to improve my shooting. If I ever have a son, I will not hesitate to get him a red rider BB gun and I encourage all those who read this to do the same. IMHO when they can tag a pop can every time at fifty yards, its time to put them behind a real rifle. (at least that seems like a reasonable progression in my mind)

[HollowPoint]

I've been more or less trapped indoors due to debilitating allergy symptoms that won't allow me to stay outdoors as long as I'd like. Been feeling a heck of alot better lately so I think I'm nearing the tail end of this allergy thing.

I was going crazy with cabin fever so I up and bought the RedRyder BB gun I mentioned earlier. I can see how that custom sight you made would aid greatly in getting better accuracy. I'm still waiting on my new gas spring piston.

Presently my BB gun is getting an average of 289 fps using the standard Copperhead BBs. This is no where near the 350 fps listed on the box. The accuracy is on par with a close range shotgun pattern with these BBs at this velocity. The long and gritty trigger pull doesn't help much either.

When I had the gun apart I stuffed a BB into the bore and looked inside. I could clearly see all kinds of daylight all the way around the BB. This tells me that more air was getting around my BB than was pushing my BB.

To test this theory I took some spray paint and added a couple of layers of paint to the surface of a few BBs. After drying a couple of hours I loaded and shot the painted BBs to see if there was any difference. Sure enough; my chronograph showed an average increase of about 30 fps.

I've order some Avanti Precision Ground BBs to try out. They are said to measure .174". My bore measures .177 exactly. If this is true that will leave only .0015" of space all around the BBs for a tighter air seal. Couple this with a very thin film of lubricant and (in theory) this should give these Avanti BBs a near perfect fit in my bore.

I spent my memorial day afternoon giving my Daisy BB gun a trigger job. (if you can believe that) Just about everything in that trigger-group is plastic except for the springs and the sears. The trigger pull is much better now and the "Shotgun-Pattern" accuracy is much tighter now as well; with about fifty-percent of my BBs going into and around the bulls eye.

GoodSteel: With BB guns of this kind, chronographing seems almost like a stupid endeavor but, I have to ask; what kind of BBs are you shooting out of your gun? Have you measured the diameter of them? Can you tell me how fast your BBs are traveling out of your BB gun?

HollowPoint

[MBTcustom]

The BBs are the regular walmart quicksilver 1000 pack bbs. They chronograph at 370-378 FPS. I have not measured them at all.
Now that you mention it, I wonder what some 45/45/10 would do for the groups.
The problem that I have had in the past with shooting at longer distances with the stock sights, is that there is so much elevation required to get on target at 30+ yards, that you either cover the target with the barrel completely, or your rear sight gets lost in the barrel. The vernier eliminates this, while giving a respectable amount of windage adjustment.
It is funny to shoot because the recoil runs in the opposite direction from a traditional rifle, so the sight works its way back towards the shooters face as opposed to flipping forward like it does with a center-fire.
I'll look and see if I can find some custom, over-sized BBs.

[bruce drake]

Aren't those BB Guns smoothbores? You need to start running paper patches or something for the longer distances? :target_smiley: ;)

[MBTcustom]

Yes they are smooth.
Still tryin to figure out how to paper patch a round ball.

[FrankG]

Make it a muzzle loader and try waxed paper and lard for lube :)

[MBTcustom]

That's a darn good idea! I tried lubed bullets in a break barrel crossman last year, with miserable effects, but I'm pretty sure the lube was dieseling causing horrible accuracy problems. This is slow enough, it might be worth a try!

[MBTcustom]

Tonight I checked some BBs with a micrometer. They were not too awful round, and they measured anywhere from .1719 to .1722
I dumped out the BBs that were left in the gun and lubed them up with 45/45/10 to try tomorrow.

[HollowPoint]

I tried some liquid alox yesterday but my results weren't any different from when I was shooting just plain Copperhead BBs out of the bottle.
The dimensions on these cheaper BBs are so inconsistent that they measure anywhere from .169" to .1705".

It's been pretty warm here the last couple of days. I think my lube had softened just enough under the weight of these 5-point-something grain BBs that they couldn't maintain an even seal all the way around the BB. Kind of like a flat tire; where everything looks perfectly fine except for the flat spot on the bottom.

If my incoming BBs are slightly larger in diameter, it should go a long way toward giving me a better air seal and more consistent groups and velocities; provided I do my part while shooting.

Today around noon time I shot a pigeon that landed on one of the overhead power lines about fifteen yards from where I was standing. I hit him in the neck and the BB just bounced off.

It startled the pigeon enough to make it fly off in a small circle and then come around and land in the very same place on that power line.

That pigeon was looking around frantically as if it was wondering what the heck had just happened.

With the BBs out of this little RedRyder traveling at less than 300 fps, that pigeon must have thought that a drunken mosquito had just crashed into him.

I have a break barrel pellet pistol with a nine inch barrel that I mounted an old AR scope onto that will shoot 8.5 grain pellets at a measured 350 fps. I've made neck shots with this little pellet pistol on pigeons out to 30 yards that dropped them like a sack of potatoes.

Right now this little Diasy BB gun just doesn't have the balls to deliver kill shots at that distance. I'm hoping that the Avanti Precision Ground BBs will give me a little more velocity while I wait to upgrade the spring.

HollowPoint

[MBTcustom]

Thats strange. I killed a bird 20 yards away the other day before I put the sight on the rifle. I honestly didn't expect any different results than what you experienced, but it killed it deader than a bad bean fart.
Like I said though, I'm getting 375FPS out of this gun, and my old beater that has umpteen thousand shots through it (got it when I was 8 years old) chunks 'em at 325FPS. Very curious.
Do you mind if I ask where you are getting that upgrade kit?

[MBTcustom]

Another thing I might mention is that I looked for any kind of steel balls that are .176 in diameter and came up dry. That's got to be the oddest size on the planet. I couldn't even find gauge balls in that exact size.
Where the heck did they come up with .177 diameter projectiles in the first place?

[Longwood]

Another thing I might mention is that I looked for any kind of steel balls that are .176 in diameter and came up dry. That's got to be the oddest size on the planet. I couldn't even find gauge balls in that exact size.
Where the heck did they come up with .177 diameter projectiles in the first place?

I see that you don't work with MM much. :kidding:
It is 4.5mm.

[Silver Eagle]

As for who came up with the size for BB's you would need to go back as far as the early 1900's. Daisy came up with the 0.177 inch size as the lead shot that is BB size varied too much and was causing jams in early guns. It also made them a lot of money as people could no longer use commercial lead shot in their rifles.
History of the BB: http://www.pyramydair.com/article/BB_History_February_2006/28
Try finding different brands of BB's as some are known to vary a bit in size from the different manufacturers. For a good gauge of fit, let a BB roll down the brarrel from muzzle to breech and measure how long it takes. The better fitting BB will take longer to travel the barrel.
Daisy (Avanti is Daisy's Super premium brand), Crosman and Marksman are the most common. There are a few European brands out there. Gamo and H&N also make a 0.177 Lead round ball. Note: if you do shoot lead balls, the magnetic stop on the bolt will no longer work and the round can and will roll out of the muzzle.
Take a look at Daisy's Avanti line of BB Guns for some real high accuracy BB guns. They are advertised as the "World's most accurate BB gun" and are used in a youth and older competition similar to Olympic 10 Meter Airgun.

Silver Eagle

[MBTcustom]

Good info SE! I never heard of Avanti before.
Longwood, .177 X 25.4= 4.4958. I suppose they just rounded up, but it wasn't an exact conversion, and I thought it odd that they would do 1/2mm increment.

[HollowPoint]

"Very curious. Do you mind if I ask where you are getting that upgrade kit?"

As a kid, I seem to remember my Daisy lever action BB gun at the time having alot more velocity. To the best of my knowledge, there is no upgrade kit for these Daisy Lever action BB guns; per se.

I'm having to fabricate what I need as I move forward with this modification. As of right now I have yet to fabricate anything because I have to have my new gas piston in my hands in order to get specific dimensions off of it.

Once I have those dimensions then I can design and fabricate any small parts I'll need to secure the gas piston and related components. If in the end all of this work yields no results, I'll just order a custom compression spring but, I'm holding out hope that the correct Gas Spring will give me what I'm looking for.

I've scoured the internet looking for information on how to modify a Daisy lever action. Other than some trigger-job info and some you-tube videos of a few kids doing superficial mods, not to many folks have actually succeeded at getting any substantial gains out of their Daisy RedRyders.

I'd be happy just to get the velocity up around 500 fps but I'm hoping for slightly better than that. The problem is that if I add a Gas spring to replace the factory coil spring, then I have to fabricate a way to secure that Gas Spring in place because I can't re-use the factory spring components.

Because the Gas Spring will require a greater amount of cocking force, I may have to make another cocking lever to give me a little more leverage; and if I have to make another cocking lever that means I'll have to make another rear stock to accommodate the new cocking handle. And on and on it goes.

Every little upgrade requires another modification to accommodate the previous upgrade. In my mind it's still doable. It just takes a little patience and ingenuity.

I've been taking photos as I go along. When I'm done I'll post a write-up on this project.

HollowPoint

[Silver Eagle]

A few points to note (if you have not already) pertaining to upgrading this to a gas spring or a stronger spring:
1) Since this gun is designed for a youth market there may be built in designs to keep the velocity down. It may be possible to clean them up and or modify them to gain some performance (Seal, piston, cylinder walls, tranfer tube and similar).
2) There are a lot of plastic and pot metal parts that my not take well to the higher forces of the upgrade (Sear, cocking arm, general receiver internals).
3) A lot of the velocity potential in an airgun is not in the spring itself. It is also in the amount of air that is compressed. This is known as the "swept volume". It is the total volume of the air cylinder form the front of the seal until the end of the cylinder. There are calculations that can detrmine the performance of an airgun based upon this info and the spring power. It is a rather close balance that need to be ultimately achieved to get better performance.

I would highly suggest doing some research on both the Yellow forum at Network54 and the Gateway to Airguns Forum. One link I found is below:

http://www.network54.com/Forum/79537/thread/1133630469/Daisy+Red+Ryder+spring+specs--+and+a+little+tuning-

Silver Eagle

[edsmith]

just a tip I remember from 60 years ago, don't shoot it with the cocking lever down.:bigsmyl2:

[Longwood]

just a tip I remember from 60 years ago, don't shoot it with the cocking lever down.:bigsmyl2:

I bet they fixed that marvelous feature.

The pump models were more powerful but they were hard to cock.
I got one cheap because of the kid that had it was too little to cock it.
They had the finger biter feature also, but with sharper edges.

[MBTcustom]

I bet they fixed that marvelous feature.
They did and its one safety feature that I highly approve of. The new ones have a ratchet built into the handle so that it can't snap shut halfway closed, it doesn't allow a BB into the chamber until the thing is fully cocked, and I don't know but I believe that the trigger cannot be pulled when the lever is open. All in all, I am impressed with the quality and design. Its a lot of BB gun for $30.

[WILCO]

Its a lot of BB gun for $30.

That it is! I've had mine for than 12 years and it's never failed me around the house. Used it for indoor plinking, whacked a few mice in the garage, sniped some yellow jackets and rolled one or two queen bees to boot! Not to mention pop cans, eggs and balloons. :p

[Longwood]

They did and its one safety feature that I highly approve of. The new ones have a ratchet built into the handle so that it can't snap shut halfway closed, it doesn't allow a BB into the chamber until the thing is fully cocked, and I don't know but I believe that the trigger cannot be pulled when the lever is open. All in all, I am impressed with the quality and design. Its a lot of BB gun for $30.

I loved my Daisy until I discovered how much more accurate and powerful the HiScore pellet rifle was.
Never looked back at the horrible accuracy of puny BB guns.
I have a Daisy 777 that I did a trigger job on and I can shoot it as well as my Fienwerkbau Model ll that cost nearly ten times as much.
I think it will shoot the inaccurate BB's, but why would I bother to find out.

[Longwood]

By the way,,,
If you use dry media to polish your brass, try putting ten bucks worth of BB's in the tumbler with your normally used media.
I did,, and I see a big improvement in speed of tumbling my brass.

[bruce drake]

By the way,,,
If you use dry media to polish your brass, try putting ten bucks worth of BB's in the tumbler with your normally used media.
I did,, and I see a big improvement in speed of tumbling my brass.

Hmm, This might be a worthwhile tip. I'll have to give it a try next month after I unpack the house from the move.

Bruce

[MBTcustom]

Thanks Longwood, but for me, this is not about accuracy per-say; its about getting back to the roots and reacquainting myself with the first gun I ever had, and seeing how much differently I approach the use of it given the knowledge that I have gathered over the last two and a half decades. When I was a kid, it was cool just to lob projectiles at a distant object. Now after demanding 1/2 minute of angle accuracy at 200 yards, it is interesting to see what can be done with the old Daisy. I want to see if my knowledge of trigger control, breathing and all the other disciplines makes any difference with this gun.
I suppose I shouldn't be surprised to learn that, in fact, it does make a huge difference.
If I wanted accuracy and power, there is a .22 right beside the Daisy that could give me all that easily. This is merely an attempt to take a closer look at a gun that I took totally for granted but got more trigger time than any other I have owned since. By virtue of that fact, I feel it deserves it.

[nelsonted1]

You need to invent a "hop-up" kit like some air soft guns have.

[HollowPoint]

Still waiting on my Gas-Spring but, I had the day off today so I thought I'd experiment a little.

I took the factory coil spring off my Daisy and added a 1/2" shim at the tail end of factory spring. It added a little bit more tension to the spring.

Through the small oiling port on the top of the gun I could see that at the fully cocked position, the factory spring was now fully compressed.

Originally I was getting an average of 287 fps using the cheaper Copperhead BBs. After I installed the shim on the spring I chrono-graphed the BBs and after ten shots I was getting from 303 fps to the highest velocity of 311 fps.

I couldn't go any thicker with the shim otherwise the spring would have fully compressed before catching on the trigger sear to hold it in the cocked position.

I thought since I got a couple of more fps out of the old girl I might be able to help her along by adding a couple of drops of oil. That had just the opposite effect. My next few shots started out at 268 fps and slowly increased again as I blew the excess oil out of the piston tube.

My last shot of the day measured back in the 287 fps range before I quit shooting. Hopefully after I blow out the rest of that oil my velocities will be back above 300 fps again. Even better still would be for my new spring to arrive.

I have a busy work week next week so if it shows up then I won't have time to play round with it.

You start to get a feeling of impotence when your BBs just agitate the sparrows when you hit them rather than turning them into cat food. All I seem to be doing when I hit them is just "Bitch-Slapping" them with my BBs.

I wish I had a digital camcorder so I could show you the reactions of these birds when my BBs hit them. If they don't fly off immediately, they'll sit there and look around as if trying to figure out what just happened.

I'm kind of glad they're not hurt. The neighborhood cats are fat enough as it is.

HollowPoint

[HollowPoint]

Well, I found out why the new Gas-Spring I ordered was taking so long. It was on back-order and they neglected to tell me. Don't you hate it when that happens?

I called Mcmaster/Carr and changed my order to a Gas-Spring of similar specs that they did have in stock. It arrived pretty quickly but, upon receiving it I found out that none of the Gas-Springs they sell are made for the application I wanted to use it for.

Funny thing is, I specifically asked their tech support guy about this very thing before buying it. I guess they can't be expected to know every facet of the workings of their product line. It would have been nice to have known this before I ordered though.

When it arrived, the Gas-Spring had the manufacturers logo printed on it so I was able to talk to one of the engineers at SUSPA Gas Springs. He turned out to be a pretty smart guy; willing to talk and make suggestions along the lines of Air Rifle applications.

In the end it turned out that they generally don't make the type of Gas-Springs I was looking for but, for a fee they could make a "One-Off" Gas-Spring that would work if I was willing to pay from $100-200 dollars for it. I think not.

I found another guy who was able to help me out so I ordered three of them. Since I'm not sure exactly the amount of force I'll be needing I got one in each of the three different calibrations.

Now it's a matter of waiting for them to get here again.

While I've been waiting I did a little more experimenting. I went down the street to my local Ace hardware store and bought a stronger compression spring to swap out with the factory spring my Daisy RedRyder had in it when I bought it.

The Ace Compression spring was a stronger spring made with .105" wire as apposed to the .091" wire of the factory spring. The store-bought spring was also a little under two inches shorter so I stretched it out to the length of the factory spring. (roughly 8.5" long)

I also turned (on the metal lathe) a new transfer port that fit perfectly into the existing smooth bore barrel; no slop what-so-ever but, still a silky smooth function. When I assembled and shot it my FPS's went from the original 287 FPS to 334-341 FPS.

I don't really think that is was the replacement spring all by itself that made all that difference. I think it was the tighter fitting transfer port. The original had more slop in it than the cheaper BBs I was shooting through it. Although now, even the cheaper BBs are giving me velocities in the 330's.

The combination of the two upgrades has increased my velocity by over 50 FPS. I'm tempted to go with an even heavier spring just to get it to the velocities stated on the box but, (350 FPS) I think I'll hold off until I've experimented with one of the incoming nitrogen Gas-Springs.

No more pissed off sparrows and pigeons. I'm making lots of cat food now. That Vernier-Sight that GoodSteel made is looking better and better.

HollowPoint

[HollowPoint]

I hope these posts of mine aren't seen as a Hijacking of GoodSteel's original post. It's just that I've noticed that this subject has gotten more than just a few views; which leads me to believe that there's alot of "Closet Daisy RedRyder BB gun owners/shooters" among us.

It's time to come out of the closet.

The Verneir Tang Peep Sight that GoodSteel fabricated is looking more and more like a viable option when I factor in the modifications I hope to complete on my Daisy RedRyder BB gun. It looks like I'll have no room to secure a scope like I'd hoped.

I finally got my Gas Springs; the correct ones this time so I'm off and running. I should say I'm just "Off." I see now why such a thing has rarely if ever been attempted.

Take a look at the following link and you'll see what I'm up against.

http://www.daisycollectors.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=58

I'm wanting to replace the factory compression spring with a Nitrogen filled Gas Spring. I've mulled it over in my head and I've started my CAD drawings of the components I'll need to make it work.

Most of the internal components will have to be completely redesigned in order to fit into the cramped space of the receiver. I think I can get it to work. It's just going to take some time.

It looks like I'll have to redesign the Lever, the rear wood stock and possibly even the trigger group.
Time will tell.

An update on the latest Compression Spring experiment I mentioned in my last post. I was getting velocities near the stated velocities on the Daisy RedRyder box. (350 FPS) This lasted for about four days; then the aftermarket compression spring appears to have reverted to its original length and my velocities dropped back down to just below 300 FPS.

The moral to that experiment. You can replace the spring with a stronger spring but, it has to be the correct length from the git-go otherwise it will just re-compress down to its original design length.

I'm going to stop writing these updates on GoodSteels OP and move it to separate thread in the "Projects" section of this forum. I'll title it "Driving Miss Daisy."

I'll start that thread today and update it as my project progresses. As always, your input will be appreciated but, not necessarily heeded or applied to this project. I think I may have already figured it out. Now the trial and error begins.

My sincerest apologies to GoodSteel if I've over-stepped the lines of common courtesy by posting comments of this kind on a thread regarding his custom Vernier sight.

HollowPoint

[MBTcustom]

That's it! You stomped on my feelers and now its time to settle it like men!
What do you say? BB guns at 50 paces?
Seriously, I didn't mind. In fact I figured it wouldn't do to have 15 threads dealing with BB guns on cast boolits.
You are more than welcome to continue in this thread if you like.
I was about to suggest that you consider learning to wrap your own springs. Its a very useful thing to know how to do.

[HollowPoint]

Right now at fifty paces my BB gun's felt effect would equal that of a mosquito bite.
If your Daisy giving you 375 FPS I imagine that would be more like a Bee-Sting; from a
Texas Bee. (everything's bigger in Texas)

By the way, the phrase, "Put Your Eye Out" came from the BB-Gun-Wars that the kids from
back in the day would engage in. They'd do so without eye protection and as a result, some
of them would inevitably catch a BB in the eye.

If "Wrapping your own springs" means making your own springs that would be kind
of interesting.

HollowPoint

[Longwood]

The quality pellet rifles have to counter the spring action to get any kind of accuracy.
You guys should "Keep it simple" and do like Fienwerkbau did with the Model 2 pistols.
So freekin simple compared to springs and plungers.

[nanuk]

...
Seriously, I didn't mind. In fact I figured it wouldn't do to have 15 threads dealing with BB guns on cast boolits......


NOT if you Cast, swage, or drip your own.

get a shot maker, and design a table to sort for size, to get the perfect size for you....

all keeping within the intent of these forums

[bootsnthejeep]

Was reading the title, clicking on the link and thinking, "What, did he put a 1200 yard vernier on a Red Ryder?"

Damn if he didn't.

I thought my buddy that JB welded WGRS peep sights to his Red Ryder was nuts. Then again, he was shooting june bugs out of the air with it at 25 feet...