In order to participate in the GunBroker Member forums, you must be logged in with your GunBroker.com account. Click the sign-in button at the top right of the forums page to get connected.
IT'S A DAISY -- Flashback to the gun
Josey1
Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
IT'S A DAISY
The Daisy Red Ryder Western Carbine air rifle has beenthe stuff of dreams for boys-and grown men-for generations.
BY CLIFF GROMER
Photos by Brian Kosoff
Hopalong Cassidy was in the movies, Tom Mix was on radio and comic books and magazines such as American Boyand Boy's Liferan ads for every boy's dream-the Daisy Red Ryder Western Carbine. What a time to be young. BB guns were decidedly a step up from slingshots and homemade bows and arrows that were called on for shooting at assorted targets: tin cans, pesky varmints and, on an occasional perverse whim, the neighbor's cat or chickens.
According to Daisy advertising of the day, the BB guns built character and contributed to good health, good habits, good eyesight and steady nerves.
The Daisy saga began in the late 1800s at the Plymouth Iron Windmill Co. in Plymouth, Mich. Windmills were common in rural areas to generate electricity and pump water. But they weren't turning much of a profit for Plymouth, and the company was close to going under. One day, a local inventor by the name of Clarence Hamilton walked in to show Plymouth's general manager, L.C. Hough, his latest brainstorm. He unwrapped a contraption that resembled a gun. The barrel was conventional enough, but the stock was simply a piece of wire bent to an approximate shape.
Hamilton cocked the weapon, rolled a size BB lead ball down the barrel and offered the piece to Hough. "Go ahead, shoot it," he said. Hough took aim at his almost full wastepaper basket. Kapling!The ball blasted through the side. Interested now, Hough took the gun outside and set up a shingle as a target 10 ft. away. Kersmack!The ball penetrated clear through the wood. Impressed, Hough turned to Hamilton and used the common slang expression of the day-"Boy, that's a daisy." The name stuck. If that air gun had been invented today, it probably would have been called something like the "Way Cool."
Hough's son Edward best describes that original gun. "The air chamber and shooting barrel were made from drawn-brass tubing joined together by a molded section of lead, tin and antimony that provided a cone-shaped holder for the BB shot when dropped into the end of the shooting barrel.
"The spring was compressed by pulling a malleable iron lever that rested on the main barrel section and was connected with the plunger by a wire link."
The company agreed to knock out a few guns to test the waters. Company salesmen gave them away as premiums to farmers who bought a windmill. As it turned out, customers became more interested in the air rifles (which weren't for sale) than the windmills. But the handwriting was on the wall, and on Jan. 16, 1889, the company went into the air rifle business, manufacturing Hamilton's gun for the general public. The Plymouth name was eventually changed to Daisy Manufacturing Co.
The first Daisys used nickel-plated steel and wholesaled for 50 cents. But nickel plating was a slow and expensive process, and the company developed a method for bluing the steel. Daisys fire by cocking the lever to the mainspring.
Pulling the trigger releases the spring, which shoots the plunger forward. This compresses the air behind the BB, and spews it out the barrel. The air is compressed and released almost simultaneously, rather than being compressed and held in a chamber as with some other guns.
Daisy enjoyed almost global acceptance thanks to Charles Bennett, who traveled around the world opening up export markets. Bennett really had to go the extra mile to sell the air rifles to China, though. The Chinese considered the BB gun a lethal weapon, and lethal weapons could not be imported. The quick-thinking Bennett handed the Chinese representative an air rifle, turned around and told the man to shoot him. Bennett obviously presented a tempting target and the air was ripped by the sound of a departing BB. Bennett winced, and China went on to become the largest foreign market for Daisy air rifles up until the 1930s
Daisy frequently featured celebrities to promote its guns in ads, and even named models after some of them. In 1934, Daisy contracted with Buzz Barton-a 50-year-old circus hero turned Western movie star-to produce a rifle model called, not surprisingly, the Buzz Barton. Daisy then came out with a Buck Jones model, after the popular Universal Pictures Western star of the era. Barton and Jones were featured in Daisy ads extolling the virtues and fun of the guns, and the kids ate it up.
But Daisy management felt uneasy about the risk of these Western heroes possibly falling into ill favor with the public, as has happened in our day with some sports figures. They feared any negative publicity would reflect badly on the company and its products. A fictional character, on the other hand, would be immune to the temptations and circumstances faced by real people.
When Stephen Slesinger, creator of the Red Ryder Western comic strip character, and Fred Harman, the artist who actually brought Red to life on the pages, approached Daisy to produce a Red Ryder pistol, the company jumped at the chance. But Daisy was geared up for rifles, not pistols. Some fast talking by Daisy president Cass Hough convinced the pair that Red really needed a carbine, not a pistol, to sling lead at the bad guys. A deal was consummated with a handshake and Daisy started working on the Red Ryder gun in 1938. A formal licensing agreement was signed on Oct. 6, 1939, and the first Daisy 111 Model 40 Red Ryder Western Carbine was assembled in 1940.
The gun was built like a tank, shot hard and was the first air rifle to actually look like a real Western carbine. It was a bull's-eye for Daisy and it has earned the distinction of becoming the definitive BB gun.
The first 111-40s produced from 1940 to early '42 had distinctive copper bands around the barrel and forearm and sold for $2.95. Production was halted during the war years and resumed in 1946. But the barrel and forearm bands were now blued steel. Daisy estimates that 6.5 million 111-40s were produced by the time the model was retired in 1954. Variations in the gun over the years, even though the model designation did not change, are not lost on Daisy enthusiasts and collectors. The earliest versions, obviously, are the most sought after. The ultimate Daisys to covet are the copper-banded 111-40s, with collectors paying up to $1200 for one in mint condition.
BB guns in general, and Daisy 111-40s in particular, were given a real shot in the arm (so to speak) by the Jean Shepherd film comedy "A Christmas Story." It's about a kid who lusts after a BB gun, and everybody, including a department store Santa, is telling him, "You'll shoot your eye out." The film featured an original copper-banded Red Ryder 111-40.
The Daisy/Red Ryder agreement is arguably one of the longest-running merchandising and licensing agreements in the country, and a host of Daisy air rifles bearing the Red Ryder handle branded on the stock have been offered over the years. They're still being made today. Red himself began slapping leather in 1936 and didn't hang up his spurs until the 1960s. The Red Ryder comic strip had been carried by as many as 300 to 400 newspapers, and that doesn't include the stampede of Red Ryder comic books.
Today, fathers who owned Daisy 111 Model 40 Red Ryder Western Carbines in their youth complain that the current model Red Ryders that they buy for their sons don't hit as hard as the early guns. While Daisy may pooh-pooh this as so much memory aberration, the fact is that collectors and folks in the business of taking these guns apart confirm that differences in the mainspring are mostly responsible for current model Red Ryders being somewhat anemic when compared to their forefathers. The experts agree: The Red Ryder 111-40 is once and for all the B.B. King of BB guns
EVOLUTION OF THE DAISY RED RYDER
Year Model Feature
1940-42 111 Model 40 Copper bands on barrel and forearm. Adjustable rear
sight
1946 111 Model 40 Blued-steel barrel and forearm bands. Barrel band
was spot welded instead of being peened. Still
retained distinguishing prewar cast-iron cocking
lever. Fixed rear sight
1947 111 Model 40 Cocking lever changed to black-painted aluminum
1952 111 Model 40 Plastic forearm replaced wood
1953-54 111 Model 40 Adjustable rear sight returns. Plastic stock replaced
wood. Late models painted steel instead of blued
1955-61 Model 94 Gun was totally restyled
1972 Model 1938 Almost identical to the 1953 111-40, but with
light-blond wood instead of plastic
1979 Model 1938A Modified safety mechanism
1980-Today Model 1938B Shot tube eliminated. Loading tube replaced by a
loading door system
http://www.popularmechanics.com/outdoors/outdoors/1999/7/Daisy_Air_Rifle/index.phtml
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
The Daisy Red Ryder Western Carbine air rifle has beenthe stuff of dreams for boys-and grown men-for generations.
BY CLIFF GROMER
Photos by Brian Kosoff
Hopalong Cassidy was in the movies, Tom Mix was on radio and comic books and magazines such as American Boyand Boy's Liferan ads for every boy's dream-the Daisy Red Ryder Western Carbine. What a time to be young. BB guns were decidedly a step up from slingshots and homemade bows and arrows that were called on for shooting at assorted targets: tin cans, pesky varmints and, on an occasional perverse whim, the neighbor's cat or chickens.
According to Daisy advertising of the day, the BB guns built character and contributed to good health, good habits, good eyesight and steady nerves.
The Daisy saga began in the late 1800s at the Plymouth Iron Windmill Co. in Plymouth, Mich. Windmills were common in rural areas to generate electricity and pump water. But they weren't turning much of a profit for Plymouth, and the company was close to going under. One day, a local inventor by the name of Clarence Hamilton walked in to show Plymouth's general manager, L.C. Hough, his latest brainstorm. He unwrapped a contraption that resembled a gun. The barrel was conventional enough, but the stock was simply a piece of wire bent to an approximate shape.
Hamilton cocked the weapon, rolled a size BB lead ball down the barrel and offered the piece to Hough. "Go ahead, shoot it," he said. Hough took aim at his almost full wastepaper basket. Kapling!The ball blasted through the side. Interested now, Hough took the gun outside and set up a shingle as a target 10 ft. away. Kersmack!The ball penetrated clear through the wood. Impressed, Hough turned to Hamilton and used the common slang expression of the day-"Boy, that's a daisy." The name stuck. If that air gun had been invented today, it probably would have been called something like the "Way Cool."
Hough's son Edward best describes that original gun. "The air chamber and shooting barrel were made from drawn-brass tubing joined together by a molded section of lead, tin and antimony that provided a cone-shaped holder for the BB shot when dropped into the end of the shooting barrel.
"The spring was compressed by pulling a malleable iron lever that rested on the main barrel section and was connected with the plunger by a wire link."
The company agreed to knock out a few guns to test the waters. Company salesmen gave them away as premiums to farmers who bought a windmill. As it turned out, customers became more interested in the air rifles (which weren't for sale) than the windmills. But the handwriting was on the wall, and on Jan. 16, 1889, the company went into the air rifle business, manufacturing Hamilton's gun for the general public. The Plymouth name was eventually changed to Daisy Manufacturing Co.
The first Daisys used nickel-plated steel and wholesaled for 50 cents. But nickel plating was a slow and expensive process, and the company developed a method for bluing the steel. Daisys fire by cocking the lever to the mainspring.
Pulling the trigger releases the spring, which shoots the plunger forward. This compresses the air behind the BB, and spews it out the barrel. The air is compressed and released almost simultaneously, rather than being compressed and held in a chamber as with some other guns.
Daisy enjoyed almost global acceptance thanks to Charles Bennett, who traveled around the world opening up export markets. Bennett really had to go the extra mile to sell the air rifles to China, though. The Chinese considered the BB gun a lethal weapon, and lethal weapons could not be imported. The quick-thinking Bennett handed the Chinese representative an air rifle, turned around and told the man to shoot him. Bennett obviously presented a tempting target and the air was ripped by the sound of a departing BB. Bennett winced, and China went on to become the largest foreign market for Daisy air rifles up until the 1930s
Daisy frequently featured celebrities to promote its guns in ads, and even named models after some of them. In 1934, Daisy contracted with Buzz Barton-a 50-year-old circus hero turned Western movie star-to produce a rifle model called, not surprisingly, the Buzz Barton. Daisy then came out with a Buck Jones model, after the popular Universal Pictures Western star of the era. Barton and Jones were featured in Daisy ads extolling the virtues and fun of the guns, and the kids ate it up.
But Daisy management felt uneasy about the risk of these Western heroes possibly falling into ill favor with the public, as has happened in our day with some sports figures. They feared any negative publicity would reflect badly on the company and its products. A fictional character, on the other hand, would be immune to the temptations and circumstances faced by real people.
When Stephen Slesinger, creator of the Red Ryder Western comic strip character, and Fred Harman, the artist who actually brought Red to life on the pages, approached Daisy to produce a Red Ryder pistol, the company jumped at the chance. But Daisy was geared up for rifles, not pistols. Some fast talking by Daisy president Cass Hough convinced the pair that Red really needed a carbine, not a pistol, to sling lead at the bad guys. A deal was consummated with a handshake and Daisy started working on the Red Ryder gun in 1938. A formal licensing agreement was signed on Oct. 6, 1939, and the first Daisy 111 Model 40 Red Ryder Western Carbine was assembled in 1940.
The gun was built like a tank, shot hard and was the first air rifle to actually look like a real Western carbine. It was a bull's-eye for Daisy and it has earned the distinction of becoming the definitive BB gun.
The first 111-40s produced from 1940 to early '42 had distinctive copper bands around the barrel and forearm and sold for $2.95. Production was halted during the war years and resumed in 1946. But the barrel and forearm bands were now blued steel. Daisy estimates that 6.5 million 111-40s were produced by the time the model was retired in 1954. Variations in the gun over the years, even though the model designation did not change, are not lost on Daisy enthusiasts and collectors. The earliest versions, obviously, are the most sought after. The ultimate Daisys to covet are the copper-banded 111-40s, with collectors paying up to $1200 for one in mint condition.
BB guns in general, and Daisy 111-40s in particular, were given a real shot in the arm (so to speak) by the Jean Shepherd film comedy "A Christmas Story." It's about a kid who lusts after a BB gun, and everybody, including a department store Santa, is telling him, "You'll shoot your eye out." The film featured an original copper-banded Red Ryder 111-40.
The Daisy/Red Ryder agreement is arguably one of the longest-running merchandising and licensing agreements in the country, and a host of Daisy air rifles bearing the Red Ryder handle branded on the stock have been offered over the years. They're still being made today. Red himself began slapping leather in 1936 and didn't hang up his spurs until the 1960s. The Red Ryder comic strip had been carried by as many as 300 to 400 newspapers, and that doesn't include the stampede of Red Ryder comic books.
Today, fathers who owned Daisy 111 Model 40 Red Ryder Western Carbines in their youth complain that the current model Red Ryders that they buy for their sons don't hit as hard as the early guns. While Daisy may pooh-pooh this as so much memory aberration, the fact is that collectors and folks in the business of taking these guns apart confirm that differences in the mainspring are mostly responsible for current model Red Ryders being somewhat anemic when compared to their forefathers. The experts agree: The Red Ryder 111-40 is once and for all the B.B. King of BB guns
EVOLUTION OF THE DAISY RED RYDER
Year Model Feature
1940-42 111 Model 40 Copper bands on barrel and forearm. Adjustable rear
sight
1946 111 Model 40 Blued-steel barrel and forearm bands. Barrel band
was spot welded instead of being peened. Still
retained distinguishing prewar cast-iron cocking
lever. Fixed rear sight
1947 111 Model 40 Cocking lever changed to black-painted aluminum
1952 111 Model 40 Plastic forearm replaced wood
1953-54 111 Model 40 Adjustable rear sight returns. Plastic stock replaced
wood. Late models painted steel instead of blued
1955-61 Model 94 Gun was totally restyled
1972 Model 1938 Almost identical to the 1953 111-40, but with
light-blond wood instead of plastic
1979 Model 1938A Modified safety mechanism
1980-Today Model 1938B Shot tube eliminated. Loading tube replaced by a
loading door system
http://www.popularmechanics.com/outdoors/outdoors/1999/7/Daisy_Air_Rifle/index.phtml
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
Comments
There are no bad guns, only bad people.