MEMORIES:
james_71 remembers...Ah, the Daisy Air Rifle... Such fun until you get into junior high and someone gets the dumb idea of ... More »
Posted on 02/10/08
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Its status is that of legend. It is the ultimate crossover toy, one with the timeless power of ushering one from boy to man. A little bit of danger and a lot of fun, the BB Gun has been a favorite since its inception.
Of course, its inception dates back hundreds of years (roughly 125 A.D.). At that time, an uncanny device known as the blowgun – a small tube through which a hunter could blow objects such as pellets or darts at his prey – was just coming into its own. As gunpowder changed modern warfare in the sixteenth century, the blowgun quietly transitioned its technology into that of the firearm. This resulted in the first recorded air-powered gun, the bellows gun, in about 1580. A burst of air would issue from the spring-loaded bellows in the gun stock to thrust a dart out the barrel.
King Henry the IV of France, some decades later, was the recipient of the next generation of air-powered weaponry, the pneumatic air gun. A small chamber built into the gun held compressed air that was pumped in, then released when one pulled the trigger. The result was a projectile blessed with speed and remarkable accuracy. The complex mechanisms that powered the early pneumatics made them too expensive for any other than the rich to afford, but the technology was in place for the eventual incarnation of the BB Gun.
With the advancement of cartridge and smokeless powder technology, air rifles lost any consideration as a viable military option. However, because of their virtual non-lethality, the air-rifle became very popular with children. The Markham Air Rifle Company became one of the very first companies to specifically sell BB Guns in the United States in 1885, using ball bearings from buckshot as ammunition. A windmill company began packaging air rifles with their steel windmills as premiums. In 1895, this company changed its name to Daisy and concentrated full-time on pneumatic air guns. Daisy’s air rifle used specifically made buckshot between B and BBB size, but despite clearly calling it “air rifle shot,” the renowned moniker “BB” stuck around.
By the turn of the century, Daisy had sold a quarter of a million BB Guns, thanks in large part to a switch from lead to steel that made the weapon more attractive and durable. Other manufacturers, like the Dubuar Manufacturing Company and the Atlas Gun Company, followed with their own versions. But without a set standard, BB Gun repairmen frequently found themselves fixing split barrels and jammed mechanisms thanks to different sized BBs. In 1920, the American Ball Company came to the rescue – in an exclusive partnership with Daisy – with .175 inch standard steel BBs. The steel versions were much lighter than the previous lead versions, giving them greater velocity and accuracy.
To tantalize kids even more – as if a BB Gun by itself were not temptation enough – Daisy wrapped their air-rifle under the marketable images of Davy Crockett, Annie Oakley, and Zorro (even though the latter never really used a gun at all). Outdistancing them all was the legendary Red Ryder BB Gun, named for a popular comic strip hero of the same name, and immortalized by Ralphie Parker’s wish list in the holiday favorite A Christmas Story. The longest continuously-running tie-in merchandise item of all time, Daisy has made the Red Ryder since 1938, and uninterrupted since World War II.
Other variations on the pneumatics have followed: AirSoft pistols (which use even safer rubber pellets), CO2 guns, and paintball guns, among others. But as time and the bottom line prove, the classic remains the favorite.
