BB Gun

One year for Christmas as a child me and my brother both wanted a daisy red rider bb gun just like the one on the Christmas story, and just like the movie my mom and dad would say that we would shoot our eye out, but we begged and pleaded till Christmas and nothing under the tree resembled a bb gun, after we both finished opening all our presents my dad told us to look behind the buffet and like in the movie the daisy red rider bb gun was wrapped and tucked behind the buffet. As soon as we had both got dressed we took it outside and began to set up cans and bottles and anything we could find so that we could practice our aim. I remember inviting friends over and the only thing we would do was shoot the bb gun at pop cans and the occasional squirrel that we could find. Nothing else really comes to mind about this bb gun. Fortunately neither of us ever shot our eye out or were injured, I do remember my brother shot me in the stomach with it one day but it being a cold day where I was bundled up it didn’t penetrate the clothing. We used to make towers out of pop cans and then see who could knock down the most pop cans with 1 shot. Or see who could knock down a can that we called out before we shot.

The daisy red ryder bb gun was just a combination of metal and wire which could fire a lead ball using compressed air. When first shot someone replied “boy, that’s a daisy!” the bb gun kept the name and then was put in production and was given to farmers when they purchased a windmill. The company originally made windmills and used the bb gun as a helper to make a sale. The bb gun was such a large success that the company changed their name to Daisy Manufacturing Company, Inc. the gun soon became a staple for youngsters throughout the nation.