Thread: Red Ryder BB Gun

aye! i have one! i got it when i was ten i think :P mom RARELY let me use it though >-| haha i believe it's still stashed under my bed at home :P

I got my first ryder when I was about 7 or so, and a crossman with a scope when 10. My first knife about when I was 7 or so, too. I didn't need permission to use it; we were expected to use it! We did hunt with it, and had to eat what we killed. (The crossman... I don't know that a red ryder would go through anything, maybe a jellyfish......)

I also had a hatchet, a bow and arrow set (although the ones we made were much more fun!!).

Me and my friends were able to go all over the neighborhood all the time, through cornfields and forests, for hours at a time. It's amazing how times have changed....


Anyway - thanks for the nostalgia, I haven't thought about these things for quite a while.

ok, that makes WAY more sense

Heh heh. My Red Ryder is leaning up against my closet door at the moment. It's going to be in an upcoming movie as a "Winchester" prop.

I had never owned an official Red Ryder prior to buying it three years ago, but I did get one of the other Daisy lever-action guns for Christmas when I was around ten or eleven. It was essentially the exact same gun, only without the extra doo-dads like the wood on the grip, the scroll work on the stock, etc. Those things make the gun look cool, but they're essentially useless and will only get damaged and fall apart.

I preferred that first BB gun of mine, since the lever had a smooth, sweeping action to it, whereas my Red Ryder ratchets along until you've fully ****ed it. *Cl-cl-cl-cl-CLICK!* I assume that was designed to help younger shooters operate it a little more easily...and yeah, I remember having to struggle a little bit when I first got my original, 'cause it would violently spring back to its idle, un****ed position with your hand inside the lever if you didn't manage to **** it all the way. Which hurt. But hey, that only builds character and muscle in a young lad.

I put many, many thousands of BBs through that thing. My brother got a gun just like it that same Christmas. We used to take them to the cottage and shoot at the dragon flies that hovered like helicopters just above the glassy surface of the lake water (the dock was in a calm little cove, and spared the annoying wakes speedboats would cause elsewhere). No one was ever able to hit them, though, because of the gun's low velocity and their quick reflexes. Kind of like a three-toed sloth trying to swat a housefly. Hmmph. Or, a dragon fly.

My Dad pulled off a cool shot one time, though, when he beaned a mating pair that were piggybacking along with the others. They weren't killed, just knocked apart, which was neat. Coitus interruptus at 280 fps. Guns... is there anything they can't do?

What were killed were the frogs. Oh. My. God. Though that was a hunt that could only take place every other summer or so, because the population was so thoroughly decimated. I remember saying to my Dad, "Why are there no frogs this year?"

*Sigh* "Because you killed them all, son. Remember?"

"--Oh riiiiight."

But a couple of tadpoles inevitably squirmed too far from their mucusey homestead, grew up in the wrong place and, somehow, survived long enough in that horribly unbalanced habitat to produce future generations for me to shoot. Just like that heroin cliche, it was never quite as good as the first time again (that first blitzkrieg was never equalled), yet... I still kept chasing it.

But that was fine. Later on I got an awesome, break-barrel .177 calibre, 500 fps Diana pellet rifle, which helped me destroy the squirrel population!

In summation, I advise all of you fathers, uncles, grandfathers and big brothers out there to buy the little man in your life a BB gun. I'm sure he'll turn out just fine.

Under the supervision of a mature adult BB guns are a fantastic character builder, teaching marksmanship, sportsmanship and above all responsibility. Got mine when I was ten and that seems to me to be the right age to learn and understand this step in responsibility.

i got a pellet gun when i was about 7. i could only use it with my dad at first but i was a pretty responsible kid, plus we lived out in the country, in the middle of a bunch of orchards. it was a break barrel type .177 cal.

i really don't think most of the kids these days can handle a BB gun or slingshot. i have dealt with them and they are raised by the TV and video games and have no real grasp on cause and effect. they say "oh i am crazy i will do anything" like it is bragging rights when really they have just never been allowed to do anything so when they get out beyond their parents view they go nuts and really do some damage. i do realize that there are still lots of good kids out there BTW but in general there are a lot more naive and reckless kids out today, with nothing better to do. i am young (25) though so maybe there are no more now then there were 30 years ago and i just have a skewed view point. it is entirely possible.

Well armed.
dannyr

bb guns are outlaw'd here in australia

When I was young, my best friend's dad got him a Red Ryder BB gun - his father treated it as a stepping stone to earning the right to go for a hunting rifle one day. A sort of gun training wheels,if you will. His dad used to keep the BB gun in with his hunting rifles, locked, and imbued the gun with the gravitas that guns should have. It was seen as a proof that you could handle the responsibility and where you could prove that were mature enough to ALWAYS follow safe gun handling practices, clean and take care of the weapon.

I don't think I ever saw an instance where he was allowed to even see the gun without his father there, showing him the finer points of marksmanship, of caring for a tool, or some safe gun handling practice. I remember I envied not only the gun, but also the experience he had with his dad around it, on the few occasions where I was allow to participate.

It's in this context that I see a BB gun as very worthwhile - a chance for father and son to embark on a lifetime of hunting together - where you could give the child some responsibility, treat it as a real gun, and see the child grow from the trust being gained.

My parents were not hunters though, and saw absolutely no need for "gun training wheels." They were firmly in the camp of "you'll shoot your eye out!" much to my dismay today. Now that I'm old enough, I want to get into hunting, but don't even know the first thing about it, not having grown up in a culture that accepts weapons. Thankfully, I have my straights to keep me occupied.

Mark

Under the supervision of a mature adult BB guns are a fantastic character builder, teaching marksmanship, sportsmanship and above all responsibility

+1 exactly! I still have my Red Ryder (amazingly) and plan on giving to my son when he’s a bit older. I feel it’s necessary to teach children about guns and gun safety. To treat every air-soft gun, BB gun, & paintball gun as a real firearm, they must be exposed to guns and know how to safely handle them and shoot them.