Is anyone still shooting a Red Ryder?

[Scott Tschirhart]

I think, to preserve what is left of my sanity, that I need to have a backyard range where I can plink with my Red Ryder BB gun on a daily basis.

https://youtu.be/Ax08uA5iEac

https://youtu.be/JZVRhuau6MY

https://youtu.be/4Zq5iBOAUKQ

[JimT]

I do.
Been teaching my young grandsons firearms safety .. fundamentals of shooting ... etc. with it. They are not big enough to cock it yet but they are learning to shoot!
Works great for shooing the chickens off the porch. Gotta hit em in the wing if you don't want to seriously damage them.

[Bronco]

My dog minds a lot better when I have my Red Ryder with me! Butt shots only Almost as good as when I have the shock collar in him. Makes good practice for snap shooting from the hip.

[octagon]

Shoot mine all the time. Dad called one day and asked what we were doing. I said shooting deer off the back porch with my brother. I've told you boys about that...how many did ya shoot...eight or nine i guess...Eight or Nine!! [shooting Axis deer wayyy out there with red ryders] great fun, they would flinch a bit and never stop grazing.

[Tycer]

Yep. Regularly to practice snap shooting. 1953 model.

[Dusty Texian]

Every chance I get !

[2ndovc]

With one eye!

jb

[AJMD429]

.
A friend and I used to hunt African Game with air rifles and BB guns, by setting up animal crackers in the grass or garden. We'd buy the great big bags of generic brand ones.

[Drawdown]

I got one back about April-May for my granddaughter, who is almost 18 months now. I'd planned to redo the stock up real nice, but changed my mind. I gave it to her then, box still sealed, one tube of Daisy Bb's 400 or 500.
Now I look forward that hopefully she'll want to open it new whenever she's ready, Lord willing I'll try to teach her to shoot. That'll be a Day!
And right at that same time, I went in to my local pawn, just looking (aren't we always) no plan to buy. Behold, the cleanest best looking 94 Carbine I've yet to see around here. Made in early 64. I told the guy, my granddaughter will take it!
Well, that little rifle, JUST ABOUT stole my heart from my Mod 64! It's a real jewel, some of the best money I ever spent. I hope I can Notch at least one deer with it before she gets it, just so she might remember it! And if she don't ever get into shooting and hunting, no regrets, I love that rifle anyways!

[crs]

Yes, we keep one in the house, one in the barn, and another in the chicken yard. Mostly for shooting rats and other pests.
I also have a more powerful air rifle for bigger pests. shot shells for my .357 revolver and a .22 rifle if things are more serious. Most poisonous snakes are taken with the shot cartridges.
Looking forward to a skunk shoot later tonight with the .22 as the hot dry weather has caused one to pester the chickens.

When I was a kid, I shot the Daisy pump because it was more powerful than the Red Ryder- shot lots of birds with it.

[Ysabel Kid]

Sure am!

Scott, in Y2K's bedroom he has the Red Ryder BB-gun I bought him... the day he was born. I came home from the hospital to get a bit of sleep (34 hours of being up with my wife while she was in labor even wears out the father!), cut the lawn, and shower. Hit a K-Mart on the way back and bought it that day so the receipt would have his birthdate on it.

His hangs on his wall... right under mine, which I got when I was about 5 years old (1969). And mine hangs under my Dad's Red Ryder BB gun! All three still work. In fact, my father's one is the most powerful and most accurate of the three!!!

[Scott Tschirhart]

I never had a Red Ryder as a kid. Always wanted one because my cousins had one. My BB gun had a short stock and no forend. Wish I could find an older one with more steel and less plastic.

My brother and I killed the heck out of sparrows in a huge tree in the back yard. Despite the rudimentary sights, we had no trouble taking them out of the tree. Of course the fact that you could actually see the bb in flight really helped.

[AJMD429]

I had a 22 cal pellet gun at age 10 as a kid, but even that was after I got my first 22 LR (age 6, but Mom kept the ammo).

I got a 'caseless' 22 LR around the same time, and killed my cat with it when evidently some of the powder went off after enough went off to expell the bullet (cat just got powder blast but no projectile, as I stood up and turned around holding gun one handed at my side). So got rid of that.

Then a 10/22 at age 12 gifted from my brother.

Around age 30 I got a match grade 177 pellet rifle. Could shoot through center of peppermint lifesavers from a rest at hallway-length in the apartment.

Then FINALLY at age 33 I got a genuine BB GUN. Not a Red Ryder though; a 'Mini-14' lookalike. Way less accuracy and power vs the 177 pellet rifle, but kinda fun.

Eventually it broke and I replaced it with another field-grade 177 air rifle.

So...I spent the first 33 years of my life without a BB gun, but by then I sure had a slew of regular guns and a couple pellet rifles. I guess I did things backwards...

[Blaine]

You bet...I got the Adult-Size version about 3 years ago. It's above average accurate for a BB gun, and fairly powerful @ a claimed 400fps. Lot's of cheap enjoyment to be had with it.

[Scott Tschirhart]

You bet...I got the Adult-Size version about 3 years ago. It's above average accurate for a BB gun, and fairly powerful @ a claimed 400fps. Lot's of cheap enjoyment to be had with it.

I just took delivery of an adult sized version today.........looking forward to trying it out.

[Blaine]

You bet...I got the Adult-Size version about 3 years ago. It's above average accurate for a BB gun, and fairly powerful @ a claimed 400fps. Lot's of cheap enjoyment to be had with it.

I just took delivery of an adult sized version today.........looking forward to trying it out.

Wood stock, and no plastic that I can see. I love mine. You will too.

[1894cfan]

Nope, got a Crosman 760 that I use on spiders and flies, WITHOUT BB's OR PELLETS! They tend to be a bit hard on window glass.

[marlinman93]

I still have my Benjamin pump pellet rifle, and Sheridan pellet pistol, but haven't shot either in a very long time. A few years back I bought a Gamo Whisper pellet rifle in .177 cal. and it's such a accurate rifle that it's about the only air rifle I shoot anymore. I don't shoot much in the way of air rifles in the summer as I'd rather get range time with my other rifles. Winter or rainy days are when I shoot the pellet rifle. I can stand inside my garage back door and get 50' to where my target is, so it keeps me dry, out of the wind, and plenty of off season cheap practice.

[Mark in MO]

We keep my daughter's Red Ryder BB gun by the back door. In the winter we have squirrels that keep climbing onto our bird feeders. After they get shot in the butt a few times they tend to stay on the ground and off the feeders. Works well to keep them out of the garden in the summer too.

[Bob Hatfield]

Not quite a Red Ryder but I do have a Daisy Model 25 pump that I keep in the kitchen to "Sting" the squirrels off of the wife's deer feeder (her pets). A few of the acrobatic chimpanzee type grey squirrels are eating holes into the plastic and taking the corn. I usually lob a BB out to 25 yards and sting them in the gut or hips. They take off like lightning but don't learn and eventually come back. The Daisy works great of Black Bear also. Last summer a huge bear was wandering around the house.
I shot him at 30 or so yards. The BB penetrated the hair enough that the bear took off like a greyhound and hasn't been back...........Bob

[Nate Kiowa Jones]

I have a Gamo pellet gun that I know I have more trigger time on it than I do all the other guns here.

Scott,
you get that PM ?

[308magtip]

When I was 12-14 I had a paper route in Ephrata,Pa. deliverwd 200 daily 225 sunday papers all by walking.now and then the newspaper would offer prizes for signing up new customers. A Daisy Red Rider was one I chose. Had so much fun at the local dump shooting rats and crows.After a million rounds the spring broke.Never could find a new one some I guess the gun went to scrap metal. Year later I got a real gun.A win Mod 69A. Still have it and it shoots better than when new. At 77 I guess I finally learned to shoot.

[Lastmohecken]

We use Red Ryders for moving cattle, sometimes, as gentle persuasion for getting them to move or change direction on occasion. Sometimes it actually works pretty well.

[alnitak]

I have a Daisy commemorative Roy Rogers and Gabby Hayes version. Don't shoot it near as much as it deserves, with the .177 getting most of the attention.

[samsi]

You bet...I got the Adult-Size version about 3 years ago. It's above average accurate for a BB gun, and fairly powerful @ a claimed 400fps. Lot's of cheap enjoyment to be had with it.

I just took delivery of an adult sized version today.........looking forward to trying it out.

So, is there a Range Report on the adult sized Red Ryder yet? The CAL Ranch store here had them in stock last Xmas but I dragged my feet and they sold out.

[Pitchy]

Nice shootin Scott
I have two old rifles one is a wood Red Ryder and the short one is a Daisy Model 36, it only shoots about ten foot is there a way to rebuild em.

[gamekeeper]

I still have my father's King BB rifle that his brother brought over from the US around the time of the First World War, it has been repaired countless times and has very little power now, it is a single shot and you have to remove the inner barrel to load, when my dad gave it to me at four years old he kept the inner barrel so I could only fire corks, however within days I found the barrel and my older brother supplied the ammo....

IMG_20200218_203753.jpg

[flightsimmer]

I have a newer Daisy model 25, pump action.
Daisy sent me 3 extra barrels and a bunch of bb's because ??????

Anyway, I tested all 4 barrels and found the most accurate one. I can often hit a bottle cap at 30 yards with it. I like the pump action because I don't have lower the rifle for follow up shots.

I chronographed the velocity at an average of 330 fps.

[Ysabel Kid]

Finally got around to snapping a picture of the Red Ryders mounted on Y2K's bedroom wall...

[Rusty]

Rusty Jr. has one I picked up for him at a yard sale. His has some kind of gold coin inlaid into the stock. If you want a real treat contact Andy Larson at Skinner Sights. He posted some pictures of his grandkids shooting Red Ryders with Skinner Sights on them.

[Ysabel Kid]

This thread reminded me of a funny story with my Red Ryder (one of many funny stories). When I was growing up we had a tree house my dad built us. Really a shed on stilts - no tree. Below it was a large sandbox. We'd spend hours playing in both. As we got older one of our favorite games was to make a sand fort in the corners of the sandbox, then place toy army men (little green soliders) in our forts. Each person playing got 20 soliders, and the rule was the solider had to be visible. Then we'd take our Red Ryders and the first one to eliminate the enemy soldiers won (or last one standing if more than two played). Sniper training! A "kill" was knocking the solider over (or out of the sandbox; plenty went flying to become fodder for the lawnmower).

Anyway, I decided to play a joke on my brothers. I took a wire, wrapped it around the base of a solider, and then wrapped the other end around a railroad spike and stuck it in the sandbox. Both of my brothers must of hit that solider a dozen times, but it wouldn't budge (we all had Red Ryders). I won every round that afternoon and was laughing so hard at the end that I gave away the game!

[Scott Tschirhart]

Pitchy,

The internals on both of those guns can be rebuilt.

But if you don't want to mess with it, I am looking hard for an older Red Ryder (without the plastic safety and plastic front end) to rebuild.

Update, I have been slinging bbs every day in the back yard and it does tend to help my sanity. These guns are not as easy to shoot well as I recall, but if you pay attention to form, they are quite accurate.

[Pitchy]

Pitchy,

The internals on both of those guns can be rebuilt.

But if you don't want to mess with it, I am looking hard for an older Red Ryder (without the plastic safety and plastic front end) to rebuild.

Update, I have been slinging bbs every day in the back yard and it does tend to help my sanity. These guns are not as easy to shoot well as I recall, but if you pay attention to form, they are quite accurate.

Thanks Scott but i`ve had them a long time and want to keep them.