Since I can't go anywhere, shoot my guns, play golf, thought about ordering one of these to shoot dragon flies or something. Daisy Model 21 SxS BB gun.



We all had the Daisy gravity-fed lever cock BB guns in the 50's. We would stop by the hobby shop on our bikes on the way home from Jr. HS and he would sell us wads of BB's at $.09 a round box (later a plastic sheaf) to avoid the state tax. BB gun wars raged..we bought old canvas pilot headgear, welding glasses to protect us. The "automatic" squad arm was the pump spring loaded BB gun but it could only carry 50 rounds and was slow loading. We experimented with coating "depth charges" and "cherry bombs" with BB's...when one of them on a test run tore to shreds a stout cardboard box, we abandoned the "grenade" version.

But I never saw a SxS....Anybody ever use one?

By the time I got old enough to use a BB gun they were universally too powerful to shoot each other with. We found that you could take a small piece of tin foil and wad it up just enough to use as anti-personnel fodder.
One of the funniest things I ever heard was when I returned after an absence and was told about that if you bit down hard on them with your teeth they worked better. The quote was "we've perfected it...it hurts now."
CHAZ

Daisy made two models of the SXS. The model 104 of 1939 had a wood stock, the model 21 of 1969 had a plastic stock. There is currently a plastic stock version at Tumbleson auction with a high bid of $1,100.00. The wood version usually brings more money. For the hard core SXS collector! "Commenting for a friend"

OMG...I think my parents pat $5.14 for a Daisy Red Rider for Christmas in 1954. I must have put 10,000 rounds through that lever spring gun. Who would have thought?

I had one as a kid. Can't remember if it was wood or plastic stocked, but it was a double smoothbore "rifle". It cocked on opening, AIR. What I can remember very clearly is that it was basically useless, if you wanted to hit something you shot at. That gun was where I learned about regulation, at a very early age. It was the worst regulated "doublegun" I ever had, and ever will have. Instead of remembering that your BB gun shot high right, or low left, etc., you had to remember that for both barrels. I was pretty good at knocking dragonflies (skeeter hawks) off the overhead power lines with my single barrel Daisys, but couldn't hit crap with the double barreled one.

I got my first S x S shotgun at age 8, a J C Higgins .410 S x S, and the Daisy S x S was quickly left behind in a trail of dust.

SRH

With the Model 104 you were cocking two 'guns' at once. I had my 8-year old grandson try to cock it - he couldn't. This is another reason why it quickly vanished from the Daisy offerings.

Never saw one, but I would take that over and actual model 24.

When I was a kid, my dad brought home a pair of the Daisy lever action copies of the Winchester Model 94 and a box of 15,000 BBs. We set up a range in the basement and over the next few years we shot up that box of BBs, swept them up, shot them again, swept them up and shot them again. We literally wore those two rifles out. Sadly, I found them when we were cleaning out the house after we were moving my mom to an assisted living facility, only to learn that Daisy doesn't stock parts for them or do repairs. They sit in a corner of my basement, a reminder of my childhood and my dad.

Dad had been an active participant in the BB gun wars of the 1940s in the Mayfair section of Northeast Philadelphia, which still had some substantial undeveloped areas at the time. He carried a bone chip on one eye socket, the legacy of a very near miss during one of those wars. Needless to say, that experience made him a real tyrant when it came to gun safety, a value which I continually thank him for to this day.

About the time we figured out that a little light oil down the barrel improved accuracy and penetration, we quit using them on one another, and very shortly graduated to actual firearms.
I have the Daisy Powerline rifled barrel model my late father used to terrorize the squirrels that would try to eat his flowers and garden. I haven’t fired it. My kid went straight to Dad’s.22 at about age 5, and hasn’t thought about the BB gun.
You need to be at a range to shoot the BB gun in this part of the world, legally, so we always grab the .22s.

Had a lot of fun as a kid with the BB guns. Glad nobody got hurt.

Best,
Ted

Re: BB gun wars; and here I thought my brother and I were the only ones that stupid.

My cousin and I both had the '94 copies. We would line empty cans along the edge of a hay rack for targets. One of us drove the 110 John Deere and one rode in the trailer and drive back and forth till all the cans were knocked over. Then set 'em up switch places and do it again. The driver didn't get to shoot as much even using you knees to steer. When the sights broke off I learned to snap shoot it. Hitting a Trester's model paint lid from across the room got to be easy. Still like straight stocks.I did have a Daisy sxs but it fired corks. I think they currently make a copy of a Remington 1100.

All of my neighborhood friends and I shot BB guns as kids. We never had BB gun wars, but we did do stupid things like shooting cigarettes out of each other's mouths. We were all very good shots however and I recall no injuries.

Nevertheless, I did not allow my boys to go through the BB gun phase due to concern about the bad safety habits I'd just have to break when they were old enough for .22s and shotguns.

When I did start them it was on .22 single shots and they understood from the beginning that the rifle was capable of killing a rabbit or squirrel or one of them. I let the boys walk with me quail hunting with their rifle and ammo but I had the bolt in my pocket until we'd take a break and shoot pine cones out of the tops of our longleaf pines.

When they got .410 single shots the first shot for each was at the edge of a pond into the wet mud on the bank, so they could see for themselves how powerful the weapon in their hands was. All three of them grew up to be hunters you'd feel safe to spend a morning in a duck blind or an afternoon in the field with...Geo

To be old and wise, you must first be young and stupid. Nature weeds out the very stupid.

Best,
Ted

Being young and stupid are just part of the good ole days. It wasn’t a BB gun war, but I distinctly remember laying on a cold country doc’s metal table for three hours while he dug a chunk of lead from a Benjamin out of my back. Went in pretty deep.

I have a copy of a book on Daisy which starts from their beginning. It does not list every model they ever made but has a lot of them. The very first of the "Daisy" line was given as a bonus when one bought a windmill. The Air Rifle became so popular the owner dropped the windmills, changed the Co name to Daisy & concentrated on the BB guns. My dad would never buy me a BB gun because he thought they fostered unsafe practices. My first gun of my own was a single shot bolt action Stevens .22 S, L or LR, model 1 as I recall. Later in life, I bought a BB gun to practice instinctive shooting with. I still have it but it has been a long time since I shot it, It's the model 29 50 shot pump with positive loading. I bought the Daisy book at an "Ollies Army" store for a couple of bucks, has been really interesting to see what all they made over the years. I believe the most popular BB gun Daisy ever built was the Red Ryder model leer action with gravity feed.

I remember the model 25 pump as being the hardest hitting spring powered one they sold. It is still made. As Ted said, you could take one of those 25s, put a drop or two of oil down bore, and it would kill a squirrel or a rabbit with a head shot. Chickens, too. Trust me on that.

https://www.daisy.com/product/model-25-pump-bb-gun/

My little brother was playing outside one summer afternoon wearing nothing but a pair of short pants. I counted the number of BBs I put in my Daisy, and counted them as I shot them out. After the last one I just knew it was empty .................. so I cocked it, aimed at my little brother's bare back at about 20 yards. When I pulled the trigger I saw the BB leave the barrel and fly straight to it's mark, my brother Mark. Lost my use of it for a month.


SRH

Nature weeds them out or they get elected to Congress.

Stan;
You're right of course on the model number. Mine is also a model 25. I don't know why that model 29 popped into my head.

I had to look it up, Miller. I didn't have a clue what the model number was, but that's going back about 55-58 years for me. Lot of water under the bridge since then ...... lot of other stuff, too. (a nod to Bob Dylan)

SRH

Speaking of stupid - did anyone else shoot "Atomic Pearls" from their Daisy?

Atomic Pearls? I don't recall anything by that name.

SRH

An unusual Daisy SxS with British proof marks...

BB size explosives. Had to sort them to determine which ones would work in my Red Ryder. This link is to a 1957 article (when I was using them).

https://www.fireengineering.com/1957/11/01/203034/atom-pearls-dangerous/#gref

I spit coffee all over the keyboard when I saw this. Damn your hide. LOL. Gil

OK. What's an Atomic Pearl?...Geo

Oh, saw your post above.

No serial number so regret to say Reilly only engraved and retailed it. It has 277 instead of 315 so post November 1881. No rue Scribe, Paris address so likely post August 1885. 277 closed in 1903 so pre-1903.

That's a really good one Rob!

This has been an educational thread for me. I had never before heard of a SxS Daisy, atomic pearls, or seen British proof marks on an air rifle.

I got one of the model 94 copies for Christmas when I was 6. I treated it like a gun in every way and wouldn't have dreamed of intentionally shooting someone with it. I wore it out and owned a couple of other models over the next few years. None were powerful enough to kill a squirrel, but I did some serious bird hunting with them.

Whatever I killed, I cleaned it and my mother would fry them along with whatever else she was cooking. I was usually the only one who would eat my kills, but I remember the whole family once joining in and eating a bunch of migratory robins I had taken. They were just as good as doves.

As I remember, a woodpecker doesn't have a very good flavor, but I ate them. This was all back in the early 60s and the world was very different from today.

Coosa, your post saying your mom would cook your BB gun bounty reminded me of my BB gun hunting in the '50s. I had a great Aunt who lived with my grandparents next door. She had been born in the 1860's just after the WBTS and grew up on a family plantation in Clark county Alabama. She was the greatest story teller ever, and her recollections of reconstruction in the deepest South have guided my thoughts on history ever since.

Aunt Carrie would cook our songbirds for us like your mother did. She broiled them somehow that they were delicious...Geo

Glad you appreciated it! Those photoshop lessons finally paid off.

I remember those doubles but never had a desire to own one. I had a model 572 that looked like the Remington it was modeled after. A small tube of BB's was 10 cents and a large tube was 25 at the local hardware. It was a pretty powerful BB gun. I really liked it and wore it out. Thru the years I learned that BB'S have a magnetic attraction for eyeballs. I never took part or had a desire to partake in BB wars. A family of brothers on the next street over from me and their friend would play Vietnam in the overgrown field near my home. The one brother recently home from the Nam started it and they used 12ga shotguns with rabbit loads! The rule was you had to yell Vietnam before you shot someone! No one lost an eye surprisingly. It was cold so they where wearing heavy clothing that protected them. As a kid I thought it was absolutely crazy and I steered clear of those guys. Most, if not all of those guys unsurprisingly succumbed to alcohol and drugs. Want to live reckless lives and you are not likely to make it to long.

You guys ever eat an Ortolan?
I could probably eat one if I was really hungry and had enough A-1.

Daisy was located in Plymouth, Michigan just ootside of Detroit.
There’s a bunch of shyte condos where the factory was now.


__________________________
It snowed yesterday but it’s real nice today.
Thinking about sneaking on the golf course and playing a few holes.

In 1888 Lewis C Hough was president of the Plymouth Iron Windmill Company of Michigan. At this point in time windmills were in a declining market & the company was struggling. This same year an invented named Clarence J Hamilton brought a prototype airgun to Hough to examine. Hough looked it over, shot it & proclaimed "Boy, that's a Dasy".
He called a meeting of the bord & convinced them for the company to begin making the gun as a promotional giveaway for a windmill sale. Others saw the guns & began clamoring to buy them, but had no interest in the windmills. The decision was made to concentrate on making the airguns & dispose of the windmills & there name changed to the Daisy Manufacturing Company. The switch had been a gamble but proved to be an extremely wise one.

The first three models were all metal with spring-driven plungers & nickel plated with a wireframe stock. All subsequent Daisy rifles had either wood or plastic stocks. The first model had a cocking lever situated atop the barrel which was lifted to a vertical position for cocking. The third model (1891) was a mid-break action. Moel 2 is not listed. All fired a lead BB size pellet (.180") When the soft steel pellets were introduced the size was dropped to .177" which is technically air rifle shot & not true BB, but the name stuck & is still with us today.

In 1913 Fred Lefever was hired as an inventor & designer. During this first year with the company, he designed an all-metal water pistol & the model 25 pump BB gun. Fred would stay with the company for about 40 years while the model 25 would stay in continuous production for 65 years. This was the longest production of any Daisy & also the most powerful of all their spring-piston guns.

The Double was first introduced n 1939 as the model 104. It was dropped in 1941 due to WWII & made in only limited numbers. The double was reintroduced in 1968 as the model 21 with a plastic stock & forearm. It was also short-lived & both models were commercial Failures. Both currently though have very high collector value.

The 1939 wood stock version (model 104) sold at auction yesterday for $3,700.00 with buyers premium. (not a misprint) The 1969 model 21 with a plastic stock sold for $1,300.00.
SOME COLLECTABLE !

That is amazing. I started out looking for a $20.00 gun to amuse during lockdown. $3,700?? Really! Stan...dig that old Model 21 out from the garage!

If I had only kept it ..... and the 20 hp Mercury Hurricane, and '56 Chevy two door, and the '69 Camaro SS, ad infinitum.

SRH

nobody needs glasses for hind sight...

my favorite summer(school)holiday fun was either fishing, or finding a new Wood Pigeons nest, I'd stake out underneath/nearby,& shoot both adults,as they came in separately, then I'd climb up n get the 3 or 4 eggs. Dear old Mum would make me pigeon pie (amazing pastry)with a side of hard boiled eggs. My weapon of choice, well actually no choice,as it was all I had then was a BSA Meteor under lever .22 air rifle, more than a BB gun, but it was one helluva pellet gun, even got a few rabbits (close back of the head shots) when stalked from the other side of the hedge...the rabbit pie was really freakin good
cheers
franc

I graduated from my numerous bb guns to a Crosman CO2 powered .22 pellet rifle. It likely wasn't as strong as your Meteor, Franc, but it accounted for small game as well. I got my oldest grandson one just like it when he was about 7. I still have several boxes full of the CO2 "Powerlet" cartridges and his rifle. There is a way to hot rod that rifle and make it use more CO2 each shot, increasing the velocity. I may try it someday.

One thing I still wonder. Why pressurized CO2? Why not just pressurized air? Anyone know?

SRH

Stan, I think CO2 is used because it stores in the powerlet as a liquid and is released as a gas at a surprisingly high pressure. Maybe think fire extinguisher vs air compressor tank. It took me eight or ten pumps on my Benjamin to get good velocity.

When I was little, I had CO2 repeater envy and I ended up with a couple, but that old Benjamin had a good velocity edge for the day and was about as accurate as they came for the time except the fancy euro match stuff.

I bet I still have an old Daisy catalog, must be nearing fifty years since I've flipped through it, but I remember the FWB Daisy on the cover, and I believe the page with the model 21 had a picture of it staged with a few orange aspirin tablet clays. I might be remembering it wrong.

I still have the old Benjamin rifle, but I'm pretty sure I still have a Benjamin CO2 pellet repeater pistol. Didn't feed all that terrific, but I remember knowing it was rare back in the day when I talked my dad into getting it for me. Fake safari hunting for frogs and tweety birds, and fishing for hours made for some fun days.