Daisy Outdoor Products has been building air guns since the 1880s, but few know that it started as a windmill manufacturing company. Clarence Hamilton, the founder, was an inventor and watchmaker, and one day he came up with a vane-less windmill design, which he decided to realize at his new facilities in Plymouth, Michigan. After several years, the business was struggling because of transportation problems, and in 1888, the company’s board gathered to vote for liquidation. One man, general manager L.C. Hough, voted against it and offered to enter the air gun market.
That’s how the Plymouth Air Rifle Company came into existence. Several months after the meeting, Hamilton brought his self-engineered all-metal air gun to the facilities to make parts for it. When L.C. Hough test-fired it, he exclaimed, “Boy, that’s a Daisy!” - and the model was named so.
By 1895, the company picked itself back up. The board decided to cease windmill production and concentrate on air guns because of growing sales. The company was renamed Daisy Manufacturing Company. Today, the company is a part of BRS and Co.
Daisy BB Guns and Pellet Rifles
One of the best-known designs is the Daisy Red Ryder. It's a spring-powered lever-action BB gun with a hardwood stock, a smooth-bore steel barrel, iron front and adjustable rear sights, and a cross-bolt trigger block safety. The Red Ryder shoots .177 BBs that exit the muzzle with a velocity of 350 fps and fly at a maximum distance of 195 yards.
This Daisy rifle is a great platform for teaching gun safety and maintenance because it has all controls found on a live rifle and will rust if your kid won’t care about it.
Another popular gun is the Daisy Model 25. The ballistics and controls are the same as in the Red Ryder, but Model 25 is a spring-powered pump-action rifle. Iron sights are adjustable for windage and elevation, allowing to teach compensation of the projectile trajectory deviation.
If your kid is ready for something more powerful, consider the Daisy Model 35. It’s a multi-pump pneumatic air rifle chambered for .177 BB and pellets. The maximum shooting distance is 274 yards, and the velocity is 625 fps.
Daisy Guns for Sale
Gritr Sports carries a variety of Daisy BB guns for kids and adults, from the introductory Red Ryder and Model 25 Pump to more powerful arms like the Model 35, Powerline 880, and Winchester Model 1977XS. For teaching precision shooting, we have scoped variants of the mentioned and other Daisy rifles as well as Daisy BBs and CO2 cartridges.
