The Ile Camera
A Heritage Newspaper
Weekly Publication
Air guns still a popular Christmas wish
By Mike Zielinski, The news-Herald
PUBLISHED: January 26, 2007
Times change and everything changes with them, including what American boys want for Christmas or their birthdays.
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Today's kids must have the most up-to-date video game, an iPod or a cellphone. In my day, Daisy BB gun advertisements seemed to be in every "Boys Life" magazine and even on some TV shows, such as "The Red Ryder Show" and other 1950's made-for-TV westerns.
We read those publications and watched TV and dreamed of the day when we'd have our own shootin' irons.
Who can imagine BB guns and not think of the classic holiday movie "A Christmas Story?" As we know, Ralphie plots to somehow convince Santa to bring him a new Daisy Red Ryder BB gun.
His mother and just about anyone else Ralph confides in, however, holds the same opinion: "You'll shoot your eye out, kid."
Poor Ralph almost accomplishes this after his father makes his Christmas wish come true. The kid, without any training or supervision, immediately takes the gun outside and proceeds to shoot something that causes a ricochet, striking him the face and busting his glasses.
It's a near miss, but a bad situation from the beginning. Watch that movie and you will see me as a kid in the 1950s.
While there always has been a BB gun around our house, no one I know has ever lost an eye using one, although I am sure it has occurred somewhere due to someone's carelessness.
Firearms and supervision have gone hand in hand in our home since I can remember.
Take it from a former Daisy Red Ryder BB gun owner and operator: Shooting your eye out isn't the problem. It's your buddy shooting yours or someone else's eye out. Then again, he's more likely to hit the neighbors' window, cat or a streetlight.
Airguns, pellet guns and BB guns still carry a stigma of trouble as a result and have restrictions on them in most towns — as well they should.
I was lucky enough to have grandparents who lived in northern Michigan, an ideal place for a boy with a BB gun to prowl the local woods and fields. My weapons were a Daisy Red Ryder lever action and, later, the ultimate Daisy, the venerable pump gun, considered perhaps twice as powerful as the lever action.
Both moved their projectiles at about 250 feet per second. With these, I terrorized rats, snakes, blackbirds, crows and anything else considered a "varmint" in those days.
Plinking meant roaming the woods or vacant lots, not hunting but shooting tin cans, bottles or whatever other inanimate targets presented themselves. They still do this out West, generally with .22-caliber rifles, but plinking is a lost art in Michigan unless you own the property.
I loved plinking then and still enjoy it today. Some folks ride motorcycles; I shoot guns.
Last Christmas, one of my childhood wishes came true when my family bought me a real airgun. I had threatened to buy one for years, but just never got around to it.
No, not a BB gun, but a true air rifle that drives .177-caliber pellets at about 1,000 fps with one pump. In comparison, a standard 9mm pistol round travels about 850 fps. My gift is no toy.
My RWS Model 34 Magnum is made in Germany to the standards of a high-powered hunting rifle including a rifled barrel, full walnut stock and professional bluing on the steel.
With a special BSA variable scope mounted on it, the air rifle looks like a full-sized firearm. To increase shooting accuracy it has an adjustable trigger.
It takes one pump to charge it and at up to 10 meters (about 33 feet), you can drive pellets through the same hole. At 20 meters (almost 70 feet), a well-placed headshot will take down a squirrel with ease.
Why make such sophisticated air rifles? One reason is that firearms restrictions in Europe immediately after World War II prompted sportsman who liked to shoot to turn toward air-powered rifles, which have been around for centuries.
Lewis and Clark carried one on their great expedition and used it to impress some of the Indians they came across. My new rifle, with scope and mounts, retails for more than $300. In comparison, there are competition air rifles made in Europe that start at $3,000 for a basic model. They are designed for both Olympic and International competition.
All these high-powered air rifles are designed to shoot small, .177- or .22-caliber lead pellets, but not BBs, which are steel and would harm the barrel. Although it leaves the barrel at great speed (up to 1,000 fps) its light weight means the tiny projectile loses energy very quickly but is still considered dangerous out to about 300 yards.
There are a variety of pellets on the market and like any other ammunition are priced according to manufacturing practices and tolerances.
Air rifles are like any other firearm and often shoot better with a particular brand of ammunition that might not always be the most expensive. Such guns require very little maintenance other than an occasional brushing of the barrel and light oiling of exposed metal parts.
Air rifles are extremely quiet when fired. As a result many shooters use them indoors. If you plan on doing a lot of indoor shooting, consider one.
If using a metal bullet trap, these fast flying pellets tend to disintegrate on impact with the metal forming lead dust. Just like in any indoor shooting range, lead dust is a health issue, so some effort should be made to contain the dust.
I do this by shooting into heavy Styrofoam backed with inch-thick plywood. With flat-nosed pellets, my RWS will penetrate half-inch construction plywood easily.
There are many air-rifle manufacturers here and abroad. Even the big boys like Remington and Winchester, better known for shotguns and rifles, have a line of air rifles. Most gun shops carry a selection of airguns, as do big catalogue marketers.
And like so many of my fellow men, I continue to prove the maxim my wife and many others know by heart:
"The only difference between men and boys is the price of their toys.
"Three hundred dollars for a BB gun? Are you nuts?"
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