The Red Ryder BB Gun is a BB gun made by Daisy Outdoor Products and introduced in 1938. Named for the comic strip cowboy character Red Ryder (who also appeared in numerous films between 1940 and 1950, and on television in 1956), the BB gun is still in production despite the fact that the comic strip was cancelled in 1963. It is arguably the most famous BB gun in American history. The 2006 MSRP for the Red Ryder model is US$44.99.

Design

Red Ryder BB Gun is a lever-action, spring piston air gun with a smoothbore barrel, adjustable iron sights, and a gravity feed magazine with a 650 BB capacity. It differs from the standard Daisy lever action BB guns by the addition of an engraved stock, and a saddle ring with leather thong on the receiver. A youth model airgun, the BB gun produces velocities of about 280 feet per second (85 meters per second, or approximately 190.9 miles per hour), though on some newer models it says it is capable of shooting at 350 feet per second with standard steel BBs. The effective range is fairly short, about 10 yards (9 m), after which the low velocity and inaccuracy of the smoothbore barrel makes hitting the target difficult. BB guns are shot competitively at distances of 5 yards (4.5 m), but the rudimentary open sights on the Red Ryder make it impractical for competition, and it is primarily a plinking airgun.

Popular culture

• The Red Ryder BB gun was prominently featured in A Christmas Story, in which the main character requests one for Christmas, but is repeatedly rebuffed with the warning "You'll shoot your eye out". The movie's fictional BB gun, described as the "Red Ryder carbine-action, two hundred shot Range Model air rifle BB gun with a compass in the stock and a thing which tells time", does not correspond to any production model nor even a prototype; the Red Ryder featured in the movie was specially made to match author Jean Shepherd's story (which may be artistic license, but was the configuration Shepard claimed to remember). The guns and a stand-up advertisement featuring the Red Ryder character appeared in a Higbee's store window in the film, along with dolls, a train, and Radio Flyer wagons.
• A commercial for Cingular Wireless parodies the above film, substituting a Motorola cell phone for the BB gun, with the warning "You'll run the bill up".

• In the 1988 role playing game Wasteland the Red Ryder is available as a weapon. It is the most powerful weapon in the game, capable of inflicting several hundred points of damage, often finishing off all non-robotic foes (including mutants), as well as lower-end robots with one shot.
• Wasteland's spiritual successor Fallout also incorporates the Red Ryder as a weapon, but with a reduced capacity for overkill, even though it still remained quite powerful. The normal version does the lowest amount of damage for a ranged weapon in the game. However, the game also includes a (fictional) "limited edition" version which has more firepower than the game's high power pistols and .223 hunting rifle.
• In the Powerpuff Girls Christmas special, Buttercup refers to a BB gun named the "Red Raider" as a 200-shot carbine action air rifle.

References

External links

• Model 1938 Red Ryder, Daisy Outdoor Products