Daisy Model 25 Memories

An add similar to this got my attention!

My first gun was a hard earned Daisy Model 25 BB gun. I can't remember if it cost $8, or if I was 8 years old; I think both. Probably the summer of 1955 and I would be 9 in November.

Me at age 8

I begged for the Daisy, Dad finally caved and said I could have it. If I cleaned out his 30 foot cattle trailer to earn it. I'll never forget that! A huge, nasty, job, and especially for an 8 year old kid.

I was neat and clean and liked to "keep my ducks in a row" as a young boy. I'm pretty sure Dad thought I'd not do the job and he wouldn't need to buy the gun. After a couple of hours work I was also thinking I'd never finish the job. But I kept working and thinking about that magnificent Daisy and what we could do together. It took most of two miserable days. I learned the value of a dollar. That gun, IT COST A LOT!

The Daisy Model 25 looked like a pump BB gun. I read somewhere that it was actually more popular for a few years than the better known lever action Daisy Red Rider. I personally learned that it would shoot harder. Mine model had rotating open and peep sights. With the peep I became fairly deadly within the guns very limited range. For a few years I felt like I was a step ahead of my cousins who had Daisy Red Riders.

Some of the shooting, I don't recommend:

• I learned that by standing directly under a high-line wire I only had to concentrate on left to right gun movement (windage); I could hit the wire about half the time. Not a great idea, but it made a cool sound when the BB hit the wire. PING!
• Jimmy (my cousin) borrowed my gun one day for some pay-back. He and his older brother Ronny both had Daisy Red Riders. Ronny had done something to make his shoot a little "harder". Ronny had also learned to stay just far enough away to hurt Jimmy, but not get hurt in their BB gun battles. When Jimmy borrowed my Model 25; it was Ronny who ended up dancing, yelling, and running for cover.
• One day, bored, and not in one of my smartest moments, I decided to shoot at my grandmother's concrete steps at short range. The BB came almost straight back and hit me in the forehead just above the eye. (Yea! You know what they say about BB guns and eyes.) It hurt, got my attention, and I learned something. 
• On another day a trick shooter came to our school. (Can you even imagine that happening today!) After seeing him strike a match using a twenty-two rifle, I spent the rest of that day after school trying to do it with a BB. I stuck a kitchen match between the boards at one end of my grandmother's old picnic table and rested the gun across the other end only about two feet from the match. After using most of a small pack of BB's and half a box of mom's kitchen matches; I finally did it!  

I was taught by the whole family not to shoot at songbirds, bottles, windows... I hunted almost every day. The Daisy and I were greatly feared by pest birds, lizards, snakes, frogs, insects... in the area.  I missed or didn't have enough gun for most of the shots, but it worked often enough to be great fun.

It was a simple, but very special, time. The gun was my constant companion until my twelfth summer. That summer I worked in the hay fields for an uncle and earned enough to buy a Browning twenty-two. The new gun was certainly an advancement, a step-up, but I'm not sure anything is better than being a young boy, free to roam with his imagination and his Daisy.

My impression of the "New" or reintroduced Daisy Model 25:
First I'll say that I'm better about passing up on things I don't really need today. But I "caved-in" and bought one of the new Model 25s for my two year old grandson. :-)

Don't count this as a review, only my first impressions, I've shot less than 100 BB's through the gun. Most important to me, this new gun felt very familiar in my hands, even  after being absent for more than half a century:

• Yes! It's made in China. 
• No safety on the original, but this new one has a simple trigger block, cross bolt safety. 
• The magazine tube has a different male screw-in adapter (I think it's easier to screw in.)
• Something which seems backwards to me: The new one has a wooden stock. Plastic was not that common in 1955, but I believe my old gun had a plastic stock.

I set up a Campbell Soup can (classic) at about twenty steps. I could hit it easily. The gun shoots harder than I remembered; it put solid dents in the can's thick metal. That hard shooting could be from "dieseling" there was some obvious factory oil and a little smoke when fired.

The trigger is numb, but better/lighter than I remembered, and the gun much easier to cock.

I'm not sure if this should be attributed to small changes to the gun, or more likely big changes in the shooter. I did pinch my hand when cocking it once. I smiled, thinking, maybe neither the gun nor I have changed too much.

Simpler is sometimes better.

What do I mean when saying; "Simpler is sometimes better."

I've taken lots of game with firearms,
but taking this turkey with my bow means more.

I'll try to explain:

• Many of us like having gadgets! Some pay thousands of dollars for sun roofs, navigation, hands free blue tooth phone connection in a car and then can't or don't use them.
• In my "Buchanan Photography" blog I've noted that buying an expensive DSLR camera does not always lead to making better pictures.
• We like cool gadgets or tools, and they do most often make it easier to accomplish what we want.

But easier does not always equal more fun! Too Easy is soon... Boring.

I enjoy casting lures into pockets, around logs, stumps... when fishing. Making a good cast is somewhat entertaining. Trolling from a big fine boat, in open water, unless I'm catching lots of fish, I find that boring.

I enjoy plinking at almost anything with a simple slingshot for several reasons:

1. When I make a good shot, I am more involved in the shot with the simple tool, I, not the tool did it.
2. Even a miss with the slingshot, I can see the ball's flight, and there is something beautiful about that.
3. No big disturbance to the natural, no loud "bang!", big impact, more natural, more fitting.

• Shooting my recurve bow Is much the same as the slingshot but I must recover arrows.
• Hunting and getting within bow range of a deer is an accomplishment even without a kill.
• Taking a deer with my .243 is still fun, but no longer much challenge.
• I've also enjoyed putting together a great squirrel rifle, including the scope, and ammo combination, but with experience taking a squirrel that way can become too easy.

We approach most task in two ways:

1. We continue to find ways to improve our skills with the tools we are using.
2. We continue to find or buy tools which help us to accomplish the task more easily.
3. With simpler tools we may use both strategies, but the emphasis is on #1.

Simpler offers a more direct connection between the task, the accomplishment, and the user.

• For hunting simple tools such as the slingshot and the bow require more skill.
• To my mind simple also offers a greater reward to the user.
• I'll continue to love guns and gadgets, but simpler is often better for me.
  

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.22 Rimfire Shortage

There are many rimfire rounds but the standard .22 long rifle is sometimes hardest to find.

The .22 rimfire shortage is not a new thing, the store shelves have been empty for some time.  Is this because of some secret government plan to take our guns?  Is Obama behind this devious plot? Some people believe such radical rumors and there are plenty of rumors. That could be a part of the problem!

We're all more alike than we are different.  I found myself thinking, "I don't really need it, but the next time I find some reasonably priced rimfire ammo, I'd better stock up!"   I once went through a fair amount of rimfire ammo, but now I shoot a slingshot and bow more often.

Still, it has been troubling me to see so little rimfire ammunition available. The common .22 long rifle is the starting place for new shooters, the most popular small game round, the fun round, and the most popular practice round.

I've done a little research and this is what makes sense to me:

1. The ammunition companies say they can't keep up with the demand. They say the profit margins on the rimfire sales is low.  They don't want to raise the price too much and stifle shooting. They believe the ammunition supply will eventually catch up with the demand so they don't want to invest in more machinery.  
2. Many individuals have large supplies of ammo stored and if it becomes readily available they may not buy again for years. A part of the reason for higher demand is because many are buying and hoarding large amounts of rimfire ammo. The shortage is causing some hoarding. The somewhat popular fears of extremist groups is also a cause of ammo hoarding. Some people probably have tens of thousands of rounds.  
3. The above also makes sense to me because when I look in Walmart I see fair to good supplies of most other ammo types.  Centerfire rifle and shotgun shells are available, and even the less popular or more expensive rimfire rounds are sometimes there.  It's the more common and less expensive .22 long rifle rounds in short supply.

I'm sure I don't know as much about this as some people, but I believe the .22 rimfire shortage is only a temporary thing.  

Small vs Big Game

Small vs big game for many hunters is sorta like comparing ice cream and sex. Many of us enjoy both. I love ice cream and have some almost every night, sex... Now that I have your attention I think I'll keep the sex part as private as it should be.

When I was eight years old I started hunting some very small game with a Daisy BB gun, small pest actually; sparrows, lizards, insects...  Eventually I moved up to a .22 rimfire for crows, rabbits, squirrels...  My point is that I have a long standing love of small game and small pest hunting.

Small game hunting is as rewarding or in some ways even more rewarding than big game hunting. It can be more abundant, offering more opportunities, and in some ways more fun than deer hunting.  I should mention that most of my experience has been quail, dove, squirrel, rabbit, turkey, and whitetail hunting.    

My very favorite is actually quail hunting which I did as a young boy/man most often with my dad. Life, living, location... can changes what you do sometimes.  As a boy I could hunt in my back yard and until two years ago I had a fairly short drive to hunt. I haven't gone on an actual small game hunt in several years, but I harvest small game several times a year anyway.

To keep this really simple I'll just say small game hunting has become somewhat impractical or inconvenient. My primary hunting area is now a 150 mile drive to a 300 acre farm.  The farm has a fairly limited small game population.

I've always been one to take advantage of opportunities or to do some mixed bag hunting anyway. The increased distance to my hunting area has intensified that.

For several years now I've gone deer hunting and turkey hunting most often with a bow in my hand and a slingshot in my pocket.  Admittedly the slingshot is not the best tool, but I occasionally get a close-up shot at small game and the slingshot does little to disturb my hunting for bigger game.

At first the game I was shooting at was in very little danger, but that is slowly changing as I continue to improve with the slingshot.  The slingshot has proven to be a challenge, but also great fun, and I now shoot it more than any of my guns or bows.

I see no reason for not taking advantage of both small game and big game hunting. One compliments the other.  In my case I'll be doing some small game hunting while deer hunting this year.

If for some reason I had to choose one over the other it would be difficult. I would probably choose small game because it can be easier to find and there are more small game hunting opportunities.

Shooting Fun!

A poor choice and a bad example of a target. 

My last post was on insect hunting and the one before on a tiny BB slingshot I made.  It seems I'm  thinking small scale shooting fun lately.  

Like most people I have a lot of "stuff" I seldom use.  I sort of rediscover some of it from time to time.  I found some little metal silhouette targets which I'd forgotten about. Rounded up some CO2, pellets, and my old Crosman 357 pellet revolver and... It wouldn't hold a charge! The seals were bad, probably due to years with little oil on them.  I went for a slingshot in the truck and shot silhouette targets with it.

Very few people would call shooting a .460 Weatherby Magnum fun.  That round's recoil could possibly register on the Richter Earthquake scale.  Most of us want something mild, cheap, and less serious when shooting for fun.

The .22 rimfire has long been 'the' fun round to shoot, but places to shoot and ammunition is harder to find than when I was a boy. The quieter, lower power rimfires, air guns, bows, slingshots... can sometimes  offer more shooting opportunities, more safety, and less chance of disturbing the neighbors.

I personally don't shoot actual targets unless I'm sighting in a gun, checking some loads for accuracy... I find bullseye targets boring unless there is competition or something to add interest.  On the other hand I enjoy walking around and plinking at random cans, leaves, berries, wild flowers, pods, sticks, chunks of dirt, insects, or other pest...

Things which break or explode make hits more exciting. We all know we shouldn't shoot and break glass because it creates a hazard which is there forever.  You can buy clay targets made for shooting. Food items such as cookies, crackers, candy... make good biodegradable targets which will break or  explode.  Plastic containers or cans filled with water can also be fun.

A target which moves adds to the fun.  Balloons can be used in numerous ways, hanging or blowing in the wind. When using a repeating gun you can try to keep a can rolling on the ground.  Cans or plastic containers hanging on a string are a simple way to add interest.

For moving target practice with a bow I've used a tough rubber ball rolled along the ground.  Some such balls can take numerous arrow hits if you use rubber blunt tipped arrows.

With a big lawn I've found judo arrow tips and old golf balls make a good combination. I don't go back and forth retrieving arrows. I throw the golf ball and shoot a few arrows, walk to retrieve the arrows and throw the ball again for a new target.

The golf ball is easy to throw and makes a small but visible target in short grass. The range is somewhat random and unknown. Good practice for shooting and range estimation. Tough golf balls last forever since I rarely hit but often hit close to keep it interesting.

Insect Hunting?

Trophy Game

We have all  most likely done some insect hunting at one time or another. Out there for hours and nothing is moving, maybe you're a little frustrated, bored, when a dragonfly comes into view, a big grasshopper, maybe a beetle running along the ground... a target of opportunity. I venture to bet that some big expensive loads are occasionally expended on such tiny prey.

When I was a kid with a BB gun I was always looking for new targets to prove or improve my shooting skills.  A wasp nest in the right place was a shooting gallery, I'd stalk a perched bumble bee or dragon fly... Insects were often the only plentiful, living, and available targets. I had great fun hunting insects.

"What goes around comes around!" Maybe I'm in my second childhood?  I recently spent the biggest part of an hour shooting perched dragonflies with my slingshot.  And! I'm not ashamed to say it was fun, even rewarding when I was accurate enough to hit maybe one of five shots.  I'm going for a flying/hovering shot next time.

This got me to thinking. Why do we hunt?

• To be out there in nature, for the fresh air, the scenery...
• For the challenge, to improve our skills, to discover...
• For recreation, to relax, to get away, as a diversion, to have fun...

People once hunted to eat! (My next post will be on how to field dress a dragonfly. ) Seriously, we should eat what we kill if possible, but not to many of us are out hunting today so we can have something to eat.  We're most often hunting because we enjoy it.

I'm calling it practice and I'm going out on a limb and saying that hunting insects is perfectly sane and fun thing to do.  The season is always open and the game is plentiful. You don't need any specialized equipment, and it's easy to find a place to hunt. 

My favorite tool is the slingshot. Even the simplest air gun is adequate for most shots. To take out a bug a lower power level is actually desirable because you can see your hit and that may add to the fun.  

It's also great fun to have a sophisticated super accurate air rifle with a high power scope to snipe little bugs with.  You may need a scope with AO (adjustable objective) as many scopes won't focus at short bug range.

I've shot flying dragonflies with a shotgun, but it's drastic over-kill.  For wing shooting at dragonflies loading a .22 with CCI shot shells is much more to scale and great fun.  

If insect hunting comes "out of the closet" I can imagine some manufacture jumping in the new nich with products such as the "super bug swatter combo package" with a thumb hole stock.  You can buy a shotgun with a thumb hole stock you know... and some think insect hunting is crazy!

Squirrel Hunting

Fox Squirrel

The first game animal I took was a fox squirrel at age eight.  Dad took me on what I'm sure was a short quail hunt. Buster (the smartest dog who ever lived according to dad) treed a squirrel.  I was carrying dad's old hand-me-down 12 gauge Winchester 97 which was taller than me and seemed heavier.

I'd only shot that big gun a few times, but after dad loaded it I tucked the too long stock under my arm and nailed my first squirrel.  I hardly noticed how bad the thing kicked me.  I was too excited about getting some real game rather than the sparrows and lizards I hunted with my bb gun.

I kept that spent 12 gauge hull for years, well into my teens.  I kept the trophy squirrel's tail for a while.  It somehow disappeared and I suspect mom may have had something to do with that.

As I grew older I realized that Dad was a quail hunter who only occasionally took a squirrel if the opportunity presented itself.  Usually when old Buster treed one. Dad said most bird dogs couldn't be allowed to chase rabbits or squirrels, but Buster was smart enough to know we were after quail first.

We had plenty of squirrels in East Texas for me to hunt. I eventually learned that Dad also knew how to hunt them without a dog.  My twelfth summer I worked for my Uncle John in the hay fields and earned over $360.00 A lot of money in 1958.  I bought all my school clothes and more importantly a Browning .22 semi-auto.

My Daisy started gathering dust in the corner and that big old Winchester 97, well, I'd never liked it anyway.  Twenty-two's were made for tin cans, rabbits, and especially squirrels in my opinion.  I'd killed enough squirrels with a shotgun that it was not much of a challenge anymore.  I'd learned the basics of two ways to hunt squirrels by that time.

With a dog:

1. The dog trees a squirrel
2. You circle the tree looking for the squirrel.
3. If two hunters they get on opposite sides of the tree.
4. If you can't see the squirrel you shake a bush or make some noise and you may see him move.
5. If alone you throw a stick or rock to make some noise on the opposite side of the tree.
6. You shoot the squirrel or move on.

Still hunting:

1. You slowly move as silently as possible into a good plot of timber.
2. You stop often to listen and scan the ground and trees for any sound or movement.
3. When you see or hear something you plan the best stalk possible.
4. Sometimes you're spotted and you sit or stand until the squirrel relaxes and shows again.
5. Sometimes you get a shot and sometimes you move on.

I took to the still hunting quickly. Heck! My Daisy BB and I had been training on birds for years.  I eventually got a cheap 4x scope for the .22 and when the crosshairs settled on a squirrel's head it was usually "lights out".

Today I still shoot a squirrel from time to time, but it's often while deer hunting.  I most always have a slingshot with me today.  I sometimes try deer hunting using my old still hunting squirrel techniques, but deer are much more wary than squirrels.  I haven't gone on a real squirrel hunt in years.  I don't know why, I always loved it.

The Incredible Canoe

The Incredible Canoe

I've always loved boats. I was raised in the country so I can appreciate peace and tranquility. I've always loved smooth beautiful curves, I am a man.  What offers this, several things, but I'm talking about a very old boat design, the incredible canoe.

I know kayaks are currently hot, but a kayak is a skinny covered canoe.  Kayak's are like a high fashion model while the canoe is more like a real woman.  I've spent a little time with kayaks, I like them to!

I've owned several regular boats, but pictured above is my 6th or maybe 7th canoe?  This canoe is small, 12 feet long, weighing only 33 pounds, yet it can carry my big 230 pounds and gear easily.  

If you don't already know, a more typical canoe is 15 to 18 feet, weighs 50 to 80 pounds, and may be capable of carrying up to 1,000 pounds.  (I'm talking about better quality canoes, not the junk you find in most retail stores.)

I like to fish, and I've tried several small bass boats equipped with many extra gizmo's. Once you get it all out on the water and you get it all working correctly, a bass boat is very comfortable, efficient, and great. BUT! Such boats need a lot of care and feeding, they are high maintenance. 

I've tried electric and gas motors on boats and canoes. Most boats are hard to push through the water, they need a motor, and for longer distances a motor's nice on a canoe.  But a motor can weigh as much as the entire canoe, it can make a canoe awkward, the motor gets clogged in weeds, it doesn't work very well in shallow water...

Paddling is skill and art, beauty and tranquility, work and exercise... paddling is therapeutic, much like sitting in a rocking chair or on a porch swing, unless you get in a hurry.  Soon you learn to like the simplicity, the dependable self-sufficiency, you take pride in gliding among the stumps or pads only using enough stroke to turn slightly, to glide past with only a ripple of sound.

I like most boats of different shapes and sizes, but no other boat stirs me as much as a beautiful graceful canoe.

Old / New Opposites Attract

They say opposites attract. My wife and I are night and day different except on important values.  But I am attracted to some other things which may seem true opposites.

I've always liked to keep up on the new technology for the products I'm interested in. I used a Palm PDA back when cell phones only made phone calls. My iPhone is now almost another brain lobe.  I wrestled with Windows for years but eventually found the Mac...

Some of my favorite things are new technology, but some are the opposite and have been around for hundreds or even thousands of years. I place reliability at the top of my list, often followed by versatility, simplicity, compactness, light weight... It could be a long list.

Some all time favorites are the canoe, the bow-n-arrow, and more recently the slingshot. Few things are more beautiful to my eyes than a traditional wood or a wood and canvas canoe.  High tech. fabrics can however make a lighter, stronger, more useful canoe.

I like traditional bows and arrows, but they have been greatly enhanced by with more modern materials.  My favorite slingshot is made of aluminum and I don't use rocks for ammunition.

If fishing were my only diversion I would possibly want a big powerful bass boat with all the extras.  I've owned a couple of smaller bass boats, fished out of a tournament boat, and they were all great fishing machines. But maintaining, storing, and keeping it all ready to go seems a full time job. My canoe is like a good hunting dog that I don't need to feed, ready to jump in the pickup and go on a whim.

I have always been a certifiable gun nut, but I started shooting a traditional bow in 1989 and now mostly admire the guns.  The traditional bow connects the body, mind, and spirit to the woods and to nature more better for me. The more modern compound bow is sometimes more efficient, but with the  complexity, the sights, range finders... the simple natural flow and connection can get lost.

The bowhunters handgun is what I call the slingshot. After using firearms and air guns all my life I  now shoot a slingshot and bow more often. The bow is for big game and may be better for small game, but you loose or look for an expensive arrow after each shot. I can take an opportune shot at a rabbit or squirrel with my slingshot and seldom spook the deer I'm hunting.

Surprisingly I shoot a slingshot more than anything these days. Compared with guns and bows it's more convenient, less threatening, simpler, cheaper... I can shoot it in more places, more often, with fewer restrictions.  I always have two slingshots in my truck, canoe... Yes! It is a very limited tool, but the limitations are  part of the challenge, part of the fun.