I was nine the year my parents gave my brother and me a Daisy “Spittin’ Image” BB gun for Christmas. That was my introduction to the fun of air powered projectile propulsion. Firearms had been a part of our family “since forever”, or so it seemed. My first memory of one being the Remington 600 in 308 caliber that Dad used to take a mule deer buck with when I was much smaller. But NOW I was on my way to discovering the joy of propelling projectiles by means of a mechanical contraption.
The next foray into this area of projectile propulsion was a Daisy 880 that I was given for Christmas the year I turned 15. For the next couple of years that “rifle” (actually it was a smooth bore, designed for use with BB’s AND pellets) was my nearly constant companion. I worked my way through a considerable number of BB’s and pellets and learned to hit about anything I could see from near to far with anything from 2 to 10 pumps on the handle. I wore it out, rebuilt it and wore it out again, then it was off to college and somewhere in my parent’s move to another city that old relic disappeared.
In college I managed to accumulate a few firearms, but the “toy” airguns were all but forgotten. It wasn’t until I married and had sons of my own that air power once more figured in my propulsion of projectiles. We returned to the US one year when our sons were 5 and 6 years old and we purchased a couple of Daisy “Buck” BB guns for them to use, and use them they did after proper training in safe shooting of these little leverguns. Then my wife’s uncle gave us a Daisy 120 he’d picked up at a yard sale and Rich Hoch, a friend from the church we attended, gave us a cut down Haenel 300 Super that he’d fixed up for his grandkids who’d long outgrown it.
That Daisy and the Haenel followed us back south and figured in various activities and adventures (like the great rat hunt in which the boys triumphed over a rodent invader of the sanctity of our home). The Daisy wasn’t much of a daisy, but it gave us good service before being traded off for a basket case Feinwerkbau 300S in a left handed Tyrolean stock. The Haenel was rebuilt a couple of times and the stock repainted several times and it’s launched an untold number of pellets over the years and still occupies a place of honor in our Air Armory.
The Haenel and a Gamo CFX that had the main spring broken during my first Field Target competition were the first two air rifles that I started working on since those days long ago when the old Daisy 880 was rebuilt. Gradually tools and supplies started accumulating until now we’ve got most anything we need to fix some of the most common spring powered air rifles in Coffee Country where we reside. This blog is where I intend to share our trials, tribulations and triumphs in this area. Over time I hope to share past projects that have been shared on various forums over the years as well as current projects as time allows.
Welcome! I hope you enjoy your time here.