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Gifts For Boys: Daisy Red Ryder BB Gun with Homemade BB Catcher

Posted on by ben

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My oldest boy is eleven years old and he is all boy.  So I have been thinking about getting him a BB gun for Christmas this year.  When you talk about Christmas gifts for boys BB guns are at the top of the list.   I remember my dad teaching me how to shoot with my Daisy Red Ryder 30 years ago.   I also remember competing in shooting competitions using BB guns with my local 4H club.  So if you are wanting a BB gun, Daisy is  the way to go.  Daisy has been making BB guns for a very long time and they even have partnerships with various organizations (including 4H) where they help educated kids on BB gun safety.  Daisy educates roughly one million of America’s youth a year through their Ten Lesson Shooting Curriculum about BB gun use and safety (found here).#ItsADaisy #CollectiveBias

So I headed down to my local Walmart and made my way to the sporting goods section.  It didn’t take long at all to find that Red Ryder.   I quickly picked it out and I grabbed some Daisy BBs as well.  My next item was a necessity….eye protection.  Remember the classic movie “A Christmas Story”?  “You’ll shoot your eye out kid!!” was the classic line from the movie.  So I found some shooting glasses and I was off to the checkout.

gifts for boys #ItsADaisy #shop

BB Catcher

Now that I had the BB gun I needed to make the next part of my gift.  One thing I always hated with my BB gun was going through BBs so quickly.  So I figured one of the best gifts for boys getting BB guns would be a BB catcher.  You can buy these but what fun is that.  I decided to make my own using items around my house and it wasn’t that hard at all.  Here’s what you need:

  • Cardboard box (around 18″ wide and at least 12″ high)
  • Duct Tape
  • (2) 2 liter bottles
  • Box cutter
  • spare piece of cardboard

This is a pretty simple design.  I cut both 2 liter bottles in half creating 2 “boats”.  Then I cut the bottom off of one and the top off of the other.  I joined the two pieces with duct tape and this is my “catcher”.  It’s nothing fancy and it’s nothing great to look at but it works and that’s what matters.

I placed the bottle long ways in the box.  Now that my catcher is good I need to make my back stop.  This is where the extra cardboard comes in.  I actually covered my cardboard with duct tape to make it a more solid surface.

#ItsADaisy #shop gifts for boys
A look from the top of the box after placing the bottle inside.

Next I placed the cardboard behind the catcher with the bottom of the cardboard inside the bottle.  This ensures that the BBs don’t fall between the back stop and the catcher.  There are some areas on the sides that will not catch the BBs.  I could get really fancy and create a funnel shape out of the cardboard but I decided that catching 80% of the BBs would be fine for now.  Maybe I’ll improve the design later.

#ItsADaisy #shop gifts for boys
The backstop is in place. Not pretty…..but functional.

Use duct tape to secure everything.  Seriously, I think you can do ANYTHING with duct tape (or duck tape if you prefer).   The last step is to take some targets on the front of the box.  Click Here to download a target template that you can print out.

#ItsADaisy #shop gifts for boys
Here’s the finished product.

When you shoot the box the BBs go through the box (usually) and hit the backstop then drop down into the catcher.  When you’re done shooting you can just grab the bottle and the BBs pour out of the spout.

My son loved the gun and he was stoked about the BB catcher since he can reuse his BBs.  The cool thing is that when your box wears out (there will be lots of holes in the front) you can get another box and place the bottle and backstop inside of it.  We did a test run and the catcher caught 7 out of 10 BBs.  Not bad and would have been better if we were better shots.  I’d say that’s a pretty good catch rate for a homemade BB catcher (especially one that looks like ours).

About Daisy

In preparing for this post I did some research on Daisy and was very impressed with what I found.  Daisy has portable, inflatable gun ranges which they bring to special events and sporting goods stores.   Many of the people who shoot at these events are first time shooters.  Daisy is very committed to educating people on shooting safety.  To this end, they partner with many organizations such as 4H, Royal Rangers, NRA, and various scouting organizations to teach safe shooting.  Check out Daisy on Facebook and Twitter for more information.

Giveaway

I’ve really enjoyed spending time with my son teaching him to shoot with his new BB gun.  I personally think that a BB gun is one of the best gifts for boys that you can get.  So I am doing a giveaway in association with this post.  I don’t do a lot of giveaways here on my blog but I think this one is good.  I’m giving away a $100 Walmart gift card so that you can purchase your own Daisy BB Gun and accessories.

The giveaway will run for 2 weeks and end at Noon on December 1st.  Giveaway is for US residents only (sorry Canada).  One quick note, the gift card will not arrive before Christmas so plan accordingly.

 


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261 thoughts on “Gifts For Boys: Daisy Red Ryder BB Gun with Homemade BB Catcher”

  19. My son is 12. He has a few airsoft guns and he’s been begging me for a BB gun. I think it’s time to move up! I’d give him this BB gun .We can use the catcher as an activity one day, as well!

  70. I agree with you, a BB gun is such a great gift. Kind of a rite of passage. I live in northern Wisconsin and hunting is such a part of life, that I think gun safety is super important and should start very early in age. This would be a very fun gift for my nephew, as well as a way to start the “safety” conversation. His dad is a police officer, and is very busy. I know he has wanted to take him out and teach him about guns, but hasn’t had time. This would be a great bonding time for me and my nephew. 🙂

  72. I have three sons who all have received Daisy BB guns in the past couple of years- they are the perfect BOY gift! They like to go in our small creek with their dad and learn (safely) what to do and when to do it! They really enjoy the outdoors and it is a perfect way to start out a young boy with the whole hunting adventure!

  84. Boy, does this bring back memories. My brother had one and I used it almost as much as he did. I have some great memories with my brother (he passed of cancer a number of years ago). If I win this I’d actually share it with my daughters. I think I’d like to have some fun with it – in memory of my brother, Joe.

  93. I’d give this to my nephew and tell him that my father had one back in the 1930s. I always thought it was a fictional creation in “A Christmas Story” but no, these have been around FOREVER. If I had a niece, I’d give it to her too. Not necessarily a “boy’s toy” at all.

  119. I dont have a personal bb gun story…just that i used to shoot mine when i was little. me and my cousins just about every sunday at my grandparents house. I would gift it to my nephew!

  121. Oh Lord….my son got a bb gun when he was 14. I wasn’t too happy about it because my hubby didn’t tell me he was giving him one. Anyway…long story short, he didn’t shoot his eye out, but he didn’t use it as “responsible” as he should have! haha

  126. I just saw A Christmas Story, the Musical and it makes me think of this giveaway! I’d get it for my friend who’s about to have a kid. I think he’d like it once he’s old enough.

  131. I actually have a pellet gun story. My older brothers got pellet guns for Christmas one year….gee thanks Mom and Dad. They constantly scared me and my sister by “trying” to use us as target practice. I was terrified of those guns. They never actually shot us but we were fast. Needless to say, the guns disappeared pretty quickly.

  144. I got hit with a bb when I was young and it hurt so MUCH!!! I cried for what seemed forever!! Then I turned it on the kid that hit me. Needless to say, I had a bb gun for one day… 🙂

  152. My oldest granddaughter has a Daisy B-b gun and I love the b-b catcher and will be sharing this with her, she loves her Daisy and I have a preteen granddaughter who would also like to have one, and they can shoot it our on my property and I would not have to worry about them hitting others.

  166. I would give it to my son. A story that has stuck in my head for many years is, my father-in-law had a daisy BB gun and one night my hubby and I was in his shop after he went to bed and I got the BB gun and shot it just messing around, at the ground, the BB bounced up and went in the air just enough to hit the window in his truck and busted it. I did not realize his truck was in shooting distance. He never knew how exactly it got busted, or he didn’t rat me out on it anyway, lol. So I have a fond memory of Daisy, it was funny afterward, not so much at the time though. 🙂

  170. I actually don’t know anyone I would give a BB gun to. It would have something for me to have when I was a kid, but I don’t anyone whose child I would give one to.

  178. I would get my grandson as long as he only shoot it at targets only , one Time my brothers got a BB gun for Christmas and they went out side shooting it my dad bent over to set some cans up and one shot my dad in the butt and they got the gun taken till they could use it right

  188. When I was young my brother got a BB Gun for Christmas. He decided it would be fun to put bottles on top of our back fence and shoot them from the bedroom window. His gun got confiscated after the neighbor whose back window got shot out came and had a talk with my parents. *Ooops!* (thank heavens no one got hurt!)

  191. My brother used to shoot BB guns when we were kids. He used to go around shootin all kinds of stuff. I was afraid that one of those times he was going end up shootin me with it. So, I made sure I stayed inside when he had his BB gun outside.

  196. Ha, i never had one but we use to live next to my uncle who thought it was funny to stand on his front porch and shoot at us when we walked up LOL good times 🙂

  199. My kids are all older now (14-21) but my three boys used to love messing with their BB guns with their late grandpa. He was the one who always taught them to shoot and they have a lot of great memories of that.

  202. I would always sneak my brother’s BB gun outside and play with it, shooting targets. He wasn’t too pleased that I would take it, and I never figured out how he knew, well it didn’t help that all his BBs were gone.

  207. I’d gift it to either myself or my dad. Reason why is we love the movie A Christmas Story and we always talk about getting a red rider carbon air rifle so this would be the next best thing.

  230. When I was 13 years old, I received my first BB gun. I absolutely loved it, and it was a great opportunity to bond with my father. My niece will be turning 12 this year, and I would love to give her a Daisy as her first BB gun.

  232. My almost 9 year old son fell in love with The Christmas Story last Christmas and has since then been begging for one from Santa this year. So this would definitley go to him!

  234. I would give it to my husband because he loves the movie The Christmas Story. My sons already have one each that I gave them when they younger.

  241. I would save this and give to my grandson to use under the supervision of his grandfather when he comes to the country to visit. He lives in Philadelphia.

  242. I love the movie Christmas Story with the Red Rider BB Gun. “You’ll shoot your eye out!” My father told us that was his Christmas wish when he was a boy and his mom told him the same thing. I would probably gift it to him. 🙂

  251. When I was around 9 year’s old, my brother and I were outside in the front yard. I was playing with our baby duck’s and my brother was playing with his BB gun, he didn’t think too long about the fact that shooting at a cardboard box in front of the patio window would be a bad mistake. Although he made his target, the patio window shattered.

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