Red Ryder for "Sight Shooting" practice?

Not really for velocity as they're IIRC about the same but they will be big differences in stock length which is the most important aspect of wingshooting...You may even have to add a recoil pad (slip on) to get the length you need.

The US Army during the early days of the Vietnam War used the air guns to teach their soldiers "instinct" shooting and after the course could easily hit ping pong balls out of the air and even NECCO wafers.

I kept a Red Ryder in the rod locker of my bass boat for years until the paint peeled off it, and it finally rusted to the point it wouldn't work anymore. That thing was more fun than you could shake a stick at. It would throw a BB out of sight down the river...I mean you could not see it hit the water unless the water was dead flat calm, and even then you had to look HARD and far to see it. I was amazed how far it would shoot. At reasonable ranges, it was dead on. With practice I could walk BB's onto targets at ranges I couldn't believe by aiming it like a mortar. I had to stop shooting snakes with it. I killed them, and I really didn't want to do that.

While it might not do for what you say you want it for, it's a hoot to have one. Give it a try. It might work. If not, get the other, and just have fun with the RR.

Red Ryders are fun and can kill small critters are close range.

Got one at a yard sale for $.25. Straitened out the tube and it has ben fun for almost 20 years.

Doc7 said:

Hello all,

Reading Brister's book in which he describes using a sightless BB gun to learn how to properly mount and point a shotgun without recoil, etc affecting practice. Also, this would allow much more practice time with no need to drive to the range or do anything besides go out of the back door. (I am aware this method is much older than Brister himself)

Thanks!

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Who is 'Brister' and what is the book title...

Is it Bob Brister who wrote a outdoor column in Houston many years ago?

The US Army during the early days of the Vietnam War used the air guns to teach their soldiers "instinct" shooting and after the course could easily hit ping pong balls out of the air and even NECCO wafers.

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That is true. We were given Daisy lever repeaters that had no sights. One soldier fired and one tossed a small aluminum disk in the air. It took about 15 shots for me to start hitting the disk nearly every time. See the disk, point and shoot, tink. It was easy and very useful later on.

Deltaboy said:

Red Ryders are fun and can kill small critters are close range.

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Must be really close range, considering I shot a mockingbird in the head at 30 feet and it flew off. Darn thing was squawking on my chimney every morning at 8 AM, echoing through the whole house. Those little guns are dead accurate, but I wouldn't trust them to kill anything larger than a grasshopper. I only ever shot 2 animals, besides insects: that bird, and a fox that was after my cat. The fox was staring stupidly into the patio light when I shot it right between the eyes with the Red Ryder. Scared him off.

I got to where I could instinct shoot and bullseye a Coke can at 50 feet, and hit a 2-inch-wide vertical pipe at over 100.

Mine started out having enough oomph to embed BB's into wood planks. But after a couple hundred BB's..... well, I would shoot a bird at 20 feet distance and the bird would look around to see if something touched it... sometimes they would decide to fly off, but not always...

Joe Dorn,

Bristers book listed above is very good. i learned from it.still available on ebay etc and maybe at the library.

Bull

Yes, it'll work fine. The target gun would be overkill, especially since you're gonna knock the sights off it anyway.

Taught my son to shoot in a week or two using a sightless pump up BB gun while sitting in a tree swing. The June bugs were out and would land on the grass nearby. He quickly figured that he needed to look straight down that barrel to hit any of them. I used ping pong balls in the grass when the June bugs left. Still got the BB gun in the corner of my shop. Thanks for reminding me of those good ole days.

The Red Ryder will work. I was using mine yesterday to shoot carpenter bees out of the air. Little buggers are drilling all into the supports and beams on the awning of my shop and buzzing around my head. I think they work well for point shooting. The sights work at the range they are adjusted for but with the rainbow trajectory it's usually easier to point shoot and walk it in. You get so used to it you can judge distance and get 1st shot hits most of the time. Of course I got mine when I was 5 or 6 and grew up with that thing riding on the handlebars of my bike everywhere I went, so there's no telling how many bb's I've sent downrange with that little gun. I cleaned it up last year and repainted the steel and refinished the wood, still going strong.

The ones we had back in the 70's would punch a hole in a soup can at 10 feet and would kill out to 20 feet mice,rats and small birds that were raiding the fruit trees. We also had lead BB' s we could use.
They still work great for point shooting.

The Red Ryder will work. I was using mine yesterday to shoot carpenter bees out of the air.

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I use mine for the same thing! What fun fun it is popping those Bees! I've had mine 20 + years and its still going strong. Also very useful for shooing cats away from my bird feeder!...lol

This doesn't answer your question, but you might want to check this out.

I bought this years ago with the intention of messing with it, but really never did. I still have it. I guess I need to get it out now that I have a lot more time on my hands.

http://www.shootwhereyoulook.com/


EDIT: I read the opening page of that website and maybe it isn't what it used to be. Back when I bought this, it came with a sightless BB gun. I guess it doesn't now. But, you might still want to look at the website.