Friday, October 26, 2012

Daisy BB Guns ~ A Family Affair #Cbias #bb4me

Daisy Header

I don’t know about you, but I didn’t grow up ever touching a gun of any kind. My boys on the other hand have shot bb guns at their grandparent’s house for the last couple of years during the summer with their cousins. It’s become somewhat of a ritual and one of their favorite outdoor family activities while up north.

I never had a problem with it because there was always someone supervising and the uncles that were up there are avid hunters!! The kids were only allowed to shoot at cans or milk jugs strategically placed along the ditch by the creek that ran alongside the house.

Daisy Red Ryder BB Gun

When I found out I was going to have the opportunity to purchase a Daisy Red Ryder BB Gun for our family I have to admit, that even though there was a sense of apprehension (since I’d never owned a gun before), there was also a lot of excitement.

It’s almost like a stepping stone for my boys. Last year, a friend of ours offered to take Buddy hunting this year if he wanted to go. I was actually surprised Buddy wanted to! That would definitely mean gun safety classes, which he is now old enough to take here in MN! Hunting as well as fishing is a way of life here! People hunt for purpose more than sport.

bb options

Having never shopped for a bb gun, I wasn’t sure what to expect when I went to Walmart to find the Daisy Red Ryder BB Gun. I went to their sporting goods section, was able to pick it up along with some bbs and off I went. I was surprised to not see any age requirements anywhere.

Saturday afternoon, after I had gotten back from a friend’s wedding, I got Buddy (who’s 13) to hang out with me for a little bit as we went over the safety instructions. It was extremely important to me that we both knew what the expectations were from Daisy and me. There was no way either of us were going to handle a gun, yes a gun not a toy, without learning about the safety side first!

Safety instructions

Out of the blue, just as we were heading outside to set up a target, I got a call from my friend, Karen. Our families go to church together and she shaves Doodle’s hair. Knowing he wanted it shaved, she wanted to see if we could come over. I explained to her what we were about to do and she told me to come over since they had targets set up. Now here’s the bonus, her husband is a detective! I think he was a trooper at some point, but I can’t remember.

Safety List

So, I loaded up the van and headed over to their house. Thankfully, they’re just a few minutes away. They have 4 kids just like I do. Their oldest and Buddy are the same age, then they had another son, and then twin girls that are the same age as Doodle. Oh, I’ll have to share the story of the two of us being pregnant together sometime. =)

Ready to shoot

We headed out to the backyard and told the girls and Doodle they weren’t allowed to come down near where we were shooting the guns. They were totally fine with it and played some soccer while the rest of us set up shop. It was fun to find out they had a Red Ryder as well!

soccer

I have to admit, keeping all of the safety tips in mind while standing around a lot of people and trying to learn how to use the gun isn’t easy! I was still learning how to load the bbs into the gun and made somewhat of a mess of things. I need to find a funnel to load the bbs!

Since Buddy had shot bb guns before I figured he should go first. He put on his fine safety glasses and started shooting the gun…errrr…tried shooting it. I forgot to tell him ne needed to have it click 7 times and that would mean it was engaged! He had a go at it for a little while and then I think Karen wanted to give it a shot.

Boys shooting

heh heh heh get it? “give it a shot”? I know, I kill myself!

While she was shooting, her oldest son, also 13 went in search of his gun. He found it and both boys were shooting at the target. I was happy to see him come out with his own pair of safety glasses.  Can I just admit that at this point I was chomping at the bit to give it a go.

Mimi & karen shooting

When it was my turn I realize right away that my posture was all goofy. I was leaning really far back for some reason. I think it was because the target was a bit low. I actually got 2 out of 3 shots! Yes I only shot it a few times because I wanted to allow the kids to shoot more!

To be perfectly honest, I could’ve gone through the entire container of bbs because I enjoyed it so much. I got a stack of targets and think having them set up at our house would give the boys and I something to do together on the weekends or in the evening after school.

getting buzzed

After we all had our fill of shooting our Red Ryders, Karen, Doodle and I headed inside so he could get his head buzzed! That’s why we headed over there in the first place. He loves his head shaved! I love feeling it shaved, too, although he runs away from me when I try to swipe my hand over his head!

After we left their house, as we were headed home, I remembered the other plans I had for the afternoon, which was them picking out pumpkins at the local pumpkin patch! We headed out and started our search.

Fairhaven Farms

Unfortunately it was a bit cold so we kind of hunted for the pumpkins rather quickly and didn’t do anything else. Not that there was much more to do. It was later in the afternoon. The carriage ride was coming back from it’s last trip and the only other thing to do was a corn maze. I was too cold to do that maze so we paid for our pumpkins and headed home.

Pumpkin patch

Man, it was a long day! Long, but good.

Now, make sure you check out Google + for my entire shopping trip when I bought my our new Daisy Red Ryder BB Gun because there are more fun pics of us at Karen’s place, too!

Don’t forget to follow Daisy on Twitter as @DaisyOutdoor and Facebook. They’ve got a hashtag #bb4me that you can follow as well to keep up with them on their social networks!

Take Pride It's a Daisy
I am a member of the Collective Bias™ Social Fabric® Community.  This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias™ and Daisy. #CBias #SocialFabric”. All opinions are my own and never influenced by the company.

8 comments:

Laura Grace Andry said...

I love that you focused on safety first. When I was much younger I got shot in the neck with a BB gun and it was not a fun experience... needless to say I did not shoot targets with those people again. As I got older and started to hang out with more responsible people I had the chance to shoot targets again with a BB gun and I had a blast. It can be quite fun when proper precautions are taken. thanks for sharing.

Rachel said...

I think shooting is a great skill to have, and a fun family activity! We don't get to do it as often as we'd like. Sounds like you're all having fun and learning a lot together. :D

Unknown said...

Ya, see, this would never work in LA :)

Unknown said...

What an awesome day of bonding and fun Mimi! When the big girls were younger, we often shot our Daisy Red Ryders together. It was a great way to get them outdoors and the conversations always started flowing as we laughed and had fun! And this reminds me, I need to run out and get the babies a pumpkin...STAT!

Amanda @ Coping with Frugality said...

How fun! We had a BB gun when I was a kid and we loved playing with it. As an adult it has since helped rid us of a skunk and woodpecker :) Safety is SO important and I am glad you emphasize that!

Mama on a Green Mission said...

A nice, fun-filled day!! My oldest son would LOVE this!! I'll have to look into getting something like this for him and also look for a place for him to use it. Since we live in a metro area, we can't do it in our back yard. hehe! I am sure my parents would let him enjoy it there though! Glad you had a great time!

Unknown said...

I've never shot {or actually, even HELD} a gun but I think it'd be fun to go target shooting! That's so cool that your friend let you come over & use theirs. &I can't stop thinking about A Christmas Story when I see the BB Gun!

Danielle Harper said...

Every time I hear BB Gun the first thing that comes to my mind is The Christmas Story and "Don't shoot your eye out!" Hehehe. I must say I would love to get a Daisy BB Gun for my girls when they get older - we could have a ton of fun together!

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