BB gun stories

[rocketman]

Shall I keep going?

On my 15th birthday I was playing with a homemade bb handgun I made out of scrap copper pipe and tubing. It had a rubber piston, a spring, and a crude cocking mechanism and trigger. It was difficult to cock and had to have the BB's muzzle loaded. BB's wouldn't shoot well but I found that if I made a ball out of clay it would fire at a decent velocity.

Eager to test out the new non-lethal round on my brother since we were home alone, I proceeded to load. I had misplaced my ram rod I guess so I used an expedient method I had discovered for the clay balls, blow into the muzzle while cocking! While I was blowing and cocking my hand slipped off the cocking handle causing my other hand to ram the barrel into my throat. I remember a POP sound which I thought was the clay ball hitting the back of my throat. It was actually the barrel that stabbed me. Then blood started pouring out of my mouth and down my neck.

I ran to the bathroom to look and I could tell there was a hole in the back of my throat. I had my brother call mom and he couldn't have phrased the news worse: "Mom, my brother cut his throat and is bleeding everywhere". Being that it was land lines back then, she had to race home with only that info in her head. By the time she got there I had stopped bleeding and explained what happened.

Mom took me to the ER. The doc had to call in his buddies so they could hear me re-tell my story. He couldn't find a clay ball in there so he stitched me up. Let me tell you that there is no dental procedure more uncomfortable that getting stitched in a gag reflex area! I gagged on those stiches through my birthday party that night and for the next few weeks. I later found the clay ball was still in the barrel. I kept that stupid gun as a memento for many years.

 

[Timmy59]

A bit off topic but it does include a "BB gun" in a sense:

One day I found a can of black powder in my dads closet so naturally I had to have my friend come over and help me fine a way to use it. We took one of those Lego cannons from the pirate sets and drilled a hole for a fuse. We found that a ball bearing from my old bicycle pedal shaft was a perfect fit. With a pinch of black powder and a fuse from a blackcat we successfully fired it a couple times in the backyard. The plastic cannon would fly backards as fast as the ball flew forwards(which wasn't very fast).

After strapping down the Lego cannon we manage a dent in the metal shed but that wasn't satisfying enough. After looking around I found that an aluminum arrow that I had broken in two was also a perfect fit for those ball bearings. We put quite a bit of black powder in the arrow and stuffed the ball in. I stuck a fuse in the arrow head threaded hole. Then we duct taped the arrow to a piece of cardboard and set in in the yard with a few rocks to hold it down "for recoil absorption".

Since my mom had hid the lighters due to me lighting the backyard on fire, we had to improvise a magnifying glass and the sun to light the fuse. When that thing went off it sent that ball bearing through the shed, wheel barrow, shed again, and through the wood fence into the neighbors yard. The arrow had ripped free of the tape and flew across the yard sticking into the ground.

The aluminum arrow had only a slight bulge in it and to this day I don't understand how it held the pressure.

What a wonderful childhood we had .

 

[Timmy59]

Shall I keep going?

On my 15th birthday I was playing with a homemade bb handgun I made out of scrap copper pipe and tubing. It had a rubber piston, a spring, and a crude cocking mechanism and trigger. It was difficult to cock and had to have the BB's muzzle loaded. BB's wouldn't shoot well but I found that if I made a ball out of clay it would fire at a decent velocity.

Eager to test out the new non-lethal round on my brother since we were home alone, I proceeded to load. I had misplaced my ram rod I guess so I used an expedient method I had discovered for the clay balls, blow into the muzzle while cocking! While I was blowing and cocking my hand slipped off the cocking handle causing my other hand to ram the barrel into my throat. I remember a POP sound which I thought was the clay ball hitting the back of my throat. Then blood started pouring out of my mouth and down my neck.

I ran to the bathroom to look and I could tell there was a hole in the back of my throat. I had my brother call mom and he couldn't have phrased the news worse: "Mom, David cut his throat and is bleeding everywhere". Being that it was land lines back then, she had to race home with only that info in her head. By the time she got there I had stopped bleeding and explained what happened.

Mom took me to the ER. The doc had to call in his buddies so they could hear me re-tell my story. He couldn't find a clay ball in there so he stitched me up. Let me tell you that there is no dental procedure more uncomfortable that getting stitched in a gag reflex area! I gagged on those stiches through my birthday party that night and for the next few weeks. I later found the clay ball was still in the barrel. I kept that stupid gun as a memento for many years.

 

[dennishoddy]

I actually grew up with a kid that got his eye shot out in the second grade. Older brother took a shot at him with the bb hitting him dead square in the eye. Probably could have saved it today, but in the 50's the technology didn't exist.
Edit: I don't have many bb gun stories other than being a dove shooter with mine off the highlines. Dad told me if I did anything stupid with it, there would be no second chance, it would be gone forever. He was a man of his word and I knew it.

 

[enuf]

I gotta story - ain't nothing to do with me but an old friend I have not seen in several years. So, him and his brother would get in BB Gun fights and his dad (a Baptist preacher man) would get after them with the "somebody is going to get their eye shot out", and not only a scolding but in a good old fashion Baptist preacher man way too, but still... One day they were back at it and dad was home and caught them. My buddy's brother had just shot at him, and he was drawing up when dad busted them. Dad grabs the gun from my buddy and scolding them, points the gun straight up in the air and discharges his gun. My buddy, knowing what was coming next, and watching dad, looks straight up as if to watch the BB - and yes, it actually happened, WHAP! came right back down and hit him in the left eye. Yes, he lost that eye, it was still there just grey and blind out of it. Mom was mad at dad, dad felt terrible. But he did not get a whoop'n that time. Needless to say, that was the final BB Gun fight they ever had.

 

[Snattlerake]

I gotta story - ain't nothing to do with me but an old friend I have not seen in several years. So, him and his brother would get in BB Gun fights and his dad (a Baptist preacher man) would get after them with the "somebody is going to get their eye shot out", and not only a scolding but in a good old fashion Baptist preacher man way too, but still... One day they were back at it and dad was home and caught them. My buddy's brother had just shot at him, and he was drawing up when dad busted them. Dad grabs the gun from my buddy and scolding them, points the gun straight up in the air and discharges his gun. My buddy, knowing what was coming next, and watching dad, looks straight up as if to watch the BB - and yes, it actually happened, WHAP! came right back down and hit him in the left eye. Yes, he lost that eye, it was still there just grey and blind out of it. Mom was mad at dad, dad felt terrible. But he did not get a whoop'n that time. Needless to say, that was the final BB Gun fight they ever had.

There is a thing called common sense. Don't look for a bullet coming at you. and never open your mouth while you're watching birds fly.

 

[HillsideDesolate]

Wow, y’all are cracking me up! Reminding me of stuff I had forgotten. I have shot some bull balls myself lmao

#metoo

 

[Raido Free America]

My first projectile weapon was a Daisy Red Rider, identical to Ralphie’s rifle in A Christmas Story. I was probably 8. I stalked a lot of big game in my back yard with that gun, wearing the coin skin cap my dad made me. No, I didn’t shoot my eye out. Despite my best efforts, I don’t think I ever managed to kill or even seriously injure anything with it.

Back in the 50's we would choose up sides, and literally have BB gun WARS! Talk about dumb! No one was ever seriously injured that I remember, the worst injury was I got my little finger nail shot off! It's a wonder we didn't get our eyes shot out, that was every mothers fear back then! The surest way to get a bunch of boys to do anything, is tell them not to do it!

 

[magna19]

Went to little league football practice one day and coach got the word one of our players died from bb gun accident. Always took them seriously ever since.

 

[Gunbuffer]

when I was about 11 I shot a sparrow in flight with a red Ryder bb gun that was just handed to me by a friend.

I have since then been known to make ridiculously phenomenal but meaningless shots with a gun.