Plastic stocks

That's a crazy set of photos, Bavaria55n.  Good for shooting around corners!

Congrats on your unwarped Model 94, Cobalt.  It has found a good home.

 Gumslinger, thanks for the research on plastic, it pretty much covered the plastic downfall used on early Daisy's. Daisy finally got it right a little too late. I have never bought a plastic stocked Daisy, there is  something about wood that makes it my choice.

Last year I was befuddled by Daisy’s plastic parts. Now, I think I can close the thread.

MPC stands for Modern Plastics Corporation. Mucho thanks to the fine people at Argus camera museum. This led me (round-about) to the book “It’s A Daisy” by Cass Hough. Mr. Hough began at Daisy in 1926, and was president upon his retirement in 1972.

He dedicated 5 pages (pg. 247-251) to the trials & tribulations of swapping wood to plastic. He relates that problems between this change, and also the switch from leather-to-neoprene seals, “nearly drove him to his knees”.

 He had been approached in 1948 by a representative of MPC (Benton Harbor, MI). A solid company, which assured Daisy that plastic was the answer. By then the price of wood itself, the transport, the year-long storing, kiln-drying, milling, and finishing (including wood burning of logos) was skyrocketing. It was becoming too expensive to the consumer cost of a BB gun. Using plastic, said the representative, would solve all that. Initially, Daisy began with one model: the Red Ryder. But problems began.

First, there was great reluctance of retail outlets to buying any ‘gun’ without a real wood stock. The plastic parts also warped in storefront window heat, and the colors were unrealistic. The first plastics were also too thin, and cracked if dropped on the ground--especially when cold. But the savings would be huge, so they pressed on, trying new processes, and new formulations.

They finally got it right (more or less IMHO) and convinced retailers that plastic was here to stay. When Daisy moved to Rogers, they found themselves far from their ‘around the corner’ access to various materials--such that they had enjoyed in industrial Michigan. So in the case of plastic stocks, Daisy set up their own injection-molding department and continued this all in-house. They also kept experimenting, until they were satisfied with the quality of their own processed plastic stocks, and then expanded their use to many different models. And they never looked back.