Toy guns and lawn grenades
If you read my last post (I’m sure you did), I mentioned that I was going to talk about toy guns and pistols in a future blog. Well, that future blog is here now!
Most of the toy guns that I’ve found date from the 1940’s to the 1970’s. Some of you old timers (like me) will remember buying rolls of caps which are small disk-shaped explosive materials sandwiched between paper layers, which would create a loud bang and a small amount of smoke when struck by the hammer of a toy gun. They also came in individual (single) caps that you had to load one at a time. If you were like me (or if you had conveniently lost your gun for me to find later), it was just as much fun to unroll them on the sidewalk or other hard surface, and hit them with a hammer.
Sometime in the 1970’s, I believe, toy guns started using a plastic ring with 8-12 shots, which were small compartments with a tiny amount of explosive and were designed to use with guns with a rotating cylinder. In both cases, the explosive is generally red phosphorus with a strong oxidizer in the form of potassium chlorate and potassium perchlorate. Sulfur was also occasionally used as a substitute for some or all of the phosphorus to slightly decrease sensitivity (no kid with a cap gun or hammer wanted this!) and lower costs. Calcium carbonate may also be present in small amounts.
One of the biggest toy gun manufacturers was Hubley, founded by John Hubley in about 1894, in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Hubley made a variety of products over the years, including toy cars and trucks.
The Super Cowboy was made by Crescent Toys, which was a British toy manufacturing company from 1922 to 1980. At about 9 or 10 inches, this is my longest toy pistol find to date, and is likely a 1960’s model.
The Italian Starter Pistol, Model 1900 is made by Mondial, in Italy. Starter pistols are primarily used to start track and field style races, and fire special blank cartridges that make a loud noise—much louder than the cap pistols shown above, and nearly on a par with a real pistol. I found this in a nearby creek.
The Airsoft pistol was a realistic replica of a real pistol, made by the Airsoft Company, which was founded in 2006, making this my “newest” pistol. It’s also my heaviest pistol, and used CO2 cartridges and plastic BB’s. It’s difficult to understand how someone could lose something this large and heavy—wouldn’t you notice the weight change? Some kid must have put it down while playing in the woods and couldn't find his way back to it, I suppose.
I couldn’t find a whole lot of information on this toy rifle. It’s about six inches long, and is a Marx Mini Winchester Saddle Rifle, made in 1960. While the hammer worked (still does), it doesn’t appear that the trigger or lever ever were intended to be working parts.
This next example was made by the Kilgore Company, which began manufacturing toy cap pistols in 1912. This particular model was dated 1935 on the only online photo I could find. In 1919, Joseph D. Kilgore moved operations from Homestead, PA (just east of Pittsburgh) to Westerville, OH. His earliest toy pistols were made from iron, but later he switched to Bakelite, a synthetic plastic invented in 1907. Apparently, this was a very rare model because we can’t find any photos online that are exactly like this. At one time, it was painted yellow—a very odd color for a toy gun.
Another interesting toy that used caps was the cap grenade dart. These little miniature “lawn darts” used caps with a bit of adhesive to hold the paper cap while the dart was flung, and they would emit a nice little bang upon landing. These were made by Callen Manufacturing Corporation in Maywood, IL in the 1950’s, and would have been great fun—until someone got hit in the head with one of the weighty little buggers!
Not all toy guns used chemical explosives. I found this water pistol while creek-detecting a few years ago. It was made in the 1920’s by Morris and Louis Company, and would have had a rubber bulb attached to the handle to shoot water. Sadly, the rubber bulb didn’t survive 100 or so years in the creek.
Did any of these bring up childhood memories of your own toy guns? Have you found any toy pistols or cap grenade darts while on your metal detecting adventures? Leave a comment below and let me know!