Daisy also made an unspecified number of model 95s marked "Lucky McDaniel Instinct Shooting Trainer." These guns may have been included in the early Quick Skill sets or they may have been sold separately. They were undoubtedly influenced by Lucky's demonstration in Rogers, but it seems they were not the guns that Lucky used.

Quick Kill
By the middle of the 1960s the U.S. Army was getting the worst of Viet Cong ambushes in Vietnam, and they wanted to train soldiers to shoot quickly and accurately without resorting to sights. They took Daisyís game of Quick Skill and turned it into a training program called "Quick Kill." Every infantryman trained at Fort Benning at that time received training in Quick Kill, which used Daisy's No. 2199 BB gun. The Army even wrote a training manual, TM 23-71, and the Infantry School at Fort Benning published a supplemental text numbered 23-71.

After Vietnam, the need for instinct shooting fell off, and Army trainers stopped the Quick Kill program. The guns were eventually sold off in the late 1970s and 80s. Today, collectors are proud to have a "U.S. Property" stamp on one of their BB guns, though not all of them were marked in the same way. Some training centers also attached sticky labels to the receivers of the guns, while others stenciled the butt to indicate which facility owned the gun.

These martially marked BB guns carry a small premium, according to the Blue Book of Airguns, 5th edition. Expect to pay $200 or more for one, should you be so fortunate to find one. The Lucky McDaniel version Daisy isn't listed in the Blue Book, so I would expect to pay even more for one.

Parris trainers?
I have also examined a strange gun made by Parris, the Tennessee company better known for their host of non-firing trainers, which are still sold in sporting goods stores. Parris also made a BB gun that is quite unique-looking for its flat lever made from stamped sheet metal.

Every Parris BB gun looks funny, but this one has Lucky McDaniel's address pasted to the stock. Though it has sights front and rear, this same Parris model appears in a Pete Rademacher brochure for his instinct training target trap, so it may be the real deal! Tom Woodling collection.

The possible Parris instinct shooter I saw has a paper label on the stock identifying the Lucky McDaniel school in Columbus, Ga. Oddly, this same BB gun also has a complete set of sights, front and rear! Whether it was made for Lucky or someone just glued his business card to the stock is unclear, but a very similar gun appears in an ad for an instinct shooting target trap marketed by Pete Rademacher the same man who fought Floyd Patterson for the title in 1957! Interesting.

Crosman had one of their own
Crosman also made up a few instinct shooting BB guns. They used their powerful model V350 that was also the basis for the popular M1 carbine to serve as their sightless instinct shooter. This model is cocked by pulling the barrel straight back toward the receiver (like a Quackenbush model 7). Because an instinct shooter will be cocked many times during a shooting session, Crosman wanted to make it as easy as possible, so this special gun has an enlarged knurled sleeve around the barrel at the muzzle.

Crosman made a few V350M BB guns to attract government interest for an apparent solicitation. Documentation with this gun tells the Crosman story of making the gun to support their proposal. The enlarged cocking handle at the muzzle is not found on the civilian model. Ted Osborn collection.

I have examined the gun shown here, along with four pages of accompanying Crosman documentation that indicate it is a model V350M (for military?), and I'm convinced that it was made by Crosman rather than just a clever modification by a former owner. Its model designation makes me wonder if the government ever considered a solicitation to purchase large numbers of instinct shooters.

Cont to pg3>>>>