Quote Originally Posted by ccdjg View Post
Yes, it is Matt. Here is the schematic for the 55R pistol:



As far as who invented what first, Schmeisser at Haenel or LeFever at Daisy, this is a very interesting question. The air pistol patent record seems to give Schmeisser priority for the concept of a hollow probe attached to the end of the piston to guide the compressed air behind the ball while simultaneously serving to let each ball to enter the barrel from the magazine. LeFever's patent for the Daisy Targeteer dates to 1936, whereas Schmeisser's Haenel 100 pistol patent is dated 1932. However, as noted, there were various repeater BB air rifles in the USA that were much earlier, and the concept may well have been used in these. We need to hear from the vintage BB collectors on this.
Thanks John,

The 33 rifle and later Haenel 49a etc are stamped 'Schmeissers patent'. Do you know if this refers to the patent for the 100 pistol which looks like the same mechanism, except for the cocking handle, or maybe the rifle had a separate patent?

I don't know much about Daisy airguns, but if their similar mechanism was created for the Red Ryder 1938 then it came after.
I know there were some earlier Daisy BB guns that had the same winchester style underlever as the Red Ryder but that only cocked the spring and you had to load a BB manually.

It would be interesting if Daisy copied their most successful BB gun design from Hugo Schmeisser.


Cheers,
Matt