Their Red Ryder BB Gun is perhaps the best known and longest production item, which has been featured in many TV shows and movies since its introduction in the spring of 1940.

By the mid-1880s the business was struggling, as transporting the heavy steel windmills by wagons throughout the southern part of Michigan, northern Indiana, and throughout Ohio was impractical.

In January 1888 the company board met to consider closing the factory, but the motion to liquidate failed by one vote — that of general manager Lewis Cass Hough.

On March 6, 1888, Hamilton approached the windmill company board with an all-metal airgun design of his own and sought to use the factory blast furnaces to mold and stamp the metal parts necessary to build his gun.

This began many years of intense competition between Plymouth and Markham, who responded by introducing their metal "Chicago" (1888) and "King" (1890) model BB guns.

However, Plymouth's marketing strategy was much better, as by 1900, 15% of their sales revenue was being spent on posters and magazines space, with the net result of such intensive promotion being to make Daisy virtually a household word, while Markham paid little effort on advertising.

In 1901, Daisy introduced a 500-shot lever-action rifle (predating Markham's by nine years), and special guns were even built to shoot streams of water at Masonic initiations.

In 2016, Daisy was sold by Charter Oak to another private equity firm, Bruckmann, Rosser, Sherrill & Co., who combined it with Gamo Outdoor.

These simple smoothbore, spring-air BB guns fire at low velocities, and are marketed to children ages 10 and over.

In addition to the spring air BB guns, Daisy also markets a line of multi-pump pneumatic rifles capable of firing pellets or BBs to the same age group.

Some of the Avanti line are pellet guns, either single-stroke pneumatic or CO2-powered, with high-quality sights and built to much higher standards.

Daisy also makes, as part of the Avanti line, the Model 499B Champion, billed as the "world's most accurate BB gun".

This is a true competition BB gun, with a micrometer adjustable rear peep sight, a sling, and a precision smoothbore barrel.

The effective range is fairly short, about 10 yards (9 m), after which the low velocity and inaccuracy of the smoothbore barrel makes hitting the target difficult.

Daisy was the defendant in a lawsuit after a Pennsylvania teenager, John Tucker Mahoney, was accidentally shot in the head in May 1999 when a friend fired one of their BB guns at him, believing it to be empty.

The company settled the lawsuit with Mahoney's family for $18 million in a case that received worldwide publicity.