Robert Beeman's interest in airguns began over a half century ago when he received a Daisy 25 BB gun as a birthday gift. In 1954 he designed what were perhaps the first paint marking airguns to mark migrating elk. Then, in 1971, while a professor at San Francisco State University, he obtained several European spring piston airguns. He became so interested in those fine guns that he founded Beeman Precision Airguns, as a part-time business, in San Anselmo, California, during April 1972.
There really wasn't a significant adult airgun market in the United States prior to 1975. The European makers simply could not understand why. Little did the Beemans realize when they mortgaged their home for their first inventory, that soon not only would they be increasing the importation of true adult airguns into the U.S. over one hundred fold, but changing the very nature of those guns!
All of the right ingredients came together for the development of the American adult airgun market about 1975. Products had reached a good level of development in Europe, the U.S. market evidently was ready, and Robert and Toshiko Beeman seemed to have had just the right approach, to finally make "adult airgunning" emerge in the United States as a significant, commercial success.
It was natural for Dr. Beeman to draw on his decades of experience as a technical writer and science professor to start what amounted to an educational writing campaign. The key item was the Beeman "catalog" which really was an educational introduction and guide. The Beemans gave coherent and national identity, by applying the Beeman name, to several product lines whose names were strange to Americans. And, by rigorous product selection, improvement, and development, they established the Beeman name as synonymous with quality and uniqueness in adult airguns. Soon Robert had to retire from his position at the university and ask Mrs. Beeman to leave her position as a department store executive.
Robert was soon developing specifications and design ideas for new adult airguns that would be uniquely suited to the demanding American market. He was surprised to find that adult spring piston airguns were designed and built with very limited theoretical considerations, within the tight power constraints on airguns in Europe, and then tested to determine performance. In 1978, Beeman jumped forward by utilizing the field's first computer simulations. In January 1979, Dr. and Mrs. Beeman presented their specification for virtually an entirely new airgun, of an unprecedented power level, styled for the first time, for the American market, to Christel and Hans Weihrauch Sr., the owners of the famous Weihrauch factory. The result was the Beeman R1 "magnum" adult air rifle and it broke all sales records for adult airguns.
One of the Beeman company's proudest moments came in 1993 when the members and board of the National Alliance of Stocking Gun Dealers voted Robert Beeman their 1992 Lifetime Achievement Award and hailed him as "Father of the U.S. Adult Airgun Market". Another momentous event of that year was the sale of the company to S/R Industries, Inc. on April 1, 1993. In June of 1993, S/R moved the Beeman company to Huntington Beach, California to be near one of their other main companies and restored the name of Beeman Precision Airguns. Robert and Toshiko Beeman were retained as consultants, working from their ranch in Sonoma County, California. |
