Gecado Air Guns

[HCAirgunner]

Does anyone have any pictures of a Gecado air gun?

Does anyone know much about them? I hear that they were once made by a company that is now part of the RWS consortium (the same people who make Diana) and that they were mainly marketed in New Zealand and South Africa. I hear that production ceased in the mid 1980's.

Thanks in advance for info that you guys can provide.

[MDriskill]

"Gecado" was not a separate company.  It was a defunct pre-war German trademark, purchased by Mayer & Grammelspacher (the parent company that has made "Diana" airguns since the 1890's), and used on their post-war airguns in some markets. 

(Dynamit Nobel owns the RWS trademark, which it has used on firearm ammunition, and of course airgun pellets, for many years.  I don't believe Nobel owns M&G/Diana, but does have distribution rights for their airguns in the US, where it uses the RWS trademark.)

M&G has used quite a few trademarks for different markets over the years, and were particularly active in that regard in the 1950's and 60's.  "Gecado" may have been mostly used in British Commonwealth markets--they seem to have been common in Australia, New Zealand, and Canada, so your South African example fits well.

The list of marks seen on post-WW2 M&G airguns includes:

Beeman (briefly in the late 70's before M&G shifted the US distributorship to Nobel)
Condor
Diana (M&G's "house brand" of course)
Gecado (British Commonwealth markets)
Geco (possibly also associated with Dynamit Nobel, which uses this trademark on some firearm ammo)
Hy-Score (imported to US by New York-based company of that name in the 60's and 70's)
Original (UK market from late 1940's up until early 80's)
Peerless (a few larger rifle models imported to US by Stoeger's in the 50's and early 60's)
RWS (all Dianas here since the early 1980's)
Winchester (US imports from 1968 to 1975)

Some of these companies seemed to enjoy the idea of confusing future collectors, and so also changed the guns' model numbers!  For example the ubiiquitous Diana 27 rifle was also known as the "Hy-Score 807," "Winchester 427," and "Beeman model 100."  And there was the occasional "cross-pollination" of trademarks too: the first Beeman imports were stamped "Original," a few early Hy-Scores had both "Hy-Score" and "Gecado" markings, and "RWS" briefly appeared on some models sold in Europe.

For what it's worth, other German makers did similar things in those days--early Weihrauchs were sold under the "Heym" and "Burgo" names, and BSF also used the "Burgo," "Wischo," and "Bavaria" trademarks.  "Burgo" was the trademark of the big German sporting goods house Hugo Burgsmuller and Sons, so this was analogous to M&G's arrangements with RWS or Beeman.

For whatever reasons, most of these alternate trademarks, including "Gecado," fell out of use around the time that Diana introduced their completely re-designed guns in the early 1980's--the model 34 and its many relatives.  The vast majority of M&G airguns made since that time apparently fall under the "Diana" or "RWS" brands.

[threex4]

Gecado 25D 22 cal