Patent Application
20170299327
The claimed invention relates to systems and devices for mounting accessories on rifles.
Users of rifles often desire to use accessories such as cameras from various perspectives including toward the target, toward the shooter, and to capture video through the rifles optical sight. Additionally the desired placement of such accessories may be dependent on whether the shooter is left-handed or right-handed.
The present invention has been developed in response to the present state of the art, and in particular, in response to the problems and needs in the art that have not yet been fully solved by currently available accessory mounting devices and systems for rifles. Accordingly, the claimed inventions have been developed to overcome shortcomings in the art.
In one example, an apparatus for mounting accessories on a rifle includes a base that is mountable to a rifle, an accessory mounting bracket that is L-shaped, the accessory mounting bracket comprising an accessory mounting leg and a depth positioning leg. The depth positioning leg may include a plurality of attachment features disposed along a length thereof that enable attaching the depth positioning leg to the base at a plurality of depth positions. The accessory mounting leg may include a slot for mounting a photographic device at any lateral position within a lateral positioning range (e.g., 3 inches).
In some embodiments, the base is mountable to both the left side and the right side of the rifle and the accessory mounting bracket is attachable to the base (on either side of the rifle) at each depth position for any of four orientations. The base may comprise a height adjustment member comprising opposed slotted grooves that conform to a top view profile of a guide member of the base. The opposed slotted grooves may enable fastening the height adjustment member to the guide member over a continuous range of heights. The base may include a rifle mount member that is Weaver or mil-spec 1913 compliant.
In order that the advantages of the invention will be readily understood, a more particular description of the invention briefly described above will be rendered by reference to specific embodiments that are illustrated in the appended drawings. Understanding that these drawings depict only typical embodiments of the invention and are not therefore to be considered to be limiting of its scope, the invention will be described and explained with additional specificity and detail through the use of the accompanying drawings, in which:
Reference throughout this specification to “one embodiment,” “an embodiment,” or similar language means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the present invention. Thus, appearances of the phrases “in one embodiment,” “in an embodiment,” and similar language throughout this specification may, but do not necessarily, all refer to the same embodiment.
Furthermore, the described features, structures, or characteristics of the invention may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments. In the following description, specific details are provided to convey a thorough understanding of embodiments of the invention. One skilled in the relevant art will recognize, however, that the invention may be practiced without one or more of the specific details, or with other methods, components, materials, and so forth. In other instances, well-known structures, materials, or operations are not shown or described in detail to avoid obscuring aspects of the invention.
The depicted base 110 may be mounted on the left side or right side of the rifle. The depicted accessory mounting bracket 120 is L-shaped—where the accessory mounting leg 122 provides the horizontal (lower) leg of the L-shape and the depth positioning leg 124 provides the vertical (upper) leg of the L-shape. The depth positioning leg 124 of the depicted accessory mounting bracket 120 includes a set of attachment features 126 spaced along the length of the leg that enable attaching the depth positioning leg 124 to the base 110 at various depth positions.
In the depicted embodiment, the attachment features 126 are holes or voids through which fasteners 128 such as a bolts or thumbscrews can securely fasten the accessory mounting bracket 120 to the base 110 at a selected depth position. In the depicted embodiment, the selected depth position is determined by which attachment features 126 (e.g., holes or voids) are used to fasten the accessory mounting bracket 120 to the base 110. By using fasteners such as bolts or thumbscrews that pass through the depth positioning leg 124 via the attachment features (holes) 126, the accessory mounting bracket 120 cannot be jarred away from the base 110 due to recoil or other abrupt motions associated with rifles.
While shown on the left side, the base 110 may also be mounted on the right side of the rifle and the accessory mounting bracket 120 may be oriented with the accessory mounting leg 122 either toward, or away from, the shooter and projecting over, or away from the rifle. Consequently, in the depicted embodiment four orientations are possible for the accessory mounting bracket on each side of the rifle and a large number of depth positions are possible for each orientation.
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The height adjustment member 610 may also include, or be connected to, opposed slotted grooves 618. In the depicted embodiment, the opposed slotted grooves 618 (e.g., 618A and 618B) conform to a top view profile of a guide member 622. The guide member 622 may be a portion of, or connected to, the rifle mount member 620. The depicted opposed slotted grooves 618 enable fastening the height adjustment member 610 to the guide member 622 over a continuous range of heights and sliding the height adjustment member 610 to adjust the height of the accessory mounting bracket 120 (not shown) relative to the rifle. The guide member 622 may include threaded holes 624 for fastening the height adjustment member 610 to the guide member.
The rifle mount member 620 may be Weaver or mil-spec 1913 compliant. In the depicted embodiment, the rifle mount member 620 includes threaded holes 626 that enable clamping the rifle mount member 620 to a rifle by tightening the clamp 630 via fasteners such as bolts or screws (not shown).
This application claims the benefit of U.S. provisional application 62/240,387 entitled “Nexus U-Mount” and filed on 12 Oct. 2015. The foregoing application is incorporated herein by reference.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 62240387 | Oct 2015 | US |
