Patent Application
20240011746
The present description is directed toward equipment for use at target or practice shooting ranges, and, more particularly, to a new metal target assembly for practice shooting ranges designed for repeated use with an extended life.
Across the United States, there are numerous indoor and outdoor shooting ranges in the United States open to the public. Either privately owned firearms or those rented from the shooting range may be used depending on the range rules set by the owner. Some ranges rent their own handguns and provide instruction in use of rental guns at shooting ranges by a range master or similar individual to help one to easily learn use of any rental firearm in just a few minutes. Major tourist destinations in gun-friendly U.S. States have such “rental ranges” to cater to the domestic and international tourists that want to try their hand at the shooting sports. Each shooting range facility in the United States is typically overseen by one or more range masters to ensure gun safety rules are always stringently followed. The expected number of ranges and those who use these ranges to learn how to use handguns, rifles, and other guns is expected to grow rapidly in the coming years.
At a typical practice shooting range, the shooters will aim and fire at stationary targets that are positioned some distance from the shooting area such as 50 to 300 yards depending upon the gun and ammunition being used in the practice session. In some settings, metal targets are used that are configured and designed to withstand large impact forces and are designed for reuse.
For example, steel targets often are used in practice ranges and for private practice, and these shooting targets can be made of hardened (martensitic) steel. Steel or other metal targets are used in long range shooting and field target, as well as recreational shooting. They are popular in both training and competitions because the shooter gets instant acoustic feedback on a successful impact and can often also visually confirm hits by seeing the bullet getting pulverized, leaving a mark on the surface paint, or moving/knocking down the target. Hanging steel plates (or “gongs”) or self-resetting steel targets also have the advantage that the shooter does not need to go forward downrange to tape the targets, making it a good option for shooting ranges. Steel targets also are weatherproof, contrary to paper targets, which do not hold up in rain and wind gusts.
While metal targets remain popular, there are several challenges with their use. The components used to mount or hang the targets also must be durable and often will become damaged and ruined for reuse when impacted with bullets. In some cases, they can also produce undesirable ricochets that can be a safety concern or damage nearby structures or equipment. Hence, there remains a need for improved ways to provide a hanging metal target or gong for use in shooting or target practice.
To address these and other needs of shooting ranges and private users of metal (e.g., steel) targets, a target hanging assembly or system was designed by the inventor for use in hanging a metal target. The target hanging assembly includes a metal (e.g., steel) bolt designed to act not only as a mounting or hanging component for a metal target (e.g., a planar rectangular-shaped target or the like) but also as a ballistic impact deflection element. The steel bolt design of the hanging assembly is used to replace conventional fasteners and bolts currently used to hang or affix metal targets for target practice at target ranges.
The hanging assembly makes use of a bolt with a new design, including a cone-shaped head, that allows it to take advantage of its geometer and material properties to safely absorb and also redirect high energy projectiles including high-speed bullets in a safer manner. When a hard object, such as a steel plate (i.e., a metal target) and a conventional bolt used to hang a target, is impacted by a high-speed projectile, damage occurs to the steel plate and conventional bolt. In contrast, the design features of the present target hanging assembly will allow for the resulting high-speed fragmentation and surface detonation of the projectile and resulting shrapnel or spalling to be controlled and redirected by a tapered front cone shape of the mounting bolt or its head.
More particularly, an assembly is taught herein that is useful for hanging metal shooting targets from a hanging strap for home practice use or in a target or practice range. The assembly includes a metal target with a body having a hole extending through it from a front planar surface to a rear planar surface. Significantly, the assembly further includes mounting bolt including a head with a body extending from a front surface to a rear surface. The bolt includes a shank extending from the rear surface to a threaded section. A nut is included in the assembly for mating with the threaded section after insertion of the shank of the bolt through the hole in the metal target and through the hanging strap.
According to one unique aspect of the assembly, the front surface of the body of the bolt head is tapered from a sidewall of the body of the bolt head to a central point to have a conical shape. Particularly, the front surface of the body of the bolt head can be tapered at a taper angle in the range of 40 to 80 degrees such as with the taper angle being about 60 degrees. The body may be cylindrical in shape with a height in the range of 0.25 to 2.0 inches and with an outer diameter in the range of 0.5 to 2.5 inches. In some implementations, the mounting bolt is formed of a metal (e.g., steel that may be heat treated) with a Rockwell hardness in the range of 48 to 60 HRC.
In some embodiments of the target hanging assembly, the shank includes a blank section proximate to the threaded section and a section with three or more sides proximate to the bolt head. In such embodiments, the hole in the body of the metal target may have a cross sectional shape configured for receiving the section with three or more sides of the shank (e.g., both the hole and the shank inner portion may have triangular, square, hexagon, or other faceted or sided shapes to limit turning of the bolt when tightening the nut on the threaded section).
In some implementations of the assembly, the assembly also includes a washer, and the rear surface of the body of the bolt head includes a centrally located (e.g., with concurrent central axes) counterbored surface configured for receiving the washer. In some of these implementations, the counterbored surface has a depth less than a thickness of the washer. In these and other implementations, the body of the bolt head may be cylindrical in shape and include a tool access hole or recessed surface located between the front and rear surfaces. The tool access hole or recessed surface can be shaped and sized to receive a portion of a tool used to restrain rotation of the mounting bolt while concurrently tightening the nut on the threaded section. In such cases, after assembling of the assembly is completed, the bolt head may preferably be oriented with the tool access hole or recessed surface proximate to a corner of the body of the metal target.
The foregoing is a summary and thus may contain simplifications, generalizations, and omissions of detail; consequently, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the summary is illustrative only and is not intended to be in any way limiting. For a better understanding of the embodiments, together with other and further features and advantages thereof, reference is made to the following description, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. The scope of the embodiments will be pointed out in the appended claims.
In brief, the present description teaches a target hanging assembly for use with metal targets such as conventional steel targets in shooting ranges and other environments. The target hanging assembly includes a bolt with a unique head design to limit damage upon impact (e.g., to absorb impacts from bullets) and also control deflections or ricochets. The bolt includes a head with a tapered or conical top surface rather than a conventional flat or cylindrical head of a conventional fastener used to hang steel targets.
The target hanging assembly with its new bolt design provides several very useful and desirable advantages over conventional hanging equipment. When used to support or hang a metal target, the hanging assembly is configured such that projectiles including bullets that impact the components of the hanging assembly will not fly back in the direction from which they came (i.e., will not ricochet) toward the source. This is in large part due to the top surface of the bolt head being conical in shape or being tapered (e.g., at a taper angle of 60 degrees or more). In some embodiments, the top surface of the head extends from a cylindrical body, and a small access hole is provided in the body to allow a tool to be inserted into the head. This allows a user to securely hold the bolt in place from the front face of the target via the bolt head while a nut of the target hanging assembly is tightened from the rear face of the target (e.g., with a wrench) during target mounting (or loosened upon disassembly and replacement with a new target).
The bolt, including the head, are formed of high tensile strength materials, such as 4140 Grade steel, with heat treatments such that it has a hardness in the range of HRC 48 to 60 on the Rockwell hardness scale. The high tensile material properties along with the design of the bolt facilitate the absorption of the multiple high kinetic energy impacts while simultaneously and safely redirecting the force. In some embodiments, the bolt is formed of a steel alloy that has been heat treated using localized selective depth induction hardening.
Another advantage of the design of the target hanging assembly is that there is currently no similar product on the market such that it will fill a long-standing need. Further, when using a standard bolt and associated hardware to hold a steel plate target in place, the components including the bolt head become deformed or destroyed over a very short period of time, sometimes after only one impact by a bullet. In contrast, the conical or tapered head bolt in the new hanger assembly allows for the actual direct impact to the bolt's surface as well as indirect impact, which will help compensate for human error or miscalculation of shot placement (e.g., inaccuracy), for example, during close quarter or long-range target practice. Hence, the new bolt does not malfunction as a conventional bolt does (e.g., becoming seized on the target and the like).
As a result, the new target hanging assembly provides a long-term cost savings for a user such as an operator of a shooting range because it reduces the cost of replacement of the hanging assembly parts when a target requires replacement. Instead of replacing conventional bolts frequently under extreme use, the new design can be reused and/or left in place for a much longer duration due to how it resists extremely harsh treatment including repeated high-energy impacts while still performing its intended purpose of supporting or hanging a replaceable target in desired location in a range.
In contrast to conventional bolts, though, the first or outer surface 114 of the bolt head 110 is cone shaped or conical. Stated differently, the surface 114 is tapered and extends outward from the first side of the body 112 at a taper angle, θ, as measured from a vertical plane extending from the sidewall of the body 112 of the bolt head 110 to form a point 115. The taper angle, θ, may be varied to practice the invention but preferably is in the range of 40 to 80 degrees and more preferably in the range of 45 to 70 degrees with one useful embodiment using a taper angle, θ, of about (within 2 degrees of) 60 degrees.
The bolt 100 further includes shank 120 extending outward from a center of the inner surface 116 of the bolt head 110. The shank 120 of this bolt embodiment includes an inner square section 122, which is sized to be received within a square-shaped hole or opening in a target, which acts as a locating/positioning feature of the target, so that the bolt 100 does not turn during mounting/assembly and disassembly to avoid the need for more than one tool to hang or replace a metal target. The square section 122 typically has a length matching or somewhat smaller than a thickness of a metal target/plate (e.g., may have a width in the range of 0.5 to 1.0 inches with one embodiment using 0.63 inches and may have a length in the range of 0.25 to 1.0 inches with one embodiment being 0.5 inches for use with 0.5-inch thick targets). The section 122 may have three to five sides or more to match the shape of the hole or passageway in the target. The combination of a square section 122 on the bolt and a square (or other matching shaped) hole in the target is useful as it only requires single side application of turning force on the nut side of the assembly as the inner square portion 122 is captured in the receiving hole in the target/plate and limits the turning of the bolt 100 as force is applied to the nut with a wrench or other type of tool used to torque down nuts.
Adjacent the square section 122, the shank 120 further includes a cylindrical section 124 extending outward from the head 110 to a threaded end or section 130. The shank 120 and threaded end/section 130 may have an overall length of about 1.5 inches. The cylindrical section 124 of the shank 120 has a diameter and length (e.g., 0.63-inch OD and about 1.0 inches in length) chosen to match that of a hanging strap and one or more washers or similar mounting components and to allow it to be fed through the hole or opening in the target/plate. The section 124 may be blank as shown. The threaded end or section is sized (e.g., with a desired OD) and threaded to mate with conventional fasteners such as standard sized nuts used to affix the bolt 100 to a metal target/plate. The cone surface 114 may be smooth as shown or may include facets (be a faceted surface). The body 112 of the head 110 may be cylindrical in shape or may have different cross-sectional shapes and may include one or more facets or faces such as to mate with a conventional wrench or similar tool in embodiments that do not include the square section 122 on the shank 120.
A hanging strap 260 is provided that may also be made of metal such as steel, and the strap 260 typically extends from support above in the range at a desired target location (e.g., a desired distance from the shooting station) and has a length useful for fixing the height of the target 250 upon its attachment to the strap 260. The strap has an elongated body and a hole 264 proximate to one end through which the shank 120 of the bolt 100 is passed after being passed through the target 250 to attach the target 250 to the hanging strap 260.
The hanging strap 260 typically has planar front and back surfaces, with the front surface mating with the second or rear side 254 of the target 250 so that the strap 260 is protected from impact by the body of the target 250 during use of the assembly 240 at a range. The assembly 240 further includes one, two, or more washers 270 and a nut 280, all of which may be formed of a metal such as a steel, and the nut 280 is threaded onto the threaded section 130 of the bolt 100 and tightened or torqued to tightly press the washers 270 against the hanging strap 260 (and the strap 260 against the rear side 254 of the target 250 with the body 122 of the bolt head 110 pressed snugly against the front side 252 of the target 250.
In some embodiments, the target may not include a square (or three to five or more sided/faceted) through hole to restrain rotation of an inserted mounting bolt but, instead, may simply include a circular hole sized to allow passage of the bolt shank. In such cases, it may be useful for the mounting bolt to be configured to receive a tool in its head to allow a user to easily restrain its rotation while tightening a nut on its threaded end.
In this regard,
The head 510 of the bolt 500 also differs from the head 110 of bolt 100 in that it includes an access or receiving hole (or recessed surface) 518 in its outer sidewall for receiving a restraining tool (not shown but may take the form similar to a common Allen wrench, a round pin, or the like with sized and shaped to be inserted within the hole 518 and mate with its surfaces). The hole 518 may be circular as shown or have sides (be faceted) as is common for Allen wrenches and similar restraining or driving tools. In the bolt 500 embodiment of
In
In some embodiments, it may be useful to provide a washer or similar component in the target hanging assembly such as to limit possible loosening or rotation of components and possible partial or full disassembly during use at a practice range. To this end,
The bolt 900 differs from bolt 500 in that the rear or second surface/side 916 includes a recessed or counterbored surface 919 for, as shown in
As shown in
As shown in
This disclosure has been presented for purposes of illustration and description but is not intended to be exhaustive or limiting. Many modifications and variations will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art. The example embodiments were chosen and described in order to explain principles and practical application, and to enable others of ordinary skill in the art to understand the disclosure for various embodiments with various modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated. Thus, although illustrative example embodiments have been described herein with reference to the accompanying figures, it is to be understood that this description is not limiting and that various other changes and modifications may be affected therein by one skilled in the art without departing from the scope or spirit of the disclosure.
For example, some embodiments shown and described herein included a tool access hole (or recessed surface) in the bolt head. While this is useful in many applications, there are some settings where this feature may be eliminated. Particularly, in another embodiment, the body of the bolt head does not require a tool access hole to assist in the tightening down of the bolt. The use of friction style washers would impart enough force on the counterbore recess surface on the rear of the bolt and steel plate/steel hanger. This will allow the process of assembly to be performed simply by holding the bolt in place from the front until the washers have started to impart tightening friction forces to the adjacent surfaces using a tool and applying torque from the nut side of the assembly. This “no tool hole” version of the bolt has advantages including allowing for differing hand strengths and less tools needed during assembly. While not shown, this embodiment will readily be understood by those skilled in the art from a review of at least
This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Pat. Appl. No. 63/298,513, filed Jan. 11, 2022, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 63298513 | Jan 2022 | US |
