Patent Application
20220136789
The present disclosure is generally related to firearms and, more particularly, to a firearm magazine with sectional see-through transparency.
Unless otherwise indicated herein, approaches described in this section are not prior art to the claims listed below and are not admitted as prior art by inclusion in this section.
In the context of firearms, a detachable magazine is an ammunition storage and feeding mechanism or device that can be attached to a firearm. In operation, when the magazine is loaded with ammunition cartridges and attached to the firearm, an internal spring of the magazine exerts a force on a spring follower, which in turn pushes one or more rounds of the ammunition cartridges in the magazine well toward an action chamber of the firearm, thereby assisting in loading the rounds into the action chamber of the firearm.
Traditionally, magazines are made of metal. In order to allow a user to know how many rounds of cartridges are remaining in a magazine, if any, some conventional magazines have holes at certain locations on the magazine metal shell so that the user can see the cartridge(s) in the magazine and know how many rounds are in the magazine. Some modern magazines are made of transparent polymer so that a user can see through the magazine well and know how many rounds are in the magazine. However, one drawback of this design is that an adversary or enemy could also see through the magazine and know whether the shooter has any rounds left.
The following summary is illustrative only and is not intended to be limiting in any way. That is, the following summary is provided to introduce concepts, highlights, benefits and advantages of the novel and non-obvious techniques described herein. Select implementations are further described below in the detailed description. Thus, the following summary is not intended to identify essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended for use in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter.
An objective of the present disclosure is to provide a magazine that addresses aforementioned issues with conventional firearm magazines. Under various proposed schemes, a magazine in accordance with the present disclosure may provide see-through transparency at certain section(s) of the magazine, but not the entire magazine, and may not require a high cost of manufacturing associated with some of the modern magazines.
In one aspect, a device implementable on a firearm (e.g., a pistol, rifle, carbine or shotgun) may include a magazine which may include a one-piece magazine well. The one-piece magazine well may be configured to contain a plurality of rounds of ammunition cartridges therein. Moreover, a first portion of the one-piece magazine well may be transparent while a remaining, second portion of the one-piece magazine well may be opaque.
In another aspect, a device implementable on a firearm (e.g., a pistol, rifle, carbine or shotgun) may include a magazine which may include a one-piece magazine well. The one-piece magazine well may be configured to contain a plurality of rounds of ammunition cartridges therein. Moreover, a first portion of the one-piece magazine well may be transparent while a remaining, or second, portion of the one-piece magazine well may be opaque. In some implementations, the one-piece magazine well may be made of a transparent polymer material. Additionally, a surface of the second portion of the one-piece magazine well may be textured and a surface of the first portion of the one-piece magazine well may be not textured.
It is noteworthy that, although description provided herein may be in the context of certain configurations such as a magazine used in pistols, the proposed concepts, schemes and any variation(s)/derivative(s) thereof may be implemented in, for and by other configurations and designs, such as magazines used in rifles, carbines and shotguns. Thus, the scope of the present disclosure is not limited to the examples described herein.
The accompanying drawings are included to provide a further understanding of the disclosure and are incorporated in and constitute a part of the present disclosure. The drawings illustrate implementations of the disclosure and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the disclosure. It is appreciable that the drawings are not necessarily in scale as some components may be shown to be out of proportion than the size in actual implementation in order to clearly illustrate the concept of the present disclosure.
Detailed embodiments and implementations of the claimed subject matters are disclosed herein. However, it shall be understood that the disclosed embodiments and implementations are merely illustrative of the claimed subject matters which may be embodied in various forms. The present disclosure may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the exemplary embodiments and implementations set forth herein. Rather, these exemplary embodiments and implementations are provided so that description of the present disclosure is thorough and complete and will fully convey the scope of the present disclosure to those skilled in the art. In the description below, details of well-known features and techniques may be omitted to avoid unnecessarily obscuring the presented embodiments and implementations.
The position terms used in the present disclosure, such as “front”, “forward”, “rear”, “back”, “top”, “bottom”, “left”, “right”, “head”, “tail” or the like assume a firearm in the normal firing position, with the firearm being in a position in which the longitudinal axis of the barrel of the firearm runs generally horizontally and the direction of firing points “forward” away from the operator or user of the firearm. The same convention applies for the direction statements used herein.
As used herein, the terms “proximal” and “proximally” may denote “forward” and “forwardly” with respect to the firearm, and the terms “distal” and “distally” may denote “rearward” and “rearwardly” with respect to the firearm. As used herein, the verb “to comprise” in this description, claims, and other conjugations are used in its non-limiting sense to mean those items following the word are included, but items not specifically mentioned are not excluded. As used herein, the word “forward” means moving in the direction that the projectile moves during firing a firearm. As used herein, the word “proximal” means closer to the reference point, in this case, the shooter. As used herein, the word “distal” means farther to the reference point, in this case, the shooter. Reference to an element by the indefinite article “a” or “an” does not exclude the possibility that more than one of the elements are present, unless the context clearly requires that there is one and only one of the elements. The indefinite article “a” or “an” thus usually means “at least one.” Additionally, the words “a” and “an” when used in the present document in concert with the words “comprising” or “containing” denote “one or more.
All numeric values are herein assumed to be modified by the term “about,” whether or not explicitly indicated. The term “about” generally refers to a range of numbers that one of skill in the art would consider equivalent to the recited value (i.e., having the same function or result). In many instances, the terms “about” may include numbers that are rounded to the nearest significant figure. The recitation of numerical ranges by endpoints includes all numbers within that range (e.g. 1 to 5 includes 1, 1.5, 2, 2.75, 3, 3.80, 4, and 5). All dimensions given herein are by way of examples to better illustrate the present disclosure embodiments and shall not be construed to limit the dimensions of the present disclosure embodiments to the given numeric values.
To address aforementioned issues associated with existing designs of firearm magazines, under various proposed schemes in accordance with the present disclosure, a magazine may have a magazine well that is opaque, or non-transparent, for the most part while a certain section of the magazine well may be clear, transparent, or otherwise translucent. Advantageously, the section that is transparent allows a user or shooter to see through the magazine well to determine the amount of, or whether any, ammunition cartridge are contained or otherwise held in the magazine, while other parties (e.g., people other than the user) have no such see-through visibility since most part of the magazine well is opaque.
Moreover, under various proposed schemes in accordance with the present disclosure, the magazine well may be monolithic, not requiring the assembly of multiple pieces or components to form a magazine well with a section of see-through transparency. That is, the magazine well may be a one-piece magazine well with one portion being transparent, or otherwise translucent, and remaining portion being opaque or non-transparent. For instance, the one-piece magazine well may be fabricated by injection molding using an injection mode. One part of the injection mold corresponding to the transparent portion of the magazine well may have a smooth surface, and remaining part of the injection mode corresponding to the opaque portion of the magazine well may have a textured or rough surface (e.g., by applying a sandblast process or a chemical corrosion process applied thereon). Advantageously, a magazine well in accordance with the present disclosure may be fabricated rather inexpensively (by injection molding) without requiring additional components.
In contrast, some modern polymer magazines with a see-through window may require additional components (e.g., using a non-transparent material for the magazine well and using a transparent material for the see-through window) and/or additional manufacturing steps (e.g., cutting a hole on the magazine well for the see-through window). For instance, during manufacturing of some modern magazines, a transparent piece is inserted into a slot or cutout on a solid wall of a magazine well. This manufacturing method tends to be expensive and time consuming, especially since labor is needed to assemble multiple components.
Referring to
Under a proposed scheme in accordance with the present disclosure, the one-piece magazine well may be made of a transparent polymer material. The transparent polymer material may be clear (without color) or tinted (with a color). For instance, a dark transparent polymer (e.g., which is dark grey or dark brown in color) may be used in injection molding to produce magazine well 110. Additionally, a surface (e.g., an exterior surface) of the second portion 114 of the one-piece magazine well 110 may be textured to result in the second portion 114 of the one-piece magazine well 110 being non-transparent (e.g., due to a rough, non-smooth or otherwise textured surface). Moreover, a surface (e.g., both an interior surface and an exterior surface) of the first portion 112 of the one-piece magazine well 110 may be not textured to result in the first portion 112 of the one-piece magazine well 110 being transparent (e.g., due to a clear, smooth or otherwise non-textured surface).
Under a proposed scheme in accordance with the present disclosure, the first portion 112 of the one-piece magazine well 110 may be on an edge between two adjoining sides of a plurality of sides (e.g., four sides) of the one-piece magazine well 110. Under another proposed scheme in accordance with the present disclosure, the one-piece magazine well 110 may be configured with one or more through holes 116 on or along the edge.
In the example shown in
Magazine 100 may also include a base plate 120, an elastic element (not shown), and a magazine follower (not shown). The one-piece magazine well 110 may have a first distal end (e.g., bottom end shown in
Under a proposed scheme in accordance with the present disclosure, a transparent portion of the one-piece magazine well may be on one of a plurality of sides (e.g., four sides) of the one-piece magazine well. Under the proposed scheme, the transparent portion of the one-piece magazine well may be on a back side or a front side of the plurality of sides which faces a back end or a front end of the firearm, respectively, when the magazine is attached to the firearm. In the example shown in part (A) of
Under a proposed scheme in accordance with the present disclosure, a transparent portion of the one-piece magazine well may be on a left side or a right side of the plurality of sides which faces a left side or a right side of the firearm, respectively, when the magazine is attached to the firearm. Under the proposed scheme, the transparent portion may extend a partial length of the one of the plurality of sides of the one-piece magazine well. Alternatively, the transparent portion may extend a full length of the one of the plurality of sides of the one-piece magazine well. In the example shown in part (B) of
Under a proposed scheme in accordance with the present disclosure, the one-piece magazine well may be configured with one or more through holes on or along an edge between two adjoining sides of a plurality of sides of the one-piece magazine well. In the example shown in part (D) of
Under a proposed scheme in accordance with the present disclosure, a transparent portion of the one-piece magazine well may be on an edge between two adjoining sides of a plurality of sides of the one-piece magazine well. Under the proposed scheme, the one-piece magazine well may additionally be configured with one or more through holes on or along the edge. In the example shown in part (C) of
It is noteworthy that examples shown in
In view of the above description and
In one aspect, a device implementable on a firearm (e.g., a pistol, rifle, carbine or shotgun) may include a magazine which may include a one-piece magazine well. The one-piece magazine well may be configured to contain a plurality of rounds of ammunition cartridges therein. Moreover, a first portion of the one-piece magazine well may be transparent while a remaining, second portion of the one-piece magazine well may be opaque.
In some implementations, the one-piece magazine well may be made of a transparent polymer material.
In some implementations, a surface of the second portion of the one-piece magazine well may be textured to result in the second portion of the one-piece magazine well to be non-transparent. Moreover, a surface of the first portion of the one-piece magazine well may be not textured to result in the first portion of the one-piece magazine well to be transparent.
In some implementations, the first portion of the one-piece magazine well may be on one of a plurality of sides of the one-piece magazine well.
In some implementations, the first portion of the one-piece magazine well may be on a back side or a front side of the plurality of sides which faces a back end or a front end of the firearm, respectively, when the magazine is attached to the firearm.
In some implementations, the first portion of the one-piece magazine well may be on a left side or a right side of the plurality of sides which faces a left side or a right side of the firearm, respectively, when the magazine is attached to the firearm.
In some implementations, the first portion may extend a partial length of the one of the plurality of sides of the one-piece magazine well. Alternatively, the first portion may extend a full length of the one of the plurality of sides of the one-piece magazine well.
In some implementations, the one-piece magazine well may be configured with one or more through holes on or along an edge between two adjoining sides of a plurality of sides of the one-piece magazine well.
In some implementations, the first portion of the one-piece magazine well may be on an edge between two adjoining sides of a plurality of sides of the one-piece magazine well. In some implementations, the one-piece magazine well may be configured with one or more through holes on or along the edge.
In some implementations, the magazine may further include a base plate, an elastic element, and a magazine follower. The one-piece magazine well may have a first distal end and a second distal end opposite the first distal end. Accordingly, the base plate may be coupled to the first distal end. The elastic element may be coupled between the base plate and the magazine follower. Moreover, when one or more of the plurality of rounds of ammunition cartridges is loaded into the magazine, the magazine follower may be pushed toward the base plate with the elastic element compressed between the base plate and the magazine follower.
In another aspect, a device implementable on a firearm (e.g., a pistol, rifle, carbine or shotgun) may include a magazine which may include a one-piece magazine well. The one-piece magazine well may be configured to contain a plurality of rounds of ammunition cartridges therein. Moreover, a first portion of the one-piece magazine well may be transparent while a remaining, second portion of the one-piece magazine well may be opaque. In some implementations, the one-piece magazine well may be made of a transparent polymer material. Additionally, a surface of the second portion of the one-piece magazine well may be textured and a surface of the first portion of the one-piece magazine well may be not textured.
In some implementations, the first portion of the one-piece magazine well may be on a back side or a front side of a plurality of sides of the one-piece magazine well which faces a back end or a front end of the firearm, respectively, when the magazine is attached to the firearm.
In some implementations, the first portion of the one-piece magazine well may be on a left side or a right side of a plurality of sides of the one-piece magazine well which faces a left side or a right side of the firearm, respectively, when the magazine is attached to the firearm.
In some implementations, the first portion may extend a partial length of the one of a plurality of sides of the one-piece magazine well. Alternatively, the first portion may extend a full length of the one of a plurality of sides of the one-piece magazine well.
In some implementations, the one-piece magazine well may be configured with one or more through holes on or along an edge between two adjoining sides of a plurality of sides of the one-piece magazine well.
In some implementations, the first portion of the one-piece magazine well may be on an edge between two adjoining sides of a plurality of sides of the one-piece magazine well. In some implementations, the one-piece magazine well may be configured with one or more through holes on or along the edge.
The herein-described subject matter sometimes illustrates different components contained within, or connected with, different other components. It is to be understood that such depicted architectures are merely examples, and that in fact many other architectures can be implemented which achieve the same functionality. In a conceptual sense, any arrangement of components to achieve the same functionality is effectively “associated” such that the desired functionality is achieved. Hence, any two components herein combined to achieve a particular functionality can be seen as “associated with” each other such that the desired functionality is achieved, irrespective of architectures or intermedial components. Likewise, any two components so associated can also be viewed as being “operably connected”, or “operably coupled”, to each other to achieve the desired functionality, and any two components capable of being so associated can also be viewed as being “operably couplable”, to each other to achieve the desired functionality. Specific examples of operably couplable include but are not limited to physically mateable and/or physically interacting components and/or wirelessly interactable and/or wirelessly interacting components and/or logically interacting and/or logically interactable components.
Further, with respect to the use of substantially any plural and/or singular terms herein, those having skill in the art can translate from the plural to the singular and/or from the singular to the plural as is appropriate to the context and/or application. The various singular/plural permutations may be expressly set forth herein for sake of clarity.
Moreover, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that, in general, terms used herein, and especially in the appended claims, e.g., bodies of the appended claims, are generally intended as “open” terms, e.g., the term “including” should be interpreted as “including but not limited to,” the term “having” should be interpreted as “having at least,” the term “includes” should be interpreted as “includes but is not limited to,” etc. It will be further understood by those within the art that if a specific number of an introduced claim recitation is intended, such an intent will be explicitly recited in the claim, and in the absence of such recitation no such intent is present. For example, as an aid to understanding, the following appended claims may contain usage of the introductory phrases “at least one” and “one or more” to introduce claim recitations. However, the use of such phrases should not be construed to imply that the introduction of a claim recitation by the indefinite articles “a” or “an” limits any particular claim containing such introduced claim recitation to implementations containing only one such recitation, even when the same claim includes the introductory phrases “one or more” or “at least one” and indefinite articles such as “a” or “an,” e.g., “a” and/or “an” should be interpreted to mean “at least one” or “one or more;” the same holds true for the use of definite articles used to introduce claim recitations. In addition, even if a specific number of an introduced claim recitation is explicitly recited, those skilled in the art will recognize that such recitation should be interpreted to mean at least the recited number, e.g., the bare recitation of “two recitations,” without other modifiers, means at least two recitations, or two or more recitations. Furthermore, in those instances where a convention analogous to “at least one of A, B, and C, etc.” is used, in general such a construction is intended in the sense one having skill in the art would understand the convention, e.g., “a system having at least one of A, B, and C” would include but not be limited to systems that have A alone, B alone, C alone, A and B together, A and C together, B and C together, and/or A, B, and C together, etc. In those instances where a convention analogous to “at least one of A, B, or C, etc.” is used, in general such a construction is intended in the sense one having skill in the art would understand the convention, e.g., “a system having at least one of A, B, or C” would include but not be limited to systems that have A alone, B alone, C alone, A and B together, A and C together, B and C together, and/or A, B, and C together, etc. It will be further understood by those within the art that virtually any disjunctive word and/or phrase presenting two or more alternative terms, whether in the description, claims, or drawings, should be understood to contemplate the possibilities of including one of the terms, either of the terms, or both terms. For example, the phrase “A or B” will be understood to include the possibilities of “A” or “B” or “A and B.”
From the foregoing, it will be appreciated that various implementations of the present disclosure have been described herein for purposes of illustration, and that various modifications may be made without departing from the scope and spirit of the present disclosure. Accordingly, the various implementations disclosed herein are not intended to be limiting, with the true scope and spirit being indicated by the following claims.
