This is a national stage application under 35 U.S.C. §371 of International Application PCT/CZ2010/000100 filed 9 Sep. 2010, which claims the benefit of Czech Republic application serial no. PV 2009-606 filed 15 Sep. 2009, the entire disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference.
The invention deals with a firearm, e.g. a grenade launcher, with a tilting barrel.
Firearms are known that have a barrel that can be tilted to a side, especially grenade launchers.
A disadvantage of most of these weapons is that the barrel can only be tilted to one side.
Weapons that offer the possibility of changing the barrel tilting direction require tools and at least disassembly of some parts of the weapon for the execution of such a change. This is e.g. the case of weapons sold under the AG-C/EGLM name made by Heckler-Koch, EAGLE by Colt Canada, etc.
In the case of the AG-C/EGLM weapon made by the Heckler-Koch company, the design of which is described in the patent no. DE 10 2005 019 594 A1, the change of the tilting side requires disassembly of the whole barrel. For this, certain time and tools or special instruments are necessary. Our invention eliminates this need as it allows one to change the tilting side without using any tools or special instruments. The EAGLE grenade launcher made by Colt Canada, described in the patent no. CA 2 521 935 A1, exhibits a similar problem.
The disadvantage of the necessity to use special tools is eliminated e.g. by the MK-13 grenade launcher in the SCAR project of the FNH USA company, but this firearm is opened by being extended forward in the shooting direction, which means that the barrel is removed from the gunner and that the loading is less comfortable as compared to tilting systems.
The goal of the invention is to eliminate the above mentioned disadvantages of firearms with a tilting barrel in the prior art while a weapon based on the invention will make it possible to change the tilting direction of the barrel easily without the necessity to use tools or special instrument or to disassemble a part of the barrel.
The above mentioned goals of the invention are achieved with a firearm with a tilting barrel in accordance with the invention containing a breech block for securing the barrel with the possibility of changing the barrel tilting direction, the principle of which is that the breech block contains on a part of its perimeter a locking surface for locking the barrel against its tilting in the direction opposite the locking surface, the locking surface being rotable around the longitudinal axis of the breech block for the purpose of setting the change of the tilting direction.
Such a firearm advantageously contains a forend that is firmly connected to the pawl and is removable in the shooting direction from the rear position, in which the pawl fits into a recess in the breech block and the firearm is thus in the locked condition, to the front position, in which the pawl is disengaged from the recess and the firearm is in the unlocked condition, and back against the shooting direction. The pawl in the position in which it fits into the recess may advantageously secure the locking surface in its angular position against its rotation around the longitudinal axis of the breech block at the same time.
The breech block advantageously contains a securing means used to secure the locking surface in its angular position against its rotation around the longitudinal axis of the breech block and if the weapon is to be readjusted to the other barrel tilting direction, to release the locking surface to enable its angular rotation to the required position and subsequent locking in this position. The pawl for locking the angular position of the locking surface may advantageously act as the above mentioned securing means.
The invention will be explained in a more detailed way with the use of its example embodiment in connection with drawings where:
The tilting direction of the barrel 1 is determined by the position of the breech block 5—if the locking surface 11 of the breech block 5 is on the rights, the barrel 1 is tilted to the left (see
The positions of the locking surface 11 of the breech block 5 can be changed simply and quickly directly by the user of the firearm, without the necessity to use any tools or special instruments. The position of the locking surface 11 of the breech block 5 is changed in the unlocked, but still closed condition of the firearm, i.e. in the condition when the fore-end 3, which is firmly connected to the pawl 4, has been moved forwards in the shooting direction. In this condition of the firearm the pawl 6 of the breech block 5 is removed backwards with regard to the shooting direction, ceasing to fix the position of the breech block 5. It can now turn on the nut 7 of the breech block 5, which is fixed with regard to the breech block 5.
Industrial Applicability
Reversing the opening direction of the barrel of a firearm can especially be used in grenade launchers and other weapons with barrels that open to a side and the opening direction needs to be changed.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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2009-606 | Sep 2009 | CZ | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
---|---|---|---|---|
PCT/CZ2010/000100 | 9/9/2010 | WO | 00 | 2/29/2012 |
Publishing Document | Publishing Date | Country | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
WO2011/032524 | 3/24/2011 | WO | A |
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Number | Date | Country | |
---|---|---|---|
20120159829 A1 | Jun 2012 | US |