1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a telescopic sighting device or scope for rifles and the like wherein elevation or yardage and windage adjustments to one or more reticles is facilitated to be more natural to a shooter and wherein at least one reticle is mounted within an adjustable frame, plate or tube mounted within the scope that includes elongated teeth extending both horizontally and vertically and which are engaged by elongated teeth associated with adjustment screws manipulated by yardage and windage knobs mounted to the scope.
2. Brief Description of the Related Art
Many conventional rifle scopes include both elevation or yardage and windage adjustment mechanisms that mount a elevation adjustment knob on a top of a scope and a windage adjustment knob on a side of the scope. In this manner, in order to reset one or more reticle lenses for distance, a shooter must turn the yardage knob either to the left or right. Further, to adjust for windage, the windage knob must be rotated either up or down. Such motions are contrary to the movement desired to the reticle being adjusted.
This invention is directed to a more ergonomic scope for rifles which includes at least one reticle that is adjustably mounted within a rifle scope intermediate an eyepiece and on outer objective lens. In one embodiment, the reticle is mounted within a housing that is movable vertically within a body of the scope to adjust an elevation sighting of the scope using a knob that is manually engaged from a side of the body and rotated vertically about a horizontal axis to raise and lower the housing and thus the reticle. In addition, the housing is adjustable horizontally from side-to-side within the body using a windage adjustment knob that is mounted to rotate horizontally about a vertical axis through the body.
The elevation adjustment knob and the windaged adjustment knob are positioned for optimum physical engagement by a left hand of a right handed shooter and by the right hand of a left handed shooter. That is, the knobs extend toward a shooters hand that is used to support a stock of a rifle. As the elevation knob is mounted to the side of the scope which faces the hand which normally steadies the stock of the rifle, the knob is situated to be very easily maneuvered by the fingers and thumb of the left hand, for a right handed shooter, or the right hand of a left handed shooter. Also, with the elevation knob being rotatable in a vertical plane about a horizontal axis, the relative up and down rotational movement of the knob corresponds directly to movement of the reticle in a vertical plane to raise and lower the reticle. Further, as windage adjustments require side-to-side motion of the reticle, having the windage adjustment knob positioned to rotate in a rotary motion in a horizontal plane makes physical movement of the knob more directly associated with the side-to-side horizontal motion required of the reticle.
In another embodiment of the invention, the at least one reticle is mounted within a lens support tube which extends from the eyepiece. In this embodiment, the tube extends through a housing or plate that is movable in the same manner as the previous embodiment using similarly positioned and oriented elevation and windage adjustment knobs. In both the forgoing embodiments, the knobs are each connected to adjustment screws having grooves and ridges formed therein which mesh with grooves formed both vertically and horizontally in walls of either the housing or the plate.
The reticles and the elevation and windage adjustment assemblies of the foregoing embodiments may be used in combination with more conventional elevation and windage adjustment assemblies that can be used to originally zero the rifle scope for a predetermined distance, such as between 100 to 300 yards, thereafter the reticles and adjustments therefore of the present invention may be used to adjust for actual use distances and wind speeds and direction. In addition, the scopes of the present invention may also incorporate other objective and long distance lenses that may or may not be adjustable relative to one another within the rifle scopes.
It is a primary objective of the present invention to make the elevation and windage adjustments to a reticle within a rifle scope more ergonomic than in conventional rifle scopes. The adjustment knobs for both windage and elevation are both properly positioned to be operable using the left or right hand closest to the gun stock such that the stock and the adjustment knobs may be engaged at the same time thus permitting more accurate and quick re-sighting of the scope for impact adjustments.
A better understanding of the invention will be had with reference to the accompanying drawings wherein:
With continued reference to the drawings,
Mounted generally centrally of the scope is a first reticle 20 which may include one or more sighting scales as are conventionally used in rifle scopes. The first reticle is adjustably mounted within the scope housing by way of conventional configured elevation and windage adjustment assemblies. Only the elevation adjustment assembly is shown in
In addition to the vertical adjustment to the first reticle, a windage adjustment from side-to-side of the first reticle can be done using a windage knob 28 which is connected to a windage screw shaft which is mounted through a threaded seat provide through the opposite side of the scope housing. Only the windage knob 28 is shown in
In accordance with the invention, a second reticle 30 is mounted to the rear of the first reticle and may also have one or more sights and/or scales or gauges thereon. A plate or housing 32 of the second reticle is movably mounted within a guide track 34 which is fixedly mounted within the central portion of the scope body or housing. The guide track includes spaced walls 35 and 36 between which the second reticle slides when being adjusted.
With reference to
With reference to
One of the primary benefits of the present invention is that the windage adjustment knob and the elevation adjustment knob are positioned for optimum physical engagement by a left hand of a right handed shooter and by the right hand of a left handed shooter. That is, the knobs extend toward a shooters hand that is used to support the stock of the rifle. Further, as windage adjustments require side-to-side motion of the second reticle, having the windage adjust knob 44 operably to rotate in a rotary motion in a horizontal plane makes the physical movement of the knob more directly associated with the side-to-side horizontal motion required of the second reticle. Likewise, as the elevation knob 48 is mounted to the side of the scope which faces the hand which normally steadies the stock of a rifle, the knob 48 is situated to be very easily maneuvered by the fingers and thumb of the left hand, for a right handed shooter, or the right hand of a left handed shooter. Also, with the elevation knob being rotatable in a vertical plane about a horizontal axis, the relative up and down rotational movement of the knob corresponds directly to movement of the second reticle in a vertical plane to raise and lower the second reticle. Thus, depending upon whether a shooter is left or right handed, the knobs extending from either side of the scope are for adjusting elevation while knobs extending vertically from the top or bottom of the scope are for adjusting windage.
In view of the foregoing the sight adjustment devices for windage and elevation adjustment are far more ergonomic than prior art gun sights or scopes. The adjustment knobs for both windage and elevation are both properly positioned to be operable using the left or right hand closest to the gun stock such that the stock and the adjustment knobs may be engaged at the same time thus permitting more accurate and quick re-sighting of the scope for impact adjustments.
With specific reference to
With reference to
It should be noted that the scope could also be exactly like the embodiment of
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