The application relates to weapons storage, particularly to upper saddles to secure the barrel of a weapon.
Weapon storage systems typically include a lower saddle to accept the butt end of a firearm and an upper saddle to secure the barrel of the weapon.
An upper saddle of a weapon storage rack for securing a barrel of a firearm includes an upper saddle body with a generally U-shaped opening adapted to accept the barrel of the firearm. A pair of snap locks is disposed in or on the upper saddle. The pair of snap locks includes a left snap lock and a right snap lock. The pair of snap locks includes a pair of rollers or a rotating locks spring biased by a spring or a band to at least a spring biased open or a spring biased closed position.
The upper saddle can include a wireform spring.
The upper saddle can include a first configuration where without the barrel disposed in the upper saddle body, or with the barrel snapped in, a distance between a right most extent of the left snap lock and a left most extent of the right snap lock is less than a diameter of the barrel of the firearm to be secured in a weapon rack.
Each roller can be rotatingly coupled to a pin which extends from an end of a spring element which spring element spring biases both of the rollers to the first configuration.
The distance between a right most extent of the left snap lock and a left most extent of the right snap lock is equal to or greater than the barrel of the firearm as the barrel passes into an upper saddle barrel locked state.
Each roller can be rotatingly coupled to a pin which extends from an end of a spring element which spring element spring biases both of the rollers towards a barrel capture position.
The spring element can be secured to a top surface of the upper saddle body.
The spring element can include a wire spring secured to the upper saddle body by at least one cleat.
The spring element can include a wire spring secured to the upper saddle body by a center T cleat and a left and a right L cleat.
The upper saddle body can include a first surface having about the generally U-shaped opening and a second surface having about the generally U-shaped opening and a back surface.
The pair of rollers can be disposed between a first surface and a second surface of the upper saddle.
The spring element can be mechanically coupled to a back surface of the upper saddle.
The pair of rotating locks can be mechanically coupled together by an elastic element.
Without the barrel snapped in, the elastic element spring can bias each of the rotational locks into a rotational position so that a distance between a right most extent of the left snap lock and a left most extent of the right snap lock is equal to or greater than a diameter of the barrel of the firearm to be secured in a weapon rack.
With the barrel snapped in, a distance between a right most extent of the left snap lock and a left most extent of the right snap lock is less than a diameter of the barrel of the firearm to be secured in a weapon rack.
A combination of a cam action and the elastic element can cause the pair of rotating locks to spring bias towards a barrel capture position.
The upper saddle body can include a first surface having about the generally U-shaped opening and a second surface having about the generally U-shaped opening and the pair of rotating locks are mechanically coupled together by the elastic element are disposed between the first surface and the second surface.
The elastic element can include an elastic band.
Each of the pair of rotating locks can include three walls disposed in about a triangular shape or four walls disposed in about a rectangular or parallelogram shape.
Each of the pair of rotating locks can include at least one outer surface feature selected from the group consisting of, ridges, lines, grooves, troughs, dimples, and any combination thereof.
The foregoing and other aspects, features, and advantages of the application will become more apparent from the following description and from the claims.
The features of the application can be better understood with reference to the drawings described below, and the claims. The drawings are not necessarily to scale, emphasis instead generally being placed upon illustrating the principles described herein. In the drawings, like numerals are used to indicate like parts throughout the various views.
Weapon storage systems typically include a lower saddle to accept the butt end of a firearm and an upper saddle to secure the barrel of the firearm. U.S. Pat. No. 9,345,323, REVISED MASS WEAPON STORAGE SYSTEM, also assigned to SecureIt, describes one such system.
It was realized that a capture structure of opposing snap locks solves both problems, speed of access to the weapon, and secure hold of the barrel, including heavier weapons, in the upper saddle when the barrel of the weapon is placed in the upper saddle. Using a snap lock structure (e.g. a pair of rollers or a pair of rotating locks) a snap action is achieved where when the barrel is pressed into an opening of the upper saddle, the barrel snaps and locks securely into place in the upper saddle.
In one embodiment suitable for all types of weapons, and particularly suitable for relatively large barrels, two opposing rollers mechanically mounted on or in the upper saddle, are spring biased towards each other by a pair of spring arms. Both rollers are disposed about in a plane which is about perpendicular to the longitudinal direction of a barrel inserted into the upper saddle. When loading a weapon into the weapon storage system, typically the butt end is inserted into a lower saddle or the floor of the storage compartment, and then the barrel is pressed through the opening between the opposing rollers, causing the rollers to move apart just enough to allow the barrel to pass through into an about U-shaped opening in the upper saddle. Once past the shortest distance between the pushed open pair of rollers, the spring biased arms push the rollers back towards each other, thus capturing the barrel of the weapon in a locked secured position in the upper saddle. The barrel is locked by the spring bias forcing the rollers together where the distance between the inside edges of the rollers is now less than the diameter of the barrel of the weapon.
Example—60 mm barrel:
In
Three legs, 203b1, 203b2, and 203b3 (
Example—81 mm barrel:
In the case of the larger 81 mm barrel (e.g. for a M-2 0.50 caliber machine-gun type weapon), the wire spring assembly bends open at least about 6.7 degrees, the change in angle of the spring arms 203a, 203b with respect to a line about perpendicular the back surface, or about another ½ inch on both sides for the weapon to be passed through the pair of rollers and locked in place. For the exemplary roller type locking upper saddle
Example—Large barrel weapon assembly: In the case of some larger barrel weapons (e.g. Mk-19 40 mm grenade launcher machine gun), it was realized that the weapon is best stored at an angle from the butt end the barrel end. For example, the Mk-19 40 mm grenade launcher can be secured in a weapon rack with a vertical barrel angle of at least about 7 degrees with respect to an about vertical wall of a weapon storage rack.
Smaller barrel weapons (e.g. AR-15):
For the exemplary roller type locking upper saddle
Rotating locks with elastic band—Another embodiment of a snap lock device for an upper saddle was realized using rotating locks with an elastic band that couples each of the pair of rotating locks to each other.
Similar to upper saddles with snap lock mechanisms based on spring steel and rollers described herein above, there is a first upper saddle surface 605 and a second upper saddle surface 607. Each of the first upper saddle surface 605 and a second upper saddle surface 607 have an about U-shaped opening to accept the barrel of a firearm. The radius of curvature of curved band 603 varies as the rotating locks 601 rotate between the “barrel receiving” state to the “barrel locked state”. The about U-shaped elastic band 603 and the rotating locks are disposed between the first surface 605 and the second surface 607.
In the exemplary upper saddle with rotating locks 600 of
There can optionally be ridges, lines 633 (
In the exemplary upper saddle with rotating locks 600 of
Similar to upper saddles with snap lock mechanisms based on spring steel and rollers described herein above, there is a first upper saddle surface 705 and a second upper saddle surface 707. Each of the first upper saddle surface 705 and a second upper saddle surface 707 have an about U-shaped opening to accept the barrel of a firearm. The radius of curvature of curved band 703 varies as the rotating locks 701 rotate between the “barrel receiving” state to the “barrel locked state”. The curved band 703 and the rotating locks are disposed between the first surface 705 and the second surface 707.
In the exemplary upper saddle with rotating locks 700 of
There can optionally be ridges, lines, grooves, troughs, dimples 733, or any suitable combination thereof, to increase friction or traction as the barrel is pushed in between the pair of rotating locks 701 to help grab both of the 701a surfaces about the outer surface of a barrel as the barrel is pushed into the upper saddle with rotating locks 700.
In the exemplary upper saddle with rotating locks 700 of
It is only important that a roller or rotating lock be spring biased into at least one of an open or empty position without a barrel, or a secured position where the barrel is locked into the upper saddle. Typically, for example, a roller type upper saddle is spring biased into the barrel locked position by a wire spring (i.e. spring biased to move the rollers closer to each other in about a plane perpendicular to the rotational axis of each of the rollers).
However, particularly in a rotating lock and band upper saddle, a combination of a cam action of the rotating locks and the band elastic element can cause the pair of rotating locks to spring bias towards both of the open and the barrel capture positions. The cam action is defined as any rotating roller or more typically a rotating lock where the hole is off center from a center of diameter or center or perimeter (e.g. center of area of the rotating part about in a plane perpendicular to the axis of rotation) of the roller or rotating lock.
The cam action can cause a spring biased upper saddle to be spring biased in both of the weapon out and weapon secured positions. For example, a band and rotating lock upper saddle can be relatively lightly spring biased to an open position to accept a barrel by the band. That is, the open surfaces of the rotating locks are in a position to accept the barrel of a weapon, without need to first manual adjust them into a barrel accepting rotational position. Then, because of the cam action of the rotating locks, once the barrel is snap locked into the upper saddle, now the same band also spring biases the rotating locks into the locked position securely holding the barrel into the upper saddle.
Any suitable weapon storage system and method can be used to mount the new snap lock upper saddles of the Application to a wall of a weapon storage system. The weapon storage system hook type mounts which accept the new snap lock upper saddle of the Application merely describe examples of how an upper saddle can be mounted to a back wall of a weapon storage system (e.g. a weapon cabinet). Typically, such walls are about vertical, however the snap lock upper saddles of the Application can also be mounted at any suitable angle with respect to a ground or floor surface, including a horizontal storage system where the “wall” is a flat surface about parallel to the ground or floor.
It will be appreciated that variants of the above-disclosed and other features and functions, or alternatives thereof, may be combined into many other different systems or applications. Various presently unforeseen or unanticipated alternatives, modifications, variations, or improvements therein may be subsequently made by those skilled in the art which are also intended to be encompassed by the following claims.
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