Patent Grant
8820212
This application claims the benefit of PPA Ser. No. 61/062,506 filed Jan. 28, 2008 by the present inventor, which is incorporated by reference.
Not Applicable
Not Applicable
Present embodiment generally relates to firearms used in the urban combat environment and more particularly relates to but is not limited to the weapons used by individuals or on vehicles to fight close-in engagements as found in the urban or jungle environment, and more particular covers a automatic gun with a improved flechette shotshell and a multiple shot grenade launcher used on a urban combat system embodied in PPA Ser. No. 61/062,506.
The gun is the infantryman's basic weapon. Regardless of the complexity of the battlefield and the advent of the electronic battlefield, it is still the grunt that has to go forward and occupy ground. This begs the question of what attributes should therefore characterize the infantryman's basic weapon.
The subject of the ideal combat gun has been debated for as long as infantrymen have been armed with guns, and this discussion will continue for the foreseeable future. However there are several characteristics that are highly desirable in any infantry gun and they are listed below in no particular order of importance.
To understand the need for a new gun system, first one must understand the new face technology has forced onto modern combat. No other piece of major military equipment is as antiquated as the guns that equip today's soldiers. No one would think of going into combat with vehicles that were designed 50-years-ago, fly in 50-year-old airplane designs, or communicate using radios designed 50-years-ago. But this is in fact the case for the guns used by the infantry of today. Some of the gun designs that are in use today are over 50 years old and a few of them are actually over 90 years old. In the true sense we are forcing the solider today to fight and protect a soldiers life in the high tech electronic battlefield environment of today with guns a soldiers great grandfathers used.
An engineering solution to the combat needs of today's infantry is needed now more than ever before. But to understand the technical embodiments needed in a new gun system one must first understand three fundamental things:
Today & Yesterday.
For the individual solider some things have not changed since Roman times. In Rome as today, NOTHING can replace well-trained and dedicated soldiers led by capable officers. Rome was the high tech country of its day and provided its soldiers with the best equipment available. History has shown that many Roman victories were as much attributed to the equipment their soldiers used as their soldiers who used it. Rome beat the Greek war machine using new tactics that relied on new weapons designed specifically for those new tactics. Modern technology has forced new tactics onto the battlefield, and new individual weapons are needed to not only survive within this environment but to also exploit the benefits to be found in this new environment.
Today small unit tactics are being used on a large scale by all of the world militaries. This is because the individual soldier wants to survive. No longer is it safe or even smart to mass troops or vehicles on a battlefield. Simply put, in modern warfare large area targets get killed.
Today target rich concentrations such as massed troops and vehicles get hit with smart bombs, guided missiles, guided cluster munitions, and homing artillery. All of these weapons are new since WWII and they all are made possible because of today's electronic technology.
Another change in modern combat is the accuracy of delivery for today's guided munitions. Not only can these new munitions hit point targets most of the time, the more accurate munitions allow use on targets much closer to friendly troops. Today helicopter gunships and close air support can be called in and provide direct fire support as close as 100 meters from friendly troops.
There is no longer a need to reach out with individual weapons. Going into the 21st century it is commonly accepted by modern armies that most combat will be fought at under 250 meters. This is because when the target is beyond 250 meters it is more effective and safer to call in precision munitions to kill the target.
However the opposing forces also know this, thus the universal reason for troop dispersal and close-in tactics. Today the battlefield bible reads, disperse and get in close; disperse enough so as not to present a suitable mass target and close in to prevent the use of electronically guided weapons.
Another trend that has resulted from the use of the new high technology weapons is the increased use of urban areas as the combat environment of choice. Not only are there more urban areas available to fight in, it is also much safer and more advantageous for the defending troops to find defensive positions in an urban environment than an open field environment. This is because an urban build-up provides good individual cover and requires that the attacking troops get in close to attack the defending troops.
As shown in the later part of the 20th century in global hot spots, the defending troops quickly moved into urban areas to get away from the new family of guided munitions; only to then be forced to use individual weapons that were not designed for the urban environment.
Once combat is urban grounded the technical requirements of the weapons change. There is no longer a need for a Light machine gun (LMG) with a 1000-meter range when firing across the street or an assault rifle with a 500-meter range when firing from one room up a stairwell. Urban combat requires weapons designed to fight in that environment—not the open desert and open fields.
Design goals for an optimized gun for urban combat: To summarize the historical review presented:
Armies of the 21st century do not need guns designed to fight WWI style mass infantry attacks, or WWII massed armor attacks. The new family of electronically guided munitions would eliminate these target rich opportunities with precision and expediency. That is after all what they are designed to do.
In today's battlefield there is no longer a need for the individual weapons firing 7.62 NATO caliber ammunition; weapons that range from machine guns to semiautomatic rifles. A 7.62 mm NATO cartridge is a class of cartridge based on the French Label 8 mm cartridge from the 1880's. The Label 8 mm cartridge was expressly designed to stop cavalry charges by killing horses at 1,000 meters, a need that individual guns today no longer have.
So what about the newer intermediate range cartridge class of automatic guns? The intermediate range cartridge class came about over 60 years ago when the generals of WWII realized that there were fewer cavalry charges to stop and combat experience had shown them that few of their troops could hit a person at 1000 meters even if they tried. Early on as a stopgap measure the submachine gun was used and proved very effective in combat ranges less than 100 meters, but was found to be almost worthless beyond that range.
So the intermediate range cartridge class of automatic assault weapon was born. First was the German 7.92 mm MP44 WWII, which was then followed in a few years by the Russian 7.62×39 cartridge which fed the legendary Russian AK47 by the late 40's. The United States military hung onto the full power NATO 7.62 mm cartridge until the early 60's. But Vietnam showed them the real need to carry more ammunition to feed the new demand for automatic assault weapons. Thus the 5.56 mm cartridge class of weapons was born.
The so-called NEW intermediate cartridge class of weapons that are now being sold are in fact based on designs that are over 60 years old. For the most part they are nothing but the weapon designs of late WWII scaled down in size. These weapons are designed to be point-target weapons for combat ranges of 500 meters rather than 1000 meters.
Troops are Increasingly Using Urban Areas to Fight
The major use of today's individual weapon is close-in combat. Most likely this will be urban combat—and against single or small groups of fleeting targets. The intermediate range cartridge class of weapons were not designed to fight in this environment. Yes they can be used in this environment—but this environment was not the design requirements for the ammunition or the automatic assault weapons they are used in.
An ability to reach out to hit point-targets at 500 meters and beyond with aimed fire is just not a need for today's average solider. Yes, it is still a specialized need. But this specialized need can be best served with squad level specialized weapons such as the newer class of .50 caliber sniper rifles.
The technical phrases used above to remember are point target weapon and aimed fire. Within these two simple technical phrases lies the biggest single misunderstanding and misdirection propagated by today's military leaders.
To best meet today's combat needs the individual weapon should not be a point-target weapon. In other words it should NOT be designed for aimed fired at a specific target. Those target types are no longer the major threat. Yes they still exist, but recent history has clearly shown that these types of targets don't survive for long on today's electronic battlefield.
What is not well understood is that in today's combat the solider seldom sees the enemy they are fighting. Seldom do they aim at any specific target—let alone take the time to sight in on a stationary target at 500 meters. This just does not happen.
However today's assault rifles using the intermediate range cartridge are designed to do just that. To hit a solider running between buildings and ducking between rooms was not the engineering design goal for today's assault rifles—it never was. They were designed as and still are specifically point-target weapons.
But still the military leaders persist on using them—mainly because there is no other creditable solution at hand. There will NOT be a creditable solution to use in the urban environment until a NEW gun system is designed specifically for this environment.
To appreciate the capabilities needed in a new gun system one should keep in mind two elusive technical characteristics. These are:
None of the past private or government R&D programs attempting to fulfill these characteristics have achieved any real measure of success for a variety of technical reasons. However the main problem has been from misdirection of the overall effort rather than the actual technical problems. The biggest single problem was the mindset fixation of the military leaders on point target weapons.
There are only two realistic ways to obtain a higher single round lethality over the current class of assault rifle weapons.
First Way is to Employ Hypervelocity Projectiles.
Hypervelocity projectiles produce deep cavity wounds and their kinetic impact is characterized by massive displacement and destruction of flesh with severe hydrostatic shock. Any of these wounding elements are invariable fatal. But the hypervelocity also degrades the single projectile accuracy to the point where first-found hits are an elusive dream.
Tests have shown that first-round hits with hypervelocity projectiles under most combat conditions are practically impossible. Regrettably this simple deficiency nullifies any lethal potential that hypervelocity projectiles might have because if you don't hit it, you don't hurt it.
Second Way is to Employ Burst Fire.
To improve first-round hit probability most armies since the mid 80's have adopted the burst-fire principle. This means a pre-selected number of rounds are fired in a burst each time the trigger is pulled. Almost universally the three-round burst has been chosen as being the most satisfactory for controlled burst-fire.
The basic principle of controlled burst-fire is to serially fire at high cyclic rates three or more projectiles aimed at a specific target. Mathematical probability that one projectile will hit the target is high. Normal weapon-ammunition inaccuracies are relied upon to distribute the projectiles in a desirable dispersion pattern. Controlled burst-fire changes the undesirable inaccuracy of automatic fire into an advantage by improving the hit probability of the gun in automatic fire. Controlled burst-fire is making do with what is available, but regrettably controlled burst-fire does not address the real problem.
To be truly effective a controlled burst-fire automatic weapon should have a high cyclic rate to limit the dispersion of the burst. Only a high cyclic rate can create the coveted circular burst pattern around the point of aim. This is because at a very high cyclic rate the elapsed time of the three-round burst is sufficiently short to assure that the last projectile will leave the barrel before the weapon has moved to far in recoil from the original point of aim.
This has been obtained in what are called by those versed in the art dual rate guns. Dual rate guns are high cyclic rate automatic guns firing short burst that are repeated automatically by the gun at a lower cyclic rate—thus a dual rate gun. This was first done successfully in the 1970's by Heckler & Koch in their caseless G11 assault rifle that fired a 3 round burst. Later in 1994 the Russians AN94 assault rifle that fired a 2 round burst used the same principle and was put into limited Russian service by the mid 90's.
However most assault rifles cannot obtain a high enough cyclic rate to be truly effective. This is because a cyclic rate under approximately 1400 SPM still permits the recoil movement of the gun to pull the bore axis off the original point of aim.
At the other end of the spectrum, tests have shown that firing rates over 500-600 SPM diminish the user ability to correct gun recoil movement and put the bore axis back onto the original point of aim between individual shots. Thus cyclic rates between 600-800 SPM fall right in the middle of the zone of uncontrollable fire—and this is the average cyclic rate of fire for most current assault rifles.
Another crucial point that is overlooked by the average person is that 3 round controlled burst fire may improve the mathematical first-round hit probability, but this is done at the cost of magazine capacity. Simply put, a 30 round magazine quickly becomes a 10 round magazine.
Multi-Projectile Weapon.
However there is another way to obtain both higher single round lethality while at the same time improving first round hit probability—without sacrificing magazine capacity.
Guns employing ammunition that discharges a swarm of projectiles for each round fired inherently have higher hit probability than any burst-fire gun. Also since they put more projectiles onto the target at the same time their single round fired hit lethality is greatly enhanced. Finally they also have a more favorable magazine burst capacity by providing more projectile swarms per magazine loading. This is because each single round fired from this class of guns replaces three or more rounds fired from a controlled burst-fire gun.
Thus the need to obtain a higher first-round hit probability, a higher single fired round lethality and a higher volume of fire per magazine loading can be best met with multiple-projectile gun—NOT a point-fire gun.
Multiple-projectile guns are not new. In the commercial arena they are called shotguns. Commercial sporting shotguns have a well-proven combat history and with a coat of military paint are in use today as specialized weapons. But the commercial shotguns were not designed for military use, although they can be customized to improve their military acceptability.
Ammunition the customized military shotguns fire is usually just commercial sporting ammunition with a coat of military paint. Usually the military customization of shotshell ammunition results in just an all brass shotshell case.
Specialized shotshell ammunition ranging from CS gas to explosive shells has been experimented with from time to time, but with no real acceptance by the military. In practice commercial sporting shotshell ammunition is still used as a standard for deployment by the military.
For all the advantages the shotgun can provide the military there has also been a serious set of technical limitations to prevented its acceptance as a mainstream military gun.
Technical limitations for the commercial shotgun for military use are:
1. Shotgun stocking and the use of tube magazines have prevented practical and effective automatic fire.
2. Very high recoil loads, or what the laymen call kick. High cartridge impulse has prevented adequate gun controllability when automatic fire was attempted—unless the cyclic rate was reduced to less than 300 SPM. Automatic shotguns using cyclic rates higher than 300 SPM usually have proven to be uncontrollable and thus not practical.
3. Automatic shotguns using 10 round box magazines or even a 20 round drum magazines are limited by their overall loaded weight and bulk. Even a short engagement of just a few short burst depletes a 10 round box magazine. A drum magazine of 20 rounds or more may provide a longer burst, but its bulk and overall weight has limited fast gun handling in close quarters.
4. To obtain a measure of gun controllability the cyclic rate of automatic shotguns have been reduced to 300 SPM or lower. This has usually been obtained by the use of a long bolt stroke to reduce the recoil loading. However the long bolt stroke usually requires a long receiver, which results in a longer overall length for the same length barrel.
The most commonly used military shotshell loading has been the 00 Buck in a 12 gauge 2¾ inch shotshell. However this shotshell results in a loading of only 9 lead pellets. This reduces the single round hit probability at 100 meters and beyond to next to nothing because of the few number of pellets fired. Use of the 12 gauge 3-inch shotshell is increasing in popularity but has been limited. This is because the tube magazines used on most military shotguns limits the number of rounds loaded to the overall length of the magazine tube. Thus the even better 12-gauge 3½ inch shotshell is not currently used in most military shotgun because it would reduce the tube magazine capacity by as much as three cartridges.
Currently there is no box magazine or drum magazine for the 3½ inch 12 gauge shotshell. This is even though a 00 Buck loading in the 12 gauge 3½ shotshell would fire 18 pellets—which is twice the 9 pellets the 2¾ inch shotshell fires. However unless something was done to reduce the recoil loads, to fire twice the number of 00 Buck pellets per round fired would only exacerbate the controllability issue of today's automatic shotguns.
Summary Review of Shotgun Limitations
The major problem with the military shotguns in use today is that they are really just commercial sporting shotguns that have been customized for use by the military.
Of the limitations sited above it is the lack of controllability in automatic fire and the limited capacity of the tube magazine that have held back the shotgun from being accepted as a major squad level weapon.
What is deceptive is that the problem of reducing the firepower of the magazine by the use of burst-fire is not a problem when the shotgun is used. This is because each bang from the shotgun sends forth a swarm of projectiles onto the target. So there is no need to provide a burst of three or more rounds just to increase probability of a single projectile hit on the target. This is the reason the hunters will always use a shotgun to shoot birds in flight rather than a rifle.
A tube magazine is just a tube in which the shotshells are loaded nose to tail and pushed into the receiver by a magazine spring. Because of the large diameter, its rim, and the variable overall length of the shotshell when charged with different loadings; the tube magazine for the shotgun has been retained well after its use on rifles and handguns has been abandoned. Herein lies a basic conflict of commercial function verses military need.
For a military shotgun to have good handling capabilities in close quarters a short overall gun length is desired—and this means a short barrel. Usually the military shotguns have barrel lengths of 20-inches or shorter. However long barrels for commercial sporting shotguns are not a problem—in fact desirable to aid in pointing the gun.
Thus for commercial sporting shotguns the tube magazine dose not present a problem. Besides the sportsman's desire for a long barrel is the fact that magazine capacity for hunting in most states is 3 rounds or less. However when military need is factored in a magazine capacity of more than 3 rounds is a definite requirement.
The tube magazine conflict is as follows. The length of the magazine tube limits the capacity of a tube magazine and the length of the barrel limits the length of the magazine tube. Desirability by the military for a short barrel to improve handling capabilities results in a shotgun that holds fewer rounds. Usually military shotguns with tube magazines can only hold 8 to 10 rounds of 2¾ inch shotshells. Using the longer 3½ inch shotshell would exacerbate the capacity problem to a loading of 7 to 7 rounds.
At Winchester Arms Joe Badali between 1965-1966 had some limited success with a 10 round box magazine fired from a modified Winchester Model 1400 selective fired shotgun (pages 339-352, The World's Fighting shotguns, distributed by Ironside International Publishers Inc. P.O. box 55, Alexandria Va. 22313). Then in 1972 Max Atchisson made his Atchisson Assault Shotgun that used either a 10 round box magazine or a 20 round drum magazine (pages 385-395, The World's Fighting shotguns). Both of these guns were experimental and neither reached production status.
Currently there is no shoulder-fired automatic gun in any modern military that uses a magazine with a capacity of under 10 rounds. A few older assault rifles such as the original issue of the US M16 or the Stoner 63 system described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,198,076 were issued with a 20 round box magazines. But today the norm for all automatic assault rifles is a box magazine of 30 rounds.
There are many technical reasons that limit use on a shotgun of box magazines having more than 10 rounds. These include but are not limited to the shape of the shotshell itself, its center of gravity and overall weight, and the variable overall length of a loaded round of ammunition. The length of a 12 gauge shotshell can vary from under 2½ inches to as much as 3½ inches. Even the two box magazines sighted above were limited to 10 2¾ inch shotshells with only one or two shotshell loadings recommended for reliable gun function.
If the military shotgun is to provide the same substantial firepower as the modern assault rifle or SAW then another way to feed the shotgun will be needed. The only practicable feed mode remaining other than the box or drum magazine to provide a reliable 30 round or greater capacity is the link-belt feed systems.
A link-belt feed has the advantage of not having its capacity limited by the size of the container it uses. Also the link-belt feed can change its ammo capacity easily by adding belts onto belts to provide ammunition supplies of hundreds of rounds.
But the biggest advantage of a link-belt feed system is that while the gun is firing the feed system only has to pull into the gun a few rounds at any one time. This is a big advantage because both the drum and box magazine must start and stop all the ammunition they contain with each shot.
However the major problem with all link-belt feed systems is that reloading the link-belt into the gun feed system requires the user to take the time to do it right—and the loading operation is not intuitive.
However the reloading of a loaded drum or box magazine into a gun is both fast and intuitive. To permit the link-belt feed to be variable on a new improved automatic gun, the task of reloading the automatic gun must be simplified and made as intuitive as loading a box magazine.
The inherent advantage of the basic link-belt feed system is that the drive system used to power the link-belt feed system could be used to power other self-contained feed containers.
A driven feed container could offer a container similar in profile to box magazines but provide ammunition capacities comparable to drum magazines.
From the technical standpoint if the military shotgun is to integrate into the modern military infantry squad as a standard issue weapon then a link-belt feed system will be needed. Only the link-belt feed system will be able to provide the shotgun the same sustainable firepower as offered today by other squad level automatic weapons.
Another major limitation of the military shotguns in use today has been the shotshell ammunition provided for military use.
A Glimmer of Hope
A glimmer of hope for a new purely military shotshell was shown in the 60's when the United States took a serious look at using the flechette as the basic projectile unit of shotshell loading. A flechette shotshell fires a cluster of 20 or more flechettes as compared to the 9 lead pellets of 00 Buck then in common use. These experimental shotshells were quite effective and earned a good reputation by the US Marines and US Navy SEALS who use them, (Pages 464-477 The World's Fighting Shotguns).
The word flechette means little arrow, and the flechette as used was nothing but a small steel arrow. Field reports of flechettes used in combat were encouraging and single shot kills beyond 300 meters were documented (page 465-467, The World's Fighting Shotguns). However most combat was less than 100 meters, with the majority of combat less than 50 meters.
The rather crude 7.5-grain flechette used penetrated armored vest and steel helmets out to nearly 500 meters. A flechette pattern density out to 50 meters assured single shot hits and single shot kills. If two rounds were fired the effective range increased because of the greater flechette population in the same target zone.
However the flechettes ability of penetrate a steel helmet also equated to cleanly penetrating the target. The problem was that unless a vital area was hit by the flechette during its through and through passage little damage would be actually done to the target.
In the late 60's a review was done to evaluate the US shotgun flechette programs and the use of the flechette in the combat environment. In summary the evaluation showed the following:
In summary the review showed that the engineering work that had been done to date had been good. The historical technical data provided a solid engineering foundation for further work. However further engineering work remained to be done before the flechette would be optimized for combat use.
In summary the design requirements for a new gun have been established. These design requirements were married to the performance requirements for a flechette loaded shotshell. From this marriage it was possible to make an in-depth engineering review of the tactical requirements the new gun system was to satisfy.
The engineering review showed that the multiple-projectile system as envisioned would do what it was envisioned to do. However the ammunition fired lacked a critical capability—the ability to provide effective indirect fire. The problem was that this basic capability could only be met by using an explosive shell.
To design an explosive 12-gauge shotshell was possible. In fact several explosive 12-gauge shotshells are on the market today. However the 12-gauge has a bore diameter of only approximately 18.5 mm. Such a small bore diameter would never be able to provide the blast to fragment ratio needed if fired from a 2¾ inch shotshell. Simply put—the caliber size to shell length and thus the resulting charge-to-mass ratio in fin-stabilized explosive shell was just not there. A projectile caliber of at least 30 mm would be needed if the requirements of the new explosive shell were to be met.
Rather than take the just big enough approach and design a new 30 mm cartridge, it would be more prudent to use the proven NATO 40 mm grenade cartridge. The NATO family of 40 mm grenade cartridges has been well proven over the past 50-years of combat usage. The NATO 40 mm grenade cartridge would be very effective and provide the needed indirect fire blast-fragmentation capability found lacking in the engineering review.
To be able to fire the entire family of NATO 40 mm grenade cartridges the technical capabilities of existing 40 mm grenade launcher attachments now in use on current assault rifles were reviewed and found lacking for a new urban combat gun.
Unlike all of the current single shot 40 mm grenade launcher attachments the new improved 40 mm grenade launcher must be able to fire more than a single grenade before requiring the user to reload. In addition the user must be able to select the type of grenade being fired as the tactical need dictates without having to unload and load the grenade launcher.
However the new grenade launcher must still be as simple and light as the existing single-shot 40 mm grenade launchers attachments now in use.
The new grenade launcher must be able to attach and detach from the automatic gun while in the field, and do this without the use of tools. When attached to the host gun the new grenade launcher/automatic gun combination must NOT detract from the use and performance of either weapon. Together the new automatic gun and new grenade launcher combination should be optimized for use in the urban combat environment.
However the grenade launcher should also designed to be fully operational on or off a host weapon. If the new 40 mm grenade launcher is removed from the host gun it should still be fully operational and able fire the full family of 40 mm NATO cartridges.
From the foregoing it can be seen that a need exist for a weapon system that is optimized for the urban combat environment to eliminate or substantially reduce the above-mentioned problems, limitations and disadvantages commonly associated with weapon systems of conventional design and construction.
It is a broad object of this embodiment to provide two improved firearms in the form of a automatic gun with a improved flechette shotshell and a multiple shot 40 mm grenade launcher capable of integrated operation to form a weapon system optimized for use in the urban environment.
The automatic gun is a improved recoil operated belt fed machine gun. In accordance the embodiment envisioned covers a low felt recoil and low weight selective fired recoil operated machine gun that is capable of firing from either a link-belt or a magazine feed system and capable of attaching a multiple-shot 40 mm grenade launcher without the use of special attachments or modifications to the automatic gun. More particular the major features of this embodiment are:
The multiple-shot 40 mm grenade launcher is capable of firing independently or as an attachment on a host weapon, more particularly on the accessory rail of the automatic gun. Mounting and removal of the multiple-shot 40 mm grenade launcher from the automatic gun bottom accessory rail can be done without the use of tools or modifications to the automatic gun. The major features of the multiple-shot 40 mm grenade launcher of this embodiment are:
Felt Recoil: Gun Feature #1 of this Embodiment
Felt recoil is a technical phrase and as defined in this embodiment is what the layman not skilled in the art would call the kick of the gun. What is not well understood by many is that the impulse of the cartridge cannot be reduced by mechanical means, only the resultant recoil force spread out over a longer time base than the cartridge operating cycle. When the recoil force is spread out over a longer time base, then it is said that the felt recoil of the gun has been reduced.
Realistically substantial reduction of the felt recoil force is not possible in repeating actions characterized by pump action shotguns. This is because technically only two things can be done to actually reduce the felt recoil in non-automatic guns:
1. Use a Muzzle Brake.
Muzzle brakes work by impinging the escaping muzzle gun gas onto baffles within the muzzle brake to direct the gun gases in a sideward or rearward direction. When this is done the apparent effect is to pull the gun forward. The forward pull on the barrel reduces the total rearward recoil impulse of the cartridge—thus reducing the felt recoil the user feels.
However in practice muzzle brakes are limited in how effective they are to the cartridge charge to mass ratio coupled with the cartridge operational pressure. Simply put the higher the cartridge operating pressure and the higher the propellant weight relative to the projectile weight the better the muzzle brake can work.
Even on rifles operating at high chamber pressures with favorable charge to mass ratios the muzzle brakes seldom can reduce the gun recoil impulse more than 30%.
Usually a muzzle brake is considered a good muzzle brake if it can reduce the gun recoil impulse by as much as 15% to 20%.
In practice muzzle brakes have been of little use on shotguns because they just don't have the right conditions to operate well. This is because of the relative small weight of propellant operating at a relative low pressure to launch a relative high throw weight.
2. Add a Gun Buffer
A gun buffer in the context of this embodiment is defined as a shoulder pad made from a compliant material that is placed on the aft surface of the shoulder stock. The intent of the gun buffer approach is to let the shoulder stock be driven into the compliant shoulder pad—thus spreading out the time base of the recoil force the user feels.
The common shoulder pad will only allow a total movement of the gun into the shoulder pad of about 3 or 4 mm. There is marginal functionality in the use of a shoulder pad and they do take the sting from the kick. This is because the shoulder pads flatten the spike of the recoil load, but no significant reduction in total felt recoil can be obtained.
Other more complex gun buffer designs have been made. However all gun buffers used on non-automatic guns are limited in the amount of felt recoil they can reduce because of they are limited in the amount of gun travel permitted when firing from the shoulder.
Automatic Guns and Felt Recoil Loads.
As is understood by those of ordinary skill in the art the felt recoil of any gun results solely from the impulse of the cartridge when the gun is fired. In layman's language the bullet goes one way and the gun goes the other way—both with the same momentum.
As explained in the preceding section substantial reduction in felt recoil can only be obtained in automatic guns. This is because to reduce the felt recoil something must move on the gun to spread out the recoil force time base. It is that simple.
Which is the best automatic gun action to reduce the felt recoil? To understand which automatic gun action is best suited a brief review of the different types of automatic gun actions is needed.
As a general classification there are three types of automatic gun actions in use today that offer the potential to reduce the gun felt recoil.
1. The most common automatic gun action is the gas-operated action as characterized by the Armalite AR18 assault rifle described in the Miller U.S. Pat. No. 3,318,192.
2. The next most common is the blowback operated automatic action as characterized by the machine gun described in Rostocil U.S. Pat. No. 4,066,000 and also in use on most small caliber handguns.
3. Finally there is the recoil operated action as characterized by the Remington Arms Model 1148 auto-loading shotgun and the German MG42 machine gun of WWII.
The common feature for all three types of automatic actions is that they all use the cartridge impulse to operate the gun. By using the cartridge impulse to operate the gun, the impulse that makes up the gun recoil can be spread out over a longer time base and thus reduce the felt recoil force.
Gas-Operated Actions;
In all gas-operated actions the bolt and barrel are locked together. Important too note is that in a gas-operated action the barrel is fixed to the receiver and cannot move. Gun gas is tapped off the barrel to impinge on the bolt to force it rearward. The rearward or recoil travel of the bolt then will unlock it from the barrel and then work through the case extract-case eject-feed functions that are common in all automatic guns.
Although there is no forward force at the time of firing to counter the initial rearward cartridge impulse force, there is a forward component delivered into the barrel/receiver when the gun gas impinges on the bolt to start the bolt recoil cycle. This is because the gas system as it pushes the bolt aft is also pushing the receiver forward.
Most of the felt recoil force from gas-operated actions comes from not the initial cartridge impulse, but rather when the bolt is stopped at the end of the recoil cycle.
This is because the bolt is usually allowed to stop on the receiver and this bolt slap spike is what the user feels as kick. Bolt slap is characterized in guns like the Armalite AR18 assault rifle described in the Miller U.S. Pat. No. 3,318,192.
Imposing a bolt buffer between the receiver and the bolt can minimize bolt slap by damping the bolt slap spike load. This bolt buffer method is characterized in guns like the US M16. Use of a bolt buffer does flatten the spike loading resulting from the bolt slap but since the bolt stroke into the bolt buffer is usually limited to 2-3 mm the resulting reduction in bolt slap spike loading is marginal.
The only way to completely eliminate the bolt slap in a gas-operated action is to not stop the bolt on the receiver. Only using the bolt driving spring to eventually slow and stop the bolt accomplishes this. This design approach has been used with success in several automatic guns. The Sullivan assault rifle as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,475,437 characterized this method. In this embodiment this manner of stopping the bolt shall be referred to as a long bolt stroke.
A long bolt stroke does prevent the bolt slap. However under normal conditions its use requires an excessive amount of bolt recoil travel to be effective.
The problem is that a long bolt stroke usually results in a reduction of the gun cyclic rate. A Atchisson Assault Shotgun that used a long bolt stroke to eliminate bolt slap best characterizes the reduction in the gun cyclic rate. The Atchisson Assault Shotgun cyclic rate was reduced to only 300 SPM (pages 385-395, The World's Fighting Shotguns).
In practice to allow for bad environmental conditions and to allow for shooting the gun down or up usually result in a bolt over-travel for the long bolt stroke that may be as much as 3 to 5 cartridge lengths. This long bolt over-travel distance is quite common when the long bolt stroke method is used.
Blowback Actions
In a blowback action the bolt is not locked to anything when the cartridge is fired. The Rostocil U.S. Pat. No. 4,066,000 characterizes the blowback action. Blowback actions omit the problem of initial cartridge impulse loading by allowing the bolt to move aft in recoil from the instance of firing. Only the high inertial mass of the bolt relative to the low mass of the projectile being fired limits the recoil velocity of the bolt to a safe level.
Blowback actions are very common. It is used extensively in small caliber handguns and almost exclusively is the only automatic action used in sub-machine guns. Both of these automatic guns classes use pistol ammunition. The 5.56 mm machine gun described in Rostocil U.S. Pat. No. 4,066,000 was one of the few successful attempts to use the blowback action to fire a full power rifle cartridge.
In the Rostocil U.S. Pat. No. 4,066,000 the bolt slap problem was address by using a bolt buffer on the bolt and a set of long tension rods attached to a front bulkhead of the receiver. This bolt buffer design permitted almost full restitution of the bolt recoil momentum back into bolt for counter-recoil travel thus retaining a high cyclic rate. However the buffer stroke was limited to only 5 mm and thus did not significantly reduce the bolt slap.
Recoil Gun Actions
The Remington Arms Model 1148 auto-loading shotgun characterizes these actions. All recoil gun actions lock the bolt to the barrel the same as gas-operated gun actions do. But unlike the gas-operated actions the locked bolt and barrel of a recoil gun action is allowed to travel in recoil from the instance of firing. Later at some point in the recoil cycle the bolt and barrel are unlocked from each other. When in the recoil cycle unlocking occurs determines the type of recoil gun action.
As characterized by the Remington Arms Model 1148 the locked bolt and barrel are allowed to recoil together as a locked unit to the rear of the receiver. Once there the bolt is unlocked from the barrel and held there as the barrel is allowed to return to battery. After the barrel has returned to battery the bolt is released to move in counter-recoil to chamber and fire the next round. This type of recoil gun action is called long recoil. Long recoil gun actions were the most common type of automatic action used for auto-loading shotguns for almost 50 years.
If the barrel is stopped after a short recoil travel and the unlocked bolt is then allowed to continue in recoil travel, then the recoil gun action is called short recoil. Guns such as the German MG42 of WWII characterize short recoil gun actions.
The major source of felt recoil in both long and short gun recoil actions is the stopping of both the bolt and the barrel in recoil travel and not the cartridge firing impulse.
In short recoil operated automatic actions bolt buffers have been added to reduce but not entirely eliminate the spike loading that occurs when the bolt impacts the receiver at the end of the bolt recoil cycle.
However nothing has been done to reduce the barrel to receiver impact spike loads that occur after the unlocked barrel stops it recoil travel.
As is well understood by those skilled in the art most short recoil gun actions used what is called an accelerator to transfer some of the barrel recoil momentum into the bolt after the bolt has been unlocked from the barrel. But the accelerator does not buffer the remaining barrel recoil momentum before the receiver finally stops the recoil travel of the barrel. In fact the accelerator itself transfers a major spike load into the receiver. This is because they usually use a rotating lever to accomplish the acceleration, wherein this pivoting movement through the accelerator pivot support transfers a spike load to the receiver.
Spike loads from stopping both the barrel and bolt in recoil travel combine to make the high felt recoil loads found on all short recoil operated guns in use today.
It is the object of the first gun feature of this embodiment to provide a substantial reduction in the felt recoil of the gun while not reducing the gun cyclic rate.
Other than using a very long bolt over-travel the gas-operated automatic actions offer no inherent way to stop the bolt recoil travel without creating a high felt recoil load.
Blowback operated gun automatic actions also inherently do not offer any way to stop the bolt recoil travel without creating a high felt recoil load, and they have the added disadvantage of either a very high bolt recoil velocities or a large bolt mass.
Only the recoil operated automatic actions offer the potential to reduce the felt recoil force. But this can only be done if both the barrel and bolt can be stopped in recoil without creating a spike recoil load.
As envisioned in this embodiment to stop the barrel after it has been unlocked from the bolt a long stroke barrel spring is used. Unique to the gun of this embodiment the barrel does not start to compress the barrel spring until after the bolt has been unlocked from the barrel.
The barrel spring permits free recoil travel of the barrel for approximately 25 mm or more. The barrel is not stopped directly by the receiver, but rather all of the barrel recoil stopping loads are transmitted into the receiver through the barrel spring. The use of the barrel spring to stop the barrel recoil travel omits the barrel recoil slap common to all short recoil automatic actions.
As envisioned in the gun shown in this embodiment to stop the bolt recoil travel the barrel spring is used once again. The bolt in recoil travels over the barrel locking lug in a bolt barrel guide grove that is cut into the body of the bolt. At the end bolt recoil travel the bolt strikes the barrel locking lug at the end of this grove and stops its recoil travel. The bolt barrel guide grove sets the limit of bolt recoil travel—not the receiver. Bolt impact on the barrel locking lug provides almost full restitution of bolt recoil momentum back into bolt counter-recoil momentum. Almost full restitution of bolt recoil momentum is accomplished without the bolt impacting the receiver.
Once again the barrel is put into a recoil cycle after stopping the bolt recoil travel, and once again the barrel spring stops the barrel recoil travel. Thus in operation the barrel and barrel spring cycle twice in recoil travel during each gun cycle.
Breaking up of the cartridge recoil impulse into two loadings—with both recoil loadings going through the barrel spring—provides for a major reduction in the gun felt recoil.
t is envisioned in the gun shown in this embodiment that a barrel cam slider will be used to interface with a receiver barrel cam. The barrel cam slider works with the receiver barrel cam to provide the bolt to barrel locking and unlocking functions.
By allowing the barrel to move over the relative stationary barrel cam slider the barrel is allowed to move freely in recoil travel after the barrel has been unlocked from the bolt. Small and low in weight the barrel cam slider is stopped in recoil travel after only a short travel distance and locked into position within the receiver barrel cam allowing the barrel body to remain free to continue its recoil travel compressing the barrel spring.
This separation of basic barrel to bolt lock functions into two separate and free to move components is unique to this style of lock. This style of lock is familiar to those skilled in the art and is used on many pistols today as either the Browning Lock or the SIG Lock. However all current applications of this style of lock do not allow the barrel to move in recoil AFTER the barrel has been unlocked from the bolt. Only in the gun shown in this embodiment is the barrel allowed to continue recoil travel after it has been unlocked from the bolt.
Unique to the gun in this embodiment the bolt, or slide as it is called in a pistol, in recoil travel is guided by the receiver but is restrained in recoil travel by the barrel that is free to move in recoil after unlocking and stopped in recoil travel only by the barrel spring.
Fire Control, Gun Feature #2 of this Embodiment
In most automatic guns the components needed to control the mode of firing are located within the receiver and are not easily removed for service.
Characterized by the US M16 and the Armalite AR18 assault rifle, the fire control components are held in place within the receiver by pins that are pressed fit in place or held in place by retaining devices. A fire control selector that controls the automatic-semiautomatic-safe settings is located on the right side of the receiver. These fire control selectors are not capable of being removed and installed on the left side of the receiver. For a left-handed user locating the safety on the right side of the gun makes it difficult to reach and use.
In some commercial guns such as the Remington Arms Model 870 & Model 1100 place the fire control components in a removable assembly that is held in place within the receiver by pins—which are in turn held in place by spring retainers located within the fire control assembly. However in the case of the Remington Arms auto-loading model 1100 shotgun there is no capability for automatic fire nor is there any design consideration for holding the bolt in the open-bolt position.
Few assault rifles or machine guns today offer a complete fire control system that can be used by either left or right-handed users and fully contained in a easy to remove from the gun assembly.
Bullpup, why not Use One?
Found in favor by some of the world militaries today is a gun configuration called bullpup. The term bullpup means a gun configuration in which the automatic action is telescoped back to operate within the shoulder stock of the gun. In the bullpup configuration the rearward travel of the bolt is stopped close to the aft face the shoulder stock.
A bullpup configuration provides for a short gun overall length, which is very desirable in close quarter combat. However the bullpup configuration also means that the case ejection and fire control will also be located close to the face of the user and must be changed for left or right-handed use.
Usually bullpup configurations provide for the removal of the fire control assembly to permit the changing of the location of the fire control selector to either the left or right side of the gun. But this change over is usually done at a company level by the ordnance officer and not by the user.
Usually when changing the side of the gun the fire control selector is mounted on will also change the relative position of the arm of the fire control selector points. This means that the arm of the fire control selector could point forward on one side to mean safe while on the other side pointing forward might mean automatic fire.
It is the object of the second gun feature of this embodiment to provide a complete self-contained fire control system within a single assembly that can be easily removed and installed in the field by the user. The fire control selector of the fire control system will also be easily changeable by the user for left or right handed operation. When changed the arm of the fire control selector shall not alter where the arm of the fire control points for automatic-semiautomatic-safe settings.
Fire Control Selector
It is envisioned in the gun shown in this embodiment that a fire control selector is easy to change from left to right side operation by simply pulling it out and installing it into the other side of the pistol grip. Once installed the arm of the fire control selector will point for each fire mode in the same direction for automatic-semiautomatic-safe.
Fire Control System Installation and Service
A fire control system as envisioned in this embodiment is installed as part of the pistol grip. Attachment of the pistol grip into the receiver is shown in
The complete fire control system can be disassembled into its' individual components without the use of tools.
Bolt Hold-Open and Trigger Disconnection
The bolt hold-open and trigger disconnection are components within the fire control system. The bolt hold-open function is to hold the bolt in the open-bolt position until released by a trigger or the fire control selector. To stop the gun from firing the user releases the trigger, which is interconnected to the bolt hold-open.
This style of fire control is usually called a Browning-trigger, named after its inventor. This style of trigger is the basis for both of the trigger styles used in the Armalite AR18 assault rifle described in the Miller U.S. Pat. No. 3,318,192 and the assault rifle described in the Sullivan U.S. Pat. No. 4,502,367. They both may look different but they both use basic principles as John Browning used in his original trigger design.
What is unique in this embodiment is the way the components are easy to install in an assembly that is itself easy to install or remove from the gun—all done without the use of tools.
Folding Shoulder Stock, Gun Feature #3 of this Embodiment.
As is understood by those of ordinary skill in the art unless the bullpup gun configuration is used it is desirable today to provide the user a way to shorten the length of a shoulder fired gun. A short gun is desirable for close quarter combat. Close quarter combat requires fast movement of the gun when firing from either the shoulder or non-shoulder position.
A short gun also allows easier carrying of the gun and stowing of the gun in vehicles. Being able to use or remove the shoulder stock also permits more versatile vehicle mounting.
Normally the shoulder stock is only required when firing from the prone position. Conversely the short gun configuration without a shoulder stock is usually only used when firing from positions other than the prone position.
To use a shoulder stock the gun must have the correct pull length. A desirable pull length is usually not less than 13 inches but usually no more than 16 inches. If the user is shooting the gun while wearing winter clothing or protective body armor then the shorter pull length is preferred. The Armalite AR18 assault rifle described in the Miller U.S. Pat. No. 3,318,192 characterized an assault rifle using the short pull length. The German MG42 of WWII was usually fired from the prone position and it characterized guns using the long pull lengths.
To shorten the overall length of the gun most shoulder stocks are moved to a forward stow position. Usually the shoulder stock is put into the forward stow position by the following three methods.
1. Telescoping the shoulder stock forward into or around the receiver. The German HECKLER & KOCH MP5 sub-machine gun and the US M3 Grease Gun sub-machine gun of WWII both characterize the telescoping method.
2. Pivoting the shoulder stock up onto the receiver or down and under the receiver. The German MP43 sub-machine gun characterized the bottom pivot method and the Russian PPSh-41 sub-machine gun characterized the top pivot method. Both of these weapons were used in WWII.
3. Folding the shoulder stock to the side of the receiver. The Armalite AR18 assault rifle described in the Miller U.S. Pat. No. 3,318,192 characterized the folding method.
Telescoping Shoulder Stocks
Historically it has been found that the telescoping shoulder stock method has an inherent weakness and provides for an uncomfortable and poor interface with the users face.
Pivoting Shoulder Stocks
Historically it has been found that using the pivoting shoulder stock method is also limited. Pivoting the shoulder stock up or down onto the receiver requires the shoulder stock shoulder support to be hinged when placed in the stow position. This weakens the shoulder support without a major weight penalty and makes good and comfortable user interface difficult.
To pivot the shoulder stock under the receiver also is only possible when the magazine placement, type and size of the magazine permit. To pivot the shoulder stock onto the top of the receiver also may interfere with the sights mounted on the gun or make sighting the gun difficult.
Folding Shoulder Stocks
Historically it has been found that the folding shoulder stock is the best method when strength and ergonomic are considered. A folding shoulder stock can be made suitable for firing the gun from either the prone or shoulder position and still allow it to be put into a stowed position to shorten the overall length of the gun.
In common use the folding shoulder stock is usually folded to the left side of the gun. This is because folding the shoulder stock to the right side will usually interfere with the ejection of the fired cases and cartridge links from the gun and can also interfere with gun charging. These limitations can be seen on the Armalite AR18 assault rifle described in the Miller U.S. Pat. No. 3,318,192.
As shown on the Armalite AR18 assault rifle the fire control selector is also mounted on the right side of the receiver. To fold the shoulder stock to the right side of the gun would block access to the fire control selector.
However when the folding shoulder stock is folded to the gun left side to avoid these problems it also means that the folding shoulder stock will be on the side of the receiver that is next to the users body when being carried with a sling. Stowing the folding shoulder stock on the left side of the receiver is not good when a sling is used because it will push the gun out and away from the users body. Also being next to the users body might cause the folding shoulder stock to interfere with something the user is wearing.
To avoid these ergonomic problems the folding shoulder stock should fold to the right side of the receiver. However when folded to the right side of the receiver the folding shoulder stock must not interfere with user access to the fire control selector or interfere with the ejection of the fired cases and spent links.
Another limiting feature of existing folding shoulder stocks is that they usually are difficult to remove and install. It is desirable that the folding shoulder stock be able to be installed and removed by the user without the use of tools.
It is the object of the third gun feature of this embodiment to provide a strong, ergonomic, and lightweight folding shoulder stock. It should be easy to installed or removed by the user without requiring tools. It should be stowed on the right side of the receiver. When it is stowed it should permit user access to the fire control selector regardless of the side of the gun the fire control selector might be mounted. When in the stow position it should not interfere with the ejection of the fired cases and spent cartridge links. Gun function must be entirely independent of the folding shoulder stock, having reliable gun function with or without it.
Gun Complexity, Service and Cost, Gun Feature #4 of this Embodiment
Most magazine fed guns today are rather simple in design, however the link-belt fed LMG or SAW automatic guns usually are quite complex. This usually results in LMG and SAW automatic guns being harder to service and maintain than magazine fed automatic guns. The added complexity of a link-belt feed also results in a significant increase in the cost to fabricate when compared to the fabrication cost for a magazine fed gas-operated automatic gun.
It is the object of the fourth gun feature of this embodiment to provide a link-belt fed automatic gun that is not complex, easy to service and still similar in cost to magazine fed automatic guns.
To aid in servicing the automatic gun it is envisioned in this embodiment that the automatic gun would be made from major assemblies of function groups. Each major assembly will contain all if not most of the components needed for a single functional group. That each major assembly and the components it contains be easy to access and service. That the major assemblies be easy to change out if found to be defective.
To ensure reliable operation all components within the major assemblies should be protected from the environment. Even though they are protected the major assemblies should still be open enough to prevent the accumulation of dirt, sand, mud, water and other foreign objects.
Using the US M16, as an example the gun should NOT require wet lubricants for reliable function. This is because in the field environment wet lubrications not only lubricate the gun they also act as a magnet for fine sand. When fine sand is mixed with a wet lubricant an abrasive cocktail is created that will slow down and eventually stop any gun. Not only will this abrasive cocktail stop the gun but will also abrasively wear out gun components as the gun shoots.
The gun envisioned in this embodiment can operate without wet lubricants and protect its functioning components from the environment. The gun envisioned in this embodiment allows for the shedding of sand and mud and prevents accumulation in the major assemblies.
Gun Weight and Fabrication Methods, Gun Feature #5 of this Embodiment.
It is obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art that the weight of any gun must be as low as possible for a multitude of reasons.
However there is a lower limit of gun weight that is dictated by the complexity of the gun, the physical size of the components that are needed to accomplish the functions assigned to them, and the physical requirements of the automatic gun action dynamics.
This is especially true in guns using link-belt fed systems as characterized by the German MG42 LMG of WWII and US M242 SAW. The usual weight of a modern assault rifle is 6 to 8 pounds. The SAW is approximately 14 pounds, as characterized by the US M242. The LMG is approximately 26 pounds, as characterized by the German MG42.
Cartridges the link-belt fed guns fire and the fabrication methods used to make them—rather than the feed system design itself—dictate the difference in weight for two different link-belt fed guns listed.
Normally the higher weight of the LMG and the SAW over an equally chambered assault rifle results from the increased complexity of the linked-belt fed system and its functional requirements.
It is the object of the fifth gun feature of this embodiment to provide an automatic gun that uses a link-belt feed system but has a weight comparable to box magazine fed assault rifles. The difference between the link-belt feed system as envisioned in this embodiment and other link-belt feed systems now in common use is in the method of fabrication used, the materials used to make most of the components, the layout of the feed system within the gun, and how the gun feed system interfaces to the gun action for power to operate. Also by the polymer molding most of the feed system components allows the link-belt fed feed system as envisioned in this embodiment to be light in weigh and low in cost.
As envisioned in this embodiment the link-belt feed system design is different from other current link-belt feed systems in two major ways:
1. The design of the feed components permits them to be molded from polymer materials.
2. Splitting of the feed system into two separate functions.
Double-Action Lock: Launcher Feature #1 of this Embodiment
The technical phrases double-action lock as defined in this embodiment is derived from the classic revolver term double-action lock. However as used in this embodiment it is not the same. In the classic double-action lock as found in most revolvers, pulling the launcher trigger back not only pulls the hammer back to the cocked position but will advance a ratchet pawl to rotate the cylinder. As the cylinder is being rotated a spring-loaded cylinder lock is released that engages a notch in the cylinder body after cylinder has been rotated one chamber position. After cylinder indexing final launcher trigger pull releases the hammer to fall and fire the gun.
In this embodiment the double-action lock differs in the following way. Pulling the launcher trigger aft still pulls the hammer back but launcher trigger movement does not index the cylinder. Indexing or rotation of the cylinder is done directly by the user, not by launcher trigger movement. After the cylinder has been indexed by hand a set of strong detents retain the cylinder in correct chamber alignment with the barrel. However before the launcher trigger is pulled aft the detents can be over ridden and the cylinder rotated by hand either clockwise or counter clockwise.
It is the object of the first launcher feature of this embodiment to provide a simple to use modified double-action lock to safely fire the grenade launcher.
Grenade Launcher Safety, Launcher Feature #2 of this Embodiment.
In the classic double-action lock, trigger movement is always allowed. Even if the cylinder chamber is not in alignment with the barrel the trigger can still be pulled. The classic double-action lock depends on the cylinder ratchet to advance and catch up with the rotational position of the cylinder and establish correct chamber to barrel alignment. In the double-action lock used in this embodiment launcher trigger pull does not index the cylinder, the user does. Since a cylinder chamber is already in alignment with the grenade launcher barrel only the locking of the cylinder in place for safe firing is required. At the first movement of the launcher trigger the cylinder lock is camed down into engagement with a cylinder lock notch in the cylinder body. If the cylinder lock and the cylinder lock notch are not in alignment with each other the cylinder lock cannot move down. If the cylinder lock cannot move then the launcher trigger also cannot move. Thus the launcher trigger cannot be pulled unless a cylinder chamber is in correct alignment with the barrel.
It is the object of the second launcher feature of this embodiment to be safe to fire and only fire when a cylinder chamber and the barrel are in correct alignment and the cylinder locked from movement. There is no component within the grenade launcher called safety because none is needed.
Loading and Unloading of Ammunition, Launcher Feature #3 of this Embodiment.
In the classic sense there are three ways to reload a revolver cylinder.
1. The cylinder swing-out frame design used to expose the face of the cylinder,
2. The break-open frame design used to expose the face of the cylinder,
3. The loading gate on the frame used to expose one cylinder chamber.
The grenade launcher in this embodiment uses very large 40 mm cartridge. The large caliber size of the cartridge imposes a practical limit on the number of chambers the cylinder can have. These factors forced the grenade launcher in this embodiment to use a cylinder of only three chambers and also limited the practical options available for loading and unloading.
Swinging such a large cylinder out from the frame would the frame and cylinder cradle needed to hold the cylinder overly complex. The cylinder swing-out frame design would also drastically increase the overall weight of the grenade launcher.
The use of the break-open frame design to expose the cylinder face is impractical for two major reasons.
1. Break-open frames inherently weaken the strength of the frame. This is the major reason that today break-open frames are seldom used.
2. A break-open frames would limit the placement on the host gun. Only mounting to the side or top of the host gun would be practical.
The only practical solution is to use a loading gate. The only serious drawback to the loading gate is that only one cartridge can be loaded at a time. Since there are only three cartridges to be loaded this drawback is somewhat nullified. The loading gate design approach can provide full access to the chambers to load and unload the large caliber 40 mm grenade cartridge and do this without weakling the frame. The loading gate also allows the grenade launcher to be mounted on the bottom accessory rail of the host gun, which is the best of all possible mounting locations.
It is the object of the fourth launcher feature of this embodiment to provide a method to load and unload the grenade launcher without weakening the frame or increase the overall weight. The loading gate provides the best solution to obtain the lowest weight with the minimum of complexity while not sacrificing frame strength.
Mounting to the Automatic Gun, Launcher Feature #4 of this Embodiment
All grenade launcher mounts in use today require modifications too the host automatic gun they are attached to. These automatic gun modifications can and usually do require major work. After modification the mounting of the grenade launcher requires tools and usually requires an ordnance technician skilled in the art. After the grenade launcher is installed the user in the field cannot removed it from the automatic gun. Furthermore once grenade launcher has been removed from the host automatic gun it is not operational—meaning it cannot be fired independent of a host gun.
The envisioned grenade launcher in this embodiment is made to be operational when mounted on the automatic gun shown in this embodiment or as a stand-alone weapon. The grenade launcher in this embodiment is made to slide onto the bottom accessory rail of the automatic gun. The user without tools can mount of the grenade launcher and do the mounting while in the field. More importantly the user in the field can remove the grenade launcher from the host automatic gun without affecting either weapons.
It is the object of the fourth launcher feature of this embodiment to provide the user a fast and easy way to mount or remove the grenade launcher from the host automatic gun while in the field and do this without tools or special ordnance skills. Both the grenade launcher and the host automatic gun shown in this embodiment are fully functional when mounted together or independent of each other.
Complexity, Service and Weight, Launcher Feature #5 of this Embodiment
It is obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art that the weight of any grenade launcher must be as low as possible for a multitude of reasons. To make a grenade launcher of low weight it must be designed to be very simple and allow the use of low weight materials. The envisioned embodiment of the grenade launcher accomplished this by extensive use of components made from polymer and alloy materials assembled in a very simple design.
It is the object of the fifth launcher feature of this embodiment to provide a grenade launcher that uses polymer and alloy materials in a very small and a simple grenade launcher design. To provide a grenade launcher design that is simple keeps the overall weight and complexity of the grenade launcher as low as possible.
FIG. 39AA sectioned view of pistol grip fire control components assembled;
FIG. 39BB sectioned view of pistol grip feed drive components assembled;
FIG. 39CC sectioned view of pistol grip attachment components assembled;
1. Gun centerline axis, gun axis, bore axis: as used in this embodiment they all mean the same thing. The centerline axis of the bore is in the gun barrel and relative only at the instance in time the gun is fired.
2. Gun centerline axis, gun axis, bore axis: as used in this embodiment they all mean the same thing. The centerline axis of the bore is in the gun barrel and relative only at the instance in time the gun is fired.
3. Feed system: the entire mechanical means and all components needed to bring into the gun unfired ammunition and place those unfired cartridges in position for the bolt to chamber them into the barrel chamber.
4. Locked, lockup: a position wherein the barrel locking lug is secured into the bolt barrel locking recess to prevent relative separation. This position can be seen in
5. Fired position: a position of gun components at the moment of gun firing. This position can be seen in the
6. In battery, battery position, battery: a position of gun components similar to the fired position but before the cartridge has fired. The major difference between the fired position and the in battery position is the relative position of the hammer and firing pin. The in battery position can be seen in the
7. Feed drive: the mechanical means and components used to power the advancement of ammunition into the gun. The feed drive can be seen in
8. Feed advance: the mechanical means and components used to advance the ammunition inside the gun. Feed advance assemblies can be seen in
9. Chamber, barrel chamber, cylinder chamber: region of gun barrel or cylinder that contains the cartridge.
10. Chambering: the act of inserting an unfired cartridge into a chamber. This can be seen in the
11. Linked-belt, cartridge belt: the interlocked grouping of cartridge links around cartridges to form a linked-belt of ammunition of any length. This can be seen in the
12. Cartridge link: a component that attaches to the cartridge to form the linked-belt of ammunition. The cartridge link can be seen in the
13. Cartridge, shotshell, ammunition, and round: all of these terms as used in this embodiment mean the same. An assembly made up of a cartridge case, primer, propellant and projectile(s). The shotshell used in this embodiment is shown in
14. Cartridge case, fired case: both of these terms are used in this embodiment interchangeably although technically they are not the same. In this embodiment they all are given the same reference number.
15. Cartridge carrier: a feed system component that holds for transport and positioning within the magazine a single cartridge. A cartridge carrier can be seen in
16. Carrier chain, carrier loop, loop of carriers: a cartridge carrier can be linked together with other cartridge carriers to make a carrier chain. A carrier chain can be seen in
17. Extractor, case extractor, and cartridge extractor: a bolt component that extracts the case or cartridge from the chamber of the barrel. The case extractor can be seen in
18. Ejector: a gun component that ejects the case or cartridge from the gun. The ejector can be seen in
19. Case support: a bolt component that provides support to the case to ensure the case extractor remains fully engaged on the cartridge rim. The case support is shown in
20. Barrel bushing: a gun component that supports and centers the barrel tube in the receiver while allowing it to move freely along a predetermined path. The barrel bushing can be seen in
21. Gun charger, charger: a gun component that is used to pull the bolt and barrel back in such a way as to replicate firing of the gun. The gun charger can be seen in the
22. Case guide: a component in the bolt that limits the amount of vertical cartridge movement during chambering. The case guide can be seen in the
23. Cartridge guide: a component in the barrel assembly that limits the vertical movement of the cartridge nose during chambering. The cartridge guide can be seen in the
24. Cog, ratchet cog: a feed advance component that permits the rotation of the feed drive shaft in only one direction. The ratchet cog can be seen in
25. Loading cog: a feed advance component that prevents the back rotation of the feed drive as it is being reset during bolt counter-recoil travel. The loading cog is also used to hold the linked-belt in the feed cover. The loading cog can be seen in
26. Accessory rail: a gun component that permits the attachment of auxiliary equipment onto the gun. The accessory rail can be either part of the receiver or attached as a removable component. The bottom accessory rail and the accessory rails for the top and the sides of the automatic gun are shown in
27. Hold open, bolt hold-open: a gun component that holds the bolt at the rear of the receiver and just slightly forward of the maximum bolt recoil travel position. Usually the bolt hold-open is part of the fire control system. The bolt hold-open can be seen in
28. Fire control selector: a gun component that predetermines the gun firing mode from safe-semiautomatic-automatic. Usually the fire control selector is part of the fire control system. The fire control selector can be seen in
29. Disconnector: a gun component that disconnects the trigger from firing the gun after the trigger has been pulled. Usually the disconnector is mounted on the trigger as together they are components of the fire control system. The disconnector can be seen in
30. Auto-sear: a gun component that permits the gun to fire just before gun dwell time has ended. Usually the auto-sear is part of the fire control system. The auto-sear can be seen in
31. Pull length: a technical phrase meaning the distance from the face of the trigger to the aft surface of the shoulder stock.
32. Stow position: a technical phrase that in this embodiment describes the position of the shoulder stock when folded onto the side of the receiver to foreshorten the overall length of the automatic gun. The stow position for the folding shoulder stock can be seen in
33. Extended, deployed position: the converse of the stow position. When the folding shoulder stock is put into a stow position to then extended is to deploy the folding shoulder stock to a useable position. The extended position of the folding shoulder stock can be seen in
34. Functional group: this technical phrase means a collection of components that work together to provide a specific function or functional requirement.
35. Wet lubricants: compounds such as oil and grease along with other lubrications that are in either a fluid or paste form. Wet lubricants are contrasted to dry lubricants such as Teflon or graphite that are applied in a dry or powder form.
36. Selective fire: a automatic gun that can set to fire either automatic or semiautomatic fire.
37. Automatic: A gun that will continue to fire as long as the trigger is pulled and ammunition is available.
38. Semiautomatic: a gun that will fire only once when the trigger is pulled, requiring the trigger to be released and pulled again before the gun will fire again.
39. LMG: Light Machine Gun, used in this embodiment to mean a bi-pod fired automatic gun that usually feeds from a linked-belt of ammunition and firing from the open-bolt position.
40. MG: machine gun, used in this embodiment to mean a tripod or vehicle fired automatic gun that feeds from a linked-belt of ammunition and firing from the open-bolt position.
41. SAW: Squad Automatic Weapon, as used in this embodiment to mean a selective fired automatic gun firing from the shoulder or a bipod and feeding from a linked-belt or a box magazine and firing from the open-bolt position.
42. Assault rifle: used in this embodiment to mean a selective fired automatic gun feeding from a box or drum magazine and firing from the closed-bolt position.
43. Point-target weapon: a gun that is aimed to hit a specific point on a target.
44. Aimed fire: to aim the gun at a specific point on the target.
45. UCS: Urban Combat System. The UCS is shown in the
46. Hypervelocity projectiles: in this embodiment meaning projectiles that are launched at muzzle velocities greater than 5000 feet/second.
47. Burst-fire, controlled burst-fire: in this embodiment meaning a small number of rounds fired in automatic fire, usually a burst of 3 rounds. Usually this phrase is used to describe a short burst rounds fired at the moderate cyclic rate of 600-800 SPM. Controlled burst-fire can be repeated as fast as the user can pull the trigger and the supply of ammunition permits.
48. Dwell time, dwell; the travel distance the locked barrel and bolt unit travel in recoil before they unlock from each other. Conversely it is the distance the locked barrel and bolt unit will travel in counter-recoil before the gun fires. Dwell can be seen in
49. Impulse, cartridge impulse, firing impulse: in this embodiment this term shall mean the total force the fired cartridge exerts into the gun.
50. Belt pitch: the distance between two adjacent cartridges in a linked-belt. Belt pitch can be seen in
51. Cyclic rate, cyclic rate of fire, firing rate, Shots/Minute, SPM: in this embodiment these terms are interchangeable. A unit of measurement of how many rounds can be fired within one minute.
52. Serially fired: to fire one round after another in a burst. Usually this phrase is used to describe a short burst of three rounds fired at a cyclic rate greater than 1400 SPM.
53. P^h: Statistical notation for Hit Probability.
54. Bolt over-travel: the amount of bolt recoil travel beyond the distance that is needed to clear the aft face of the magazine. Bolt over-travel is shown in
55. Bi-directional rotation: to turn or rotate in both directions. The feed drive flipper does this and can be seen in
56. Directional rotation: to turn or rotate in only one direction. This is done by the feed drive shaft that can be seen in
57. Oscillatory rotation: to turn or rotate back and forth, to oscillate. The feed drive flipper and the feed ratchet both do this and can be seen in
58. Intermittent directional rotation: to intermittently rotate in one direction. This is done by the feed drive shaft shown in
59. Ring gear: a ring gear is outer gear member of a planetary gear clusters. The ring gear is a special gear having ring gear teeth on the inside face of a ring and not gear teeth on the outside face of a disk as found on normal gears. A ring gear is a feature on the feed drive flipper and can be seen on
60. Gear teeth: the teeth of the gear or a section of gear teeth used in a intermittent planetary gear cluster. Gear teeth are used on the feed ratchet and can be seen in
61. Dual sprocket magazine, multiple sprocket magazine: as used in this embodiment they mean the same and are interchangeable. A magazine having two or more feed sprockets to transport a cartridge carrier chain within the magazine.
62. Launcher, grenade launcher, and 40 mm launcher: in this embodiment these terms are interchangeable and mean a weapon that fires a grenade cartridge. The grenade launcher can be seen in
63. Stovepipe: this is a ordnance special meaning for a common word to refer a style of gun jam wherein the cartridge or cartridge case is sandwiched vertically between the face of the bolt or slide and the aft face of the barrel.
FIG. 39AA is a front sectionalized view of the pistol grip 400 showing assembled only the fire control components.
FIG. 39BB is a front sectionalized view of the pistol grip 400 showing assembled only feed drive components.
FIG. 39CC is a front sectionalized view of the pistol grip 400 showing assembled only pistol grip attachment components.
Operation of Gun,
In this embodiment the descriptions of gun functions have been broken into 4 sections to better understand how they each work and how they each relate to each other within the unique machine gun envisioned in this embodiment.
Part A, how the feed drive unit works.
Part B, how the 3 different feed advance assemblies work.
Operation: Section A—Basic Cycle of Gun Operation.
To better understand the basic cycle of gun operation and how the components within the automatic gun 900 relate to each other a special series of 37 sectionalized views starting at
Common to all these sectionalized views are the following special conditions:
When the gun is firing in automatic fire the auto-sear 419 releases the hammer 411 to fire the automatic gun 900—not the trigger assembly 415.
At the moment of firing the automatic gun 900 components are positioned as shown in
Shown in
Reference
Now reference
From this instance of time on the barrel body 505 and the bolt 200 lockup will be in recoil travel.
As shown in
Clearly seen in
The barrel assembly 500 guidance is shown in
Reference
Reference
As shown in
The bolt 200 guidance is shown in
As shown in
As shown in
As shown in
As shown in
As shown in
The driving spring 750A identified in
1. When firing from the closed-bolt the driving spring 750A must keep the locked bolt 200 and barrel 500 in battery.
2. When firing from the open-bolt the driving spring 750A must be strong enough to push the bolt 200 forward in counter-recoil and strip the fresh cartridge 950-0 from the feed advance assemblies, chamber it and then fire it after lockup dwell.
The barrel spring 503 has returned the barrel body 505 forward to battery. The bolt 200 is in free recoil and has begun to eject from the receiver the fired cartridge case 9504.
Shown in
1. The most demanding function is the powering of the feed system, which will be discussed in length in Section B.
2. The second but less energy demanding function is to re-cock the hammer 411 so it can fire the next cartridge 950-0.
Reference both
Envisioned in this embodiment case extraction and ejection is accomplished by two group of components located within two different major assemblies.
Case Extractor 208, and the Case Support 209, Component Parts of the Bolt 200
As envisioned in this embodiment the automatic gun 900 is not limited in using this style of extractor. The automatic gun 900 in this embodiment can also use either a style called a fixed extractor or the style called a T-bolt extractor; both of which are well-known extractor styles known to those of ordinary skill in the art.
As shown in
Ejector 105, Component Part of the Receiver Body 101
Clearly seen in
The ejector 105 shown in
This style of case ejection is well know to those of ordinary skill in the art and is usually referred to as a fixed ejector. The automatic gun 900 of this embodiment is not limited to use a fixed ejector. The automatic gun 900 in this embodiment can also use a spring-loaded ejector and other ejector styles that are known to those of ordinary skill in the art.
As shown in
Unlike other automatic guns in use today the automatic gun 900 in this embodiment does not use a receiver, a driving spring, or a bolt buffer to stop the recoil travel of its bolt. The Armalite AR18 assault rifle described in the Miller U.S. Pat. No. 3,318,192 characterizes the use of the receiver to stop the recoil travel of the bolt. The assault rifle described in the Sullivan U.S. Pat. No. 4,502,367 characterizes the use of the driving spring to stop the bolt. The US M16 assault rifle characterizes the use of a bolt buffer to stop the recoil travel of the bolt.
As shown in
The advantage of this unique method of stopping a bolt is that there is no spike recoil load from the impact of the stopping the bolt transferred into the receiver. The absents of bolt slap and other features discussed below means that as the automatic gun 900 in this embodiment fires there is no kick felt by the user shooting the gun. The user only feels a protracted push. The absence of recoil spikes not only makes the automatic gun 900 more comfortable to shoot but it also permits the automatic gun 900 to be controlled while firing in the automatic mode.
The unique recoil system that delivers to the user only a protracted push is made possible by the careful blending of three separate design features unique to the automatic gun 900 shown in this embodiment.
1. The first reason is because of the use of the short recoil operating action. The short recoil action allows the lockup to move in free recoil from the instance of firing. This free recoil prevents the transference of the firing spike load into the receiver 100 when the cartridge fires. In ALL gas-operated gun actions the lockup cannot recoil at the moment of firing because the barrel is fixed to the receiver. At the instance of cartridge firing the cartridge firing impulse is transmitted directly into the receiver as a firing spike load—and through the receiver onto the user shooting the gun. Spike loading from the cartridge firing impulse is present in all gas-operated gun actions; it is impossible not to have it or to stop it from occurring.
2. The second reason is because only the barrel spring 503 and not the receiver 100 stop the recoil of the barrel body 505. In the automatic gun 900 shown in this embodiment the barrel body 505 after it is unlocked from the bolt 200 is left to recoil freely until it is slowed down and eventually stopped by the barrel spring 503. Thus the recoil of the barrel body 505 is stopped without striking the receiver 100.
Unlike other short and long recoil operated gun actions the barrel body 505 of the automatic gun 900 shown in this embodiment does not produce spike loads when it is stopped in recoil travel.
3. Third reason is that the barrel body 505 and through it the barrel spring 503 stops the bolt 200 recoil travel. The receiver 100 does not stop the bolt 200 recoil travel thus preventing the occurrence of the bolt slap spike load that is common to almost all automatic guns.
Compare the placement of the feed drive flipper 4701 in
As shown in
Special note. Because the bolt 200 is in the open-bolt position without the cartridge 950-0 present the close-up views shown in
Reference back to
As shown in
Again as shown in
In counter-recoil travel of the bolt 200 will reset the feed drive flipper 470 as shown in
Reference
1. Shown in the close-up view
2. Shown in the close-up
The case extractor 208 and the case support 209 have dual roles. As shown in
As shown in the close-up view
3. Shown in the close-up view
4. Shown in
Close-up view
Close-up view
Close-up view
Close-up view
Close-up view
Reference
Shown in close-up view
As shown in close-up view
Close-up view
After lockup the remaining forward travel left to the bolt 200 and barrel 500 locked unit is called dwell and is shown in
Special Note on Basic Gun Cycle of Operation:
Only the single sprocket magazine 310 feed advance assembly was used in the sectionalized figure series
Operation: Section B—Introduction to the Gun Feed System.
This Section B covers the feed system and how it works. To aid clarity the description of how the feed system works has been divided into two parts:
1. Part A: describes the feed drive unit shown in
2. Part B: describes the three feed advance assemblies that are shown in
The feed system of the automatic gun 900 of this embodiment is a improvement of the feed system first described in the Rostocil U.S. Pat. No. 4,066,000. One of the principle claims of the Rostocil U.S. Pat. No. 4,066,000 was a feed system divided into a feed drive unit and a belt feed advance unit.
The division of the feed system into two separable functional units permitted the intact removal of the feed advance portion from the gun while permitting the feed drive portion to remain intact within the gun.
As described in the Rostocil U.S. Pat. No. 4,066,000 the removal of the feed advance unit permitted fast reloading of the machine gun with a linked-belt.
The feed system of this embodiment has both improved and expanded on this basic approach by adding the following unique components and features to the feed system first described in the Rostocil U.S. Pat. No. 4,066,000.
As shown in
1. Feed Cover 350 and the Ready Box 360 Shown in
The improved link-belt feed assembly that provides positive controls for both the linked-belt 370 and the cartridge link 371 permitting the use of shotshells in a linked-belt feed automatic gun 900 that is suitable for use as either a LMG or SAW.
As shown in
2. Single Sprocket Magazine 310 Shown Sectionalized in
The unique single sprocket magazine 310 uses the unique direct drive for transport power. Unlike other magazines the single sprocket magazine 310 does not use a magazine spring to transport ammunition within the magazine.
As shown in
3. Dual or Multiple Sprocket Magazine 320 Shown in
The new and unique dual sprocket magazines 320 uses the unique direct drive to power magazines of capacities greater than a single sprocket wheel can contain. The dual sprocket magazine is only presented in this embodiment as representative of the spirit of the design approach and in no way the limit of what can be done using this multiple sprocket design approach.
As shown in
As shown in
As shown in
Operation: Section B Gun Feed System; Part A Feed Drive Unit:
As shown in the view
As shown in
Obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art the feed drive unit is driven by the recoil stroke of the bolt 200 and reset on the counter-recoil stoke.
Feed Cam Path 2061
The feed cam path 2061 that is shown in
As shown in
As shown in
Feed Drive Unit Planetary Gears
In this embodiment the feed drive flipper 470 transcribes an arc of approximately 30 degrees—approximately 15 degrees on each side of the gun vertical centerline axis.
Shown from
After magnification the original 30 degrees of the feed drive flipper 470 rotation has been changed into approximately 64 degrees of the feed ratchet 480 rotation. As clearly shown in
Again in the
The close-up view
Also shown in the close-up view
As shown in
As shown in
Operation: Section B Gun Feed System, Part B Feed Advance System
As described in the introduction to section B, there are three different feed advance assemblies for the automatic gun 900 shown in this embodiment. The three feed advance assemblies are:
1. The single sprocket magazine 310.
2. The dual (or multiple) sprocket magazine 320.
3. The feed cover 350 & the ready box 360 using the linked-belt 370.
Common to the entire feed advance assemblies described in this embodiment are the following unique features.
Cartridge Retention:
As shown in
Cartridge Retention Clamps
As shown in
The cartridge retention clamps 3147 serve the same function as the feed lips of a magazine or the retaining hoops on a side stripping metal cartridge link. The major difference in the design in this embodiment is that the cartridge retention clamps 3147 are molded from a polymer material.
As shown in
Cartridge Rim Retainer
The cartridge retainer 3145 is a grove that is molded into the aft surface of the feed sprocket wheel 314, the cartridge carrier 323 or the cartridge link 371.
As shown in
When the round is pushed forward both the cartridge retainer 3145 and the rim feed ramp 3143 works together to cam the cartridge 950-0 up and out of the cartridge retentions clamps 3147.
The cartridge rim retainer assures that the correct location of the shotshell is accomplished regardless of the length of shotshell used. This is because both the cartridge retainer 3145 and the cartridge retention clamps 3147 work together to hold the cartridge in and located it in the correct relative location within the feed sprocket wheel 314, the cartridge carrier 323, or the cartridge link 371.
Holding the same and correct location of the cartridge head 9502 from one shot to the next is very important for reliable feeding. This critical function is made even more important because the length of the shotshell can vary from under 2¾-inches to as much as 3½ inches.
In the automatic gun 900 of this embodiment any mix of shotshell lengths can be loaded into the feed system at any one time. The variable length of the shotshells used does not affect the gun in this embodiment because the cartridge retainer 3145 locates the rim of the shotshell in the same location for every round loaded.
Rim Feed Ramp:
As shown in,
The sequence of three consecutive views
Shown in
The rim feed ramp 3143 feature provides two critical functions.
As shown in
As
It is common design practice in other belt feed automatic guns that use the push forward or side stripping link design that the fresh cartridge is fully stripped from the link retention clamps before feed ramping of the cartridge starts. In practice this has resulted in a minimum distance from the front of the link-belt to the barrel chamber face of 1 to 2 cartridge lengths. Using the rim feed ramp 3143 the automatic gun 900 of this embodiment shortened this distance to less than one-half (½) cartridge length.
Foreshortening the cartridge 950-0 ramping distance and the style of short recoil the bolt 200 to the barrel 500 lock system used in the automatic gun 900 of this embodiment has permitted the foreshortening of bolt 200 recoil travel. The gun of this embodiment requires the bolt 200 to recoil of only 1½ cartridge lengths to obtain cyclic operation. Most LMG's require 4 to 6 cartridge lengths of bolt recoil to obtain cyclic operation.
The shorter bolt 200 recoil stroke used in the automatic gun 900 of this embodiment directly translated into a high rate of fire obtained with a low bolt 200 recoil velocity. The lower bolt 200 recoil velocity permitted the use of polymers to fabricate functional components that otherwise would have had to be fabricated from metal.
Loading and Unloading the Feed Advance Assemblies.
The same procedure is used to load the automatic gun 900 in this embodiment with the single sprocket magazine 310
1. First check that the automatic gun 900 has been cleared of any feed advance assemblies. If there is a feed advance assembly installed remove it before proceeding. Removal of feed advance assemblies is covered in the unloading section located at the end of this sub-section.
2. As shown in
3. Reference
4. As shown in
5. Shown in
6. As shown in
7. Inserting the feed advance assemblies vertically into the magazine well zone 1007 cams back into the pistol grip 400 the feed drive shaft 486.
8. As shown in the close-up view
9. Shown in the close-up view
10. As shown in
The automatic gun 900 is now loaded and ready to be fire from the open-bolt position, or the fire control selector arm 4165 rotated forward to fire the automatic gun in the semiautomatic fire.
Unloading.
To unload any of the feed advance assemblies from the automatic gun 900 the magazine release lever 487 as shown in
Feed advance assemblies can be removed from the automatic gun 900 at any time. Feed advance assemblies can be removed loaded with ammunition or empty, with the bolt 200 in either the open-bolt or closed-bolt position.
Direct Drive.
The magazine assemblies in this embodiment do not require magazine springs to operate. The automatic gun 900 directly powers all versions of feed advance assemblies shown in this embodiment. Not requiring a magazine spring is unique to all drum magazines and box magazines in use today.
The feed advance magazine assemblies of this embodiment use only the feed drive unit to provide direct drive power.
Direct drive means that there is no magazine spring to weaken or break—either of which will render the magazine useless.
Loading Cog.
Shown in
The loading cog 317 is used to permit the feed sprocket wheel 314 or the feed sprocket 308 to rotate in only one direction. In all feed advance assemblies the loading cog 317 is located on the upper left side of the feed advance housing. The loading cog 317 is pushed down by the loading cog spring 317A. From the down position it blocks the back rotation of the feed sprocket 308 or the feed sprocket wheel 314. Blocking back rotation of either the feed sprocket wheel 314 or the feed sprocket 308 permits the feed drive unit discussed above to reset as the bolt 200 moves forward in counter-recoil.
Feed Advance Assembly—the Single Sprocket Magazine 310.
As seen in
As shown in
As shown in
Loading and Unloading the Single Sprocket Magazine 310
As shown in
To unload the single sprocket magazine 310 the cartridge 950-0 is pulled up and out of the cartridge retention clamp 3147. Then the feed sprocket wheel 314 is hand advanced to permit the removal of the next cartridge 950-0. This sequence is repeated until the single sprocket magazine 310 is empty.
Polymer Component Fabrication
Unlike the feed cover described in the Rostocil U.S. Pat. No. 4,066,000 that was made from metal, the single sprocket magazine 310 shown in this embodiment is molded entirely from polymer materials. Only the 2 springs used are made from metal. This is possible because the components used in the single sprocket magazine are not designed to be machined from metal but rather molded from polymers.
The strength requirements for the feed advance assemblies are less due to the lower bolt 200 velocity made possible by the use of the rim feed ramp 3143 and lockup design. The use of polymer materials for the fabrication of the components of the single sprocket magazine 310 permit it to be low in weight, low in fabrication cost, and able to withstand extreme environmental conditions.
Feed Advance Assembly; the Dual Sprocket Magazine 320
As shown in
As shown in
To power the dual sprocket magazine 320 the feed drive shaft 486 plugs into the hex drive socket 3081 of the top feed sprocket 308.
Shown in the view
The bolt ram 2068 shown in
Loading and Unloading the Dual Sprocket Magazine 320
As shown in
Since the top and bottom feed sprockets 308 are timed together by the timing belt 635-1 the rotation of the top feed sprocket 308 will also rotate the bottom feed sprocket 308 and move the entire carrier chain 3231. This loading sequence is repeated until the dual sprocket magazine 320 is loaded.
To unload the dual sprocket magazine 320 the cartridge 950-0 is pulled up and out of the cartridge carrier 323. Then the carrier chain is advanced to permit the removal of the next cartridge. This unloading sequence is repeated until the dual sprocket magazine 320 is empty.
Polymer Component Fabrication
Unlike the feed cover described in the Rostocil U.S. Pat. No. 4,066,000 that was made from metal, the dual sprocket magazine 320 shown in this embodiment is molded entirely from polymer materials. Only the 2 springs used are made from metal. This is possible because the components used in the dual sprocket magazine were not designed to be machined from metal but rather molded from polymers.
The strength requirements for the feed advance assemblies are less due to the lower bolt 200 velocity made possible by the use of the rim feed ramp 3143 and lockup design. The use of polymer materials for the fabrication of the components of the dual sprocket magazine 320 permit it to be low in weight, low in fabrication cost, and able to withstand extreme environmental conditions.
Feed Advance Assembly; Feed Cover 350, Ammo Box 361, and Ready Box 360
The link-belt feed system shown in this embodiment is an improvement on the basic design concepts described in the Rostocil U.S. Pat. No. 4,066,000. In that patent when the feed cover was loaded and attached to the ammo can it made what was called a ready box. The feed cover 350, the ammo box 361, and the ready box 360 of this embodiment take the original design concepts as described in the Rostocil U.S. Pat. No. 4,066,000 and add new features and new components to greatly improve the versatility, performance, cost of fabrication, and serviceability of the link-belt feed system.
For clarity this explanation of the link-belt feed is divided into two Sections.
The Feed Cover 350
The basic design concept of the Rostocil U.S. Pat. No. 4,066,000 was to use a removable feed cover that contained a feed sprocket to advance a link-belt of from an attached ammo box. In the Rostocil U.S. Pat. No. 4,066,000 this assembled unit of the feed cover and ammo box was called the ready box.
However how the feed cover 350 works and the addition of the secondary link-belt sprocket 354, the loading cog 317, and cartridge link 371 guidance and control features are all unique to the feed cover 350 shown in this embodiment.
The feed cover 350 components of this embodiment are molded from polymer materials, and this fabrication method different from the metal feed cover components described in the Rostocil U.S. Pat. No. 4,066,000.
The following covers the new components and unique features of the feed cover 350 shown in this embodiment.
Secondary Link-Belt Sprocket 354:
The feed sprocket in the original feed cover Rostocil U.S. Pat. No. 4,066,000 brought a metal link-belt into the feed cover directly over a single pivot point—the feed sprocket—to presented a fresh cartridge for ramming in the feed sprocket 12 o'clock position.
The problem with the Rostocil U.S. Pat. No. 4,066,000 approach was the cartridge links of the first and second cartridges were not flat with each other but draped over the sprocket at 30 degrees.
The 30 degrees angle between links occur because the basic disintegrating link design approach pivots the link around the cartridge centerline. The disintegrating link uses two sets of clamping hoops to bridge between two cartridges to form a linked-belt of cartridges. The distance between these two cartridge hoops define the belt pitch, which is defined as the distance between two adjacent rounds.
The problem with using a single feed sprocket as the axis of pivot for the link-belt being fed is that the two links that clamp onto the cartridge being fed do not align together their retention hoop clamp openings. When using a feed sprocket with 6 cartridge pockets as in the original Rostocil U.S. Pat. No. 4,066,000, the mis-alignment is 30 degrees.
To permit the two links to align their hoop openings then either one of the two following design approaches must be used:
1. First design approach is represented in the HK21 machine gun by HECKLER & KOCH. In the HK21 the feed sprocket is offset from the gun vertical centerline by one link-belt pitch. From the offset location the feed sprocket pulls in the link-belt and then pushes on a horizontal plane a fresh cartridge over to the gun centerline. This design approach involves putting the cartridge to be fed on top of or under a spring-loaded feed roller to push the fresh cartridge either up or down into a feed tray. Once in the feed tray the bolt strips the cartridge from the two sets of aligned link hoops. In the HK21 the feed sprocket also need to be spring-loaded vertically to push the fresh linked cartridge into the feed tray.
The major problem with this design approach is that the feed sprocket must be offset one belt pitch or more from the gun vertical centerline, forcing the feed drive unit in the gun to be offset by the same amount. The offset of the feed drive unit in the gun and requiring the spring loading of both the feed sprocket and the feed roller all goes to making this style of sprocket feed complex. It also can increase the overall width of the receiver. In a gun firing a 12 gauge shotshells the head diameter is over 24 mm and the increased in receiver width to use this design approach would be prohibitive.
2. The second design approach is to have the cartridge link clock one of the hoop openings to match the mis-alignment. In a 6 position feed sprocket that would mean a clocking of 30 degrees from vertical. If clocked 30 degrees then at the 12 o-clock position on the feed sprocket the two cartridge link hoops would be in alignment.
The problem with this design approach is that the strength of the cartridge link is compromised. When the linked-belt is pulled it will come apart because the link hoop that is offset from the vertical when pulled is no stronger than the side striping force.
This limitation becomes crucial when the cartridge link is molded from polymer materials. The strength and modulus of polymer material cannot match the strength and modulus of spring steel. Thus polymer cartridge links are inherently weaker than comparable links made from steel. If a polymer cartridge link is to be used then offsetting any of the retention clamp openings from the vertical is not a prudent design approach.
So what is left if the above two design approaches cannot be used?
The sectionalized view
Loading Cog 317
Shown in the sectionalized view
The original Rostocil U.S. Pat. No. 4,066,000 used a steel flat spring to push down onto the cartridge that was to be rammed forward by the bolt. When the feed sprocket rotated the steel flat spring was pushed up by the incoming cartridge and then remained on top of the fresh cartridge just past the round centerline—at approximately the 11 o-clock position. The steel flat spring did not hold the link after the round was striped because it worked directly only on the round and not the link. Because there was no way to disengage it unloading the feed cover was tedious.
As shown in
The loading cog 317 prevents the feed sprocket 308 and through it the feed drive shaft 486 from back rotation during bolt 200 counter-recoil, allowing the feed ratchet 480 to reset.
For unloading the loading cog is simply depressed to allow the linked-belt 370 of ammunition to be pulled free of the feed cover 350.
Polymer Link 371
Shown in
As shown in
The size of the ammo box 361 determines the number of shotshell that can be loaded. However in the linked-belt 370 can also be fed into the feed cover 350 from anywhere outside of the gun through what is know to those skilled in the art as a flex feed chute. Through the flex feed chute the linked-belt 371 could be drawn from a large storage box containing many rounds. Such installations could be made for use on any type of vehicle or ground installation.
The trunion hole 1002 as shown in
Shown in
Link Guidance and Control; the Front Link Guide 3716 and the Aft Link Guide 3717
Another improvement on the original Rostocil U.S. Pat. No. 4,066,000 is the addition of link guidance provisions to control the position of the cartridge link 371 within the feed cover 350.
The metal link used in Rostocil U.S. Pat. No. 4,066,000 had no provision to control its location other than the cartridge it was clamped onto. In the Rostocil U.S. Pat. No. 4,066,000 after the cartridge was striped from the link there is nothing to hold, position, or control the location of the metal cartridge link.
As shown in
The front link guides 3716 shown in
Link Thrust Grove 3715
As shown in
When the cartridge 950-0 is being stripped from the two links that lie in the cartridge pocket 3142 there is a strong cocking force applied to both cartridge links. The stripping force tries to cock them out of alignment with each other.
The metal link used in the Rostocil U.S. Pat. No. 4,066,000 had no provision to support the links as the cartridge was being stripped out of the two metal cartridge links. Other than putting support up in front of the link there was no attempt made to stabilized the two links in the cartridge pocket. This is common practice for most disintegrating link-belt feed systems.
Shown in
As shown in
Link Eject Cover 358
Shown in
The link eject cover 358 is spring-loaded with the link eject cover spring 358A to stay open and held closed by a detent. The cartridge link 371 when it is being ejected pushes the link eject cover 358 open so the cartridge link 371 can clear the feed cover 350. After firing the link eject cover 358 can be closed by hand.
Polymer Component Fabrication
Unlike the metal feed cover described in the Rostocil U.S. Pat. No. 4,066,000 the feed cover 350 shown in this embodiment is fabricated from polymer materials. Only the four springs used are made from metal. This is possible because the components used in the feed cover 350 were designed to be molded from polymers.
The strength requirements for the feed advance assemblies are less due to the lower bolt 200 velocity made possible by the use of the rim feed ramp 3143 and lockup design. The use of polymer materials for the fabrication of the components of the feed cover 350 permit it to be low in weight, low in fabrication cost, and able to withstand extreme environmental conditions.
The Ammo Box 361 and the Ready Box 360
Loading the Feed Cover to Make the Ready Box
As shown in
As shown in
Quick Attachment of the Feed Cover 350 to the Ammo Box 361
The creation of the ready box 360 shown in
The basic problem with the design concept of the Rostocil U.S. Pat. No. 4,066,000 was the attachment method used to secure the ammo box to the feed cover depended upon components that could be misplaced or lost.
As shown in
Attachment of the feed cover 350 onto the ammo box 361 is shown in
The assembly procedure is both simple and quick. As shown in
Vertical Loading and Unloading of the Ready Box 360
An improvement to the Rostocil U.S. Pat. No. 4,066,000 is that the feed cover 350 of this embodiment is loaded into the gun from the bottom of the receiver 100 and not from the side.
The problem with loading the feed cover 350 into the automatic gun 900 from the side is that it cannot be removed or installed from the automatic gun 900 unless the bolt 200 is in the open-bolt position. Bottom insertion permits the feed cover 350 to be removed from the automatic gun 900 regardless of the position of the bolt 200.
The Improved Ammo Box 361
The ammo box 361 shown in
Unlike the ammo box described in Rostocil U.S. Pat. No. 4,066,000 the ammo box 361 in this embodiment can be used over and over again in the field. As shown in
As shown in
Operation: Section C: Gun Fire Control System
The function of the fire control system is to set the automatic gun 900 mode of fire. The modes of fire are:
1. Automatic fire. The automatic gun 900 will continue to fire as long as the trigger 415 is pulled and there exist ammunition in the feed system. When firing automatic the bolt 200 is stopped and fired from the open-bolt position.
2. Semiautomatic fire. The automatic gun 900 will fire only the single cartridge 950-0 for each pull of the trigger 415. When firing semiautomatic the bolt 200 is stopped and fired from the closed-bolt position.
3. Safe. The automatic gun 900 will not fire when the trigger 415 is pulled. The trigger 415 is blocked from movement and the bolt hold-open 413 is blocked from movement. Safe mode will lock the bolt 200 in the closed-bolt position.
As shown in
As shown in
Rotate the fire control selector arm 4165 forward and the automatic gun 900 is positioned to only fire semiautomatic.
Rotate the fire control selector arm 4165 vertical and the automatic gun 900 is positioned to only fire automatic.
Rotate the fire control selector arm 4165 aft and the automatic gun 900 is safe. Both the trigger 415 and the bolt hold-open 413 are blocked from movement.
The fire control selector 416 can be pulled from the pistol grip 400 by the user and re-installed from either the left or right side of the pistol grip 400. This permits the fire control selector 416 to be used by either left-hand or right-hand users.
When the fire control selector 416 is installed in either the left or right side of the pistol grip 400 the direction the fire control selector arm 4165 for the three different fire mode positions does not change. Thus the user will know that to safe the automatic gun 900 the fire control selector arm 4165 rotated aft—regardless of which side of the pistol grip 400 the fire control selector 416 is installed.
The ability to change from left-hand to right-hand operation using a simple assembly and easily removed and changed by the user is very different from current assault rifles.
Current assault rifles can be characterized by the Sullivan U.S. Pat. No. 4,475,437 and the Armalite AR18 assault rifle described in the Miller U.S. Pat. No. 3,318,192. Both of these assault rifles cannot change the fire control selector from the right side to the left side nor can the fire control components be removed from the receiver for field maintenance.
By changing the placement of the fire control selector slots 4163 cut into the fire control selector body 4161 the relative position of the fire control selector arm 4165 of any mode of fire can be changed. By simply rotating the fire control selector arm 4165 the mode of fire can be changed.
Furthermore by arranging the placement of the fire control selector slots 4163 cut into the fire control selector body 4161 the fire control selector 416 can be made to function with the same relative rotation from either side of the pistol grip 400.
In either automatic or semiautomatic positions when the trigger 415 is pulled it does two functions.
1. Trigger 415 movement will release the hammer 411.
2. Trigger 415 movement will pull down the bolt hold-open 413.
If the bolt 200 is in the open-bolt position the downward movement of the bolt hold-open 413 will releases the bolt 200 to move forward in counter-recoil travel.
Automatic Fire
1. Rotate the fire control selector arm 4165 to vertical.
2. Pull the trigger 415. This movement rotates the trigger tang 4151 upward into the slot cut into the fire control selector body 4161.
3. Pulling the trigger 415 also pulls the bolt hold-open 413 down to releases the bolt 200 to move forward in counter-recoil.
4. Pulling the trigger 415 also release the hammer trigger sear 4115 from the trigger hammer sear 4155 to allow the hammer 411 to rotate slightly forward. Continued rotation of the hammer 411 is stopped by the auto-sear hammer sear 4195.
5. Final dwell movement of the locked bolt 200 going into battery will rotate the auto-sear hammer sear 4195 releasing the hammer 411 to fall and strike the firing pin 220. The automatic gun 900 fires.
6. After firing the recoil of the bolt 200 re-cocks the hammer 411 and resets the auto-sear 419 so it can engage the hammer 411 as soon as the bolt 200 turns around and goes into counter-recoil travel.
7. Final dwell movement of the locked bolt 200 going into battery will once again rotate the auto-sear 419 forward releasing the hammer 411 to fall and fire the automatic gun 900.
The automatic firing cycle will continue as long as the trigger 415 is pulled and there remains ammunition in the feed system.
This is made possible because cut into the fire control selector body 4161 of the fire control selector 416 are the fire control selector slots 4163 that permit only the trigger tang 4151 of the trigger 415 and the bolt hold-open 413 to move into the fire control selector body 4161 after the trigger 415 has been pulled.
As shown in
Blocking the disconnector 417 from functioning permits the hammer 411 to rotate slightly up after the bolt 200 cocked it. This slight upward rotation by the hammer 411 brings it out of any potential engagement with the trigger 415 or the disconnector 417. Thus the auto-sear 419 will be the only component to stop further forward rotation of the hammer 411.
Semiautomatic Fire
1. Rotate the fire control selector arm 4165 forward.
2. Pull the trigger 415. This movement rotates the trigger tang 4151 of the trigger 415 upward into the slot cut into the fire control selector body 4161.
3. Pulling the trigger 415 also rotates the bolt hold-open 413 down.
4. Pulling the trigger 415 also releases the hammer 411 from the trigger hammer sear 4155 and allows the hammer 411 to rotate forward to strike the firing pin 220.
5. When the automatic gun 900 is fired from the closed-bolt position the auto-sear 419 has already been rotated forward by the act of closing of the bolt and is thus out of engagement with the hammer 411. So when the hammer 411 falls after being released by the trigger hammer sear 4155 the auto-sear 419 will not stop it from striking the firing pin 220.
6. The automatic gun 900 fires a single round.
7. The bolt 200 goes into recoil and re-cocks the hammer 411.
8. Since the trigger 415 has been pulled aft the trigger hammer sear 4155 cannot engage the hammer trigger sear 4115 when the trigger 415 is held aft.
9. However fire control selector 416 has rotated into alignment a slot for the disconnector tang 4171 to move up. As shown in
10. The trigger cam pin 642 is still holding the bolt hold-open trigger hole 4131 down so the bolt 200 returns forward chambering the fresh cartridge 950-0 and finishing lockup and lockup dwell. However the automatic gun 900 will not fire.
11. As shown in
12. The trigger 415 must be released to be allowed to rotate forward.
13. As shown in
14. Forward rotation of the trigger 415 also moves the trigger hammer sear 4155 back and into potential engagement with the hammer trigger sear 4115.
15. After the disconnector hammer sear 4175 releases the hammer disconnector sear 4117 to rotate the hammer 411 forward the trigger hammer sear 4155 stops further forward rotation by the hammer 411.
16. The trigger 415 is once again pulled to start the firing cycle over. To shoot the automatic gun 900 the trigger 415 must be pulled and then released and then pulled again for each shot.
Safe Mode
1. The fire control selector arm 4165 is rotated aft.
2. As shown in shown in
3. As shown in shown in
4. As shown in shown in
5. When the automatic gun 900 is in the safe mode the fire control selector 416 can be rotated to either the semiautomatic or automatic mode of firing.
Unique to this embodiment are the simple design of the fire control components and the high use of polymers to mold most of the components. Also unique is the housing within the removable pistol grip 400 all of the fire control components and the ability to change from left-hand or right-hand operation by changing only one component.
Operation: Section D: Gun Special Features
Within this Section the following special features are discussed:
1. Folding shoulder stock 700.
2. Flechette 980 loading into the 3½-inch shotshell 950-1.
Gun Special Feature Section D—Folding Shoulder Stock 700
Deployment of the Folding Shoulder Stock 700:
As shown in
The folding shoulder stock latch 703 and the folding shoulder stock latch spring 703A are shown in
As shown in
Stowing the Folding Shoulder Stock 700
Shown in
Removal or Installation of the Folding Shoulder Stock 700
Gun Special Feature Section D—Flechette 980 Loaded 3½ Inch Shotshell 950-1
The flechette 980 is used in the 3½-inch shotshell 950-1 of this embodiment and shown in
Flechette Chisel Point Nose 9805:
The flechette chisel point nose 9805 on the flechette 980 is shown in
The flechette chisel point nose 9805 induces a pitching moment into the flechette 980 when there is a medium change in flight medium. When the flechette chisel point nose 9805 enters the target while the flechette tail fins 9803 are still outside that medium there is pitching moment put on the flechette body 9801 that force the flechette to divert from the original flight axis. The result is simple, the flechette chisel point nose 9805 makes the flechette 980 turn and tumble in the target and not just pass straight through—as common to the flechettes in use today. The amount of angle on the flechette chisel point nose 9805 is not critical and can vary greatly.
Flechette Tail Fin 9803 has a Helix
The reason for wanting the flechette to only roll about the flight axis is because no flechette can be made perfectly symmetric. Some feature on the flechette 980 will be out of symmetry. ANY feature out of symmetry will induce a divergence from the flight axis to cause the flechette to either hook or slice—to use golf terms—as the flechette travels down range.
Usually this divergence is because no set of flechette tail fins can be made perfectly symmetric—and a non-symmetric fin or fins will cause the flechette to diverge from the flight axis in free flight. This means that the flechette cluster 952 when launched will diverge in an ever-increasing cone—like the mouth of a trumpet—as they travel down range. This translates into a impact pattern diameter greater than it should be.
To reduce this ever increasing divergence the helix on the flechette tail fins 9803 causes the flechette 980 roll about its flight axis. Thus the divergence induced by the flechette non-symmetric feature(s) will be contained within the roll of the flechette 980 as a spiraling helical flight path—a corkscrew style flight path. Even a slow roll of the flechette 980 will keep the flechette cluster 952 in a tighter group—thus a smaller pattern diameter.
Flechette Sabot 951
Shown in
Grenade Launcher Operation,
Section 1. Grenade launcher basic operation. To understand how the grenade launcher assembly 8000 is made and operates.
Section 2. Grenade launcher double-action lock, a detail discussion. To understand how the launcher double-action lock works and is made a special series of nine sectionalized views
Section 3. Mounting grenade launcher. To understand how the grenade launcher 8000 attaches to the bottom accessory rail 184 of the automatic gun 900, four sectionalized views
Section 4. Grenade launcher loading and unloading ammunition. To understand how the grenade launcher is loaded-unloaded three sectionalized views
Section 5. Grenade launcher special features. Two unique special features are discussed:
1. The grenade launcher cannot fire unless the cylinder 8380 is in correct alignment with the launcher barrel 8450.
2. The cylinder 8380 can be hand rotated either clockwise or counter clockwise.
Common to ALL Sectionalized Views are the Following Special Viewing Conditions.
Section 1. Grenade Launcher Basic Operation
After loading, which is covered in Section 4 and shown in
The launcher trigger 8233 is pulled aft. As shown in
Then as shown in
After firing the launcher trigger 8233 is released. As shown in
Section 2. Grenade Launcher Double-Action Lock, a Detail Discussion
Launcher Double-Action Lock
The close-up view
In
The close-up view in
Grenade Launcher Double-Action Lock
Overall view
Close-up view
Grenade Launcher Double-Action Lock
The overall view
The close-up view
Grenade Launcher Double-Action Lock
The overall view
The overall view
The close-up view
The following forward movement of the launcher trigger 8233 will permit the launcher sear hammer face 82341 to reset in front of the launcher hammer sear 82321, making the grenade launcher 8000 ready for the next firing.
Section 3. Grenade Launcher Mounting
The overall view
As shown in the close-up view
The launcher latches 8236 stop the grenade launcher from moving forward off the bottom accessory rail 184. The launcher buffer 8416 stops the grenade launcher 8000 from further aft movement and buffers the grenade launcher 8000 firing recoil loads.
To remove the grenade launcher 8000 from the bottom accessory rail 184 the launcher latch release lever 8212 is depressed to release the launcher latches 8236 from engagement with the bottom accessory rail latch notch 1841 and then slide the grenade launcher 8400 forward off the bottom accessory rail 184.
Section 4. Grenade Launcher Loading and Unloading
The overall right side view
The loading and ejection sequence follows:
1. As shown in
2. Again as shown in
3. As shown in
4. After ejection of the 40 mm NATO grenade cartridge case 89501 release the launcher ejector screw knob 8614 and the launcher ejector return spring 8386A that is shown in
5. As shown in
6. Swing the loading gate 8215 closed as shown in
Section 5. Grenade Launcher Special Features
As can be seen from the foregoing, the present embodiment provides a automatic gun, a grenade launcher, and a improved flechette shotshell integrated into a improved weapon system called the Urban Combat System that is optimized for urban combat use that, compared to its conventional counterparts, provides less complex construction, reduced component fabrication cost, substantially improved field service ability for both the automatic gun and the grenade launcher, and markedly reduces the automatic gun's firing recoil loads to thereby correspondingly improve the automatic gun's controllability in automatic fire.
While the automatic gun of the present embodiment has been representatively illustrated and described as being a weapon fired and supported by a person, it will be readily appreciated by those of skill in this particular art that it also can be operatively fired and supported on a variety of aircraft and ground support structures if desired.
While the grenade launcher of the present embodiment has been representatively illustrated and described as being the grenade launcher that can be fired while mounted on a host weapon, it will be readily appreciated by those of skill in this particular art that the grenade launcher can also be fired from and supported on a variety of mounts including but not limited to operatively fired independent of any host weapon if desired.
Additionally, while the principles of the present embodiment have been illustratively incorporated in the automatic gun that fires shotshell cartridges, it will be appreciated that such principles could also be incorporated in a variety of other types and sizes of automatic guns if desired.
Additionally, while the principles of the present embodiment have been illustratively incorporated in the multiple shot grenade launcher firing grenade cartridges, it will be appreciated that such principles could also be incorporated in a variety of other types and sizes of weapons firing various types and sizes of cartridges if desired.
The foregoing detail description is to be clearly understood as being given by way of illustration and example only, the sprit and scope of the present embodiment being limited solely by the appended claims.
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| Number | Date | Country | |
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| 20120144712 A1 | Jun 2012 | US |
