Micro-precision timed firing handgun

Abstract

A handgun of the drop barrel type has an over-length firing pin coupled with a "pile-driving" barrel action that permits the firing of rifle load cartridges. A micro-precision timing sequence of the action causes the rearwardly propelled cartridge disposed in the floating drop barrel chamber to strike the fixed firing pin while the barrel is still in its rearwardly moving direction. In the preferred form of the invention a spring driven actuator sleeve surrounding the barrel interiorly of a receiver tube propels the barrel rearwardly such that the cartridge is ignited and the bullet discharges from the barrel prior to the seating of the barrel against a breech plate that is integral with the gun frame. Gases escaping and expanding from the cartridge are captured by the barrel and actuator sleeve and cooperate with the inertia created by the falling barrel to lock and seal the barrel chamber against the breech plate. After the firing sequence is completed with the bullet leaving the barrel the pressure drops to near zero and a second spring pulls the barrel forward, the actuator sleeve having already been returned to its cocked condition by the expanding gases. Structure is also disclosed which may be used to utilize expanding gases from a discharging shell in equalizing the pressure on the cartridge and a specially configured firing pin is also disclosed to aid in the ejection of a spent cartridge. A second form of the handgun has a barrel that is hand actuated as opposed to a normal trigger assembly and a third form of the invention has a trigger operated action but does not provide for the utilization of the gases from the discharged cartridge in recocking the firearm.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.