US 4,663,875 AGranted

Rifle handguard assembly having outer shell with outer and inner liners

AssigneeColt Industries Inc.

InventorHenry J. Tatro

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Abstract

A generally round handguard assembly (10) for a rifle barrel (18) has substantially identical bottom and top mating sections (26, 28). The handguard assembly has a shell with an upper and lower row of vent holes (36) formed by two shell sections (31), an outer liner, formed by two outer liner sections (35), with upper and lower rows of vent holes (58) and an inner liner, formed by two inner liner sections (33), with upper and lower pairs of laterally opposed rows of vent holes. An outer annular volume (94), an intermediate annular volume (92) and an inner annular volume (90), which are in fluid communication, are defined within the shell by its inner periphery and the liners. Air flow in the inner volume cools the barrel and gas tube (22) and air flow in the outer and intermediate volume maintains the shell at a reasonable temperature during repeated firings.

Claims6

Dependent claims

A handguard assembly for a rifle barrel comprising:

a generally cylindrical shell;
a generally cylindrical outer liner mounted in the shell in spaced relationship thereto such that an outer annular volume is defined between the inner periphery of the shell and the outer liner;
a generally cylindrical inner liner mounted in the shell in spaced relationship to the outer liner such that an intermediate annular volume is defined between the inner liner and the outer liner and an inner volume is defined by the inner liner;
first means to permit cooling air to flow from outside of the shell to the outer annular volume and heated air to flow from the outer annular volume to outside of the shell;
second means to permit air to flow from the outer annular volume to the intermediate annular volume and from the intermediate annular volume to the outer annular volume;
and
third means to permit air to flow from the intermediate annular volume to the inner volume and from the inner volume to the intermediate annular volume.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.