Indexing helical feed magazine
AssigneeCalico Light Weapon Systems
InventorJames C. David
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An improved magazine for fragile projectiles such as pellets or paint balls, wherein the front end of a rotating drive member is formed with elongated fingers to form individual chambers to feed the projectiles one by one out of the magazine synchronously with the firing of the gun. An escapement member operated by some portion of the gun permits rotation of the carrier within the housing of the magazine, one projectile distance at time, to cooperate with the elongated fingers and an exit ramp formed in the front end cap of the magazine. The projectiles do not contact each other radially while in the magazine.
Claims15
A magazine for a cooperating gun for feeding projectiles from said magazine into said gun, said magazine being of a generally elongated configuration, said magazine comprising an outer housing, a drive member for said projectiles rotatably mounted within said outer housing, said drive member being formed with a plurality of ribs extending axially inwardly, said ribs defining flutes between adjacent said ribs, each of said flutes being so configured as to permit a succession of said projectiles to pass therethrough in end-to-end relationship, a drive spring strong enough to rotate said drive member within said housing even with all of said flutes filled with said projectiles, said housing comprising a helical thread portion on the inside surface thereof cooperable with the projectiles in said flutes of said drive member;
- feed means at an exit end of said magazine to permit the projectiles therein to be fed one by one out of said magazine and into said gun;
- manual spring winder means for said drive spring mounted on said magazine, said magazine also comprising an exit end cap and an escapement member, wherein said escapement member, said drive member, said outer housing and said drive spring cooperate with a portion of said gun to cause indexing operation of said magazine synchronously with the operation of said gun.
A magazine for storing and feeding projectiles from said magazine into a cooperating gun, comprising:
- an outer housing, said outer housing comprising a helical thread portion on the inside surface thereof;
- a drive member for said projectiles rotatably mounted within said outer housing, said drive member being formed with a plurality of ribs extending axially inwardly, said ribs defining flutes between adjacent said ribs, each of said flutes being so configured as to permit a succession of said projectiles to pass therethrough in end-to-end relationship;
- wherein said helical thread in said housing is cooperable with the projectiles in said flutes of said drive member;
- a drive spring strong enough to rotate said drive member within said housing even with all of said flutes filled with said projectiles;
- and
- escapement means including means which interact with said gun such that operation of said gun activates said escapement means to feed said projectiles individually out of said magazine and into said gun synchronously with the operation of said gun.
In a magazine for feeding projectiles from said magazine into a cooperating gun, the improvement comprising
- escapement means forming a part of said magazine,
- said escapement means comprising:
- means for interacting with said gun to operate said escapement means and said magazine to feed said projectiles individually out of said magazine and into said gun synchronously with the operation and firing of said gun, and
- an escapement member, said magazine including a drive member in which said projectiles are loaded, said escapement member including portions cooperable with said drive member to cause said drive member to move in a manner proportional to the size of said projectiles to cause said individual feeding of said projectiles out of said magazine and into said gun;
- wherein said means for interacting includes front and rear end dogs formed on said escapement member and cooperating with said drive member, and said front and rear dogs being offset from each other radially of said magazine by an amount proportional to half the diameter of one of said projectiles.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.