Magazine Assembly For Automatic Rifles

Abstract

In an automatic rifle having an ammunition magazine insertable in a recess provided therefore in the receiver portion of the gun, a projection on said magazine preventing its insertion into said recess in any but its correct position, and means preventing interference by said projection with the latch means for securing said magazine in said recess.

Description

This invention relates to new and useful improvements in automatic rifles, and has particular reference to automatic rifles in which the shells are carried in a separable container or magazine insertable into a recess provided therefor in the gun mechanism.

Difficulties have arisen in certain guns of this type, particularly when used for hunting purposes, in that good safety practice requires that the gun be carried with the magazine removed therefrom, and that the shooter must often, as the opportunity for a shot presents itself, insert the magazine with considerable speed and haste, and without opportunity for careful inspection and alignment thereof. As a result the magazines are sometimes inserted in an end-for-end reversed position, with the bases rather than the points of the shells directed toward the shell chamber of the gun, the structure of the magazine and magazine recess permitting this error. No danger results from this error, since the gun is completely inoperable with the magazine reversed, but it does result in the loss of valuable time, and the opportunity for a shot is lost.

Accordingly, the primary object of the present invention is the provision of means positively preventing the insertion of the magazine in any but its correct position relative to the gun. Generally, the object is accomplished by the provision of an outward projection on the magazine which strikes the walls of the magazine recess of the gun to prevent insertion of the magazine in a reversed position, said recess walls being provided with a notch or recess for admitting said projection when the magazine is correctly positioned.

Another object is the provision of a novel arrangement of the projection relative to the latch means for securing the magazine in its recess, in which neither interferes with the operation of the other.

Other objects are simplicity and economy of construction, efficiency and dependability of operation, and adaptability of the projection to be applied in many preexisting guns with a minimum of adaptation or alteration of parts.

With these objects in view, as well as other objects which will appear in the course of the specification, reference will be had to the accompanying drawing wherein:

FIG. 1 is a fragmentary side elevational view of an automatic rifle including a magazine assembly embodying the present invention,

FIG. 2 is an inverted plan view of the parts as shown in FIG. 1,

FIG. 3 is an enlarged fragmentary sectional view taken on line III-III of FIG. 2, with parts left in elevation and partially broken away, and

FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken on line IV-IV of FIG. 3 with parts omitted .

Like reference numerals apply to similar parts throughout the several views, and the numeral 2 applies generally to an automatic rifle including a barrel 4 affixed at its rearward end in a receiver mechanism indicated generally by the numeral 6, said receiver being supported in a forearm 8 which extends forwardly beneath barrel 4, and which extends rearwardly from the receiver mechanism to form a stock 10. The receiver mechanism includes a trigger 12 and trigger guard 14 disposed beneath the forearm.

Just forwardly from the trigger guard, receiver 6 has formed therein a magazine recess 16 for receiving therein an ammunition magazine indicated generally by the numeral 18. Recess 16 is horizontally rectangular, opens through the bottom of the receiver and is defined by vertical sidewalls 20, a vertical front wall 22, and a vertical backwall formed by the forward edge of the lower tang 24 of the receiver, and by post 26 affixed to and rising from said tang. The upper end of said post is inclined forwardly into recess 16 to form an upwardly directed tooth 28. All of said recess walls form portions of receiver 6, and are essentially rigid. Formed in the vertical face of front wall 22 confronting recess 16 is a notch 30, said notch opening both into recess 16 and through the lower edge of wall 22. Mounted in notch 30 is a latch lever 32, said lever being pivoted on a horizontal transverse pivot pin 34, fixed in wall 22. The lower end of said lever projects through the bottom opening of notch 30, and the lever is inclined upwardly and inwardly so that its upper end normally projects into recess 16, said upper end constituting a movable latch tooth 36. Said lever is resiliently biased to a position in which tooth 36 projects into recess 16 by means of a spring 38, but tooth 36 can be retracted from recess 16 by manually pressing the lower end of the lever rearwardly.

Magazine 18 has the form of an open-topped rectilinear sheet metal box, having a vertical front wall 40, rear wall 42, sidewalls 44, and a generally horizontal bottom wall 46. It is insertable upwardly into recess 16, being provided around its lower end with a projecting lip 48 for preventing over-insertion. Front wall 40 has a downwardly facing shoulder 50 formed in the external side thereof for engagement by tooth 36 of lever 32, and rear wall 42 has a downwardly facing shoulder 52 formed in the exterior side thereof for engagement by tooth 28 of post 26. Then as the magazine is pushed upwardly into place in recess 16, tooth 28 first engages shoulder 52, and tooth 36 then snaps into place beneath shoulder 50 to secure the magazine in place. The magazine can of course be freed whenever desired by pressing the lower end of lever 32 rearwardly to disengage tooth 36 from shoulder 50. The magazine carries a number of rifle shells 54 which are dispensed therefrom sequentially by the gun action and fed into the barrel chamber in the usual manner, well known in the art. The actual interior operation of the magazine, however, is relation to the gun action, forms no part of the present invention and is not shown or detailed.

The structure thus far described is common and well known in the prior art. It will be readily appreciated, however, that although the magazine is provided with an indication, such as arrow 56 imprinted on bottom wall 46 thereof (FIG. 2), which should be directed forwardly when inserting the magazine, the shooter may in conditions requiring haste disregard said arrow and accidentally insert the magazine in an end-for-end reversed position, that is with its rearward end at the forward end of recess 16. The structure thus far described does permit such a reversed insertion. No danger results from such reversed insertion of the magazine since the gun is then inoperative, but it does result in the loss of the time required to correct the error, and in the possible loss of a shot the opportunity for which a hunter may have spent much time and effort.

To eliminate the possibility of such a reversed insertion of the magazine, the present invention involves the fixing of a small projection 58 to the exterior of front wall 40 of the magazine, the degree of projection being such that the total length of the magazine from the exterior side of rear wall 42, to the outer end of projection 58, is greater than the length of recess 16. Then if any attempt is made to insert the magazine in a reversed position, rear magazine wall 42 will abut the front recess wall, and projection 58 will engage tang 24 of the gun receiver to prevent the insertion. If the magazine is not reversed, but is inserted correctly, projection 58 enters notch 30 of the front recess wall, and in no way interferes with the insertion.

It is desirable that projection 58 be disposed as close as possible to the open upper end of the magazine in order to prevent even partial insertion of the magazine in a reversed position. When so positioned as shown it may in many guns be disposed higher than the latch shoulder 50 of front magazine wall 40, so that projection 58 must pass over latch lever 32 during insertion of the magazine. There thus arises the possibility of interference between the projection and the latch lever. The lever is, at the elevation of its pivot pin 34, recessed into notch 30, and projection 58 can be made short enough to pass this portion of the lever without interference. However, in some guns, the pivotal movement of the lever is sufficient only to permit the extreme upper end of tooth 36 thereof to be retracted flush with the front wall of recess 16, even possibly to a still smaller degree, but not into said recess or sufficiently to permit projection 58 to pass thereby. In such guns, tooth 36 may have a notch 60 formed midway between its lateral sides, through which projection 58 may pass as the magazine is inserted, but not interfering with the latch functions of said tooth.

The operation of my invention is considered to have been fully described in connection with the foregoing structural description. In most guns of the type described, the simple addition of projection 58 and the notching of latch tooth 36 at 60 are the only additions or alterations necessary to provide the desired positive prevention of reverse insertion of the magazine.

While I have shown and described a specific embodiment of my invention, it will be readily apparent that many minor changes of structure and operation could be made without departing from the spirit of the invention .

Claims

I claim:

1. In an automatic rifle having an outwardly opening rectangular recess defined by side and end walls, and a correspondingly rectangular ammunition magazine adapted to be inserted slidably into said recess:

a. a projection affixed to and extending outwardly from one end wall of said magazine, whereby the length of said magazine, including said projection, is greater than the length of said recess, the width of said projection being less than the width of said magazine, and one end wall of said recess having a notch of restricted width formed therein and opening through the face of said recess for receiving said projection, whereby said magazine cannot be inserted in said recess in any end-to-end reversed position, and

b. means for releasably securing said magazine in said recess.

2. The combination as recited in claim 1 wherein said securing means comprises:

a. a pair of tooth members mounted in the respective end walls of said recess and projecting into said recess to engage a pair of shoulders formed in the respective end walls of said magazine, said shoulders facing toward the open end of said recess, at least one of said tooth members being mounted for movement from a position projecting into said recess to a position retracted from said recess, and

b. means yieldably biasing said movable tooth member toward its projecting position.

3. The combination as recited in claim 2 wherein one of said tooth members is fixed relative to said recess and the other of said tooth members constitutes the inner end portion of a lever pivoted in said notch on an axis transverse to the direction of insertion of said magazine into said recess, said lever being inclined so that its inner end normally projects into said recess to engage the associated magazine shoulder, with its opposite end projecting outwardly from said notch for manual operation of said lever.

4. The combination as recited in claim 3 wherein said projection is disposed farther from the outer end of said magazine than the shoulder of the magazine end wall to which said projection is affixed, and is disposed intermediate the sides of the corresponding tooth member, said tooth member having a notch formed therein to permit the passage of said projection therethrough.