Shot Shell And Method Of Loading Same

Abstract

A shot shell casing includes a quantity of powder at one end and a shot sleeve is disposed in the casing on the powder and is open at one end. A plastic shot wad is positioned in the shot sleeve and includes a plurality of peripherally disposed rearwardly extending spaced apart deformable legs engaging the closed end of the shot sleeve. The powder is placed in the shot shell followed by the shot sleeve and the plastic wad in the shot sleeve. The shot is then placed in the sleeve on the plastic wad and pressure is applied compressing and permanently uniformly deforming the legs of the plastic wad to a sufficient length for closing the open end of the shot shell casing onto the shot. The legs of the shot wad are uniformly bent transversely inwardly in a plane intermediate their ends. A ring element interconnects the free ends of the legs.

Description

The reloading of shot shell cartridges can be expensive and time consuming when done on a volume basis. Certain reloading procedures permit reusing cartridges only a limited number of times. Usually the wad size will vary with the amount of shot being used and accordingly a supply of wads of different size is required. This is quite expensive and time consuming.

The reloading of a shot shell cartridge using the structure and method of this invention greatly simplifies and minimizes the time and costs involved. A plastic wad is preassembled into a shot sleeve and will permanently deform to accommodate any desired quantity of shot loaded into the shot shell cartridge but yet will maintain a tight fit within the cartridge. The shot wad includes a disc on which the shot is placed and a plurality of spaced apart legs extend from the periphery of the disc and terminate in an interconnecting ring which rests on the bottom of the shot sleeve. Upon pressure being applied to the shot in the loading procedure the legs of the plastic wad are uniformly permanently deformed inwardly as required to accommodate the quantity of shot being used. The spacing between the legs permits this uniform inwardly deflection and is such that in the usual case adjacent legs will be in close proximity if not touching after the loading is completed. It is understood, however, that a quantity of shot may be used that will require no deformation of the plastic wad, however, usually a greater quantity of shot will be used and thus the legs will be permanently deformed inwardly.

The interconnecting ring for the legs permits the easy insertion of the plastic wad in the shot sleeve and the straight legs during the assembling steps provide the necessary structural strength necessary to place force on the plastic wad while the sleeve is being pushed through the open end of a cartridge. After a cartridge has been used a number of times the open end tends to close and require considerable pressure to force the shot sleeve into the cartridge thus requiring the plastic wad to take considerable pressure without deformation of the wad. When the shot is placed in the shot sleeve on the plastic wad and compressive forces are applied the plastic wad will then permanently deform as necessary to accommodate the quantity of shot being used.

A groove in the bottom of the shot sleeve receives the interconnecting ring on the bottom end of the plastic wad and holds the plastic wad in the shot sleeve. This is very important when handling the assembled plastic wad and shot sleeve.

This invention consists in the construction, arrangements and combination of the various parts of the device, whereby the objects contemplated are attained as hereinafter more fully set forth, specifically pointed out in the claims, and illustrated in the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a fragmentary side elevational view of a cartridge employing the plastic wad of this invention and assembled by the method of this invention.

FIG. 2 is a view similar to FIG. 1 but showing a larger quantity of shot having been loaded in the cartridge thereby permanently deforming the plastic wad in the shot sleeve.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of the shot sleeve with the plastic wad assembled therein.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the plastic wad.

FIG. 5 is a side elevation view of the plastic wad as deformed and seen in FIG. 2.

FIG. 6 is an end elevation view taken along line 6 -- 6 in FIG. 5.

FIG. 7 is a reduced in scale end elevation view taken along line 7 -- 7 in FIG. 4.

FIG. 8 is an exploded perspective view of the shot shell cartridge and component parts; and

FIG. 9 is an exploded perspective view of the shot sleeve and plastic wad after the cartridge has been fired and particularly illustrate the condition of the plastic wad.

The shot shell cartridge of this invention is referred to in FIG. 1 generally by the reference numeral 10 and is shown to include a casing 12 having a crimped closed end 14 enclosing shot 16 inside a shot sleeve 18. The shot 18 is positioned on the plastic wad 20 of this invention seated on the base or bottom 22 of the shot sleeve 18. Powder 24 is disposed between the base 26 of the cartridge casing 12 and the bottom 22 of the shot sleeve 18.

The plastic wad 20 includes an end disc member 30 from which an outwardly flaring annular rim 32 extends and which receives the shot 16A as seen in FIG. 2. Extending in the opposite direction from the disc end 30 are a plurality of legs 34 which are interconnected at their rear ends by an annular ring element 36. It is seen in FIG. 1 that the ring element 36 is received matingly in a groove 38 formed in the bottom of the shot sleeve 18. The legs 34 taper towards the ring 36 and are separated by elongated openings 39 tapering towards the end disc 30. The area of the spacing 38 is somewhat smaller than the area of the legs 34.

In operation it is seen that the reloading of a shot shell casing involves placing a quantity of powder 24 in the casing 12 and then inserting the shot sleeve 18 with the plastic wad 20 already disposed therein as seen in FIG. 3. The assembly of the shot sleeve and plastic wad is ordinarily done in advance of the reloading operation and the operator will normally purchase a quantity of the shot sleeves with the plastic wads in them or will perform the sub-assembly step himself. The necessary force is applied to the disc 30 to force the shot sleeve 18 through the open end 40 of the shot shell casing 12. The force required will depend on how many times the shot shell casing 12 has been used and accordingly on what condition the open end 40 is end. The legs 34 of the plastic wad 20 must be strong enough to withstand this compressive force. The ring 36 interconnecting the ends of the legs prevents the plastic wads when separated from the shot sleeves from becoming intermeshed and also facilitates the insertion of the plastic wad into the open end of the shot sleeve 18. Next a quantity of shot 16 is placed in the shot sleeve 18 on the plastic wad disc 30 and a compressive force is applied to the shot 16 to reduce the overall length of the components in the cartridge casing to a length that will enable the end 14 to be closed as seen in FIGS. 1 and 2. It is seen in FIG. 1 that a quantity of shot 16 is used that does not require deforming the legs 34 of the plastic wad 20 while in FIG. 2 a larger quantity of shot 16A is used and the legs 34 have been uniformly deformed inwardly to allow for the extra space required by the additional shot used.

Referring now to FIG. 5, it is seen that the legs 34 being uniformly deflected inwardly form an annular groove 50 and define triangular shaped top and bottom openings 52 and 54 respectively which have their vertexes at the transverse plane extending through the groove 50. It is seen in FIG. 6 that adjacent edges of the legs 34 are in substantial engagement with each other and thus the space seen 38 between the legs is sufficient to accommodate the normal maximum compression which is usually on the order of one-fourth the initial length of the plastic wad 20. When deformed the legs 34 include a relatively straight portion 56 which merges into a inwardly tapering portion 58 in turn merging with a portion 60 tapering inwardly from the ring element 36. In FIG. 7 it is seen that the ring 36 is on the outer peripheral surface of the legs 34.

After the cartridge has been fired the shot sleeve appears as is seen in FIG. 9 at 18A wherein the elongated wall portions 62 have flared outwardly. The plastic wad 20A has been substantially crushed and no longer has uniform regular lines as it did during the reloading operation as seen in FIG. 2 and FIG. 5.

Thus it is seen that the plastic wad 20 during the assembling operation retains its normal shape due to its straight legs 34 and withstands the assembly pressures involved but when the compressive forces during the reloading operation are applied the legs 34 bend inwardly uniformly a sufficient amount to accommodate whatever quantity of shot that may be used.

It is seen that the wading of this invention is universal in its application as it will work satisfactorily with shells manufactured by different companies in different lengths and having inside diameters which are different.

Claims

I claim:

1. In a loaded unfired shot shell, a shot shell casing, a quantity of powder at one end of said shot shell casing, a shot shell casing, a quantity of powder at one end of said shot shell casing, a shot sleeve adjacent said powder, said shot sleeve being closed at one end and open at the opposite end, said shot sleeve including a plastic shot wad adjacent said closed end; said shot wad having a forward end disc from which extend a plurality of peripherally disposed rearwardly extending spaced apart permanently deformed legs operatively engaging said closed end of said shot sleeve, a quantity of shot disposed at least partially within the open end of said shot sleeve on said shot wad and being adjacent the other end of said shot shell casing, said spaced apart legs being interconnected at their rear ends by a continuous ring element engaging said closed end of said shot sleeve, said plastic legs being uniformly bent transversely inwardly forming an annular passageway around said plastic wad between said wad and said shot sleeve, said legs having opposite side edges in substantial abutting engagement with adjacent side edges in a transverse plane intermediate their opposite ends, and said spacing between said legs being substantially triangular in shape on opposite sides of said transverse plane.