Means For Supporting And Aiming A Hand-held Firearm

Abstract

Device for supporting and aiming a hand-held device such as a gun in firmly fixed position with means for securing and bracing it about the wrist while aiming and firing, and a cheekpiece for adjusting or fixing the desired distance of the head of the aimer with respect to the extended arm bent into aiming position of the hand-held device.

Parent Case Text

This application is a continuation-in-part of my copending application, Ser. No. 746,895, filed July 23, 1968, now U.S. Pat. No. 3,553,878.

Description

The invention relates to a means for supporting and aiming a hand-held device such as a gun in firmly fixed position by a hand brace.

More particularly, in one aspect of this invention the hand brace of this invention fastens about the wrist of the aimer.

In another aspect, the invention includes a cheekpiece for positioning the head and cheek of the aimer bent into aiming position with respect to the hand bracing device.

In the prior construction of my above-identified patent application, an adjustable aiming device was described in which primarily the hand and arm of the aimer was supported by means at the forward end of the stock attached to the hand. It is a primary feature of the present invention to provide a means at the forward end of the stock for supporting the wrist. More particularly, the wrist support in a preferred construction is easily clampable directly about the wrist and further includes an auxiliary hand bracing means extending forward from the wrist clamp to steady the back of the hand of the aimer.

In another embodiment of the present invention, the device includes a cheekpiece which rises from a central position of the supporting stock to form a curved mound or ledge serving as a measuring piece against which the cheek and head of the user rests with the head bent to approximate the proper hand aiming position of the head of the user with respect to the stock and hand-held device being aimed.

Other features of the invention include easy assembly of the wrist clamp with the supporting stock and including pivotal mounting for variation of the position of the wrist clamp with respect to the supporting stock, as well as horizontal adjustability of the wrist support with respect to the stock, all these being improved features of the present device.

Other features are inherent in the construction as described with respect to the drawings herein wherein:

FIG. 1 illustrates the manner of using the aiming device showing the user with head bent in aiming position to show the positioning of the cheekpiece and emplacement of the device in aiming position between the hand and shoulder in use;

FIG. 2 is a side elevation of the unit and illustrates the pivotal mounting of the wrist piece thereon;

FIG. 3 is a top plan view of FIG. 2; and

FIG. 4 is an end view of the device taken in the direction of the arrow 4 of FIG. 2.

Referring first to FIG. 2, the stock comprises a shaft or horizontally extended bracing element 10. The after end of the stock 10 has an arcuate shoulder supporting piece 12 disposed normal to the stock end for comfortable stock support. A cheekpiece 14 is mounted to the center of the stock 10 as a curved mound rising between the forward end 16 of the stock 10 and the shoulder support 12. The cheekpiece 14 is an arcuately curved raised portion intended to extend a distance vertically from the stock measured along a reenforcing bracket portion 18, sufficiently upward from the stock 10 to form a rest for the cheek and measure, as the distance of the cheek from the stock, a proper and comfortable aiming position of the bent head of the user, as shown in FIG. 1.

The forward end 16 of the stock 10 has fitted thereon a supporting shaft 19 of a ball 20. The supporting shaft 19 may be horizontally slideable or be screw fastenable adjustably within the stock 10 such as by having cooperative screw threads thereon to cooperate with corresponding threads with the hollow stock to allow the ball 20 to adjustably extend from the stock and provide a fixed distance for the stock measured between the shoulder piece 12 and the outer ball 20, so that the shaft 19 may thus be adjustably extended outward of the stock 10. Other means for adjusting the extended position of the shaft 19 such as shown in my parent application, as above identified, may be substituted.

The ball 20 is received as a ball and socket joint within a socket member 22 carried by a wrist piece 24. In this manner the wrist piece 24 may be swung or flexibly positioned with respect to the stock 10 at any angle universally, as shown both in the several positions of the wrist piece 24 in FIG. 2, or in various angles indicated by the arrows 26 of FIG. 3.

The wrist piece 24 is of resilient spring-like material arcuately curved, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 4, to fit about the wrist of the user. The wrist piece has resiliently operable jaws or ends 28, openable with a spring-like tension in the direction of the arrow 30 to allow the wrist of the user to be inserted and encircled by the wrist piece, opening the corresponding jaws 28 so that the clamp-like wrist piece 24 will fit about the wrist easily in the aiming position of the hand as shown in FIG. 1. The wrist piece further has one forward extending back surface 32 lying along the wrist adjacent the back side of the hand, having an extended supporting end 34 which operates as a brace for the backside of the hand holding a gun in aiming position.

In use the wrist piece easily snaps over the wrist, the extended back portion 34 serving to brace the back of the hand. The adjustable shaft 19 is set to a desirably extended distance, and the cheekpiece rests against the cheek of the user in head-bent position as shown in FIG. 1, thus serving to position the head of the user to a proper distance for aiming.

The device may be formed of various materials. It may be, for instance, of clear or colored plastic of attractive design. It may be formed of hard plastic or of plastic coated metal or other useful structural material.

While the cheekpiece may be a single bar bent to the shape as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, rising from another bar 10 with an open web position 36, the web portion 36 may be filled with plastic as a thin web or may be left open. For purposes of structural rigidity, the vertical brace 18 may be omitted or included, as desired.

Certain modifications will occur to those skilled in the art and, accordingly, it is intended that the description given be regarded as illustrative and not limiting except as defined in the claims appended hereto.

Claims

What is claimed is:

1. A hand bracing device for supporting and fixing the generally horizontally extended distance of a user's hand and arm from the shoulder with the elbow bent, as in supporting for aiming a hand-held hand gun, said device comprising a stock positioned relatively horizontally between the hand and the shoulder to fix the distance from the shoulder of the user to the extended hand, and means mounted at the forward hand end of said stock for supporting by substantially encircling the wrist of the hand holding the gun, in aiming position.

2. The device as defined in claim 1 wherein the wrist supporting means is an annular member substantially encircling the wrist and having jaws defining an open portion, the jaws of said annular member being resilient and separated sufficient to insert or remove the wrist from encirclement by said wrist supporting member.

3. The device as defined in claim 1 wherein the wrist supporting means comprises an encircling member adapted to surround and support the wrist of the user and said encircling member having a forward extended portion lying adjacent the backside of the hand and providing additional support of the backside of the hand.

4. The device as defined in claim 2 wherein the wrist supporting means comprises a substantially encircling member adapted to surround and support the wrist of the user, said wrist supporting means having a forward extended portion lying adjacent the backside of the hand and providing additional support of the backside of the hand.

5. The device as defined in claim 1 wherein the wrist supporting member is supported at the front end of said stock by a ball joint to provide universal movement of the wrist in extended supported aiming position with respect to said hand-held device.

6. The device as defined in claim 1 wherein the wrist supporting member is supported hingedly for universal movement with respect to said stock, and additional means is provided associated with said wrist supporting member to adjust the length of the stock with respect to said wrist supporting member.

7. The device as defined in claim 1 wherein the stock carries adjustable means for varying the length of said stock and the extended position of said wrist supporting means.

8. The hand bracing device as defined in claim 1 wherein the means mounted at the forward end of said stock encircles and supports the wrist of a hand holding the gun in aiming position.

9. A hand bracing device for supporting and fixing the generally horizontally extended distance of a user's hand and arm from the shoulder with the elbow bent, as in supporting for aiming a hand-held hand gun, said device comprising a stock positioned relatively horizontally between the hand and the shoulder to fix the distance from the shoulder of the user to the extended hand, and intermediate means disposed between the ends of said stock and rising in convex curvature upward and normal to the edge of said stock to bear against and position the cheek of the bent head of the user in aiming position for support and position of the head with respect to said stock.

10. The device as defined in claim 9 wherein the cheekpiece is formed of an arcuately curved raised portion openly supported a measured distance upward from the stock.

11. A hand bracing device for supporting and fixing the generally horizontally extended distance of a user's hand and arm from the shoulder with the elbow bent, as in supporting for aiming a hand-held hand gun, said device comprising a stock positioned relatively horizontally between the hand and the shoulder to fix the distance from the shoulder of the user to the extended hand, means intermediate the ends of said stock rising in convex curvature above the axis of said stock to bear against and position the cheek of the bent head of the user in aiming position for support and position of the head with respect to said stock, and means mounted at the forward hand end of said stock for supporting the wrist of the hand holding the hand gun in aiming position.

12. The device as defined in claim 11 wherein the wrist supporting means is an annular member substantially encircling the wrist and having jaws defining a portion, the jaws of said annular member being resilient and separated sufficient to insert or remove the wrist from encirclement by said wrist supporting member.

13. The device as defined in claim 11 wherein the wrist supporting means comprises an encircling member adapted to loosely surround the wrist of the user and having a forward extended portion lying adjacent the backside of the hand and providing additional support of the backside of the hand.

14. The device as defined in claim 12 wherein the wrist supporting means comprises substantially the encircling member adapted to loosely surround the wrist of the user, said wrist supporting means having a forward extended portion lying adjacent to the backside of the hand and providing additional support of the backside of the hand.