GB1456045A - Fixing apparatus for fixing bolts and the like - Google Patents

Abstract

1456045 Safety devices for manually operable sliding breech and barrel smallarms P TERMET 20 Dec 1973 [26 Dec 1972] 59014/73 Heading F3C A smallarm, which fires a projectile, e.g. bolt, rivet, or the like, has a drive piston 1 which is exposed at one end to an explosive cartridge 11 and which drives, at the other end, the intended projectile; a barrel, a muzzle, a cartridge chamber 8, a breech 9, and a striker 10 are together retractable against a spring within a tubular envelope, rigidly attached to a stock carrying a trigger 12, to render the trigger operable, so that the striker can only be actuated for firing when the outer muzzle end projects from the envelope by a predetermined maximum distance. In Fig 2, the muzzle 5, the barrel 4, the cartridge chamber 8, the breech 9, the striker and a pin 21 can only be retracted for firing by pressing the muzzle end against a surface 28 for receiving the projectile, when a safety button 26 is depressed to accept a longitudinal pin connected to the breech. When the muzzle end is within the predetermined distance, a head 22 of the pin 21 engages a fork 24 coupled to the trigger 12 for retraction to allow a spring controlled member 19 to actuate the striker. The predetermined distance can be increased for firing when the barrel is at a larger angle to the surface 28 than in Fig. 2 by rotation of the barrel 4 and the muzzle 5 in threads 6 so that a sleeve, carried by the barrel and having a tapered end engaging a complementary surface of the chamber 8, is moved from the chamber so that some explosion gases can escape through the resulting gap to reduce firing power and danger from a ricochet. This feature is also in the embodiment of Fig. 6, but here the muzzle 33 and the barrel 32 are independently rotatable, the latter by a sleeve 48 via a pin 36. Axial positioning of the muzzle to the chamber 8 is achieved by sleeves 51, 42 for retraction. Power reduction by barrel rotation need not necessarily alter the predetermined muzzle end-envelope distance, since a dog 34 axially, but not rotationally, fixed with the barrel 32 has an axial clearance 55 with respect to a dog 35 of the muzzle 34.