GB2110349A

GB2110349A - Barrel for a blank-firing rifle or handgun

Info

Publication number: GB2110349A
Application number: GB08136013A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Anthony Hill
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1981-11-28
Filing date: 1981-11-28
Publication date: 1983-06-15
Also published as: GB2110349B

Abstract

A replica firearm has a barrel (10) whose bore is interrupted by at least one barrier (12, 13) which is provided with at least one (preferably two or more) through-passageways (19) which permit the gas produced by detonation of a blank cartridge to pass along the barrel (10) and out of the muzzle thereof. Two axially spaced barriers are preferred; the one (12) nearer to the muzzle has its muzzle- directed end (16) made of conical or similar form. The barrel (10) and the barrier(s) (12, 13) are made of hard or hardened metal, whereby modification to convert the replica firearm into a projectile firing firearm is made impossible. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Barrel for a blank-firing rifle or handgun This invention relates to a barrel for a blankfiring rifle or handgun.

Many peope are interested nowadays in the pastime or leisure activity which1 in essence, consists of re-creating and reliving at least some of the aspects of the times when the West of the United States of America was being acquired, opened up and developed; broadly speaking, these times were from about 1 835 to 1 880 and during these years many handguns and rifles were invented by people such for example Adams, Colt and Rollin White and manufactured by manufacturers such for example as Patent Arms Manufacturing Company, Smith a Wesson, and Remington.The guns produced by these inventors and manufacturers are almost household names and include the handguns Colt .45 and the Starr .44 which were percussion revolvers, the Collier percussion revolving riffled carbine the Winchester rifle and the'Sharps breechloading carbine.

Firearms such as the ones discussed in the preceding paragraph are an essential part of the equipment of any person who wishes to dress in the style of, for example, a cowboy or a soldier who fought on one side or the other in the Americal Civil War. Therefore, replicas of such firearms are carried by such people nowadays, and there are events at which "quick on the draw" competitions are held and at which mock gunfights between cowboys are staged.

As employed herein, the term "replica firearm" is intended to cover not only those handguns and rifles mentioned in the second paragraph of this Specification but also other firearms which have not been discussed and which might be used for what might be broadly described as entertainment purposes; one instance of such other firearms, given purely as an illustrative example, is the Mark 3 Lee Enfield "short rifle" issued to the British Army in 1907 which could be used in military displays or mock battles of the kind staged during the Royal Tournament or Edinburgh Tattoo each year. Another instance of such other firearms is Parabellum (incorrectly known as the Luger from the name of its inventor/designer) first introduced in 1 904.

With the handguns which are at present available, realism is lost because the barrel is solid and has side vent-holes, just forwards of the cylinder, out of which the gas escapes which is produced by the firing of a "blank" cartridge.

Moreover, these replica handguns are not as safe as they should be because a person could be injured (even if not seriously) if he or she were standing too near the side of the handgun when it is fired by another person.

The principal object of the present invention is to provide a replica firearm (for example, a Colt .45 revolver or a Winchester rilfe) with which realism is obtaining using blank cartridges.

It is a subsidiary object of the present invention to provide a replica firearm, as exemplified in the preceding paragraph, which is so made as to be impossible to modify to fire any form of projectile.

Accordingly, the present invention consists in a replica firearm (as defined above) whose barrel is made of a hard or hardened metal and is hollow over a part of its overall axial length and which is provided with means permissive of the passage along and out of the muzzle of said barrel of gas produced by detonation of a blank cartridge by the firing mechanism of said firearm without being permissive of the passage of a projectile along said barrel.

In one embodiment of said replica firearm, said means comprise a hard or hardened metal barrier which is disposed at a location between the opposite ends of the barrel, said barrier having at least one through-passageway formed therein for the passage of said gas and said through-passageway having a cross-sectional area considerably smaller than that of the calibre of the barrel. Preferably, said barrier is provided with two or more through-passageways; said through passageways may be parallel to one another.

In a particularly advantageous form of said replica firearm described in the preceding paragraph, the barrel has two barriers which are spaced apart from one another axially of the barrel, each barrier having at least one throughpassageway formed therein for the passage of said gas. Preferably, each of said two barriers is provided with at least two through-passageways and these may be parallel to one another.

In the case where the barrel has a single barrier, said barrier could be either a plug forced into the bore of the barrel or integral with the barrel; in the latter form, the barrel and the barrier could be cast as a unit.

In the case where the barrel has two barriers, one of said barriers could be integral with the barrel and the other barrel could be forced into the bore of the barrel under pressure.

Alternatively, both of said barriers could be driven into the bore of the barrel under pressure.

In any case where a barrier has been driven into the bore of the barrel under pressure, it is preferred to secure said barrier in position by an additional fixing device; an example of the additional fixing device is a pin (made, for example, of tungsten) extending through a portion of the barrel into the barrier, and said pin could extend diametrally through both the barrel and the barrier.

If the barrel has a single barrier, that barrier end which is nearer to the muzzle is made as a right-circular cone or of a configuration similar to such a cone. If the barrel has two axially spaced barriers, the barrier which is nearer to the muzzle is provided, at that one of its two ends which is nearer to said muzzle, with the shape of a rightcircular cone or with a configuration similar to such a cone. The purpose of providing such shaping of the muzzle-directed end to the barrier concerned is to foil subsequent attempts by any person to drill the barrier out in order to convert the replica firearm to a projectile-firing gun, illegally; the sloping surfaces or surfaces of said end of the barrier would cause a drill to slide off.

The present invention will now be more particularly described with reference to the accompanying diagrammatic drawing, in which: Figure 1 represents an axial section through the barrel of a firearm according to the present invention; Figures 2 and 3 are views of the opposite ends of the left-hand barrier, as seen in Figure 1, viewed in the directions indicated by the arrows A and B, respectively; and Figures 4 and 5 are views of the opposite ends of the right-hand barrier, as seen in Figure 1, viewed in the directions indicated by the arrows C and D, respectively.

Referring to the drawing, there is shown a barrel 10 of a replica firearm (as defined above), the length of the barrel having been split at 11 in order to make it clear that said firearm may be a replica of a rifle or long arm or a revolver or other kind of handgun, to give but a few examples.

The barrel 10 has two barriers 12, 13 spaced from one another axially of the barrel. The barrier 12 has a flat face 14 which is directed to the breech end of the barrel, and a face 1 6 which is directed towards the muzzle and which approximates to the surface of a right-circular cone but which is additionally slightly concave.

The concavity of the sloping sides of the face 1 6 can be seen clearly in Figure 1.

The barrier 13 has opposite end faces 17, 18 which are flat.

Both barriers 12, 13 are illustrated as being plugs which are inserted into the bore of the barrel; this may be done under pressure and the friction developed between the respective barrier and the internal surface of the barrel as the barrier is driven in will be likely to create enough heat to cause local fusion of the barrel and the barrier, thereby providing a gas-tight fit and also a physically immovable barrier.

It is also considered desirable to pin both barriers 12, 13 to the barrel by means of pins (not illustrated) extending transversely of both the respective barrier and the barrel.

Each barrier 12, 13 is formed to provide a number of through-passageways 19. In the embodiment illustrated, there are three throughpassageways whose longitudinal axes lie on a circle and are spaced by approximately 1200 from one another on said circle. This is considered to be about as many parallel through-passageways 1 9 as it will be possible to provide, bearing in mind the diameter of each barrier. It would probably be adequate to provide two through-passageways 19 in each barrier 12, 13 and it is certainly preferred to provide two or more throughpassageways than one.

If one through-passageway 1 9 were to be used, if might be desirable either to make it such that it consists of two portions which are not coaxial or to ensure that its longitudinal axis makes as large an included angle as possible with the longitudinal axis of the barrel 10.

The through-passageways 19 have end portions, facing towards the breech end of the barrel 10, which are flared (see Figures 1, 2 and 5) in order to assist the entry of the gas in to said th rough-passagways.

In one embodiment, the barrier 13 and the barrel 10 are cast as a unit; and it might be possible for the through-passageways 1 9 to be created therein at the time of casting. The barrier 1 2 is driven into the barrel 10 under pressure from the muzzle end.

It is considered to be feasible to provide a single barrier in the barrel 10 of a replica firearm and to obtain therefrom the benefits of the present invention. Such a single barrier might possibly need to be of greater axial length than that of each of the barriers 12, 13 illustrated in Figure 1. It is thought that the greater length would provide adequate dissipation of energy (heat and kinetic energy) by the time the gas emerges from the muzzle but it is still preferred to provide two barriers because each barrier 12, 13 absorbs energy and because the hollow full-bore chamber between them will act as an expansion chamber which will decelerate and cool the gas.

The use of a hard or hardened metal for the barrel 10 and for the or each barrier makes it impossible for anyone to cut through the barrel 10 and to drill out the barriers; this will satisfy the authorities, to whom any manufactured blankfiring firearm must be submitted for appproval for testing, that the replica firearm according to the present invention is incapable of conversion into a firearm for which a licence would be needed and which would need to be kept by the owner in secure locked storage. The muzzle-directed end of the barrier 12 is so shaped in order to foil any attempt to drill out that particular barrier; any drill tip would simply slide off the conical end of the barrier. The preferred metal for the barrel 10 and for the or each barrier is steel because it is reasonably cheap, even taking the expense of the hardening step into account.It is thought that the expense of metals or of metal alloys which are hard in themselves (for example, tungsten or tungsten carbide) would make it uneconomic to use such costly materials in replica firearms but the use of such metals or metal alloys for such firearms is not precluded.

Although reference has been made above to the possibility of making a barrel with only one barrier, it is considered that two axially separated plugs give the best result for two reasons which may not be immediately apparent. The first reason is that, with the barrier 12 close to the muzzle (say, half an inch back from the muzzle), a person of whom such a gun was pointed in, for example, an attempted bank raid would see at once that the barrel of the gun was plugged and could not fire anything.The second reason is that, with the barrier 13 as near to the breech end of the barrel as possible (in Figure 1, part of the barreir within the barrel is actually encircled by the front end of the frame of the gun), it would not be possible for someone to grind off the hard/hardened barrel 10 in order to create a very short barrel through which a bullet or other projectile could be fired; if a single barrier were to be poorly placed in the barrel, the barrel could be shortened easily to create a potentially dangerous firearm illegally.

Placing the barrier 12 close to the muzzle has another advantage, namely, that there is little or no space into which to place any object (e.g.

some ball-bearings or a short piece of rod) to act as a projectile. Here again, the provision of two axially spaced barriers ensures that the gas has had a large proportion of its propellant force dissipated, leaving little force for the propulsion of a projectile.

It has been stated above that the barrier or barriers are driven in under pressure but obviously they could be welded in or screwed in. In the latter case, for the or each barrier, a part of the barrel bore could be of reduced diameter and that part could be screw-threaded to engage the screw-threaded exterior of the barrier.

The object of pinning the or each barrier is to prevent any person from knocking or forcing (under pressure) the barrier or barriers out of the barrel again in order to utilize the gun as a lethal weapon. Screwing the barrier or barriers into the barrel, as explained above, would also achieve the same object. Yet another way of achieving said object without pinning would be to provide, for the or each barrier, a shoulder in the bore of the barrel, against which the barrier would be forced under pressure; such shoulders could be provided in a simple manner for the two barriers arrangement by making the barrel bore slightly under-sized over its entire axial length and then drilling out, say, two inches from the muzzle end and one and a quarter inches from the breech end in order to reach the proper calibre for the replica firearm concerned.

The breech end of the barrel 10 could be cast in or screwed in or welded into the frame. If screwed or welded in, it might be desirable additionally to provide a secondary pinning of that barrel end to the front of the frame (e.g. by means of a screw extending slant-wise through the frame and into the barrel, the screw being broken or cut off flush with the surface of the frame).

Claims

1. A replica firearm (as define above) whose barrel is made of a hard or hardened metal and is hollow over a part of its overall axial length and which is provided with means permissive of the passage along and out of the muzzle of said barrel of gas produced by detonation of a blank cartridge by the firing mechanism of said firearm without being permissive of the passage of a projectile along said barrel.

2. A firearm as claimed in Claim 1, wherein said means comprise a hard or hardened metal barrier which is disposed at a location between the opposite ends of the barrel, said barrier having at least one through-passageway formed therein for the passage of said gas and said through-passageway having a cross-sectional area considerably smaller than that of the calibre of the barrel.

3. A firearm as claimed in Claim 2, wherein said barrier is provided with two or more throughpassageways.

4. A firearm as claimed in Claim 3, wherein said through-passageways are parallel to one another.

5. A firearm as claimed in Claim 2, wherein the barrel has two barriers which are spaced apart from one another axially of the barrel, each barrier having at least one through-passageway formed therein for the passage of said gas.

6. A firearm as claimed in Claim 5, wherein each of said two barriers is provided with at least two through-passageways.

7. Afirearm as claimed in Claim 6, wherein said throughpassageways are parallel to one another.

8. A firearm as claimed in any one of Claims 1 to 4, wherein the barrel has a single barrier which is a plug forced into the bore of the barrel under pressure.

9. A firearm as claimed in any one of Claims 1 to 4, wherein the barrel has a single barrier which is integral with the barrel.

10. A firearm as claimed in Claim 1, wherein the barrel and the barrier are cast as a unit.

11. A firearm as claimed in any one of Claims 5 to 7, wherein the barrel has two barriers, one of said barriers being integral with the barrel and the other barrier being forced into the bore of the barrel under pressure.

12. A firearm as claimed in any one of Claims 5 to 7, wherein both of said barriers are driven into the bore of the barrel under pressure.

13. A firearm as claimed in Claim 8 or Claim 11 or Claim 12, wherein the or each barrier which has been forced into the barrel under pressure is further secured in said barrel by an additional fixing device.

14. A firearm as claimed in Claim 13, wherein said fixing device is a pin (made, for example, of tungsten) extending through a portion of the barrel into the barrier.

15. A firearm as claimed in any one of Claims 1 to 4 and 8 to 10, wherein that barrier end which is nearer to the muzzle is made as a right-circular cone or of a configuration similar to such a cone.

1 6. A firearm as claimed in any one of Claims 5 to 7, 11 and 12, wherein the barrier which is nearer to the muzzle is provided, at that one of its two ends which is nearer to said muzzle, with the shape of a right-circular cone or with a configuration similar to such a cone.

1 7. A replica firearm (as defined above) constructed, arranged and adapted to operate substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and as illustrated in the accompanying diagrammatic drawing.

18. Any features of novelty, taken singly or in combination, of the embodiments of the invention hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying diagrammatic drawing.