GB459772A - Improvements in automatic firearms - Google Patents

Abstract

459,772. Automatic guns. SOC. ANON. DES ANCIENS ETABLISSEMENTS HOTCHKISS & CIE, 60, Quai Michelet, Levallois- Perret, France. June 25, 1936, No. 17668. Convention date, Jan. 30. [Class 92 (ii)] The sear of an automatic firearm is carried by a movable member controlled by resilient elements which serve to damp the movements of the sear when firing is discontinued and which are so arranged as to be compressed by the breech-closure mechanism at the end of each and every recoil movement. According to one construction, Fig. 1, the sear 4 is pivoted at 5 to a member 6 slidably mounted in a fixed casing 8, and has a nose 13 adapted to engage with a nose 14 on the gas piston 15. Two sets of resilient elements 2 consisting of springs, rubber, Belleville washers, or the like, are arranged between a heel 7 of the member 6 and collars 10 of members 1. Each of these members bears against an abutment 9 of the casing 8 and passes through the heel 7, its end adjacent the heel carrying a nut 11 by which the initial compression of the elements 2 is obtained. In operation, the elements are compressed from the forward end by the breech-block 3 at the end of each recoil movement, and from the rear end by the piston 15 and sear 4 when the latter is released by the trigger 26. The sear spring 17 is mounted in a knuckle guide 18 so that it can turn freely when the sear moves forwardly. In a modification the member 6 is formed integrally with the casing 8 which is slidably mounted in the firearm. In another modification, Fig. 7, the spring 2 is compressed always from the same end. The heel 7 of the member 6 is arranged as shown behind a collar on the rear end of the member 1 and thus serves to compress the spring from the rear when the sear 4 is released by the trigger mechanism. During firing the spring is compressed at the end of each recoil movement by a lever 20 pivoted at 21, the upper end of the lever being struck by the recoiling member 15 thus giving a forward motion to the lower end of the lever which is pivotally connected at 22 to the member 1. In a further modification, similar lever mechanism is employed to compress the spring during firing, and the sear is connected to the upper arm of a two-armed pivoted lever the lower arm of which is adapted to compress the spring from its forward end. In another construction, the rear end of the horizontal sear is pivotally attached to the lower end of a vertical lever the upper end of which is pivoted to the fixed casing. This vertical lever acts as an abutment for the resilient elements which are compressed from the forward end during firing and which abut at their forward end against a fixed part of the firearm. Upon ceasing fire the. vertical lever is swung forwardly by the sear to compress the resilient elements from the rear. In the modification shown in Fig. 9, the pin 5 of the sear is carried by one arm of a pivoted lever, another arm 6 of which is disposed with a clearance J in the member 1, while a third arm 25 acts on the sear spring 17.