US2705846A - Balancer for pistol barrels - Google Patents

Description

April 12, 1955 WALE I 2,705,846

BALANCER FOR PISTOL BARRELS Filed Feb 14, 1949 l4 lb 32. 26 22 3o HERBERT E. WALE Gttornegs United States Patent BALANCER FOR PISTOL BARRELS Herbert E. Wale, Bremerton, Wash.

Application February 14, 1949, Serial No. 76,280 1 Claim. (Cl. 42 1 My present invention relates to the general art of hand guns, such as pistols, revolvers and the like, and more particularly to barrels for such hand guns as are used in target shooting.

The expert pistol and revolver shooter has found by experience that certain fundamental characteristics should be present in hand guns that are to be used for the more accurate firing, such as competition target shooting. Most authorities now agree that of the hand holding and firing a pistol, the index finger should pull the trigger and the second finger should actually support from a position in rear of the index finger or trigger, the bulk of the Weight of the gun; while the remaining two fingers and the thumb grip the gun in an easy holding manner without tenseness. There are other conditions that affect firing. It has been demonstrated that a heavy barrel pistol will maintain its zero, or in other words, be able to deliver successive shots at the same holding with the minimum of inaccuracy. This need of the heavy barrel is particularly important in the auto-loading, or socalled automatic or the repeater type pistol. Here the mechanism makes it possible to fire a string of shots at a high rate and, as a result, considerable heating of the barrel occurs. In a heavy barrel it has been found that the heating occasioned by the number of shots normally fired in a match is of little moment and any inaccuracies thus caused are normally much less than the normal holding error. However, if a light weight barrel is used, this is not true. There it has been found that heating of the barrel tends to change the zero, so that the gun will not fire the last rounds of a string at the same holding of the first. This is most objectionable. Another factor that enters into accuracy of sighting is the distance between the front and the rear sight and most especially, how far the front sight is from the shooters eye. First, there are optical principles involved, due to the inability of the human eye, acting as a lens, to accurately focus on a rear sight, at front sight and the target, all at different distances. Experience, however, has demonstrated that within reason, the further out from the shooters eye the front sight can be placed, and the greater the distance between the two sights, the less error will be introduced through misalignment of the sights. This has been proved quite conclusively through the use of the longbarrelled free pistol.

Taking all these items into account, it will be observed that the problem confronting a manufacturer or designer of target pistols is quite a serious one and it is to provide a practical solution of this problem that I have created my target pistol barrel.

My solution of this problem has been arrived at after long experience and as the result of a great amount of experimental firing. My solution of this problem consists in providing a heavy weight barrel, but having this heavy barrel relatively short. This can be done without sacrifice of accuracy as relatively short barrels have been found to provide all the accuracy that a pistol shooter can take advantage of. I then provide a tubular barrel extension which is light in weight and which carries the front sight out to the desired position. When the end result is achieved in this manner no mental hazard is created for the shooter, for in effect this pistol has all the appearance of a solid barrel the full length provided.

The principal object of my present invention, therefore, is to provide a special barrel for pistols used in target shooting, which produces the balance desired and which also provides the optimum position for the front sig t.

A further object of my invention is to provide a heavy weight barrel for a pistol, with all its inherent accuracy and ability to maintain its zeroing, without disturbing either the desired balance of the pistol or the positioning of the front sight thereof.

A further object of my invention is to provide a pistol barrel having those desirable characteristics which have proven beneficial in target shooting, yet which carries out, to the extreme end of the barrel, the normal and customary shape or contour, so that no mental hazard is created to elfect the shooters score.

Further objects, advantages and capabilities will be apparent from the description and disclosure in the drawings, or may be comprehended or are inherent in the device.

Figure l is an elevation, partly in section, of an autoloading pistol, employing one form of my improved target barrel.

Figure 2 is an elevation, partly in section, showing the preferred form of my target barrel for pistols.

Referring more particularly to the disclosure in the drawings, the numeral 10 designates an auto-loading pistol, representative of one of the type of guns to which my target barrel is particularly well adapted. My barrel is likewise adaptable to single shot pistols and to a lesser degree to revolvers.

Referring to Figure 1, that portion of the gun extending to the left from the line indicated by reference character 12 is the barrel proper and is that portion of the pistol subject to change. The barrel itself normally extends rearwardly or to the right, as viewed in Figure 1, until it abuts substantially the slid-able breech block 14. Now it has been found that if barrel 16 is going to provide the balance point desired at 18, which is the position normally at which the second finger of the shooters hand comes to rest, then a heavy weight barrel must terminate at a point substantially as indicated by reference character 20. This arrangement produces a desirable barrel in that it has sufiicient length so that bore 22, particularly if the pistol is of 22 caliber (and this is the caliber mostly used in this type of gun), is adequate for all normal functioning. However, if the front sight is used in its normal position, as indicated by the dashed line at 24, the sighting base between this sight and the rear sight 26, is so short that minor errors in alignment produce considerable inaccuracy at the target and further, for optical reasons, it is desirable: that this distance be greater.

Under such conditions, I provide an outwardly extending tube as 28, which is carefully machined to provide accurate concentricity with barrel 16 and particularly for bore 22, and then extend this tube out so that the front sight 30 is at the desired or optimum position. In so doing I have added but little weight to the gun and have achieved all the desirable characteristics enumerated in the preamble of this application.

In Figure 2 I have shown what is probably the preferred form of my barrel, in that the tubular portion 32 is formed as an integral portion of barrel 34. This atrangement can never come loose because it is formed as part of the barrel and in no way affects the outside appearance of the gun. Both forms of my invention provide a convenient seat for an auxiliary guide plug which may be fitted into the end of the tubular portions and thus form a guide for the cleaning rod, thus permitting the cleaning of the weapon without disassembling the same and without any danger of injuring the lands at the muzzle, through non-axial positioning of the cleaning rod.

Principles underlying use of the invention A pistol employing my improved barrel is normally used in the accepted manner, and, under such conditions there are normally two groups of muscles used. These are the trapezius and deltoids. In aiming with a hand gun, the trapezius, which is the large muscle group filling the space between the neck and the shoulder, holds the shoulder in position, while the deltoid muscle group, found in the outside of the upper arm and extending up over the shoulder, takes the strain of holding the gun in its extended position. Assisting the deltoid group, is a secondary muscle group on the top of the forearm and this secondary group keeps the handgun from tipping downwardly.

It has been found that a heavy barrel produces a gun that is most pronouncedly muzzle heavy and this places an unwanted serious strain on the deltoid and especially on the secondary muscles of the forearm. An optimum condition is that in which a very slight strain is placed on these muscles and that will be achieved in arms fitted with barrels substantially of the proportion shown in my drawings. Any excess weight at the end of the muzzle over that shown, causes undue tensioning of these muscles and will cause the front sight to make a very.

exaggerated trace when aiming at a target and will make it very difficult for the average person to achieve good scores. However, with a gun modified after the teachings of my present invention, I have found that the average white collar shooter, with undeveloped muscles, can shoot as well as those relatively few people Who live outdoors and to a large extent do manual work.

The experience of a large number of expert pistol shooters has shown that when a pistol is especially muzzle heavy, low shots occur with considerable regularity. An analysis shows that as the hammer or striker moves forward to fire the primer, it accumulates kinetic energy which is transferred to the gun as the firing pin engages the primer and in the brief period before the cartridge is fired, the gun is given a forward push. Now as the gun is gripped by the shooter, considerably below the axis of the bore, the end result is to drive the muzzle downwardly. Trials indicate that with a gun balanced, according to the teachings of my invention, the shooters muscles normally overcome any such downward movement sufficiently to prevent scoring of low shots.

It is believed that it Will be clearly apparent from the above description and the disclosure in the drawings that the invention comprehends a novel construction of a barrel for pistols and the like.

Having thus disclosed the invention, I claim:

In a target pistol of the conventional type including a barrel having a rifled bore, a hand grip, a receiver, and a trigger guard, the improvement, comprising: said barrel being of a heavy-weight, short-length type, a light weight, tube-like extension extending forward from the outer end of said barrel and formed integral therewith and having a cylindrically shaped exterior surface of the same diameter as and coextensive with the exterior surface of said end of said barrel, said extension having substantial length in comparison to the length of said barrel, the interior surface of said extension being cylindrical and of greater diameter than the diameter of said bore, said pistol being balanced approximately at the rear end of said trigger guard and said extension being of such light weight'as'to'permit such balancing, and a front sight secured on the outer end of said extension.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 157,008 Kerr Nov. 17, 1874 636,196 Burgess Oct. 31, 1899 855,439 Adrianson June 4, 1907 1,017,003 Kenney Feb. 13, 1912 1,760,674 Frantzius May 27, 1930 2,464,010 Vonella Mar. 8, 1949 FOREIGN PATENTS 353,197 Italy Oct. 7, 1937

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