US3070272A - Trap shooter's cartridge holder - Google Patents

Description

Dec.- 25, 1962 N. W- WARMAN TRAP SHOOTERS CARTRIDGE HOLDER Filed Dec. 14, 1959 lNVENT-OR.

NA THAN W WAEMA/V BY a 1 Unite States Patent G 3,070,272 TRAP SHOOTER CARTRIDGE HOLDER Nathan W. Warrnan, 946 W. 50th St., Los Angeles, Calif. Filed Dec. 14, 1959, Ser. No. 359,506 3 Claims. (Cl. 22415) This invention relates to the sport of trap-shooting in Which clay pigeons are sprung from a trap and instantly rise in the air at high speed in imitation of the flight of a real bird when flushed.

The clay pigeon of couse, is composed of clay and is readily broken by the shot from the gun in the hands of the trap-shooter.

In practice the shooter usually takes a succession of shots at the birds, and the shooter may signal to the man operating the trap to announce when he is ready for the bird to be sprung.

In a shooting contest the participants may be required to shoot in rapid succession at the birds as they are sprung with a certain lapse of a short period of time between the successive flights of the birds; all of which constitutes ample reason for having the cartridges the shooter is Using held convenient to the hand that will reload his gun promptly and be ready for what will presently happen.

Accordingly, a principal object of this invention is to provide a holder to be carried by the shooter with a liberal supply of cartridges readily accessible to his hand for the oft repeated loading operation.

Another object of this invention is to provide the cartridge holder with elements cooperating to attain the result of utilizing gravity to constantly advance the cartridges to an outlet or delivery point from the holder; and to accomplish this, to provide means whereby the cartridges approaching the delivery point are clearly in view, thereby apprising the shooter as to the possible exhausting of the supply of cartridges in the holder.

To be more specific as to this feature it is an object to provide means for supporting the cartridge holder, normally near his waist line, while located toward his right side if he is a right-handed person; or toward his left side if he is a left-handed shooter.

Further objects of the invention will become evident from reading the present specification, and a study of the accompanying drawing.

The invention consists in the novel parts and combination of parts to be described hereinafter, all of which contribute to produce an eflicient Trap Shooters Car.- tridge Holder.

A preferred embodiment of the invention is described in the following specification, while the broad scope of the invention is pointed out in the appended claims.

In the drawing:

FIGURE 1 is a vertical section taken in the plane of the line 1-1 of FIGURE 2 through a holder embodying the invention, also illustrating the forward portion of a belt assumed to be located at or about the waist line of the person carrying the cartridge holder. In this view the cartridge holder is shown as though held toward the left side of the shooter, which is the position it should have when being used by a right handed man. This view also shows part of a row of cartridges with one of them in dotted lines, as though about to be removed.

FIGURE 2 is a plan of the holder in its normal tilted or cocked position, as viewed from above, projected upon a horizontal plane. This view in dotted lines shows an open hand being applied to a cartridge in the position it would have when being removed from the holder.

FIGURE 3 is a fragmentary view, and is of the right end of the cubicle box-form body of the holder, the upper portion of which is broken away.

Referring more particularly to the parts, and especially to FIGURES 1 and 2, the holder 1 for the cartridges 2 has the form of a cubicle or box with an open upper end 3, and it presents two relatively wide side walls 4 and 4a connected together by two relatively narrow end Walls 5 and 6.

The side walls 4 and 4a are spaced apart a distance slightly greater than the length of the cartridges that are -to be used in the holder 1, so that the ends of the cartridges lie just inside the side walls. When the holder is filled with cartridges they are disposed in tiers such as the tier 7 shown in FIGURE 1. The axes of the cartridges are parallel to the plane of the end walls 5 and 6, and the brass firing heads 8 in every tier or row, at either end wall are laid alternately between the wad ends 9 of the cartridges.

This arrangement is not essential but is preferable because that is the way the cartridges are arranged in their cartons or cardboard boxes from which they are transferred in a batch all at once into the holder 1, as will be explained presently.

In order to enable the body 1 to be supported in a cocked or tilted position, as shown in the drawing, for a right-handed man the wall 4 is placed against the gunners front side and toward his right side.

The forward face of the forward wall 4a of the holder will have been previously provided with means fixed to it, for engaging and riding on the upper edge of a belt 10 of leather or other suitable material extending around the gunners waist and preferably provided with a buckle (not illustrated) for the setting of the belt comfortably tight on the gunners body. For this purpose it is preferable to provide two flat metal hooks 11 having integral abutments 12 riveted to the wall 4a, and these hooks have relatively long bills 13 that overlie the belt 10, and which, for convenience, may lie located adjacent the end walls 5 and 6, and lie parallel with the same.

In addition to the belt 10, the end walls 5 and 6 may carry anchoring rings 14 with integral feet 15 riveted tothe Walls 5 and 6. They carry loops 16 shown in FIG- URE l on the ends 17 of a sling, indicated in dotted lines, that hangs over the gunners shoulder (not illustrated). The sling carries most of the weight of the cartridges, which is considerable when the holder is full of cartridges.

All of the cartridges in the holder 1 are shot cartridges supported by a bottom guide-wall 18 that in the present instance is supported at its rear end on an angle bracket 19 riveted to the lower edge of the rear end wall 6, and to the rear end of the guide wall 18.

This bottom guide wall 18 is relatively thin, but is composed of spring steel so that it will yield downwardly if pressed down by a force acting at or near its tip 20 which is free unattached to any part.

The guide wall 18 has an integral flange 21 that ex tends up against one of the flanges of the angle bracket clip '19 and is clamped and riveted into place between the bracket and the lower edge of the rear Wall 6.

By reason of tilt of the holder 1 any cartridge 2 on the bottom guide wall 18 will be biased to gravitate and roll down the guide wall toward an outlet point 22 near the tip 20, but all the cartridges in the lowest tier 7 will be normally detained by a gate 23 (see FIGURES l and 3). This gate normally obstructs the outlets and as illustrated in FIGURE 1 is attached by two hinge connections 24 to the lower edge of the wall 5. They have a common spindle or shaft 25 mounted in bearings 26 riveted to the lower edge of the wall 5, and carrying hangers 27 pinned to them at 28 as shown in FIGURE 3. The wings of the hangers are riveted to the upper edge of the gate 23 as shown in FIGURE 3.

Two coil springs 29 carried centered on the spindle 25 and fixed at one end to it, have straight extensions 30 at their other end that press against the lower end of the end wall 5.

The side walls 4 and 4a of the cartridge holder near the outlet point 22 are constructed so as to leave the ends of nearest cartridge 2 to the gate 23 exposed on its ends. This enables the gunners right hand 31 to be applied as indicated in FIGURE 2 by placing his thumb against one end of the cartridge, and his forefinger against its other end. With this grasp he can pull the cartridge down through the outlet 32, eifecting a depression of the tip 20 of the guide wall, and also swinging the gate 23 outwardly on its hinges, as indicated in dotted lines in FIGURE 1. The outline 32 of the cartridge 2 in this movement is also shown in FIGURE 1.

While the exposing of the ends of the cartridge that is at the outlet 22, and ready to be removed could be accomplished by making a hole through each side Wall 4 and 4a, at the proper points, it is preferably to accomplish this effect by placing the bottom guide wall or tongue 18 at a sufficiently low level below the lower edge 33. This expedient makes all of the cartridges in the bottom tier in the holder accessible to the gunners hand and incidentally slightly reduces the weight of the holder.

As indicated in FIGURES 2 and 3 the bottom guide wall or tongue 18 may be made much narrower than the width of the cartridge holder.

Another feature of the cartridge holder concerns the facility with which the entire contents of a cartridge box or carton may be quickly transferred to the holder.

In order to do this it is expedient to make the inside dimensions of the holder slightly greater than the outside dimensions of the cartridge carton.

The procedure then is to invert the empty holder 1 and telescope it down over the open carton that is full of the cartridges arranged in tiers. The next move is to invert the combined carton and holder. This brings the entire load of cartridges onto the bottom guide wall 18; and the carton can then be lifted off of the holder.

In order to reinforce the connection between the bottom guide tongue 18 and the angle bracket 19 a small angle clip 34 may be riveted or spot welded into the position where it is shown in FIGURE 1. And it is obvious that in all the riveted connections described spot welding could be used.

Although this cartridge holder probably has the greatest field of usefulness in trapshooting, it is of course, also admirably adapted for use by hunters of game birds, such as wild ducks, quail and grouse.

As there may be a tendency for a heavily loaded holder to sag away from the gunner carrying it, an additional object of my invention is to provide means for preventing that occurrence. This means involves the use of a fend 35 (see FIGURE 2).

This fend may be made of a length of strap metal about one half inch in width. It has integral pads 36 and 37 at its ends to be riveted or spot welded to the outer side of the wall-4. The pad 36 shown at the left is formed merely by bending the end of the stock used for the fend at a slight angle to fit flatly against the face of the wall 4. At the other end a similar pad 37 is formed but it is formed integrally with a short extension 38 of 4 the stock that holds the body of the fend at this end displaced outwardly, thereby compensating for any outward sag of the upper part of the body of the holder.

Many other embodiments of this invention may be resorted to without departing from the spirit of the invention.

I claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent:

1. In a trap shooters holder for shot shell cartridges, a box form container for the cartridges with a pair of side walls in a vertical plane, a rear wall connecting the same, and a front wall connecting the same at the front; a bottom guide wall connected to the rear wall for carrying a tier of the cartridges, and down which the cartridges roll when the holder is inclined, said front wall having an outlet to which the bottom guide wall delivers the cartridges, said vertical side walls lying spaced apart suflicien-tly to be adjacent the ends of the cartridges in the holder so as to guide the tier of cartridges as they roll down the bottom guide wall, a gate accessible to the shooters hand extending across and barring the outlet, means for biasing the gate towards its closed position, the lower edge of a side wall of the holder extending parallel to the bottom guide wall and is located above the bottom, and also located below the upper edges of the cartridges in the lowest tier carried in the holder, thereby rendering the foremost of the cartridges in that tier accessible to the trap shooters hand.

2. A trap shooters holder for shot shell cartridges, according to claim 1, in which the bottom guide wall is in the form of a tongue connected to the lower portion of the rear wall and projecting toward the gate, with the tip of the tongue located adjacent to the gate, and in which the edges of both the said side walls extend about parallel to the side edges of said tongue, and are located above the level of the tongue so as to enable both ends of the lowest cartridge supported on the tongue but below the upper edges of the cartridges in the lowest tier, to be accessible to the shooters fingers.

3. A trap shooters holder for shot shell cartridges, according to claim 1, including means for supporting the holder on the trap shooters body so that the said bottom guide wall will be constantly maintained in its proper inclined position.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 49,420 L-aidley Aug. 15, 1865 152,136 MacConnell June 16, 1874 372,181 Speed Oct. 25, 1887 574,531 Ferguson Jan. 5, 1897 1,345,864 Lethern July 6, 1920 1,455,803 Nofsinger May 22, 1923 1,576,010 Swartz Mar. 9, 1926 1,896,430 Stanawitz Feb. 7, 1933 2,503,741 Johnson Apr. 11, 1950 2,837,258 Williams June 3, 1958 2,908,432 Kent Oct. 13, 1959 FOREIGN PATENTS 56,430 Germany Oct. 26, 1890

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