US3362095A

US3362095A - Conversion of mi type firearms to m14 ammunition

Info

Publication number: US3362095A
Application number: US535289A
Authority: US
Inventors: Byer Jacob
Original assignee: HARRINGTON AND RICHARDSON Inc
Current assignee: HARRINGTON AND RICHARDSON Inc
Priority date: 1966-03-07
Filing date: 1966-03-07
Publication date: 1968-01-09
Anticipated expiration: 1985-01-09

Description

J. BYER Jan. 9, 1968 v CONVERSION OF Ml TYPE FIREARMS TO M14 AMMUNITION Filed March '7, 1966 INVENTOR JACOB BYER ATTORNEY United States Patent 3,362,095 CONVERSION OF M1 TYPE FIREARMS T0 M14 AMMUNITION Jacob Byer, Worcester, Mass., assignor to Harrington &

Richardson, Iuc., Worcester, Mass., a corporation of Massachusetts Filed Mar. 7, 1966, Ser. No. 535,289 4 Claims. (Cl. 42-1) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A conversion kit particularly adapted for changing a Garand 30-06 rifle to the M14 NATO, the kit comprising a trigger assembly, receiver, bolt, and a floor plate, the latter having an opening providing a pair of spaced arms for the reception of a magazine adapted for the NATO but not adapted for the Garand, together with a spacer block on the forward face of the trigger assembly with a retractible magazine catch on the spacer block holding the magazine in position for feeding cartridges to the receiver, and a movable bolt stop on the spacer block engageable by the cartridge follower of the magazine when it is empty, to move the bolt stop into the path of the bolt to stop the same in open position upon exhaustion of the rounds in the magazine.

This invention relates to a conversion apparatus or kit for converting the M1 to the M14, i.e., the well known Garand 30-06 rifle to the M14 NATO which uses a 7.62 cartridge shorter than the standard 30-06.

It is of course recognized that it is important to be able to convert the M1 to the M14- so as to standardize infantry weapons insofar as it is possible to do so. Other conversions have been known such as for instance the F.N., the Beretta and others, all of which have some objectionable features, including high cost in the Beretta.

However one of the main problems resides in the provision of a conversion apparatus and/or kit which is simple and easy and inexpensive to accomplish and that is the principal object of the present invention.

The conversion kit of the present invention involves a minimum of change parts and .a minimum of operations to be done on the original receiver and the fore-end of the stock of the conventional Garand or Ml.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will appear hereinafter.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing parts of a conventional M1 rifle;

FIG. 2 is a similar view showing the same converted to the M14 by means of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a bottom plan view of a portion of the stock;

FIG. 4 is a bottom plan view of the trigger housing assembly;

FIG. 5 is a view in side elevation of the trigger assembly as modified;

FIG. 6 is a bottom plan view looking in the direction of arrow 6 in FIG. 2, with parts broken away;

FIG. 7 is a view in elevation looking in the direction of arrow 7 in FIG. 5, and

FIG. 8 is an enlarged view in side elevation of the forward magazine latch.

Essentially the problem in converting the M1 to the M14 comprises the application of the underneath upwardly feeding M14 type magazine having ten to twenty rounds and which has the usual magazine follower and spring. The M1 has a solid floor plate which has to be removed or modified to accept the magazine. The M1 3,362,095 Patented Jan. 9, 1968 must be provided with magazine catches which hold the magazine in position and at least one of which is easily retracted in order to allow the magazine to be extracted and replaced. In this invention the floor plate is milled out to correct width.

Also since the NATO cartridge is shorter than the standard Springfield SO -116*, a spacer is added to the face of the front of the trigger housing and advantage is taken of the fact that this spacer has to be provided to place on it the rear retractable magazine catch and also a spring-pressed bolt stop, which bolt stop is actuated by the magazine follower, and when the final round has been ejected, the bolt is held in bolt-open position thereby until such time as a new magazine is inserted in the newly provided magazine holder, etc.

Also the underneath portion of the fore-end adjacent the milled-out floor plate of the trigger housing is cut out in order to accept the parts particularly with respect to a forward magazine catch.

FIG. 3 shows an underneath view of a portion of the fore-end of the stock 10 and the fore-end 12, the newly cut-out portion being indicated at 14, and extending from the dotted line to the right, which shows a formerly solid portion.

FIG. 4 is an underneath view of the trigger housing or trigger assembly which is generally indicated by the reference numeral 16 and which is changed only in that it is milled out along the lines indicated at 18, 18 for the reception of the NATO type magazine between the two

resultant arms

20, 20 in the floor plate which are of course integral therewith and relatively speaking embrace the magazine as it is inserted in an upward direction.

FIG. 5 shows the trigger assembly together with the new spacer 22 which is attached to the forward face thereof. The trigger assembly is standard and conventional and well known in the art. Nothing is done to this trigger assembly with the exception of the milling operation in the floor plate as indicated at 18 to form the

arms

20, 20. The spacer block 22 is attached by any desired means such as by being bolted as at 26, 26, to the forward face of the trigger assembly as at 28.

The spacer block is arranged so as to provide for a rearward guide surface for the magazine spaced forwardly from the front face 28 of the trigger assembly. On the spacer block there is provided the pivoted, spring-pressed rear magazine latch 30 which is provided with the latch nose at 32 for the purpose of engaging the projection 34 on the NATO type magazine 36.

This magazine is conventional and well known and besides having the projection at 34 at the rear portion thereof for engagement with the pivoted rear latch 30, it is also provided with a front aperture 35 for engagement with a new retractable forward latch to be hereinafter described. This magazine also has a convention-al cartridge follower 38 moved by the usual cartridge follower spring as is well known and as the rounds are exhausted this follower rises. After the last round is extracted, it contacts the vertically movable bolt stop 40 which is spring-pressed in a downward direction by means of a spring not shown, mounted in the spacer 22. Upon being raised, bolt stop 40 moves into the path of the bolt 56 and holds it in open condition when all of the cartridges have been exhausted from the magazine, see FIG. 7.

The magazine is extracted by releasing the finger 30 moving it in a counterclockwise direction in FIG. 2, and the magazine is extracted by a twisting motion releasing the front latch also. However, the bolt remains open until a fresh magazine is inserted, whereupon the stop and bolt become disassociated and the spring 52 causes the bolt stop to snap downwardly into its normal position.

The original Ml receiver has to be milled out slightly but a very minimum of such milling is required. The receiver is perhaps best shown in FIG. 6 which is a view looking upwardly into the receiver and indicating therein the forward magazine latch 60 which is provided with a lock rod 62 and a slanted forward edge portion 64 which has a rearwardly projecting nipple 66 intermediate the side edges thereof for engaging in the hole in the forward wall of the magazine. The lock rod tends to hold the latch 60 in the correct position but is spring-pressed forwardly by the spring 68 and this magazine front latch has sufiicient motion arranged thereby in order to allow the magazine to be released from the projection 66 but only after the rearward magazine catch has been released by pressing the lever 30 in a counterclockwise direction as explained above. The rod 62 takes the place of the M1 cartridge follower actuating rod.

It will be seen that the present invention provides an extremely simple, inexpensive, and quickly and easily installed conversion kit for converting the Garand or M1 to the M14 so that the M1 can be used with standard NATO ammunition. The bolt operates the same as before in both directions. However instead of using the usual Garand clip which is inserted in the top of the reeciver, the firearm now is magazine-operated and more rounds can be utilized in a single magazine than in the M1 clip. Certain changes also have to be made to the barrel but this forms no part of the present invention. Such barrel and head space changes have to be made in any kind of conversion; whereas the principal departure of the present invention from the prior art resides in simplicity, inexpensiveness, and ease of conversion.

Having thus described my invention and the advantages thereof, I do not wish to be limited to the details herein disclosed, otherwise than as set forth in the claims, but what I claim is:

1. A conversion kit for a firearm which includes a trigger assembly, a receiver, a reciprocable bolt for operation in said receiver, means operating the bolt, said trigger assembly including a generally upright forward face and a forwardly extending floor plate,

said fioor plate being provided with an opening centrally thereof providing a pair of spaced arms for the reception of a magazine including a cartridge follower, which magazine the firearm was not originally made to accept,

and a spacer block for mounting on the forward face of said trigger assembly, a retractable magazine catch on said spacer block for holding a magazine temporarily in position for the feeding of cartridges therein to the receiver for loading by said bolt in a conventional manner, a movable bolt stop on said spacer block, and means on said bolt stop in position to be engaged by the cartridge follower when the magazine is empty to move said bolt stop into the path of said bolt to stop the same in open position upon the exhaustion of the rounds from the magazine.

2. The conversion kit of claim 1 including a yieldable new forward magazine latch comprising a block, a projection of said block for entry into an aperture in the forward edge of said magazine, and means for normally maintaining the latch block with said projection in magazine engaging position at the aperture; thereby to hold an inserted magazine in position.

3. The conversion kit of claim 1 including a yieldable new forward magazine latch comprising a block, a projection on said block for entry into an aperture in the forward edge of said magazine, and means for normally maintaining the latch block with said projection in magazine engaging position at the aperture; thereby to hold an inserted magazine in position, resilient means for said block, the latter being retractable against the action of said resilient means to allow said magazine to be extracted and replaced.

4. The conversion kit of claim 1 including a yieldable new forward magazine latch comprising a block, a projection on said block for entry into an aperture in the forward edge of said magazine, and means for normally maintaining the latch block with said projection in magazine engaging position at the aperture; thereby to hold an inserted magazine in position, resilient means for said block, the latter being retractable against the action of said resilient means to allow said magazine to be extracted and replaced, said latch block maintaining means including a lock rod that takes the place of the cartridge follower actuating rod of the firearm.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 728,739 5/1903 Mannlicker 42-753 1,074,948 10/ 1913 Hiscock 4218.3 1,850,729 3/1932 Sedgley 4218.3 1,913,827 6/1933 Bradbury 42-18.3 2,657,489 11/ 1953 Robertson 42-6 2,736,977 3/ 1956 Harvey 42-6 BENJAMIN A. BORCHELT, Primary Examiner.

T. H. WEBB, Assistant Examiner.