Abstract:
A modular cheek rest assembly for a gunstock. The major members of the assembly are a low level cheek rest, a high level cheek rest, a storage container, a shotgun shell holder and a magazine holder. The low level cheek rest is the principal member that has engagement structure adjacent the bottom ends of its side walls for detachably securing the low level cheek rest to the butt stock of a firearm. There are attachment structure on the outer surface of the side walls of the low level cheek rest for disengageably attaching the other members. There is the ability to attach these members on either the right or left side depending on the preference of the user. If the high level cheek rest is needed, it nests over the top of the low level cheek rest.

Description:
This application claims the priority of U.S. Provisional Patent Application 60/734,695 filed on Nov. 8, 2005. 
    
    
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     The invention relates to firearms such as shotguns and rifles. More specifically the invention relates to a modular cheek rest assembly that is detachably secured to the butt stock of a firearm. 
     If the firearm has a low level sight, a low level cheek rest is needed. If an elevated sight is used on the firearm, then a high level cheek rest is needed. 
     Sometimes the firearm user needs quick access to shells for use with the firearm. The firearm user may put the shells in a pocket and often this takes a longer to get them out to use than the user would like. At such times as this, it would be advantageous to have some type of shotgun shell holder or magazine holder detachably mounted on the butt stock. There are times when it would be advantageous to have a storage tube detachably secured to the butt stock. 
     It is an object of the invention to provide a novel modular cheek rest assembly that includes a low level cheek rest, a high level cheek rest, a storage tube and a shotgun shell holder. 
     It&#39;s another object of the invention that is easily installed and removed from a gun stock. 
     It&#39;s also an object of the invention to provide a novel modular cheek rest assembly that is economical to manufacture and market. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The principal components of the invention are a low level cheek rest, a high level cheek rest, a shotgun shell holder, a magazine holder and a storage tube. If the firearm has a low level sight, the low level cheek rest would be used. Different options then exist. A shotgun shell holder could be removably attached to either one or both sides of the low level cheek rest. Alternatively, a storage tube could be attached to either side of the low level cheek rest and a shotgun shell holder could be attached to the other side. If an elevated sight is used on the firearm, then the high level cheek rest could be matingly nested over the low level cheek rest. The low level cheek rest allows the person shooting the firearm to hold their cheek at the proper height to see the low level gun sight. The high level cheek rest allows the person shooting the firearm to hold their face at the proper height to see an elevated gun sight. 
     If the high level cheek rest is used, the previous options available for the low level cheek rest would also be available for the high level cheek rest. A shotgun shell holder could be removably attached to either one or both sides of the high level cheek rest. Alternatively, a storage tube could be attached to either side of the high level cheek rest and a shotgun shell holder or a magazine holder could be attached to the other side. 
     The low level cheek rest has a top wall portion connected at its opposite ends by a left side wall and a right side wall. Adjacent the bottom end of the side walls are a plurality of longitudinally spaced teeth. These teeth would be detachably engageable with aligned recesses in the respective right and left recesses in the outer surface of a butt stock. The low level cheek rest is made of a semi-rigid material, such as some form of plastic, that allows the side walls to be stretched outwardly in order to mount the low level cheek rest on the butt stock. 
    
    
     
       DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  is a side elevation view of the adjustable length butt stock assembly; 
         FIG. 2  is an exploded front perspective view of the modular cheek rest assembly prior to installation on the butt stock; 
         FIG. 3  is a side elevation view of the high level cheek rest; 
         FIG. 4  is a top view of the shotgun shell holder; 
         FIG. 5  is a rear view of the shotgun shell holder; 
         FIG. 6  is a side elevation view of the low level cheek rest; 
         FIG. 7  is an exploded front elevation view showing the high level cheek rest being installed on the low level cheek rest; 
         FIG. 8  is a rear elevation view of the high level cheek rest; 
         FIG. 9  is a front elevation view of the high level cheek rest; 
         FIG. 10  is a front elevation view showing the high level cheek rest being installed on the low level cheek rest; 
         FIG. 11  is an exploded front elevation view of the low level cheek rest prior to installing the gun shell holder and the storage tube; 
         FIG. 12  is a side elevation view of the storage tube; 
         FIG. 13  is a rear elevation view of the storage tube; 
         FIG. 14  is an exploded top plan view of the storage tube; 
         FIG. 15  is a bottom view of the low level cheek rest; and 
         FIGS. 16-18  are schematic illustrations of the magazine holder mounted on the high level cheek rest 
     
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
     An adjustable length butt stock assembly  30  is illustrated in  FIG. 1  It has a handgrip portion  31 , a tubular member  32  and a butt stock  34  that is telescopically adjustable along the length of tubular member  32 . The front end of butt stock assembly  30  is attached to the rear end of a receiver of a firearm such as a shotgun or a rifle. In the embodiment illustrated, the handgrip  31  and tubular member  32  are integrally formed but they could be separate parts that are secured to each other. Structure for reducing the recoil of the firearm can be located either in tubular member  32  or butt stock  34 . 
       FIG. 2  is an exploded front perspective view of the modular cheek rest and storage assembly  36 . It consists of four major parts plus two sets of different length screws. They are low level cheek rest  38 , the high level cheek rest  39 , shot gun shell holder  40  and the storage tube  41 . If the firearm has a low level sight, low level cheek rest  38  would be used. Different options then exist. A shotgun shell holder  40  could be removably attached to either one or both sides of level cheek rest  38 . Alternatively, storage tube  41  could be attached to either side of low level cheek rest  38  and a shotgun shell holder  40  attached to the other side. If an elevated sight is used on the firearm, then high level cheek rest  39  could have one or two of the shotgun shell holders  40  detachably secured to its opposite sides. Alternatively, a storage tube  41  could be detachably secured to one of the sides of high level cheek rest  39 . The low level cheek rest  38  allows the person shooting the firearm to hold their face at the proper height to see the low level gun sight. The high level cheek rest  39  allows the person shooting the firearm to hold their face at the proper height to see an elevated gun sight. 
     Butt stock  34  has a tubular portion  43  adjacent its top end. Its outer surface has longitudinally spaced recesses or pockets  44  that detachably receive structure on low level cheek rest  38  for the purpose of securing the two members together. The manner in which this is accomplished will be discussed later at greater length. 
       FIGS. 3-5  show the different components of the modular cheek rest and storage assembly. Two different length sets of screws can be used to assemble the different parts together.  FIG. 11  shows a shotgun shell holder  40  attached to low level rest  38 .  FIG. 10  is a front elevation view showing high level cheek rest  39  attached to the outer surface of low level cheek rest  38 . The shell shot holder  40  is attached to the outer surface of high level cheek rest  39 .  FIG. 10  shows the structure of storage tube  41  secured to the outer surface of high level cheek rest  39 . Shotgun shells would be loaded in shotgun shell holder  40 . 
       FIG. 11  shows the low level cheek rest  38  prior to installation on the tubular portion  43  of butt stock  34 . Low level cheek rest  38  has a storage tube  41  and shotgun shell holder  40  detachably secured to it. 
       FIG. 5  is a rear view of shotgun shell holder  40  showing its rear wall  48  having a pair of vertically spaced longitudinally extending grooves or recesses  49  in its outer surface. These grooves or recesses would mate with the externally elongated protrusions  52  on the outer surface of either low level cheek rest  38  or high level cheek rest  39 . Threaded bores  50  would also receive the screws  54 . Adjacent fingers  55  and  56  define receptacle openings for removably receiving shotgun shells. 
       FIG. 2  shows the manner in which high level cheek rest  39  is snapped over the outer surface of the low level cheek rest  38 . The outer surface of the side walls of low level cheek rest  38  have vertically spaced longitudinally extending protrusions or ridges  52 . They mate and interlock with the respective longitudinally extending grooves or recesses  60  on the inner surface of the side walls of high level cheek rest  39 . The protrusions or ridges  52  also mate with longitudinally extending grooves or recesses  49  on the rear surface of shotgun shell holder  40 . Storage tube  41  has a flange  65  having longitudinally extending grooves or recesses  64  on the rear surface of the flange. 
     High level cheek rest  39  has longitudinally spaced threaded bore holes  66  that align with the threaded bore holes  67  in low level cheek rest  38 . Storage tube  41  has threaded bore holes  100  that are longitudinally spaced to align with threaded bore holes  66  in high level cheek rest  39  and threaded bore holes  67  in low level cheek rest  38 . 
       FIG. 11  is an exploded front elevation view of low level cheek rest  38 , shot gun shell holder  40  and storage tube  41 . Low level cheek rest  38  has an arcuate top portion  70  connected at its opposite ends by a left side wall  72  and a right side wall  73 . Arcuate top portion  70  is substantially semi-cylindrical in shape. The outer surface of the respective left and right side walls  72  and  73  have longitudinally extending protrusions or ridges  52  (see  FIG. 2 ). Longitudinally spaced threaded bore holes  67  receive screws  54  for attaching shotgun shell holder  40  and storage tube  41  to low level cheek rest  38  or high level cheek rest  39 .  FIG. 15  is a bottom plan view of low level cheek rest  38 . It shows four longitudinally spaced teeth  80  extending inwardly from left side wall  72 . It shows four inwardly extending teeth  82  from right side wall  73 . 
     Low level cheek rest  38  is always the first member to be installed on the top end of butt stock  34 . Teeth  80  and  82  extend inwardly from the bottom ends of the respective left and right side walls  72  and  73 . For installation on butt stock  34 , the rear end of low level cheek rest  38  is first positioned in front of the tubular portion  43  with the teeth  80  and  82  aligned with the recesses or pockets  44 . Next low level cheek rest  38  is slid rearwardly toward the butt pad rear end. Low level cheek rest  38  has a rear end  84  and a front end  85 . The respective teeth have a built in angle at the front end so that the respective left and right side walls are forced outwardly until they click into the recesses  44 . There are four teeth and four recesses or pockets for the teeth to click in when the low level cheek rest is fully installed. At that time the low level cheek rest is firmly locked onto the butt stock. 
     Prior to installing low level cheek rest  38  onto the butt stock, there are several options to be exercised. A shotgun shell holder may be installed on either one or both side walls of the low level cheek rest. Likewise, a storage tube  41  may be installed on one of the side walls  72  or  73 . When only the low level cheek rest  38  is to be used, the shorter screws  54  would be used to attach the shotgun shell holder  40  and storage tube  41 . 
     The design of the teeth  80  and  82  on the bottom of low level cheek rest  38  is important because this structure is the only thing attaching it to butt stock  34 . It is not necessary to threadably attach the low level cheek rest  38  to the butt stock. If you want to use a high level cheek rest for high elevated sights, like red dots, first you need to remove the low level cheek rest  38 . Next any shotgun holders  40  or storage tubes  41  would have to be removed from the low level cheek rest. Now the high level cheek rest  39  is snapped onto the outer surface of low level cheek rest and the protrusions or ribs  52  on the outer surface of low level cheek rest  38  would snap into the longitudinal grooves or recesses  60  on the inner surface of a left side wall  88  and the right side wall  89  of high level cheek rest  39 . Next the longer version of screws  54  would be used to attach the shotgun holders  40  and storage tube  41  to the combined structure of the high level cheek rest  39  and the low level cheek rest  38 . The next step is to slide the assembled structure onto the tubular portion  43  of butt stock  34  again allowing the teeth  80  and  82  to click into the recesses or pockets  34 . 
     The structure of high level cheek rest  39  will be best understood by referring to FIGS.  2  and  7 - 10 . High level cheek rest  39  has a left side wall  88 , a right side wall  89  and an arcuate top portion  90 . An upper left wall  91  and an upper right wall  92  are inclined toward each until they reach a crown  93  and form a chamber  94  therein. Rear wall  95  closes the chamber. A hood portion  96  extends forwardly in front of the respective left side wall  88  and right side wall  89 .  FIG. 7  is an exploded view of low level cheek rest  38 , high level cheek rest  39 , shotgun shell holder  40  and storage tube  41 .  FIG. 10  is an assembled view of the structures. 
       FIGS. 4 ,  5  and  7  illustrate shotgun shell holder  40  and identify its structural members. 
       FIGS. 12-14  illustrate the storage tube  41 . Storage tube  41  would be a water tight tube in which various items could be stored. It would be primarily used to store an auxiliary battery for a laser or red dot sighting unit. Tubular member  98  is opened at each of its ends. A cap  102  and two O-rings  103  would close its one end. A cap  104  and two O-rings  105  would close its other end. The rear of flange  65  would have longitudinally extending grooves  64  that mate with protrusions or ridges  52  of either low level cheek rest  38  or high level cheek rest  39 . 
     A magazine holder  108  ( FIGS. 12-18 ) could be used instead of a shotgun shell holder  40 . It could be removably secured to one of the side walls of either high level cheek rest  39  or low level cheek rest  38 . 
     Although this invention has been described in connection with specific forms and embodiments thereof it will be appreciated that various modifications other than those discussed above may be resorted to without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention. For example, equivalent elements may be substituted for those specifically shown and described, certain features may be used independently of other features, and the number and configuration of various components described above may be altered, all without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims.