Abstract:
A backpack and a method of forming a backpack with an integral gun scabbard has been devised whereby the user has a convenient place for the storage and carriage of a rifle, shotgun, or other long gun type of firearm, and simultaneously can store and carry a variety of other sundry cargo while moving about. The backpack is devised in such a way as to permit easy and rapid access to and retrieval of said firearm from the storage. It is equipped with dual padded shoulder straps. In an ideal embodiment, a waist belt is included to facilitate the stabilization of the scabbard when the firearm is being withdrawn, as well as to contribute to the load bearing functions of the backpack.

Description:
PRIORITY/CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     This application is a continuation-in-part application of application Ser. No. 10/894,293 filed on Jul. 19, 2004, which was a continuation-in-part application of application Ser. No. 10/355,495 filed on Jan. 31, 2003, which issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,763,987 on Jul. 20, 2004, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. 
    
    
     FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention relates to backpacks in general, and more particularly to backpacks which include a built-in gun scabbard. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     There are various times that a person needs to carry both a backpack and a gun, and weight is carried much more conveniently using the shoulder and waist belt suspension system of a backpack than when it is carried in a person&#39;s arms. For this reason, it is much easier for a person to carry a gun in their backpack than to carry a backpack and a gun separately. 
     There are prior art gun and scabbard combinations which are designed so that part of the gun extends out of the scabbard and is available for quick and easy retrieval by the person wearing the backpack. The patent applications of the inventor include this feature, and allow a gun to be removed from a scabbard in a backpack without stopping and removing the backpack. 
     Other situations occur in which protection and concealment of the gun may be more important than rapid withdrawal. In the case of military snipers, if a patrol of soldiers includes a sniper, the enemy may target the sniper with anti-sniper fire, or target the sniper in a fire fight. In such situations, it would be preferable for the sniper in a patrol of snipers to not identify himself as a sniper. In order to do that, it would be desirable to have a pack which had the external appearance of any other pack, but which had a compartment for a concealed weapon. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The invention is a backpack which includes a main panel with a top, bottom, left and right side edges, a front side and a rear side. The backpack also includes a pair of shoulder straps with each strap having a first end and a second end, with the first end of each strap attached to the top rear side of the main panel and with the second end of the shoulder strap attached near the bottom rear side of the main panel. The pack includes a gun scabbard which is attached to the front side of the main panel. The gun scabbard has a top edge and a scabbard bottom, with scabbard left and right sides. The scabbard can be generally two sided with the two sides joined to each other by a zipper. It can also be more of a six sided structure with a front and a back side and a left and a right side. The gun scabbard defines a general gun shaped space within the sides, top and bottom of the scabbard. 
     The pack further includes a storage container which is attached to the front side of the main panel of the back. It can also be attached to a side of the gun scabbard, in an instance in which the gun scabbard covers the entire front side of the main panel. Thus, the gun scabbard defines a space which is suitable for enclosing and storing the entire gun, with no part of the gun sticking out of the pack, nor above the top edge of the scabbard. The gun scabbard and the storage container may be constructed so that the gun scabbard covers the entire front side of the main panel of the pack with the storage compartment attached to the edges of the gun scabbard. The gun scabbard can also cover a part of the main panel, with the pack storage compartment or a portion of it, attached to the scabbard and the main panel of the pack. 
     The scabbard can include a closure for the scabbard top which would secure a gun within the scabbard. The closure can be a pair of straps over the open top of the scabbard or it could also be a flap or a zipper which covers the scabbard, or which covers the top of the pack including the scabbard. 
     In the case of a flap which covers the entire pack, a zipper may be present in the flap covering the top of the pack which could be opened for removal of the gun from the scabbard through the zippered opening. 
     The storage compartment may be attached to the scabbard and the main panel of the pack in such a way that the entire storage compartment is removable from the scabbard, which would leave the scabbard attached to the main panel of the pack with part or the entire storage compartment of the pack removed. 
     The scabbard may be a generally rigid chamber, or it may also be compressible and have an open configuration and a flattened configuration. The flattened configuration could be achieved by a zipper around the edge of two sides of the scabbard. When the zipper is opened, the scabbard would be released from the flattened position and could move into the open configuration for storage of a gun. In this way, the pack of the invention could serve as a regular backpack when a gun is not being carried in the pack, and would maintain a compact configuration for carrying, until a gun needed to be inserted into the scabbard. 
     The scabbard of the backpack may also extend beyond the bottom of the storage container, and be foldable in the center of its length so that when not used for a long gun, the lower end of the scabbard could be folded and enclosed within the storage compartment. In one configuration, the storage compartment can have an opening adjacent the side of the scabbard, and the lower end of the scabbard may be folded over and extended through the opening in the storage compartment and secured in a folded position inside the storage compartment. 
     The purpose of the Abstract is to enable the public, and especially the scientists, engineers, and practitioners in the art who are not familiar with patent or legal terms or phraseology, to determine quickly from a cursory inspection, the nature and essence of the technical disclosure of the application. The Abstract is neither intended to define the invention of the application, which is measured by the claims, nor is it intended to be limiting as to the scope of the invention in any way. 
     Still other features and advantages of the claimed invention will become readily apparent to those skilled in this art from the following detailed description describing preferred embodiments of the invention, simply by way of illustration of the best mode contemplated by carrying out my invention. As will be realized, the invention is capable of modification in various obvious respects all without departing from the invention. Accordingly, the drawings and description of the preferred embodiments are to be regarded as illustrative in nature, and not as restrictive in nature. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  is a perspective view of the backpack of the invention. 
         FIG. 2  is a perspective view of the backpack of the invention with a zippered scabbard access. 
         FIG. 3  is a perspective view of the backpack of the invention with a cover flap opened. 
         FIG. 4  is a side cutaway view of the backpack of the invention with a folding scabbard. 
         FIG. 5  is a side view of the backpack of the invention with the storage compartment separated from the scabbard. 
     
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
     While the invention is susceptible of various modifications and alternative constructions, certain illustrated embodiments thereof have been shown in the drawings and will be described below in detail. It should be understood, however, that there is no intention to limit the invention to the specific form disclosed, but, on the contrary, the invention is to cover all modifications, alternative constructions, and equivalents falling within the spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the claims. 
     In the following description and in the figures, like elements are identified with like reference numerals. The use of “e.g.,” “etc,” and “or” indicates non-exclusive alternatives without limitation unless otherwise noted. The use of “including” means “including, but not limited to,” unless otherwise noted. 
     The backpack of the invention is shown to advantage in  FIGS. 1-5 .  FIG. 1  shows the backpack with scabbard designated as  10 . The backpack includes a main panel  12  which is not visible in  FIG. 1 , but is more visible in  FIG. 4 . Attached to the main panel  12  is a scabbard  14  which may cover the entire width of the main panel  12  or a portion of that width, and the full length of the main panel  12  or a portion of that length. The main panel  12  includes a front side  28  and a rear side  30  which are shown to advantage in  FIG. 5 . As shown in  FIG. 1 , a storage compartment  32  is attached to the scabbard  14 . The scabbard  14  is made up of a front side  20  a back side  22  a left side  24  and a right side  26 . The pack includes a left shoulder strap  16  and a right shoulder strap  18 . The pack also includes a left waist belt  34  and a right waist belt  36 . The waist belt includes a buckle  38  with a portion of the buckle on each of the left waist belt  34  and the right waist belt  36 , which join together to attach the waist belt around the user&#39;s waist. 
     The storage compartment  22  can be attached as shown in  FIG. 1  to the scabbard  14  by an attachment zipper  40 . In the version shown in  FIG. 1 , the attachment zipper  40  extends along the right and left side of the pack and can also extend along the bottom and/or top side of the pack, and serve to join the scabbard  14  to the storage compartment  32 . The pack can be configured so that when the attachment zipper  40  is completely unzipped, the storage compartment  32  can be completely removed from the scabbard  14 , leaving the scabbard  14  attached to the main panel  12  with its attached shoulder straps  16  and  18 . The storage compartment  32  can further include a pair of auxiliary shoulder straps  42  and  44 . These would typically be a compact version of shoulder straps made of nylon webbing material, which would be hidden between the scabbard  14  and the storage compartment  32  in normal use and when these are attached to each other. When the storage compartment  32  is removed from the scabbard the auxiliary shoulder straps  42  and  44  would become available so that the backpack with scabbard  10  of the invention could be divided to form two functional packs, each with their own set of shoulder straps. The scabbard would be attached to the shoulder straps  16  and  18  and the storage compartment  32  would be attached to the shoulder straps  42  and  44 . 
     The storage compartment  32  also contains a back access zipper  46  which can be opened to allow the user to access the equipment stored in the interior of the storage compartment  32 . The storage compartment can also include a top zipper  48  which would typically be hidden by a rain flap  50  as shown in  FIG. 1 . The storage container  32  also contains one or more side pockets  52  which can include a pocket cover flap or be an open top pocket as shown in  FIG. 1 . The top of the scabbard can be a generally open top compartment and can be secured with scabbard straps  54  as shown in  FIG. 1 . The scabbard  14  surrounds and defines a space which is generally gun shaped, and which is sufficient in volume in every dimension to store a gun without the gun sticking out. This could include a folding or modular weapon, or a one piece gun. The scabbard  14  is configured so that it can be used with a gun which is selected to fit inside the scabbard. 
       FIG. 2  shows another preferred embodiment of the invention. This version includes a similar scabbard  14  and storage compartment  32  as shown in  FIG. 1 , with an additional feature being a covering flap  56 . The covering flap  56  is secured by one or more securing straps  58 , which attach to the storage compartment  32  with a strap buckle  60 . The covering flap  56  includes a top access zipper  62 . The top access zipper is shown as generally U shaped in  FIG. 2 , but can also be straight or curved. It is important that the top access zipper  62  be positioned over the top of the scabbard  14  when the covering flap  56  is secured over the top of the pack, so that a gun enclosed within the scabbard may be accessed through the top access zipper  62 . 
     The covering flap  56  can be a single layer of fabric or can be built to include an auxiliary storage compartment  64 . If built to include an auxiliary storage compartment  64 , the covering flap  56  is configured to provide a straight through access tunnel  66  to the scabbard  14  positioned below the top access zipper  62 . 
       FIG. 3  is a view of the same pack as in  FIG. 2 , but with the covering flap  56  opened. Shown in  FIG. 3  is an access tunnel  66  in the covering flap  56 , which provides a direct access route to the scabbard  14 .  FIG. 3  shows the scabbard  14  divided into two chambers or it may also be configured as one chamber as wide as the main panel. 
       FIG. 4  shows a side cut-away version of the backpack of the invention, in which the scabbard  14  includes a folding barrel portion  68 . This part of the scabbard is folded against the upper part of the scabbard inside, and secured in place. The folding barrel portion  68  would thus be secured inside the storage compartment  32  and would not be visible from the outside. In the version shown in  FIG. 4  the tip of the scabbard is secured using a scabbard tip strap  70 , but other methods of securing the tip of the scabbard in position are also possible such as by the use of hook and loop fabric, ties, zippers or other means of attachment. As shown in  FIG. 4  the pack of this design includes a scabbard slot  72  through which the folding barrel portion  68  of the scabbard may be extended out of the storage compartment  32 , or folded into the storage compartment and secured. The scabbard of this design includes a side zipper  74  with which the volume of the scabbard can be reduced.  FIG. 4  shows the scabbard with the side zippers closed, and the sides of the scabbard flattened to a minimum volume.  FIG. 5  shows the side zipper  74  of the scabbard zipped open to allow the scabbard to expand to a larger volume. This version of the backpack also includes a pack zipper  76 . The pack zipper  76  is a zipper in which one half of the zipper is attached to an edge of the scabbard, and the other half of the zipper is attached to the edges of the storage compartment  32 . When the two edges are zipped together, the storage compartment  32  is attached to the scabbard  14 . The pack zipper  76  can also be unzipped, which allows the storage compartment  32  to be removed completely from the scabbard  14 . The storage compartment  32  can include auxiliary shoulder straps  42  and  44  so that the scabbard can become a separate scabbard bearing pack with shoulder straps, and the storage compartment  32  can also become a separate and independent pack with shoulder straps. 
     While there is shown and described the present preferred embodiment of the invention, it is to be distinctly understood that this invention is not limited thereto but may be variously embodied to practice within the scope of the following claims. From the foregoing description, it will be apparent that various changes may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the following claims.