Rifle unloader apparatus

An unloader apparatus in the form of a hand held tool is adapted to safely remove the loaded cartridges in a lever action rifle or similar fireman. In one embodiment, the tool comprises an arcuate shaped spoon attached to a handle. Insertion of the distal end of the spoon into the magazine of the rifle causes the cartridges to back out of the magazine with the arcuate or curved surface of the spoon directing the cartridges harmlessly out of the way.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
1. Field of the Invention 
The present invention relates generally to safety devices for firearms, and 
more particularly, to a hand held tool for facilitating the safe removal 
of live cartridges or bullets from the magazine of a lever-action rifle or 
similar firearm. 
2. Description of the Prior Art 
A lever-action rifle generally comprises a magazine holding several live 
cartridges or bullets. When it is desired to remove the cartridges, i.e. 
unload the magazine, each cartridge must be placed in the firing chamber 
in sequence before being ejected by the action of the lever through the 
breach of the firearm. This is an inherently unsafe situation because when 
a live round is in the firing chamber before being ejected the possibility 
exists for an accidental discharge. Accordingly, there is a clear need for 
a method and means for unloading the live cartridges in the magazine of a 
lever-action rifle or the like without first sequentially indexing each 
round through the firing chamber of the firearm. The foregoing need is met 
by the unique rifle unloader apparatus of the present invention and method 
of using same as will be made apparent from the following description 
thereof. Other advantages of the present invention over the prior art also 
will be rendered evident. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
To achieve the foregoing and other advantages, the present invention, 
briefly described, provides an unloader apparatus in the form of a hand 
held tool is adapted to safely remove the loaded cartridges in a lever 
action rifle or similar fireman. In the preferred embodiment, the tool 
comprises an arcuate shaped spoon attached to a handle. Insertion of the 
distal end of the spoon into the magazine of the rifle causes the 
cartridges to back out of the magazine with the arcuate or curved surface 
of the spoon directing the cartridges harmlessly out of the way. 
The above brief description sets forth rather broadly the more important 
features of the present invention in order that the detailed description 
thereof that follows may be better understood, and in order that the 
present contributions to the art may be better appreciated. There are, of 
course, additional features of the invention that will be described 
hereinafter and which will form the subject matter of the claims appended 
hereto. 
In this respect, before explaining the preferred embodiment(s) of the 
invention in detail, it is to be understood that the invention is not 
limited in its application to the details of the construction and to the 
arrangements of the components set forth in the following description or 
illustrated in the drawings. The invention is capable of other embodiments 
and of being practiced and carried out in various ways. Also, it is to be 
understood, that the phraseology and terminology employed herein are for 
the purpose of description and should not be regarded as limiting. 
As such, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the conception, upon 
which this disclosure is based, may readily be utilized as a basis for 
designing other structures, methods, and systems for carrying out the 
several purposes of the present invention. It is important, therefore, 
that the claims be regarded as including such equivalent constructions 
insofar as they do not depart from the spirit and scope of the present 
invention. 
Further, the purpose of the foregoing Abstract is to enable the U.S. Patent 
and Trademark Office and the public generally, and especially the 
scientists, engineers and practitioners in the art who are not familiar 
with patent or legal terms of phraseology, to determine quickly from a 
cursory inspection the nature and essence of the technical disclosure of 
the application. Accordingly, the Abstract is neither intended to define 
the invention or the application, which only is measured by the claims, 
nor is it intended to be limiting as to the scope of the invention in any 
way. 
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a new and 
improved rifle unloader apparatus which has all of the advantages of the 
prior art and none of the disadvantages. It is another object of the 
present invention to provide a new and improved rifle unloader apparatus 
which may be easily and efficiently manufactured and marketed. 
It is a further objective of the present invention to provide a new and 
improved rifle unloader apparatus which is of durable and reliable 
construction. 
An even further object of the present invention is to provide a new and 
improved rifle unloader apparatus which is susceptible to a low cost of 
manufacture with regard to both materials and labor, and which accordingly 
is then susceptible to low prices of sale to the consuming public, thereby 
making such rifle unloader apparatus available to the buying public. 
Still yet a further object of the present invention is to provide a new and 
improved rifle unloader apparatus in the form of a hand held tool. 
It is still a further object of the present invention to provide a new and 
improved rifle unloader apparatus having means associated therewith for 
collecting the live cartridges unloaded thereby from the magazine of a 
lever-action rifle or similar firearm. 
Still a further object of the present invention is to provide a new and 
improved rifle unloader apparatus and method of using the same whereby the 
sequential indexing of each live round in the rifle's magazine through the 
firing chamber of the firearm prior to being ejected is avoided. 
These together with still other objects of the invention, along with the 
various features of novelty which characterize the invention, are pointed 
out with particularity in the claims annexed to and forming a part of this 
disclosure. For a better understanding of the invention, its operating 
advantages and the specific objects attained by its uses, reference should 
be had to the accompanying drawings and descriptive matter in which there 
is illustrated at least one preferred embodiment of the invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
With reference now to the drawings, a new and improved rifle unloader 
apparatus of the present invention will be described. 
Turning initially to FIGS. 1-5, there is shown a first exemplary embodiment 
of the rifle unloader apparatus according to the invention generally 
designated by reference numeral 10. In its preferred form, rifle unloader 
apparatus 10 comprises a hand holdable tool generally resembling a spoon 
and having a front portion 12 integrally connected to a rear handle 
portion 14. The front portion, in turn, comprises a bowl or scoop 16 
integrally attached to a generally cylindrical body member 13 having a 
rear facing flat end 20 defining a rear arcuately shaped opening. Handle 
14 preferably is in the form of a U-shaped tube whose opposed ends 22, 24 
are flattened so that they may suitably be attached to the body member 
perpendicular to an orthogonal plane in which arcuate end surface 20 is 
projected. As shown in FIG. 4, the U-shaped tube preferably includes 
offset portions which permit the opposed ends of the U-shaped tube to lie 
within a first plane, with a remainder of said U-shaped tube residing in a 
second plane positioned in a substantially spaced and parallel orientation 
relative to the first plane. The parts may be fabricated of wood, plastic 
or metal with brass being particularly preferred, in which case the 
flattened ends 22, 24 preferably are attached to the opposed sides of the 
body member 12 by soldering, for example. Of course, it will be 
appreciated that other means to fasten handle 14 to the body member may be 
employed instead depending upon the choice of material for these parts 
e.g., a plastic version may be provided of molded one-piece construction. 
Also, handle 14 may assume other convenient shapes, if desired. 
In accordance with the present invention the leading edge of scoop 16 is 
adapted to be positioned by hand (i.e. by gripping handle portion 14) 
relative to the conventional magazine of a conventional lever-action rifle 
26 or similar fireman as is only schematically shown in FIG. 1 by dashed 
lines. This type of firearm is well known and commercially available under 
the Registered Trademarks WINCHESTER or MARLIN, and the structural details 
of same are outside the scope of the present invention. Suffice it to say 
for a proper understanding of the invention, the scoop 16 is so shaped 
that by proper manipulation of tool 10, as will be described more fully 
below, the scoop is adapted to bear flush against the spring-loaded door 
of the magazine of such a firearm and in such manner as to cause the door 
of the magazine to depress to its open condition. Continued axial pressure 
of tool 10 against the magazine door with the scoop 16 facing the front or 
barrel of rifle 26 will tend to cause the magazine door to remain in its 
depressed condition which action, in turn, automatically causes any live 
bullet shells or cartridges in the magazine to back out of or be ejected 
from the magazine. The ejected shells are then deflected by the scoop 16 
which by reason of its shape guides the cartridges harmlessly to the rear 
through the opening defined by arcuate edge 20, or otherwise out of harm's 
way. The single live round in the firing chamber, if any, may then be 
ejected in the usual manner by cocking the lever of the rifle to thereby 
cause ejectment of the live round through the breach of the firearm. By 
following this procedure utilizing the unloader tool 10 of the present 
invention, a potentially dangerous lever action-action rifle or the like 
having live cartridges in its magazine may easily and rapidly be safed 
(unloaded). Without employing the tool 10, the only way to unload the 
magazine of the firearm would be to cock the lever for as many times as 
there are live shells in the magazine forcing each shell to be placed in 
the firing chamber and then ejected through the breach of the rifle. Such 
a procedure (avoided by the present invention) is highly dangerous being 
susceptible to an accidental misfire each time a cartridge is in the 
firing chamber. 
More specifically, and as best seen in FIGS. 3-5, the distal or nose 
portion of scoop 16 is tapered upwardly from the bottom of the body 
portion 12 by an acute angle indicated by "a" in FIG. 4 with angle "a" 
preferably being in the range from about 15 degrees to about 45 degrees. 
In addition, the nose portion of the scoop has a pair of opposed top edges 
27, 29 that gradually taper downwardly from arcuate rear edge 20 with the 
two top edges intersecting the bottom surface tapering upwardly to form 
the scoop's leading edge 30 substantially as shown. The concave floor of 
scoop 16 extends rearwardly along the longitudinal extent of scoop 16 
terminating in arcuate rear edge 20 and serves as a guide surface for 
harmlessly deflecting any cartridge shells being ejected from the magazine 
of a lever action rifle or similar firearm toward the rear opening. The 
transverse dimension of the scoop is indicated by the letter "d" in FIG. 5 
and essentially is the same as the transverse dimension of the magazine of 
a conventional lever-action rifle such as that commercially available 
under the Registered Trademark WINCHESTER MODEL 94, for example. The 
tapered nose configuration of scoop 16 substantially as shown in the 
drawings facilitates abutting engagement against the door of the magazine 
and retention thereagainst as well as correct orientation of the concave 
surface of scoop 16 to harmlessly deflect any cartridges in the magazine 
being ejected, and therefore is an important feature of the invention. The 
floor and curved sides of scoop 16 preferably are made thick enough to 
resist deformation when bearing against the tempered steel magazine door 
of a conventional lever-action firearm and axially overcoming the spring 
bias of the magazine door as will be well understood by the routineer. 
FIGS. 6 through 7 illustrate the sequence of events when the tool 10 is 
used to unload cartridges from the rifle's magazine. In FIG. 6, the scoop 
nose portion is caused to bear against the door of the rifle's magazine. 
In FIG. 7, the tool is titled back toward the stock of the rifle so that 
it is at an acute angle with respect to the rifle stock substantially as 
shown. This enables the cartridges to back out of the rifle's magazine and 
enter the scoop 16 of the tool. FIG. 8 schematically shows the shells or 
cartridges in the magazine of rifle being ejected with the aid of tool 10. 
It is believed readily apparent from the foregoing that the present 
invention accomplishes all of the objectives set forth by providing a new 
and improved rifle unloader apparatus in the form of a hand held tool, 
having means associated therewith for collecting the live cartridges 
unloaded thereby from the magazine of a lever-action rifle or similar 
firearm, and which may be used to safely unload the magazine of a 
lever-action firearm or the like without first sequentially indexing each 
live round in the rifle's magazine through the firing chamber of the 
firearm prior to being ejected. 
With respect to the above description, it should be realized that the 
optimum dimensional relationships for the parts of the invention, to 
include variations in size, materials, shape, form, function and manner of 
operation, assembly and use, are deemed readily apparent and obvious to 
those skilled in the art, and therefore, all relationships equivalent to 
those illustrated in the drawings and described in the specification are 
intended to be encompassed only by the scope of appended claims. 
While the present invention has been shown in the drawings and fully 
described above with particularity and detail in connection with what is 
presently deemed to be the most practical and preferred embodiment(s) of 
the invention, it will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art 
that many modifications thereof may be made without departing from the 
principles and concepts set forth herein. Hence, the proper scope of the 
present invention should be determined only by the broadest interpretation 
of the appended claims so as encompass all such modifications and 
equivalents.