Archery arrow and sabot

A short archery arrow equipped with a sabot and a launching barrel therefor that may be used with either a regular bow or a crossbow. When in the form of a hunting arrow, the cutting blades alone provide all the required fletching action and the center of gravity of the arrow lies forwardly of the blades. The blades are preferably not sharpened when the arrows are used for target shooting. The sabots and launching barrels have interfitting tongue and groove formations which provide guidance action to the arrows. On leaving the launching barrel the sabots separate from the arrows due to wind resistance action on the sabots.

This invention relates, generally, to innovations and improvements in 
archery arrows to be shot from either conventional bows or from crossbows 
and to sabots and launching barrels for use in combination with the new 
and improved arrows. 
More particularly, the invention relates to archery arrows used for hunting 
which are relatively short (e.g. 4-7 inches long) and in which the cutting 
blades are used as the fletchings of the arrows. By not sharpening the 
fletching blades or by forming them from a non-sharp material, the arrows 
of the present invention can also be used for target practice. 
The general object of the invention is to provide archery arrows which can 
be shot from either regular bows or crossbows and which will fly further, 
faster, and with greater accuracy than presently available archery arrows. 
A further object of the invention is the provision of improved sabots which 
are to be used in combination with the arrows of the present invention and 
further to launching barrels from which the improved arrows with the 
sabots attached may be shot with improved accuracy. 
Still another important object of the invention is to provide a new and 
improved combination of an arrow, sabot and launching barrel which may be 
utilized on either conventional bows or crossbows.

Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, an arrow is indicated generally at 5 and a 
sabot is indicated generally at 6 which when mated together form the 
arrow/sabot combination shown in FIG. 1. The arrow 5 is formed in three 
parts including a front section 7 and a rear section 8 to the rear end of 
which a nock 10 is attached. When the arrow 5 is used as a hunting arrow, 
its point end 11 will be sharpened. 
A threaded stem 12 (FIG. 4) extends axially from the rear end of the front 
section 7. The leading end of rear section 8 is internally threaded and 
screwed onto the stem 12 so as to form with the front section 7 the shaft 
of the arrow 5. 
The inner horizontal edges of four triangular blades 14--14 are inserted 
into axially elongated slots (not shown) formed in the exterior body of 
the rear section 8. The blades 14 may be force-fitted into the slots with 
suitable tooling so as to be removable and replacable if required. From 
FIG. 5, it will be seen that the blades 14 extend radially from the 
tubular rear section 8 and are oriented at the two o'clock, four o'clock, 
eight o'clock, and ten o'clock positions. The rear edges of two blades are 
oppositely bent as indicated at 15--15 (FIG. 5) so as to impart a spin to 
arrow 5 during flight. 
For hunting purposes it will be understood that the rearwardly inclined 
edges of the blades 14 will be razor sharp. For target purposes these 
edges will be left dull and the pointed end 11 will be left dull. 
By forming the front end portion 7 of a heavier or denser material, 
preferably steel, and the rear section 8 of a lighter material such as 
aluminum, the center of the gravity of the arrow 5 will be located 
forwardly of the blades 14. The blades 14 provide all of the fletching 
action required for the arrow 5. By having the arrow 5 designed so that 
its center of gravity is forward of the blades 14 and utilizing the blades 
14 to provide the fletching action, the arrow 5 has excellent aerodynamic 
properties in flight. 
The sabot 6 is preferably formed of light-weight material such as high 
density polyethylene, nylon, or aluminum. It comprises a rectangular heel 
or base 20 from which a pair of parallel guidance fingers 21--21 extend. 
The inner opposing surfaces of the fingers 21 have elongated arcuate 
recesses 22 and are so spaced apart as to fit opposing exterior surfaces 
of the rear arrow portion 8. The elongated recesses 22 terminate so as to 
leave distal end portions 23 which engage the smaller diameter portion of 
the front section 7 forwardly of the land 24. On the outer side of each 
finger 21, a rib 25 extends the purpose of which is to fit into guidance 
grooves 26--26 (FIG. 7) provided by launching barrel which is indicated 
generally at 27. Preferably, the ribs 25 have a plurality of holes 28--28 
to decrease the mass of the sabot 6. The launching barrel 27 comprises 
spaced front and rear end supports 30--30 (only one being shown) which 
support therebetween a pair of rails 31--31. The rails 31 may be extruded 
from aluminum or machined or otherwise formed from suitable material and 
are generally C-shaped. The end supports 30 have opposing internal ribs 29 
which serve to maintain the spacing between the rails 31 and maintain the 
elongated guidance grooves or slots 26 therebetween. 
The heel 20 of the sabot 6 has a center opening 32 (FIG. 2) which fits the 
arrow shaft section 8 and allows the sabot to slide thereon. 
As shown in FIG. 7, the launching barrel 27 is oriented for mounting on a 
regular (e.g. long bow) bow with the bow string slot 33 in the nock 10 
vertically oriented to receive the bow string 34 (FIGS. 3 and 4). For 
example, the barrel 27 may be used to replace the longitudinally slidable 
barrel shown and described in my co-pending Application Serial No. 080,019 
filed July 31, 1987. The disclosure of such co-pending application is 
incorporated by reference herein. Alternatively, the arrow 5-sabot 6 
combination may be launched using the slidable barrel. 
In use, the sabot 6 is mounted onto the arrow 5 and pushed forwardly 
thereon until the heel 20 engages the rear edges of the blades 14 as shown 
in FIGS. 1 and 3. The arrow 5 with sabot 6 attached is then loaded into 
the rear end of the barrel 27. As soon as the arrow 5 leaves the muzzle 
end of the barrel 27 on being shot, the wind resistance acting on the heel 
20 will cause the sabot 6 to separate from the nock end of the arrow and 
fall to the ground. Once the sabot 6 leaves the muzzle of barrel 27 the 
legs 21 are free to spread apart allowing the sabot to separate from the 
arrow 5. The fit between the sabot 6 and barrel 27 is such that during 
passage through the barrel 27 the legs 21 are restrained from spreading 
and the sabot 6 will not separate from the arrow until the separating 
force of wind resistance is applied. 
The launching barrel 27 may be stationarily mounted on a crossbow in which 
case it will be rotated 90.degree. from the orientation shown in FIG. 7 
since bow string of a crossbow is horizontal. When the arrow 5 is to be 
shot from a crossbow, the nock 10 will preferably be replaced with the 
usual blunt nock end piece. Otherwise, no changes are required.