EJECTOR SYSTEM FOR A GUN OF THE BREAK-OPEN TYPE

Abstract: A gun of the break-open type having casing shanks (12) which project forwards from the mechanism casing (10) of the gun and between which the barrel (13) with the breech (14) is pivotally mounted, has an ejector device cooperating with a cartridge ejector pin (19). On its side facing the bore of the barrel, the ejector pin has a longitudinal recess (29) in which a one-armed locking lever (28) is inserted. The lever (28) has a locking lug (32) for engaging a locking hole (34) in a wall portion (27) of the breech (14). The locking lever (28) further has an ejector release lug (35) cooperating with an ejector-release cam groove (37). This cam groove is provided in the adjacent casing shank and has a bevelled end portion (38) for returning the locking lever, such that the cartridge ejector (19) is released and, with great force, can be instantaneously pushed rearwards by means of a compression spring (21) for ejection of fired cartridges. The pivoting movement of the locking lever from its retracted resting position to its advanced ejectoradapting position is brought about by means of a displaceable firing sensing body which extends through the wall of the barrel and the breech and is actuated by the pressure from a fired cartridge, such that the body is moved outwards and, by engaging the one-armed locking lever (28), moves it outwards to the locking position.

Description: EJECTOR SYSTEM FOR A GUN OF THE BREAK-OPEN TYPE The present invention relates to an ejector system for guns of the break-open type having casing shanks which project forwards from the mechanism casing of the gun and between which a breech for at least one barrel is pivotally mounted, the barrel having a cartridge ejec¬ tor which is movably mounted in a partly open groove in the breech and which is spring-biased in the cartridge ejection direction and has a cam follower for engaging a cam groove provided in the adjacent casing shank for controlling the movements of the cartridge ejector. A gun of this type is disclosed in published Swedish patent application 7908132-9, although the embodiment of the gun described therein has no ejector system. Ejector systems for guns of a -similar break-open type are disclosed in for instance Swedish patent speci¬ fications 363,893, 351,922 and 352,944, as well as U.S. patent ' specification 3,323,245. All these prior-art ejec¬ tor systems are based on the principle that the contem¬ plated ejector effect for fired cartridges is initiated by mechanically transferring an ejector release signal from hammers or firing pins to the ejector mechanism. This mechanical sensing of which cartridge or cartridges have been fired gives rise to very complicated mechanisms which, in some instances, may be difficult to adjust and service. The present invention has for its object to provide a considerably simpler ejector system in which no mecha¬ nical signal from the trigger, hammer or firing pins is required. The invention is based on the technical concept of directly or indirectly using the pressure from a fir¬ ed cartridge in order to ada'pt the ejector for ejection of the fired cartridge when the gun has been fully opened. WREAc The novel features of the invention will appear from the accompanying claims. The invention will be described in greater detail hereinbelow with reference to the accompanying drawings. Fig. 1 shows the rear part of a barrel of gun with an ejector system according to the invention. Fig. 2 is a sectional view taken along the line II-II in Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a sectional, view taken along the line III-III in Fig. 1 and also shows a portion of the casing of the gun. Fig. 4 shows the front portion of the gun casing after removal of the barrel. Fig. 5 is a sectional view taken along the line V-V in Fig. 4. Fig. 6 is a side view of a portion of the gun in a partially opened state. Fig. 7 is a sectional view taken along the line VII-VII in Fig. 6. Fig. 8 is a view similar to that of Fig. 6 but shows the gun in the fully opened state. Fig. 9 is a sectional view taken along the line IX-IX in Fig. 8. The ejector system according to the invention has been illustrated in connection with a gun of the design disclosed in Swedish patent application 7908132-9, but can also be used for other similar types of guns, for instance a gun of the type disclosed in Swedish patent specification 363,893. The gun shown in the drawings has a mechanism cas- ing 10 which is mounted on a butt 11 (shown only partial¬ ly in Figs. 6 and 8) and which has two forwardly project¬ ing casing shanks 12. The gun is a shot gun and, in the illustrated embodiment, has two barrels 13 which are placed one over the other and which, at their rear ends, are mounted in a breech 14. However, the gun may also be designed as a hunting rifle or a combination gun, i.e. a gun with barrels for both bullet and shot ammuni¬ tion. Ahead of the breech, the barrels are surrounded by a fore-end 15. When the gun is assembled, the breech 14 is disposed between the casing shanks 12. Between these shanks and the breech, there is an articulation which has its hinge or pivot centre at 16, i.e. below - Ϊ REA the centre line of the under barrel, and which is made up of circular arc shaped segments 17 and two grooves 18 of mating design provided on either side of the breech 14. Each arc shaped segment 17 is integrally formed with a casing shank 12 and projects slightly therefrom with its forward upper portion, as appears in particular from Fig. 4. The gun has a- cartridge ejector pin 19 for each barrel. This pin has been mounted in the breech 14 in such a manner that it projects from the groove 18 of the breech with a cam follower lug 20. The surface por¬ tion 19a of the ejector pin 19 is flush with the bottom of the groove 18. The position of the cam follower lug 20 appears best from Figs. 3 and 8. From Fig. 3 it is also apparent that the ejector pin is of short length and spring-biased in the rearward direction by a com¬ pression spring 21 mounted in the breech 14. The cam follower lug 20 is arranged to cooperate with a cam groove 22 provided in the central portion of the circular arc shaped segments 17 and having a circular arc shaped por¬ tion 23, a second shoulder portion 24 and a control por¬ tion 25. The arc shaped portion 23 has its centre at the centre of articulation 16. The cam follower lug 20 has a double function, i.e. to serve as a stop for the opening movement of the ar¬ ticulation when the gun is assembled, on the one hand, and to control the movements of the ejector pins, on the other. These two functions appear from a comparison of Figs. 1, 6 and 8. In Fig. 8, the gun is shown in the normal, fully opened position in which the cam follower lug 20 engages the shoulder portion 24 of the cam groove 22. Fig. 1 shows the position of the cam follower lug and, thus, of the ejector pin when the gun is fully clos¬ ed. In this Figure, the cam groove 22 is indicated by dot-dash lines, and it can here be seen that the cam follower lug is situated at the rear end of the control portion 25. In Fig. 6, the gun is shown in its partially opened position in which the cam follower lug 20 is shown along the control portion 25A which, by its camming ac¬ tion, has caused the ejector pin to move partially back¬ wards. If the cartridge of the barrel concerned has not been fired, the cam follower lug will follow the control portion 25 until it abuts on the shoulder portion 24, whereby the control portion 25 will bring about a gentle outward movement of the cartridge in the contemplated barrel. As shown in the drawings, the cartridge ejector pin 19 is mounted for displacement in a partly opened groove 26 in the breech 14. The groove is thus bridged by a short wall portion 27 of the breech. The ejector system according to the present inven- tion comprises int.al. a locking lever 28 mounted -in a longitudinal recess 29 in the cartridge ejector pin 19. The recess faces the barrel, as appears from Figs. 2, 3, 7 and 9. The recess is deeper at the left-hand end with respect to the drawings. At its right-hand end, i.e. the end closest to the cartridge gripping lug 30 of the cartridge ejector pin, the locking lever 28 has a transverse ridge 31 serving as a pivot bearing. In the illustrated embodiment, the locking lever 28 is a one-armed lever and has a locking lug 32 which projects from the lever in a direction away from the barrel and out through a hole 33 in the cartridge ejector pin. The locking lug 32 is intended to cooperate with a locking hole 34 in the above-mentioned wall portion 27 of the breech 14. This hole is oblong for a reason which will be accounted for in greater detail hereinbelow. At its free end, the locking lever 28 further has an ejector release lug 35 which is located opposite a hole 36 in the cartridge ejector pin 19 so that it can be brought into engagement with an ejector-release cam groove 37 provided in the arcuate segment 17 on the adja¬ cent casing shank 12. This ejector-release cam groove is substantially circular arc shaped, the centre of the 5 arc of the outer cam surface of the cam groove coinciding with the centre of articulation 16. As appears from Figs. 4 and 5, the cam groove has a bevelled end portion 38 and a widened end portion 39. 5 The locking lever 28 is pivotal from a normal restin position shown in Figs. 3 and 9 and also in the- left-hand portion of Fig. 2, to an ejector adapting position shown !_ in Fig. 7 and in the right-hand portion of Fig. 2. To t prevent the adapting lever from pivoting freely between 10 these two positions, the lever is mounted with close sliding fit in its recess 29, but it may also be supple¬ mented with a leaf spring or itself be designed with a slight bend and be made of spring steel to avoid un¬ intentional pivoting of the adapting lever. The swinging 15 movement between the resting position and the ejector adapting position is initiated by the firing of a car¬ tridge in the barrel concerned. For sensing the firing of the gun, there is provided a sensing body 40 which extends through a hole in the barrel and the breech and 20 whose inner side 41 normally is approximately on a level with the inner side of the barrel. The small sensing body 40 is shiftable outwards, as appears from a compa¬ rison of the under and over barrels in Fig. 2. This shift- ability can amount to a few tenths of a millimeter, which 25 is sufficient for the contemplated purpose. The other end of the sensing body is designed with an arcuate sur¬ face for engaging a corresponding arcuate outer portion of the locking lever 28. When the cartridge is fired and the pressure surge produces an outward displacement 30 of the sensing body, this movement is propagated to the lever 28 which will pivot from the position shown in Fig. 3, to the position shown in Fig. 7, although the cartridge ejector pin at this stage is not moved back¬ wards, as shown in Fig. 7. When the locking lever is 35 pivoted outwards about its point of articulation defined by the ridge 31, the locking lug 32 will be moved out into the locking hole 34 in the wall portion 27 of the • BUREA breech. At the same time the ejector release lug 35 is moved into the ejector-release cam groove 37 which is sufficiently deep so as not to prevent the outward pi- votment of the locking lever 28. When the gun is there- after opened, the control portion 25A, by its camming function, and thereafter the compression spring 21 will move the ejector pin 19 backwards to such an extent that the locking lug 32 enters into engagement with the end of the locking hole 34. This position is shown in Fig. 6. This short backward movement of the ejector pin will release the cartridge whose metal part has expanded upon firing of the shot, this release of the cartridge faci¬ litating the further ejection when the ejector is releas¬ ed. As the breaking-open of the gun proceeds, the ejector pin 19 will remain in the position shown in Fig. 6, since the centre of the arc of the ejector-release cam groove 37 is located at the centre of articulation 16. Thus, the locking lug 32 will lock the cartridge ejector pin, which in turn, entails that the cam follower lug 2Q moves out of contact with the control portion 25 of the cam groove 22, such that there is formed a gap between the control portion 25 and the lug 20. The size of this gap is dependent upon the angle of the control portion 25 with respect to the arcuate cam surface of the cam groove 37. In the locking position, the ejector release lug 35 should not engage the edges of the hole 36. When the breaking-open of the gun has proceeded so far that the outer end of the ejector release lug 35 on the locking lever 28 comes into contact with the inclined bottom portion 38 of the cam groove 37, the return of the locking lever to its resting position (shown in Fig. 9) is commenced. When the lever 28 has been returned to its resting position, the locking ac¬ tion ceases in that the locking lug 32 comes clear of the edge of the locking hole 34. This results in that the compression spring 21 with great force instantaneous- ly expels the ejector pin 19 until the cam follower lug 20 is again brought into contact with the control portion 25 of the cam groove 22. The components of the system have at this stage occupied the relative positions shown in Figs. 8 and 9. When the gun has thereafter been reloaded and the barrel is swung back to its normal closed position, the return of the cartridge ejector pin 19 and the tensioning of the compression spring 21 will occur as a result of the engagement of the cam follower lug 20 with the con¬ trol portion 25 of the cam groove 22. It will have been appreciated from the above that the invention has made it possible to obtain an ejec¬ tor effect with very few mobile extra components, i.e. the locking lever 28 and the sensing body 40. This sub¬ stantial simplification of prior-art ejector mechanisms has been made possible by the sensing of mechanical pres¬ sure or gas pressure in the barrel for adapting the ejec¬ tor solely in the barrel or barrels which have been fir- ed. Hence, there is no need of any complicated mechanical signal devices associated with release catches, firing pins or hammers for the different barrels.

Claims: CLAIMS 1. An ejector system for guns of the break-open type having casing shanks (12) which project forwards from the mechanism casing (10) of the gun and between which a breech (14) for at least one barrel. (13) is pi- votally mounted, the barrel having a cartridge ejector (19) which is movably mounted" in a partly open groove (26) in the breech. (14) and which is spring-biased. (21) in the cartridge ejection direction and has a cam fol¬ lower (20) for engaging a cam groove (22-25) provided in the adjacent casing shank (12) for controlling the movements of the cartridge ejector, c h a r a c t e r ¬ i s e d in that the cartridge ejector (19) , on its side facing the bore of the barrel (13) , has a longitudinal recess (29) and a locking lever (28) which is disposed in the recess (29) and has a locking lug (32) for engag¬ ing a locking hole (34) provided in the breech (14) out¬ side the cartridge ejector (19), and which has an ejector release lug (35) designed as a cam follower cooperating with an ejector-release cam groove provided in the adja- cent casing shank (12), and which is pivotal from a nor¬ mal resting position to an ejector adapting position under the action of a shiftable body (40) which serves as a firing sensing means and which is adapted, under the direct or indirect action of the pressure from a fired cartridge, to be moved into engagement with the locking lever (28) for pivoting it from its resting po¬ sition to its ejector adapting position in which the locking lug (32) engages the locking hole (34) in order to retain the ejector (19) against the action of its spring bias until the ejector release lug (35), by its engagement with the ejector-release cam groove (37) , in the fully open position of the gun returns the locking lever. (28) to its resting position and, thus, releases the cartidge ejector (19) for ejection of the fired car- tridge. "BU HΛT 9 2. Ejector system as claimed in claim 1, c h a ¬ r a c t e r i s e d in that the locking lever (28) is inserted with close sliding fit in the recess (29) of the cartridge ejector (19) or is supplemented with or 5 itself designed as a leaf spring engaging the sides of the recess. 3. Ejector system as claimed in claim 1 or 2, c h a r a c t e r i s e d in that the locking lever (28) is a one-armed lever whose end closest to the cartridge 10 engaging lug (30) of the cartridge ejector 19 has a trans verse ridge (31) serving as a pivot bearing. 4. Ejector system as claimed in claim 1, 2 or 3, c h a r a c t e r i s e d in that the ejector-release cam groove (37) is substantially circular arc shaped 15 and has the centre of the circular arc at the centre of articulation (16) of the breech (14) and the casing shanks (12) and has a bevel (38) which is so located along the length of the ejector-release cam groove (37) that it engages the ejector release lug (35) to pivot 20 the locking lever (28) to its resting position at the end of the breaking-open movement of the' gun.

Inventors: BERNANDERSSON STIG GUSTAV ERLA, FLODMAN RUNE HJALMAR, FLODMAN RUNE LENNART, LINDH MELKER HANS EDVIN, STOLTZ STANLEY GEORGIUS RICKAR, BERNANDERSSON STIG GUSTAV ERLAND, STOLTZ STANLEY GEORGIUS RICKARD
Applicants: BERNANDERSSON STIG GUSTAV ERLA, CAPRINUS AB, FLODMAN RUNE HJALMAR, FLODMAN RUNE LENNART, LINDH MELKER HANS EDVIN, STOLTZ STANLEY GEORGIUS RICKAR, BERNANDERSSON STIG GUSTAV ERLAND, STOLTZ STANLEY GEORGIUS RICKARD
Application year: 1981
Main classification: F41C15
IPC codes: F41A15