Abstract:
A tactical-gear rail-mounting system apparatus and method utilizing the Picatinny-rail standard, allowing precise aligned removable mounting of a variety of tactical gear such as telescopic sights, night vision devices, reflex sights, laser aiming modules, rangefinders, tactical lights, cameras, fore-grips, bipods, and bayonets, in field-interchangeable configurations, to small-arms rifles and pistols and to non-firearm tactical gear, by providing a greater amount of mounting area and a variety of mounting-surface orientations.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0001]    The present invention provides a tactical-gear auxiliary equipment rail-mounting system apparatus and method that allows connection of a variety of tactical gear, such as gun stocks, camera supports, sights and rangefinders, grips, and clamps, in field-interchangeable configurations. 
         [0002]    The Weaver rail mount was a small-arms manufacturer&#39;s apparatus meant to facilitate the removable mounting of telescopic sights on rifles while ensuring proper alignment. With some modifications, the Weaver rail was adopted as a U.S. military standard, the MIL-STD-1913 rail, also known as Picatinny rail, Standardization Agreement (STANAG) 2324 rail, or tactical rail. The NATO Accessory Rail (NAR), also known as Standardization Agreement (STANAG) 4694 rail, is another, very closely related and essentially interchangeable standard, using essentially the same dimensions stated in metric units. 
         [0003]    The Picatinny rail provides a standard mounting platform for small arms—rifles and pistols—and consists of rails with angled surfaces for alignment and attachment, and regularly spaced transverse slots allowing screws, bolts, or other connectors to pass underneath the object being mounted. Use of the Picatinny rail is no longer limited to telescopic sights, but also includes mounting auxiliary equipment such as night vision devices, reflex sights, laser aiming modules, tactical lights, cameras, fore-grips, bipods, and bayonets to small arms in both military and non-military uses. 
         [0004]    A large and growing amount of auxiliary equipment using the Picatinny-rail system now exists. Just one continuous unit of Picatinny rail is unlikely to be adequate to properly mount all of the auxiliary equipment, because of a lack of total mounting area and because in-line mounting causes some equipment to be ahead or behind other equipment along the line of fire. Even where equipment can be fit onto a single rail by clever arrangement, that clever arrangement is likely to cause complications if any reconfiguration is later needed in the field. Also, some auxiliary equipment is better mounted at some angle to the line of fire. 
         [0005]    In some circumstances, only the auxiliary equipment is needed, without any rifle or pistol, such as with cameras, spotting scopes, rangefinders, remotely located equipment, and decoy equipment. Also, in some circumstances, it is not possible or proper to point a firearm toward an object of interest just for the sake of getting a photograph, measurement, or reading. In such circumstances, mounting to Picatinny rails that are not attached to a firearm, but that still provide the properly aligned mounting surfaces, and still allow for the use of stocks, grips, bipods, and the like, is desirable. 
         [0006]    There is a need for a rail-mounting system, utilizing the Picatinny-rail standard, that provides a greater amount of mounting area and a variety of mounting-surface orientations, for small-arms and non-firearm tactical gear auxiliary equipment. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0007]    The present invention is a tactical-gear rail-mounting system apparatus and method utilizing the Picatinny-rail standard, allowing precise aligned removable mounting of a variety of tactical gear auxiliary equipment, such as telescopic sights, night vision devices, reflex sights, laser aiming modules, rangefinders, tactical lights, cameras, fore-grips, bipods, and bayonets, in field-interchangeable configurations, to small-arms rifles and pistols and to non-firearm tactical gear, by providing a greater amount of mounting area and a variety of mounting-surface orientations. 
         [0008]    This invention solves a problem with precise aligned removable mounting of a growing amount of auxiliary equipment, under field conditions, to small-arms rifles and pistols and to non-firearm tactical gear. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS 
         [0009]    Reference will now be made to the drawings, wherein like parts are designated by like numerals, and wherein: 
           [0010]      FIG. 1  is a schematic view of the tactical-gear rail-mounting system in use; 
           [0011]      FIG. 2  is an orthographic view of embodiments of the tactical-gear rail-mounting system having different short-side lengths; 
           [0012]      FIG. 3  is an orthographic view of an embodiment of the tactical-gear rail-mounting system having cut-outs in the support body; 
           [0013]      FIG. 4  is an orthographic view of embodiments of the tactical-gear rail-mounting system having rail-connector units mounted at right angles to the long sides; 
           [0014]      FIG. 5  is an orthographic, partially exploded and assembled view of embodiments of the tactical-gear rail-mounting system having attachment and dual-attachment units; 
           [0015]      FIG. 6  is an orthographic, partially exploded and assembled view of an embodiment of the tactical-gear rail-mounting system having hinge-attachment units; 
           [0016]      FIG. 7  is an orthographic view of an embodiment of the tactical-gear rail-mounting system having an angled bottom surface; and 
           [0017]      FIG. 8  is an orthographic view of an embodiment of the tactical-gear rail-mounting system having a rail-connector unit set at an angle in the transverse direction. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
       [0018]    Referring to  FIG. 1  and the other figures generally, the tactical-gear rail-mounting system method  100  and apparatus  10  are shown schematically in use on a variety of tactical-gear auxiliary equipment. Illustrated schematically is the simultaneous precise aligned removable attachment of a telescopic sight or scope, a camera, a laser-line projector, a bipod, and a grip to my tactical-gear rail-mounting system apparatus which is in turn attached to a rifle-type stock. 
         [0019]    The tactical-gear rail-mounting system apparatus  10  has a support body  11  to which is attached more than one rail-connector unit  12 . Optionally, an attachment unit  13  in the form of a bracket or clip attaches the support body  11  to other technical gear, such as the stock as shown. 
         [0020]    Referring now to  FIG. 2 , the support body  11  has a longer direction and a shorter direction, which together define a simple polygon, generally a long rectangle as shown, but also possibly a triangle, square, pentagon, hexagon, or more, where it is desirable to have edges at angles other than right angles to each other. For special applications, the polygon could be skewed, but normally will define a flat planar structure. If the support body is thought of as a polyhedron, with a nominally forward-facing face, as illustrated, and a corresponding backward-facing face, then there are faces corresponding to each longer edge and each shorter edge, and there is a depth or thickness of the shortest linear distance between the forward- and backward-facing faces. Optimally, this depth or thickness should measure 0.617 of an inch or 15.6 millimeters, and cannot exceed those measurements because those measurements are part of the Picatinny-NATO standards. If the depth of the major part of the support body needs to be greater for some reason, then the depth of the outermost one-eighth or 0.13 of an inch or 3.3 millimeters can be stepped down to the proper depth not greater than 0.617 of an inch or 15.6 millimeters. 
         [0021]    More than one rail-connector unit  12  is firmly and permanently or semi-permanently affixed to one of the edge faces of the support body  11  as shown. On a rectangular support body  11 , a rail-connector unit  12  running along the top longer edge will be perpendicular to any rail-connector unit  12  running along a side or shorter edge, and parallel with any rail-connector unit  12  running along the bottom longer edge. The bottom surfaces of the rail-connector units  12  will all face at least generally towards each other, and the corresponding top surfaces will all face at least generally away from each other. 
         [0022]    Referring briefly to  FIG. 7 , the polygonal shape of the support body  11  can be other than rectangular, and should be if an angled rail-connector unit, as shown, is desired. 
         [0023]    Referring now to  FIG. 3 , the support body  11  can be provided with cut-out portions in order to decrease the weight, wind-catching characteristics, or other characteristics of the support body. This cut-out area could be used to house or store such things as batteries or tools. 
         [0024]    Referring now to  FIG. 4 , rail-connector units  12  can also be provided on one or both of the larger faces of the support body  11 . Where this is provided, each such rail-connector unit  12  should be made to stand off the larger face by a spacer running along the bottom surface of the rail-connector unit, having dimensions of not greater than 0.617 of an inch or 15.6 millimeters by at least one-eighth or 0.13 of an inch or 3.3 millimeters. Optionally, these larger-face-mounted rail-connector units can be affixed at an angle other than a right angle to the top-mounted unit by using an angled stand-off spacer, as shown in  FIG. 8 . 
         [0025]    Referring now to  FIG. 5 , the tactical-gear rail-mounting system apparatus  10  can be attached to supporting gear such as a gun stock or grip by attachment at one of the rail-connector units  12 . Alternatively, such attachment can be made through an attachment unit  13  in the form of a bracket or clip that secures to the support body  11  by standard fasteners such as screws, bolts, rivets, or pins, and then attaches to the supporting gear such as a gun stock by appropriate means. Two units of the tactical-gear rail-mounting system apparatus  10  can be attached together using a dual-attachment unit  14 , as illustrated, which can be secured to the support bodies  11  by standard fasteners as above. Such an arrangement would be useful in supporting long, bending-prone gear, or pieces of gear that are placed some distance apart but must be held in alignment. 
         [0026]    Referring now to  FIG. 6 , a hinged attachment of two units of the tactical-gear rail-mounting system apparatus  10  can be made using hinge-attachment units  15  fastened by and rotating about a standard fastener such as a pin. Such an arrangement would be useful in supporting pieces of tactical gear needing to be placed in varying angles to each other but otherwise be held in a planar alignment. 
         [0027]    Suitable materials for making the tactical-gear rail-mounting system apparatus  10  are essentially the same range of materials used to manufacture tactical gear, which is machinable metals, composite materials, and hard plastics. Different components can be made of different materials. If it is desired to make an electrically conductive connection between two conductive pieces of gear, then electrically conductive material should be used. On the other hand, pieces of gear can be electrically isolated from each other with a tactical-gear rail-mounting system apparatus  10  constructed of non-conductive material. 
         [0028]    The simplicity and interchangeability of the tactical-gear rail-mounting system provides benefits in the field. Auxiliary equipment can be swapped among or be borrowed from other gear. Connection and disconnection can be accomplished blindfolded in training and under challenging conditions in the field. Unusual configurations of auxiliary equipment tactical gear can be made in the field, without tools, in order to meet unusual circumstances. 
         [0029]    Many changes and modifications can be made in the present invention without departing from the spirit thereof. I therefore pray that my rights to the present invention be limited only by the scope of the appended claims.