Patent GB-294120-A (GB)
Title: Device for feeding cartridges and for cocking the striker in automatic fire arms
IPC: F41A19/31
Filed: 1928-07-16
Abstract: 294,120. S.A.F.A.T. Soc. Anon. Fabbrica Armi-Torino. July 16, 1927, [Convention date]. Machine guns.-A longitudinal blade 25, Figs. 1a and 2, with a front incline 25<a> and a slight depression 25<c> in front of a straight bottom edge 25b is arranged in the breech casing 1 to feed the cartridges and to operate a combined cocking and safety device: and a longitudinal bar 23 formed with a cam slot 23<1>, 23<11> is detachably mounted on the breech-block to reciprocate the transverse feeding slide 21 of the cartridge belt 19. The breech-block 3 has a longitudinal vertical slot 3a, Fig. 10, to accommodate the blade 25, and is provided with a spring striker 9, a pair of hooks 29 for extracting the cartridges from the belt 19, a vertical slot 3<c> in its front face for guiding the cartridges down, and a yielding spring stop 32 for locating a fresh cartridge in line with the barrel while allowing a spent cartridge to be ejected. The hooks 29, Fig. 9, are confined by the breechframe 1 except when the breech is closed; a flared part 1<a> in the casing then allows the hooks 29 to ride over and grip the base of a fresh cartridge in the belt under the action of springs 31. These devices are shown applied to a gun in which the breech-block is locked to the barrel 2 by a hook 4, as described in Specification 285,875, so arranged that the barrel recoils a short distance with the breech-block until the hook 4 releases the breech-block by being swung round its pivot 5 on the barrel by a link 6 pivoting at 7 on the breech-frame 1. A short slot 1<1> in the breechframe receives the pivot 5 and limits the recoil of the barrel. As the breech-block continues its recoil, the overhanging edges 3d of the slot 3<c> extract the spent cartridge 18a from the barrel, and the hooks 29 extract a fresh cartridge 18 from the belt 19. The fresh cartridge is then forced down the slot 3<c> by the incline 25a of the blade 25 and pushes down the spent cartridge and ejects it past the spring stop 32 and becomes in its turn arrested by that stop in line with the barrel. During the opening of the breech, a finger 28<1> on a lever 28 pivoted at 27 on the breech-block also bears against the incline 25a of the blade 25; the lever is thereby rocked and bearing on a lug 9<11> of the striker cocks the striker against its spring 10 until another lug 9<1> on the striker is caught by a spring detent 11. When the finger 28<1> of the cocking lever rides past the depression 25‹, the cocking lever is relieved from the pressure of the spring striker and the recoil resistance is reduced: but the cocking lever remains sufficiently near the lug 9<11> to act as a. safety device if anything goes wrong with the detent 11. On the return stroke of the breechblock produced by its spring 8, the fresh cartridge is inserted into the barrel: and at the end of the stroke, a lever 14 pivoted at 15 on the breech-block strikes a stop 16 on the breech-frame and pulls the detent 11 from the striker, thereby firing the gun. The stop 16 may be fixed or movable so that it can be set in or out of operative position. The cartridge belt 19 is fed transversely in the usual way by the slide 21, Fig. 5, with a feeding pawl 20 and a retaining pawl 22; but this slide 21 is, according to this invention, reciprocated by means of a. lug 21 fitting into a cam groove 23<1>, 23<11>, Fig. 11, in a longitudinal bar 23 detachably secured to the breech-block by dovetails 24. This arrangement enables the easy removal of the belt-feeding devices, and their replacement by another set working in the opposite direction, as shown in dotted lines on Fig. 5.