Improvements in and relating to Miniature Ammunition.
Year: 1896

page_text: Date of Application, 30th July, 1896
Complete Specification Left, 29th Apr., 1897-Accepted 24th July, 1897
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in and relating to Miniature Ammunition.
I, JOHN RICHARDS, of Liverpool Road, Kingston Hill, Surrey, Late Major
4th Volunteer Battalion, the Queen's Royal West Surrey Regiment, de hereby declare
the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
This invention relates to miniature ammunition whereby ball practice with rifles
of the Lee-Metford and other type may be performed under practically similar
conditions to those experienced when shooting with ordinary ammunition at long
ranges. My improved miniature amınúnition can be very cheaply made and in such
a simple manner that the soldier can if he so desires make his own miniature
ammunition.
According to my invention I can utilize the empty cases of ordinary cartridges
after the latter have been fired, by cutting off the upper portion thereof so that they
are of such a length and capacity as to contain a smaller quantity of powder.. The
detonating cap is removed from the base of the disused cartridge case in any
convenient manner and replaced by a fresh one. The manner in which I prefer to
remove these caps consists in enlarging the ordinary flash holes, and then inserting
the empty cartridge case in a machine or press so constructed that when operated a
plunger will be caused to enter through one or both of these enlarged holes and
thereby eject the cap. 1 may notch or otherwise mark the base of the cartridge case
so that the position of the aforesaid holes will be readily observable to the
operator.
After the cartridge case has been reduced in length as above stated, the
comparatively thick metal at the mouth thereof is reduced in thickness from the
interior and a new cap inserted in place in the base of the cartridge case.
The cartridge case is then filled with powder and a projectile is inserted into the
mouth thereof in any appropriate manner, the said projectile prior to its insertion
into the mouth of the cartridge case, being preferably acted upon in the manner
described in the specification of my prior patent No. 8711 of the year 1886.
It will be readily understood that the calibre of the projectile with which the
cartridge case is provided will be greater than the ordinary projectile used in say the
Lee-Metford rifle, consequently, it becomes necessary to re-bore and rifle the barrel
to render it suitable for the projectile of increased calibre. Therefore to adapt a rifle
for use with my miniature ammunition, the only alteration that has to be made in the
rifle is to enlarge the bore of its barrel, t suit the miniature ammunition. The
ordinary revolver cartridges may be used as miniature ammunition by increasing the
bore of the barrel to suit these cartridges.
In order to provide for the insertion of the miniature aminunition into the barrel
by the operation of the breech bolt of the rifle in the ordinary manner, I provide the
mouth of the magazine with a removable platform which is so constructed that when

page_text: the miniature cartridges are to be used the said platform is applied to the magazine
and then acts to support the cartridges and direct them into the barrel when the
breech bolt is operated as usual.
I may employ any well known contrivances for re-charging and re-capping the
spent ammunition.
Dated this 30th day of July 1896.
I, JOHN RICHARDS, of Liverpool Road; Kingston Hill, Surrey, Late Major
4th Volunteer Battalion, the Queen's Royal West Surrey Regiment, do hereby declare
the nature of this invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be
particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement :--
This invention relates to miniature ammunition whereby ball practice with rifles of
the Lee-Metford or other types may be performed at short or miniature ranges under
similar conditions to those experienced when shooting with ordinary ammunition at
full ranges. The introduction of small bore magazine rifles has, as is well known,
greatly added to the difficulty of obtaining proper shooting practice in many districts
owing to the great range of such rifles, while the ordinary systems of practising with
miniature ammunition are either too expensive to carry out or depart too far from
service conditions to render them wholly satisfactory.
Now an important feature of my invention is that the bullet of the miniature
cartridge is actually of larger diameter than that of the full sized or service cartridge,
this being an important departure from the ordinary kinds of miniature ammunition,
and bringing the conditions in firing, for instance, as regards recoil, very close to those
of actual firing with ordinary cartridges.
A further important feature of my said invention is that it enables. the spent
cartridge-cases from ordinary full range rifle practice to be converted into miniature
ammunition by a series of simple steps, the whole of which can be carried out at an
ordinary training depot by the soldiers themselves without requiring the employment
of skilled labour.
Moreover my improved miniature cartridges can, after being used, be very easily
corrected for any expansion they may have suffered or for displacement of the anvils
which may have occurred and may be recharged and used again a number of times.
The miniature ammunition can therefore be manufactured at a merely nominal cost,
thus, permitting an almost indefinite amount of rifle practice by regular troops,
without such troops leaving the precincts of their barracks, as distinguished from
the strictly limited amount of practice which can be allowed with service
ammunition, partly on account of the great cost thereof and partly on account
of the necessity which frequently exists of transporting the troops considerable
distances to the locality of the targets.
Besides the fact that the conditions in practising with my improved ammunition
assimilate very closely to those obtaining when firing at full ranges with service
ammunition, the practicability of allowing the troops to carry out for themselves the
various steps in the manufacture of the ammunition enables them to take a proper
and intelligent interest in the art of shooting and ensures that they shall possess that
complete knowledge of the details connected therewith which is necessary to give
them the requisite confidence in handling their weapons.

page_text: It will be seen inoreover from the following detailed description of the invention
that the employment of my improved miniature ammunition does not involve any
interference with the ordinary service rifles, as I set aside for this purpose a few
rifles (hereinafter termed practice rifles) of which there need not be more than say
half a dozen altogether even at a large training centre or depot.
The practice rifles consist of service rifles which have been either specially bored
and rifled to correspond to the size of the miniature cartridge bullets, or have been
provided with special barrels having a suitable bore. If desired cast or disused rifles
may be thus converted into practice rifles. As regards the lock arrangements of the
rifles these are in no way interfered with or altered by the conversion. It will be seen
that the employment of my improved system effects a great reduction in the wear
and tear of the ordinary rifles, and greatly extends the life of the latter whilst, owing
to the lock mechanism of the practice rifle being identical with that in the service
rifle, the soldier obtains exactly the same facility in handling his weapon with the one
as with the other.
In order that my invention may be readily understood I will proceed to describe
step by step the complete operation of manufacturing my improved miniature
ammunition from spent cartridge cases, and the method of using the same for
practice purposes.
The spent magazine rifle cartridges are collected and the old caps are removed as
shown in Fig. 1 this being done in the first instance by fixing the cartridge ain a vice,
base upwards and forcing a pointed tool b by a blow or pressure, at an angle into the
cap a', afterwards levering the cap out by means of the said tool. One or both of the
flash holes of the cartridge are then slightly enlarged, as shown at c Fig. 2 and a
Dark d is made on the base of the cartridge to identify the position of the enlarged
hole or holes in the next recharging of the miniature cartridge, and to enable such
cartridge to be properly placed in a special apparatus hereinafter referred to for
removing the cap.
The service cartridge case after having had its cap removed is put in a lathe and
cut down to the required length as indicated by the line ar. The portion à with the
base attached being retained to form my improved miniature cartridge case. The
burred edge of this latter portion is next removed and by means of a tapered plug
drill, the thickness of the wall or shell of the case is reduced at the mouth thereof
and it is caused to taper gradually towards its edge, as shown at e Fig. 3.
The miniature cartridge case is then capped, and is ready to receive its powder
charge. The charging is effected in a suitable apparatus adapted to charge say fifty
time. The said apparatus comprises a perforated metal plate f
(Figs. 4 and 5) forming a rack, into the apertures of which the cartridges are fitted,
the edges or rims of the cartridges engaging with the plate as shown by the dotted
circles, so that by turning the latter over into a tray g (Fig. 6) corresponding in shape
and size to the plate, the whole of the cartridges can be held firmly in an upright
position with their bases fixed between the bottom of the tray and the plate.
The tray containing the cartridges is adapted to fit into the filling apparatus h
which is shown in section in Fig. 7 after the manner of a sliding drawer, and above
it is arranged a platform or cover plate h¹ having a raised edge or rim from which
cover plate depend say 50 short tubes i corresponding in position to the cartridge
cases in the rack. These tubes are each only large enough to contain the proper
charge of powder for a single cartridge. They are closed at their lower ends by a
register plate having an aperture for each tube. A sufficient quantity of powder
is placed upon the cover plate and is caused to enter the short tubes. The sliding
plate is then shifted by its handle K' to uncover the lower ends of the tubes and allow
the powder to fall into the cartridge cases.
The cartridges after being charged with powder are provided with three
wads (Fig. 8), the centre one being a lubricating, wad and the others dry
These dry wads are formed by punching them out of some suitable material
such as straw board. The lubricating wad, is punched out of ordinary felt gun
wadding, and is saturated by being steeped in a hot mixture of bees-wax and.oil.

page_text: I then proceed to provide the charged cases with their bullets m which correspond
in size with the said cases and therefore exceed in diameter the small bore service
bullets. These bullets are cast in suitable moulds from lead collected at the targets
after firing practice. As it is a matter of difficulty to form bullets of the exact
diameter simply by casting them, I reduce the diameter of any which may be too
large by rolling them between a pair of flat surfaces, as described in the specification
of my former British Patent No. 8711 dated 2nd July 1886.
After the bullets have been rolled they are loosely fitted into the end of the
cartridge by hand and the cartridge is introduced into a suitable die or "sizer" n Fig. 9
having a sliding pin n' working in the bottom thereof and acting as an ejector to
facilitate the removal of the finished cartridge from the die. The die or sizer with
the cartridge is placed in a suita! le press and the plunger 2 of the press is brought
down on to the cartridge forcing the same into the die till the rim of the cartridge
enters a recess provided for it in the top of the die. This ensures the finished
cartridge being of the proper diameter.
The cartridges thus manufactured are ready to be used at the miniature range with
the special practice rifles hereinbefore referred to, these being preferable for present
army use Lee-Metford magazine rifles converted either by reboring them to the
diameter of the miniature bullet m as indicated by the dotted lines Fig. 10 or by
fitting them with a new barrel. The improved miniature ammunition can however
be used with the service Martini and Snider rifles by suitably altering both the barrels
and the extractors.
When employing a converted Lee-Metford magazine rifle, I provide in the top of
the magazine as shown in longitudinal section, plan & transverse section
respectively in Figs. 11 to 13 and in side view in Fig. 14 a platform, filling piece or
grooved cover o of steel on which the ininiature cartridge is laid, and along which it
can be pushed home into the barrel, by the action of the breech bolt, the movements
being then identical with those performed in firing with service cartridges. This
platform has a recess or cavity of which serves to receive the cut off o2 of the
magazine whereby the platform is held securely in place.
£
The targets I prefer to employ are provided with markings or rings similar to those
of an ordinary target and may conveniently be made of sheet steel about 7/16th of an
inch in thickness and measuring about 12 inches by 9 inches. About a dozen of these
targets are advantageously kept ready for use at the miniature range. The bulls-eye
is about 1 inches in diameter, the inner range 2 inches, and the magpie or outer
ring 3 inches. I have found by actual experience that if with a target of these
dimensions a range of 23 yards be used, and the marksman be caused to fire standing
up, kneeling and lying down, then the shooting average will be the same as would be
obtained respectively on ordinary ranges of 200, 500 and 600 yards.
For ordinary training purposes however I prefer to employ a range of about
30 yards.
When a number of men are being practised, only two, say, can be directly
receiving instruction at the same time, and the others are usually standing by idle.
I therefore propose that a small workshop be erected in proximity to the miniature
range, in which workshop some of the men who are waiting their turn could be
assisting in the manufacture of the ammunition.
After the firing is finished the spent cartridges are collected for further use, their
caps being removed by means of a special apparatus shown in Fig. 15 comprising a
spring stamp or plunger p beneath which the cartridge is supported on a short steel
pillar p having a needle or projection p2 which is passed through the enlarged flash
hole ( Fig. 2) herein before referred to. The plunger when depressed forces down the
cartridge and the cap is forced out by the aforesaid needle. Any of the cartridges
that have had their anvils displaced or have become expanded in firing have these
defects remedied in special presses (see Fig. 16) similar in construction to that
previously described with reference to Fig. 9 for sizing the cartridges. They are then
recharged with powder and provided with fresh caps and bullets after which they are
again ready for use..

page_text: Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said invention
and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I claim is :-
1. A miniature cartridge for small-bore rifle practice having a bullet of larger
diameter than that of the ordinary service bullet, substantially as and for the purpose
specified.
2. A practice rifle for use with miniature cartridges of the kind referred to in the
preceding claim, having its bore adapted to correspond to the bullets of the miniature
ammunition, substantially as described.
3. A practice rifle of the kind referred to in the last preceding claim having its
magazine provided with a platform to receive the miniature cartridges, substantially
as described.
4. The method of manufacturing miniature ammunition substantially as herein-
before described whereby the cartridge cases can be repeatedly used.
5. My improvements in and relating to miniature ammunition comprising the
various steps in the manufacture of such cartridges and the means for enabling such
cartridges to be fired under conditions assimilating to those experienced in using
service ammunition, all substantially as hereinbefore described.
Dated this 29th day of April 1897.
HASELTINE, LAKE & Co.,
45 Southampton Buildings, London, W.C., Agents for the Applicant.