Patent ID: 8161675

Claim:
Aiming device for guns, which comprises one or more tubular elements supported by a gun barrel for displaying a critical image, each of said one or more tubular elements having— i. a tube configured with a bore having an inner diameter ranging from 3 to 10 mm; ii. a distally disposed light collecting rod housed within a sleeve made of solid transparent material and attached to said tube; iii. an annular, proximally disposed end of said tube, through which a user views an image projected from said rod and configured with a diameter substantially equal to that of said tube; iv. a lens mounted in a tube interior for projecting an image from said rod essentially throughout said proximally disposed end, wherein the distance between a rod proximal end and said lens is substantially equal to the focal length of said lens; and v. a characteristic tube length between said lens and said proximally disposed end of said tube which is greater than twice the focal length of said lens, a critical image appearing essentially throughout said proximally disposed end of said tube when said one or more tubular elements has a predetermined orientation such that the axis of the gun barrel is parallel to the line of sight passing through an eye of the user and a center of said lens, a deformed image appearing in said proximally disposed end of said tube when said one or more tubular elements has an orientation other than said predetermined orientation and the image projected from said lens is partially obstructed by a wall of, or enclosing, said tube, the relative location of said deformed image with respect to said proximally disposed end of said tube being indicative of the direction of deviation of the line of sight from the gun barrel axis, wherein a predetermined transition sharpness from said deformed image to said critical image is defined by said tube inner diameter and said characteristic length.