Patent ID: 8430085

Claim:
A method of firing a less-than-lethal pellet gun comprising the steps of: providing a plurality of links each holding a pellet configured to be fired through a barrel of the pellet gun; providing a feed cylinder to advance the links to a firing position and ejecting each link after its pellet has been fired; activating a trigger which causes a bolt attached to a linkage arm to linearly move, wherein the feed cylinder includes a slot portion and a gear portion, wherein the slot portion includes a first slot region, a second slot region, a first angled slot region, and a second angled slot region, wherein a portion of the linkage arm engages the slot portion of the feed cylinder such that the linear movement of the linkage arm causes the portion of the linkage arm to travel along the first and second slot and first and second angled slot regions rotating the feed cylinder, and wherein at least one of the plurality of links engages a portion of the gear portion of the feed cylinder; rotating the feed cylinder to move one of the plurality of links holding the pellet to a firing position; releasing a sear from a notch in the bolt; biasing against the bolt from a spring to move the bolt until it engages a stem which releases fluid from a container into a valve and toward the link; firing the pellet from the release of fluid through the valve; supplying fluid back through a portion of the valve to move the bolt against the bias of the spring to reset the gun to a ready-to-fire position; moving the linkage arm through the second angled slot and first slot portions after the pellet is fired to eject the one link the pellet was fired from and replace with a second link; engaging both trigger and notch in the bolt by the sear after the pellet has fired to hold the bolt away from the stem which closes the valve to prepare the gun to fire again.