Acoustically tuned cartridge casing catcher

Abstract

A catcher, in combination with a firearm having an ejection port, for receiving and retaining expended magnetically attracted shell casings through the ejection port as the firearm is discharged. The catcher includes a hollow housing having a plurality of rigid walls, and retainers. One of the walls has an opening in communication with the ejection port when the catcher is mounted to the firearm for receiving the shell casings. At least one of the other walls includes a plurality of deflectors and each of the deflectors has a front face that is slanted away from the opening such that the deflectors are capable of deflecting the shell casings away from the opening and a rear face that is perpendicular to the planar surface of the housing or slanted away from the opening. At least one of the deflectors, alone or in combination with one or more other of the deflectors and a respective wall, provide a void and an aperture configured as an acoustic tuner structure tuned to provide reduction of noise emitted at the ejection port. The retainers are disposed at the rear face of the deflectors and are capable of retaining the shell casings when the catcher is in any position. The retainers comprise a permanent magnetic material.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. application Ser. No. 10 / 946,248, filed Sep. 21, 2004, which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. application Ser. No. 10 / 674,599, filed Oct. 1, 2003, now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,836,991.GOVERNMENT INTEREST [0002] The invention described here may be made, used and licensed by and for the U.S. Government for governmental purposes without paying royalty to me.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0003] 1. Field of the Invention [0004] The present invention generally relates to an acoustically tuned spent cartridge casing catcher for a firearm. [0005] 2. Background Art [0006] Cartridge casing catchers are mounted adjacent the ejection port of a firearm to catch the spent cartridge casings as the casings are ejected after a round is fired. The spent cartridge casings are generally collected for reloading and to prevent casings from being underfoot which can cause a shooter or observer unstable shootin...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0015] Accordingly, the present invention may provide an improved spent cartridge casing catcher including acoustic tuning. Such an improved spent cartridge casing catcher may provide reduced or eliminated bouncing of the spent cartridges back into the firearm ejection port and so reduce or eliminate jamming caused by the spent cartridge casings bouncing back, reduced or eliminated rattle of collected spent cartridge casings, and reduced or eliminated firearm ejection port blast noise and firearm mechanism noise when compared to conventional approaches. Such an improved spent cartridge casing catcher may overcome other deficiencies of conventional approaches and provide further advantages when compared to conventional approaches.

[0016] According to the present invention, a catcher, in combination with a firearm having an ejection port, for receiving and retaining expended magnetically attracted shell casings through the ejection port as the firearm is discharged is provided. The catcher comprises a hollow housing having a plurality of rigid walls, and retainers. One of the walls has an opening in communication with the ejection port when the catcher is mounted to the firearm for receiving the shell casings. At least one of the other walls comprises a plurality of deflectors and each of the deflectors has a front face that is slanted away from the opening such that the deflectors are capable of deflecting the shell casings away from the opening and a rear face that is perpendicular to the planar surface of the housing or slanted away from the opening, and at least one of the deflectors, alone or in combination with one or more other of the deflectors and a respective wall, comprise a void and an aperture configured as an acoustic tuner structure tuned to provide reduction of noise emitted at the ejection port. The retainers are mounted at the rear face of the deflectors and are capable of retaining the shell casings when the catcher is in any position. The retainers comprise a permanent magnetic material.

Problems solved by technology

Conventional spent cartridge casing catchers such as shown in the Kratzer '333 patent can have a deficiency in that spent cartridges are ejected with a significant force and tend to bounce inside the collection chamber and in some instances, the spent cartridge can bounce back into the firearm ejection port causing the firearm to jam.

Such a jam is highly undesirable when the firearm user is involved in a critical mission situation.

In any event, clearing jammed firearms is typically a time consuming, annoying, and potentially hazardous task.

Conventional spent cartridge casing catchers such as shown in the Kratzer '333 patent also have a deficiency in that such spent cartridge casing catchers are only effective when the firearm is operated in a normal (typical) design position (i.e., with the weapon trigger grip in a substantially vertical position, and the weapon ejection port in a substantially horizontal position).

That is, such conventional approaches only catch and hold spent cartridge casings when gravitational forces cause the spent cartridge casings to drop or move to a location in the catcher that is generally away from the firearm ejection port.

As such, when the user operates the firearm in an orientation that is not the orientation for which the spent cartridge casing catcher was designed (typically a normal firearm operation position), the spent cartridge casings are typically not properly captured and held and can readily cause the firearm to jam in many orientations of the firearm.

However, the firearm user can not always fire the weapon from a position from which the conventional spent cartridge casing catcher was designed to operate, and firearm jams can result.

Conventional spent cartridge casing catchers such as shown in the Kratzer '333 patent may have additional deficiencies in that the spent cartridges tend to rattle in the catcher collection chamber and thus cause additional undesirable noise.

However, significant noise and flash (i.e., blast) are generated and expelled at the breech of the firearm, especially for open-bolt (or blowback) firearms, and from a closed breech weapon, especially from a so-called gas impingement operating firearm such as AR15 and M16 assault rifles to an extent which can be unacceptable for clandestine operations.

For example, well suppressed weapons such as the Heckler & Koch Model HK MP5SD, while having very low muzzle report, still produce noise and flash from the ejection port which presents a blast that may be significant and unacceptable in some situations.

Suppressed gas impingement operating firearms such as suppressed AR15 and M16 assault rifles still produce noise and flash from the ejection port also.

Further, the firearm operating mechanism (e.g., bolt actuation), especially in the case of semi-automatic and full-automatic firearms, generates noise that can compromise the location of the firearm user.

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