Untitled record

Application filed August 22,1919. Serial No. 116,231.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, Charles A. Nelson, a United States citizen, residing at Utica, New York, have invented the following-de5 scribed Improvements in Cartridge-Magazines for Firearms.

The invention concerns the structure ot the magazine chambers in that type of firearm in which the magazine i$ disposed di10 rectly beneath the breech bolt and bottleneck cartridges therein are fed upwardly by a spring-pressed follower or other mechanism and the purpose of the invention is to facilitate such upward movement by reduc15 tion of the frictional surfaces engaged and also to protect the points of the cartridges from injury by contact with the magazine chamber or other part, the new. construction being thus particularly useful for soft-nosed 20 cartridges. The further purpose of the invention is to accomplish these results by a construction simple and rugged in form and inexpensive to manufacture, all as will be made apparent from the description which 25 follows.

In the accompanying drawing,

Figure 1 represents in longitudinal section part of the breech of a bolt-action rifle, showing the new magazine chamber applied;

Fig. 2 a top plan of the chamber of Fig. 1, removed; , . . ., .

Figs. 3 and 4 are vertical and horizontal sections of the same;

Fig 5 an enlarged cross-section on line 35 V—V of Fig. 3;

Fig. 6, a modification; and

Figs. 7 and 8 represent preferred and modified types of construction applied to single column magazines.

The magazine chamber is constituted by a box-like metallic casing 1, oblong in its horizontal cross-section and secured in the gun structure with its upper end opening into the breech-bolt chamber and its lower 45 end closed bv a removable cover-plate 2.

This cover-plate, also forms the abutment and support for the leaf-spring 3 of the follower 4. It will be understood that when the magazine is full, the follower will be de50 pressed, as in Fig. 3, and will urge the topmost. cartridge against the under side of the breech-bolt 5. and that, when the. latter is reciprocated the cartridges will be successively engaged thereby and pushed into the bariel 55 for firing.

In Figs. 1 to 5, the cartridges form a staggered or double column in the magazine casing and the follower is provided with a rib 6 at one side of the lowest cartridge, to support and guide the cartridge next above it 60 and thus maintain the staggered arrangement without cramping. In this form the top cartridge is thus guided by one or the other of the curved surfaces 7,of the breech casing, into the position where its head is 65 encountered by the reciprocating bolt 5, to be advanced into firing position thereby, the bolt thus picking off the top cartridge first from one side of the column and then from the other, as will be found sufficiently indi- 70 cated in Fig. 5. The longitudinal side walls of the magazine casing are formed with a pair of opposite vertical ribs 8, projecting inwardly from the general planes of said walls near the bases of the contained car- 75 fridges, and serving as tracks upon which the cartridges may roll or slide as they move upward. The said side walls are also provided with a second similar pair of vertical ribs 9, projecting inwardly just forward of 80 the shoulders of the bottle-necked cartridges, and these ribs, which I shall term the shoulder ribs, serve both as tracks for the cartridge^ to slide upon and as shoulders (engaging the cartridge shoulders) to pre-. 85 vent endwise or forward displacement of the cartridges, which might bring their bullets into contact with the front wall of the casing and mutilate or blunt them. The casing itself may be made of sheet metal and 90 the pairs of opposite ribs can be conveniently formed by crimping or creasing the metal, as shown in Figs. 1 to 5, and also in Fig. 7, and both pairs of ribs are tapered off at the top edges of the casing which are 95 straight (Fig. 2) so that along these edges the ribs are flush with the side walls of the casing. Thus, the shoulder ribs prevent the noses of the cartridges from coming in contact with the front wall of the casing while 100 they are stored or moved upwardly within the casing, but the topmost cartridge is free to travel forward as soon as the bolt has been drawn fully to the rear and said topmost cartridge has risen to a height where it 105 will engage with the bolt when this member is pushed forward. The contour of the follower plate 4 may of course conform to the ribs. .

In Fig. 7, the single column magazine cas- 110

1,308,972 ing 10 having the base ribs 8 and shoulder ribs 9, will be seen to be the same in principle as in Figs. 1 to 5.

In Fig. 6, the double column magazine 5 casing 11 is provided with the rear track ribs 8, having the functions already described, but the shoulder ribs are here constituted by the rounded edges of an inserted U-shaped feeler piece occupying the forward 10 part of the casing. Fig. 8 illustrates the same kind of construction applied to a single, column casing, as will be evident.

In all of the described forms it will be observed that the points of the soft-nosed bul15 lets are confined to the vertical and otherwise vacant channel forward of the shoulder ribs and are prevented from contact with any part of the chamber by engagement of said ribs with the shoulders of the cartridge 20 shells. The protection of the bullet points is continued during the feeding motion and after the cartridge has moved above the upper ends of the shoulder ribs by notching the front wall of the casing, as shown at 13, 25 and sloping the entrance to the breech, as indicated at 14, so that the cartridge is directed into place by the engagement of the steel jacketed side part of the bullet rather than by its soft unjacketed nose, as intended .30 to be indicated by the dotted lines in Fig. 1.