Handgun support

Oct. 5, 1971

3,609,902

R. J. CASULL

HANDGUN SUPPORT Filed March 17, 1970

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ATTORNEY

United States Patent Office

3,609,902

Patented Oct. 5, 1971

3,609,902 HANDGUN SUPPORT Richard J. Casull, 3270 Del Mar Drive, Salt Lake City, Utah 84109 Filed Mar. 17, 1970, Ser. No. 20,373 Int. CI. F41c 23/00 U.S. CI. 42—72 10 Claims

ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE 1θ

A handgun support is provided with a saddle member within which is cradled a gun grip while a steady rest is rigidly supported forward of the saddle to engage the gun immediately forward of the trigger guard. The operator’s hand then grasps the gun grip and saddle to provide an interlocking of the gun and support.

This invention relates generally to a support device, and more particularly, supporting means especially designed to be used in connection with pistols or revolvers in order to steady the handgun to provide shooting accuracy approaching that available with a long gun such as a carbine.

Detachable stocks or extension devices for use with handguns are well known. However, in most such prior known cases each such device was designed for use with a single particular handgun and in addition was more or less affixed to the gun in a rigid manner at one or more points. This attachment usually involved the use of screw clamp devices and often even included modification of one or more portions Of the gun to permit a rigid attachment of the support device thereto. Moreover, in many of the prior known devices an unnatural grip was provided to the user in view of the manner of connecting the support member to the gun.

The present invention overcomes many of the shortcomings of the known devices by providing a handgun support having no rigid connection with the pistol or revolver used therewith, yet insures a most steady placement of the gun. In using the instant device any one of several well known types of pistols and revolvers may be instantly combined with the support member without the use of any tools or the manipulation of any fastening components, it being understood that the gun is merely seated within a saddle member of the device and moved to nestle the lower forward portion of the receiver in the area immediately forward of the trigger guard within a forward steady rest. In this manner the handgun is supported in a natural position and it is thereafter engaged by the user such that the hand retains the pistol stock within the support saddle in a most natural manner while providing the only retaining means between the handgun and support device. Additionally there is no requirement for any modification of the handgun in order to accept the support device.

Accordingly, one of the primary objects of the present invention is to provide an improved handgun support adaptable for use with both pistols and revolvers and which requires no modification of the handgun and involves no mechanical connection between the support device and handgun.

A further object of the present invention is to provide a handgun support device including a saddle member within which is nestled the hand grip of the guh and a forward steady rest for engaging the receiver in the area immediately forward of the trigger guard whereby the handgun is retained in this position solely by means of the fingers of the operator during use thereof.

Still another object of the present invention is to provide a handgun supporting device having a first element loosely engageable with the handgrip of the gun and a second member disposed forward of the trigger guard for loosely engaging the gun in that area of the handgun.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a universal type handgun support including two handgun engaging members for loosely receiving portions of the handgun and whereby the gun is retained in its use position by means of the fingers of the user.

Still another object of the present invention is to provide a handgun support including two spaced-apart elements into which two portions of the handgun are nestled and provided with a rearwardly disposed extensible section pivotally attached to the handgun engaging portion to permit collapsing of the device when not in use.

With these and other objects in view which will more readily appear as the nature of the invention is better understood, the invention consists in the novel construction, combination, and arrangement of parts hereinafter more fully described, illustrated, and claimed.

A preferred and practical embodiment of the invention is shown in the accompanying drawing, in which:

FIG. 1 is a side elevation of the handgun support of the present invention as it appears in the condition of use;

FIG. 2 is a top plan of the handgun support of the present invention and illustrates, by means of broken lines, the alternate or non-use collapsed position of the forward portion of the handgun support;

FIG. 3 is a partial enlarged side elevation of the present invention and includes the illustration of a handgun and the operator’s hand as they would appear during firing of the gun;

FIG. 4 is a longitudinal sectional view and illustrates the construction of the rear saddle and forward steady rest of the invention;

FIG. 5 is a side elevation of the handgun support in the folded or collapsed condition;

FIG. 6 is a horizontal transverse sectional view through the upper portion of the rear saddle of the handgun support; and

FIG. 7 is a transverse sectional view taken along the lines 7—7 of FIGS. 2 and 3.

Similar reference characters designate corresponding parts throughout the several figures of the drawing.

Referring now to the drawing, the handgun support of the present invention, as will be seen most clearly in FIG. 1, includes a forward cradle assembly, generally designated 1, which is pivotally connected, such as by a hinge pin 2, to a central section generally designated 3, from which projects rearwardly a rear extension section 4.

Of primary consideration is the forward cradle assembly 1, the construction of which will be initially described, and it should be appreciated that the concept proposed by this assembly may be combined with any of several central and rear extension sections to provide adequate rigid contact with the shoulder of the user. The forward cradle assembly includes two important handgun-engaging elements, namely, the rear saddle 5 and the forward steady rest 6. As shown in FIG. 1, the rear saddle 5 is slightly in3,609,902 dined forwardly, and likewise slightly curved to provide a configuration approximating that of the hand grip of most handguns, while a review of FIGS. 4 and 6 clearly shows the grip-receiving cavity 7 thus formed by the two side flanges 8—8 extending forwardly from the rear of the saddle 5. This saddle is supported in a relatively fixed manner by any suitable means such as the rigid saddle plate 9 which may comprise a metal bar or rod, embedded within the rear portion of the saddle at the time of manufacture, and extends from the upper portion of the saddle to connect with a cradle top arm Id. The bottom of the saddle plate 9 will be seen most clearly from FIG. 4 to extend downwardly from the saddle 5 and thus project forwardly to provide a plate 11 rigidly connected to the cradle base arm 12. The plate 11 serves to provide support for a suitable recoil pad 13 which will be seen to be disposed immediately beneath the cavity 7 formed by the rear saddle 5.

The rear portion of the top arm Id extends towards the area of the hinge pin 2 and connects with the rear portion of the base arm 12, while this base arm 12 extends in a forward direction beyond the front of the recoil pad 13 in an upward and arcuate manner terminating in a free end 14 at which point the forward steady rest 6 is rigidly attached. It will be understood that the exact composition of both the saddle 5 and steady rest 6 is not critical, since any suitable semi-rigid material may be utilized such as hard rubber which will provide limited resilience, and likewise the exact manner of attaching the exterior form of the steady rest 6 to the free end 14 of the base arm 12 is not too critical. One such manner of this attachment is shown in FIG. 7 wherein it will be seen that the steady rest 6 includes an inner form 15 carried by a sleeve 16 attached to the free end 14 of the base arm. It will be appreciated that the form 15 may be split, as may be the outer resilient covering, in which case these components may be attached to the sleeve 16 and retained thereon by means of a suitable separable fastener 17.

From a review of FIG. 7 it will be seen that the forward steady rest provides a centrally disposed peripheral cavity 18 which is longitudinally aligned with the forwardly facing cavity 7 of the rear saddle 5 and the steady rest 6 is positioned such that, when a handgun grip is nestled within the cavity 7 of the saddle 5 with its butt resting upon the pad 13, the area of the handgun immediately forward of the trigger guard 19 will be nestled within the cavity 18 of the forward steady rest between the spacedapart side flanges 6a—6a thereof.

From the foregoing it will be apparent that the handgun H, although cradled at two points by means of the saddle and steady rest, nevertheless is in no way rigidly confined or attached to any portion of the support device, and, from FIG. 3, it will be seen that the fingers of the operator as they are wrapped about the saddle 5 and grip 20 provides the only rigid interlock between the revolver H and the handgun support of the present invention. By providing a sufficient height to the saddle 5 and thus a corresponding height to the forward portion of the top arm 10, a hand access or opening 21 is thereby provided between the top arm 10 and base arm 12 serving to readily admit the hand of the operator, as shown in FIG. 3, to permit a normal engagement of the gun grip.

The construction of the remaining portion of the handgun support to the rear of the cradle assembly 1 will now be described. The central section 3 includes a base plate 22 and a pair of slide tubes 23—23 located along the top and bottom edges of the base plate 22. Cooperating -frith the central section 3 is the rear extension section 4 having a slide plate 24, of a slightly lesser height than the base plate 22, and a pair of slide rods 25—25 disposed opposite the top and bottom edges of the slide plate 24 and adapted to move telescopically within the aforedescribed slide tubes 23 of the central section 3. The rear portion of the extension section 4 is provided with a shoulder plate 26 and, by means of the relative movement afforded between the sections 3 and 4, it will be seen that the present handgun support may be adjusted to accommodate the physical characteristics of the particular user, it being a relatively simple maneuver to axially displace the extension 4 with respect to the central section 3 in order to achieve the proper length, after which the fastener device 27 which cooperates with the elongated slot 28 in the slide plate 24 is tightened to interlock the central and rear sections.

Another feature of the handgun support of the present invention is the pivotal attachment of the forward cradle assembly 1 to the central section 3 such that the handgun support may be folded to an even more compact dimension than that possible merely by the collapse of the extension section 4 with respect to the central section 3.

As shown most clearly in FIG. 2 of the drawing, the rear of the cradle assembly 1 is provided with a forward hinge flange 29 juxtaposed a rear hinge flange 30 on the forward portion of the central section 3. As viewed in this figure, the two referenced hinge flanges project normal to the remainder of the cradle assembly and central section and these two sections are retained in longitudinal alignment by means of a nut 31 engaging the threaded shank of a bolt 32 extending from the hinge flange 30 through the hinge flange 29. In order to permit sufficient clearance to manipulate the nut 31 a suitable cut-out 33 is provided in the cradle assembly 1 immediately forward of the hinge flange 29. It will thus follow that, upon removal of the nut 31, the two hinge flanges 29 and 30 may be pivoted with respect to one another about the hinge pin 2 in the direction indicated by the arrow in FIG. 2, so that the handgun support may be folded or collapsed as shown in FIG. 5 of the drawing.