Abstract: A fragment-sealing bullet trap for rifle muzzle launched projectiles having a soft aluminum plug for decelerating and absorbing the softer components of rifle bullets, followed by a shock absorbing piston to mitigate the peak acceleration of the projectile due to bullet impact, in turn followed by a hardened steel anvil to safely capture any steel bullet components. Attached to the aft portion of the plug is an aluminum cap, containing a rubber gasket, which expands during bullet penetration, but rebounds due to its resiliency, tightly sealing off the bullet trap against the escape of bullet and plug fragments. The cap is designed to prevent the gasket from blowing out as a result of high bullet trap pressurization.

Abstract: An improved small caliber armor piercing projectile (10) having a fin stabilized sub-caliber high density rod penetrator (11) and an adequately large tracer cavity (23). The tracer cavity does not degrade the armor penetrating capability of the projectile. The rod penetrator core is supported structurally during gun launch by a minimum weight segmented sabot (13) which engages the barrel rifling, followed by a solid plastic obturator (15) which provides an uninterrupted gas seal and holds the segmented sabot components together around the rod penetrator prior to launch. The solid obturator is made from a low ductility homogenous plastic or plastic reinforced composite and is blown apart upon muzzle exit by entrapped propellant gas pressure retained in an internal aft cavity (19). The plastic obturator are located behind the structural sabot so that the propellant gas pressure will maintain the obturator under hydrostatic compression while in the barrel to ensure projectile in-bore stability.

Abstract: A muzzle launched grapnel hook projectile having a body with an internal cavity which is sized to fit over the muzzle end of a rifle or spigot. A bullet trap within the internal cavity permits launching of the projectile one time with a live bullet cartridge as the propulsion force. The projectile can then be launched multiple times with a blank propellant cartridge. The front of the projectile mounts several torsion springs which serve as tines to grab trip wires and detonate trip wire mines as the projectile is being dragged back to the launch point. The torsion spring design and mounting scheme permits the tine to bend and release from non-trip wire obstacles along the retrieval path. Attached to the base of the projectile at a flange is a bridle consisting of multiple leader lines. Pulling on the bridle causes the leader lines to come together to form a cone-like surface which allows the base of the projectile to slide easily over obstacles.

Abstract: An improved small caliber armor piercing projectile (10) having a fin stabilized sub-caliber high density rod penetrator (11) and an adequately large tracer cavity (23). The tracer cavity does not degrade the armor penetrating capability of the projectile. The rod penetrator core is supported structurally during gun launch by a minimum weight segmented sabot (13) which engages the barrel rifling, followed by a segmented plastic obturator (15), followed by a solid plastic obturator ring (17) which provides an uninterrupted gas seal and which holds all segmented components together around the rod penetrator prior to launch. The solid obturator ring is blown apart upon muzzle exit by entrapped propellant gas pressure retained in an internal aft cavity (19). All plastic obturator components are located behind the structural sabot so that the propellant gas pressure will maintain the segmented obturator under hydrostatic compression while in the barrel to ensure projectile inbore stability.