Height-Adjustable and Foldable Gun Rest
The invention is a height adjustable gun rest that can be attached, and carried folded, on a rifle's fore-end. Known gun rests are in particular unsuitable on snow, and therefore unsuitable for grouse top-hunting for instance. Loud or awkward folding, or unsuitable exterior form (for carrying the rifle on the back), are other problems relevant to this kind of hunting. The invention includes a supporting leg 1, a bearing plate 2, and a pivot catch 3. The fore-end 101 can be imagined as the upper horizontal bar of a “Z” where the supporting leg, pivoted to the fore-end, is the inclined line and the bearing plate, pivoted to the supporting leg, is the lower horizontal bar. This arrangement facilitates compact and simple folding. The bearing plate provides large contact surface. The pivot catch fix the leg's inclination angle; that is, one of the angles of the “Z” is constant while the other is variable. The pivot catch may in particular be a crossbar, between the leg and the fore-end, whose attachment along the fore-end is adjustable.
1. Technical Field
The invention is a gun rest (also referred to as an aiming rest). A typical example of use is “top hunting” for wood grouse or black grouse T, which is a hunting form characterized by the hunter J using a rifle G and being postured lying on snow, illustrated in
2. Technical Problem Solved by the Invention
The invention solves in particular the problem of gun rests' unsuitability on snow-covered ground. “Top hunting” is carried out during wintertime when the snow is deep and wood grouse and black grouse graze up in pine trees and birches. The distance to the bird, when top hunting, is comparably large: occasionally around 200 meters. It is customary to place a brought rucksack on top of the snow and form it as a support for the rifle. The rucksack is comparably large and its color tends to contrast against the snow; the bird may therefore discover the rucksack's movement when the hunter arranges it for support. Ordinary gun rests, whether they are monopods or bipods, are usually not used for this kind of hunting because they are unsuitable for use on snow. Disturbing sounds when the gun rest is folded out, awkward height adjustment, and uncomfortably protruding parts, are other common problems with gun rests for this kind of hunting.
3. Prior Art
A gun rest is described in U.S. Pat. No. 1,426,967. This gun rest includes a supporting leg—a long narrow bar named “leg 26”—having a closed position and an extended position. In the closed position the leg is situated under, and closely along, the rifle's fore-end. In the extended position the leg projects, about right-angled, out from the fore-end. In this position another thin bar (called “bar 30”) may be pulled out from the short side of the supporting leg and thus, in several steps, elongating the leg.
U.S. Pat. No. 64,765 describes another gun rest. It includes a supporting leg, a bar named “rod G”, consisting of two parts (marked “a” and “b”) joined by means of a hinge (at the point marked “x”). The gun rest has a closed position in which the bar is placed under and closely along the rifle's fore-end. In the extended positions the parts “a” and “b” may, on one hand, be collapsed together (giving a short support) or may, on the other hand, be folded out (giving a tall support); there are no positions in-between.
There are also other kinds of foldable gun rests—ranging from one to three supporting legs with two legs being the most common—intended for attachment on a rifle's fore-end. The bipods in U.S. Pat. No. 5,852,892 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,289,622 may be mentioned because they, when collapsed, lack protruding parts. Other gun rests differs, as far as we know, to a greater extent from the invention.
DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Advantages Provided by the InventionLying down in the snow the hunter may, by means of the invention, obtain a good support for the rifle. Neither U.S. Pat. No. 1,426,967 nor U.S. Pat. No. 64,765—despite them both having a component that have some similarity with the bearing plate that is a characteristic of the invention—are suitable for use on snow. The gun rests having double legs described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,852,892 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,289,622 are not either suitable on snowy ground.
Good height adjustability for lying-down shooting postures is obtained. The gun rest in U.S. Pat. No. 1,426,967, and also to a certain extent the gun rest in U.S. Pat. No. 64,765, have—in common with the invention—the advantages of having a smooth exterior, being compact in collapsed position, and being easy to fold out with a single-hand movement. However they are, in contrast to the invention, not very adjustable: the supporting leg can in particular only be positioned right-angled to the fore-end. It is true that there are other gun rests that in fact, similar to the invention, are easy to set at several height levels, but as mentioned, no one is suitable as a rifle support on ground covered by snow.
The rifle's existing attachment places can be used; in particular the places for attaching the front action-screw 102 and the sling swivel stud 103, indicated in
The gun rest can be extended and set to height rapidly and quietly with a single-handed manipulation. The gun rests with double legs such as U.S. Pat. No. 5,852,892 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,289,622, on the contrary, requires the legs to be extended one by one.
The rifle, with mounted gun rest, can be carried comfortably on the back. While the other four gun rests here mentioned also have this feature, they are as mentioned either difficult to extend or are not settable at varying-height prone shooting postures.
EMBODIMENTS A first embodiment of the gun rest is shown in
First embodiment. The gun rest in its entirety is show in
The gun rest's function is as follows (see
Second embodiment. Another concretisation of the invention is shown in
Third embodiment. A third embodiment of the invention is illustrated in
In all of the previously described embodiments, the attachment element 4 could be exchanged for two joinable parts. The joinable parts may for example have the form of profiles 45, 45* insertable into each other as shown in
Yet another concrete form of the bearing plate is illustrated by
Recesses, for instance the kind of recesses 51 shown in
Several concrete—but dissimilar—embodiments of the invention were described above. This part summarizes these, and other possible embodiments of the invention, in a definition. We will mainly refer to
The invention—a gun rest for rifles—includes a supporting leg 1, a bearing plate 2, and a pivot catch 3. The supporting leg is at its first end attached, by a first pivot, to the rifle's fore-end 101. The supporting leg can be turned, on the pivot, from a collapsed position, at which the two ends of the leg is situated close to the fore-end, to folded-out positions at which the leg's second end is parted from the fore-end. The invention is particularly characterized by the fact that the supporting leg at its second end is attached, by a second pivot, to the bearing plate. The invention is further characterized by the pivot catch, that it belongs to one of the pivots, and that it makes the supporting leg settable at fixed inclined angles to either the fore-end or to the bearing plate, as indicated in
Particular embodiments of the in
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FIG. 1 Example of use -
FIG. 2 First embodiment -
FIG. 3 Function -
FIG. 4 Second embodiment -
FIG. 5 Third embodiment -
FIG. 6 Other embodiments -
FIG. 7 Another form of bearing plate -
FIG. 8 Parts schematically drawn - T Shooting target (grouse for instance)
- G Rifle
- J Hunter
- 101 Fore-end (a.k.a. forearm stock)
- 102 Front action-screw (a.k.a. front guard-screw)
- 103 Sling swivel
- 104 Magazine
- 1 Supporting leg
- 2 Bearing plate
- 3 Pivot catch (crossbar for example)
- 4 Attachment element (plate with holes, for example)
- 5 Stand with positions (rail with recesses, for example)
- 6 Adjustment device (can be locked to the stand)
- 7 Clasping device
- 8 Fastener (screw for instance)
- 1a Supporting leg, first part
- 1b Supporting leg, second part
- 12 Axle
- 13 Axle
- 14 Axle
- 21 Block (or other bearing for an axle)
- 22 Rabbet
- 23 Peg (or other protrusion)
- 24 Peg (or other protrusion)
- 24* Hole (or other recess)
- 34 Axle
- 41 Block (or other bearing for an axle)
- 42 Hole for a screw
- 43 Block (or other bearing for an axle)
- 44 Hole for screw
- 45 Coupling element
- 45* Coupling element
- 46 Peg
- 51 Recess (or other position in the stand)
- 61 Tooth (or other thing able to lock at the stand's positions)
- 62 Lever
- 71 Clasp
- 71* Slot for clasp
- 71 ′*Slot for clasp
- 72 Compression spring
Claims
1. Height adjustable and foldable gun rest including a, at its first end, to the gun's fore-end 101 by a first pivot attached supporting leg 1 that has a closed position and extended positions, characterized in that, the supporting leg at its second end is, by means of a second pivot, attached to a bearing plate 2; and that one of the pivots has a pivot catch 3 that, in said extended positions, adjustably fixates the supporting leg's inclination to the fore-end or to the bearing plate.
2. Height adjustable and foldable gun rest according to claim 1,
- characterized in that, the pivot catch consists of a crossbar that joins two of three, in a triangular pattern arranged, pivots of which one constitute the supporting leg's first pivot and the two that are joined by the crossbar are attached one to the supporting leg and one to the fore-end.
3. Height adjustable and foldable gun rest according to claim 2,
- characterized in that, the crossbar and the fore-end's shared pivot is movable to several positions along the fore-end, thereby obtaining said adjustable fixation of the supporting leg's inclination.
4. Height adjustable and foldable gun rest according to claim 2,
- characterized in that, the supporting leg's first pivot is movable to several positions along the fore-end, thereby obtaining said adjustable fixation of the supporting leg's inclination.
5. Height adjustable and foldable gun rest according to claim 3,
- characterized in that, said positions along the fore-end comprises a row of recesses 51.
6. Height adjustable and foldable gun rest according to claim 2,
- characterized in that, the supporting leg is composed of two parallel rails 1a, 1b movable, and adjustable in several positions, along each other; the first rail 1a attached to the fore-end and the second rail 1b attached to the bearing plate; and that said crossbar joins the second rail and the fore-end.
7. Height adjustable and foldable gun rest according to claim 1, characterized in that, the supporting leg's first pivot includes a first coupling element 45 detachable from a second coupling element 45*.
8. Height adjustable and foldable gun rest according to claim 1, characterized in that, the bearing plate can be turned, around the supporting leg's second pivot, to a position whereat it can be fastened to the supporting leg by means of a locking device 7, thereby elongating the supporting leg.
9. Height adjustable and foldable gun rest according to claim 8,
- characterized in that, the locking device also fastens the supporting leg to the fore-end, in the closed position.
10. Height adjustable and foldable gun rest according to claim 1, characterized in that, a fastener 8 anchors the bearing plate to the supporting leg's second pivot; and that the bearing plate, being in a first position, can be loosened from the fastener, turned or moved, and anchored by the fastener in a second position.
11. Height adjustable and foldable gun rest according to claim 1, characterized in that, the bearing plate in its one end has a recess 22 and that the supporting leg's first pivot has a for the recess suitable form, to stably hold the bearing plate to the fore-end in the closed position.
Type: Application
Filed: May 4, 2005
Publication Date: Feb 28, 2008
Inventor: Mats Lindstrom (Lycksele)
Application Number: 11/596,018
International Classification: F41C 23/22 (20060101);