Ergonomic pistol grip for rifles
An angled pistol grip for a user's trigger hand , mounted on an automatic or semiautomatic rifle. Said pistol grip oriented asymmetrically from the centerline of the rifle body thereby reducing the stress on the shooter's wrist of the trigger hand said pistol grip while firing. Thus allowing the shooter to correctly position the weapon, relative to the shooter's body, for accurate aiming.
This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. application Ser. No. 12/930,820, filed Jan. 18, 2011 which claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/336,258, filed Jan. 19, 2010.
BACKGROUND1. Field
This disclosure relates to a ergonomically designed trigger hand pistol grip that may be used on the AR-15® made by Colt Industries , and on the numerous AR-15 clones presently sold. Other models of semi-automatic and fully automatic rifles using a pistol grip for the shooters trigger hand will also find this grip useful.
2. Background
Rifles using a pistol grip have been traditionally designed with the grip features, such as the finger groves of the grip, symmetrically aligned with the body of the rifle. Therefore the finger pressure surfaces of the grip are aligned in the direction of the barrel. Other grip features such as the cheek surfaces and thumb rest are, as a result, correlated with the finger pressure surfaces. Pistol grips are often used on semi and full automatic weapons because, among other reasons, the rifle stock is often adjustable. On a shortened stock, control of the rifle is managed by gripping the pistol type grip with the hand that pulls the trigger. The pistol grip configuration also allows control of the rifle when the rifle is fired from a position where the stock is not abutting the user's shoulder. An example is when the weapon is fired from the hip.
OBJECTS AND ADVANTAGESAccordingly several objects and advantages of the present invention are: allowing the user to reduce the angle of their hand relative to the forearm when aiming and/or firing the rifle. Using the standard pistol grip configuration, the acute angle (approx. 40 degrees forearm to hand) for proper rifle handling and aiming puts an undue strain and fatigue on the wrist, hand and forearm. The standard pistol grip is rectangular shaped, with slightly rounded corners, with a thickness designed to not exceed the thickness of the body of the rifle. The forward facing surface of the grip is meant to be gripped by the fingers of the trigger hand. If grip finger grooves are present they are also facing directly forward. As such when held the wrist angle is not optimal. Carpal tunnel occurs when there is inordinate and repetitive stress on a wrist held in a non-optimal position, thereby putting pressure on the median nerve at the point that the nerve passes through the wrist. The median nerve supplies sensation to the thumb side of the palm, and to the thumb, index finger, middle finger, and the thumb side of the ring finger. The median nerve also helps with movement to part of the hand.
The area where the nerve enters the hand is called the carpal tunnel. Since the passageway is stiff, any swelling in this area can put pressure on the nerve. This may also be called entrapment of the nerve. Injury to the wrist area can cause swelling of the tissues and carpal tunnel syndrome. This type of injury may be caused by sports such as racquetball and handball, or occur during sewing, typing, driving, assembly-line work, painting, writing, use of tools (especially hand tools or tools that vibrate). Firing a semi-automatic or automatic weapon with the trigger hand wrist cocked at an acute angle, especially upon recoil, may cause such inordinate stress. The disclosed grip design reduces the non-optimal angle of the wrist, thereby reducing the stress, fatigue, and potential Carpal tunnel of the hand using the pistol grip of the rifle. This wrist angle reduction is a result of rotating the pistol grip position from its symmetrical position to the rifle body to a new position asymmetrical to the line of the rifle body. The term asymmetrical in this context means the grip finger grooves, if present, and other hand and finger locating features are not aligned with long axis of the weapon but instead are rotated as shown in
In another embodiment of the disclosed grip there are no finger grooves present on the grip, there is just a finger pressure area that is normally, on the traditional grip design, facing forward. The present design skews the finger pressure area to a new asymmetrical position so the shooters hand, that is operating the trigger, is at more ergonomically correct position.
The term rotated asymmetrically from being aligned to the centerline of said rifle deals with the fact that a standard grip has all the gripping features, such as finger grooves if present, facing in the same direction as the barrel and all the other associated features such as the palm cheek and the thumb rest oriented as dictated by the finger groove orientation.
Since the index finger is in a standard orientation when placed on the trigger of the weapon then on one embodiment implementing the disclosed grip is having the middle finger, groove 10 of
In accordance with the present invention, an angled pistol grip behind the trigger, for use in a semiautomatic or automatic rifle, reduces the stress on the shooters wrist while firing and allows the shooter to position the weapon, relative to the shooter's body, for accurate aiming.
The disclosed grip is further described in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which:
In an alternative embodiment the angle of rotation of the pistol grip from the body line of the rifle is adjustable rather than fixed. The shooter can evaluate a number of different rotations to find one most suitable for that individual. Once the most suitable rotation is determined the user can lock that configuration in. In another alternative the user can select a fixed pistol grip matching the rotation found most suitable while evaluating different rotations and mount that particular fixed pistol grip on the rifle. Another embodiment is a grip that is rotationally adjustable through a detent or similar mechanism and then locked down when an acceptable rotation is found.
Another embodiment may be to make the grip out of a material that is flexible when initially fabricated but may then be made more solid through heat or UV light. The user then customizes the configuration of the grip angle prior to making the grip fixed to that angle. The user may also adjust the distance between the finger grooves and even the depth of the grooves. Once the hand and finger features are set to the user's requirements those features are made permanent. This technology is similar to that of custom molded ski boots.
The use of the term rifle does not mean to be exclusive of other automatic or semi-automatic weapons that are shorter than the traditional length associated with the term rifle. For example the present invention may be used on the short pistol called the MP5K™, an automatic weapon from Heckler&Koch.
Therefore, although the invention has been described as setting forth specific embodiments thereof, the invention is not limited thereto. Changes in the details may be made within the spirit and the scope of the invention, said spirit and scope to be construed broadly and not to be limited except by the character of the claims appended hereto.
Claims
1. A pistol grip mounted to an automatic or semi-automatic rifle, for accepting holding pressure by user's trigger hand, with said pistol grip having hand locating features, with at least one of said pistol hand locating features rotated asymmetrically from an alignment parallel to said rifles barrel.
2. The pistol grip according to claim 1 wherein the said piston grip features rotated asymmetrically is at least one finger locating feature.
3. The pistol grip according to claim 1 wherein the said pistol grip features rotated asymmetrically is at least one hand locating feature.
4. The pistol grip according to claim 3 wherein the at least one hand locating feature rotated asymmetrically is that of a palm cheek.
5. The pistol grip according to claim 3 wherein the at least one hand locating feature rotated asymmetrically is that of a thumb rest.
6. A pistol grip mounted to an automatic or semi-automatic rifle, with said pistol grip having features, with at least one of said features rotated asymmetrically from being aligned to a centerline of said rifle, and with at least another of said features rotated at a different angle depending on the feature.
7. The pistol grip according to claim 6 wherein said pistol grip features are a maximum of three finger grooves.
8. The pistol grip according to claim 7 wherein one of said multiple finger grooves is a grove for a middle finger and wherein one of said multiple finger grooves is a grove for a ring finger.
9. The pistol grip according to claim 8 wherein the ring finger groove is rotated further from the centerline of the rifle than the middle finger groove.
10. The pistol grip according to claim 7 wherein one of said multiple finger grooves is a grove for a little (pinkie) finger.
11. The pistol grip according to claim 10 wherein the pinkie finger groove is rotated further from the centerline of the rifle than the ring finger groove.
Type: Application
Filed: Nov 27, 2012
Publication Date: May 29, 2014
Inventor: Robert Mark Freed (Ojai, CA)
Application Number: 13/694,382