The present invention relates to a ballistic body, exclusively for use in hunting, sports and the like.

In the field of firearms for use in hunting and/or sports, it is known to use bullets made mainly of plastic material with a metal ogive adapted to decentralize the center of gravity of the bullet toward its tip so as to increase its stability in flight.

Typically, ogives are made of a very ductile material, such as lead, so as to be able to slide inside the barrel of the firearms used in order to avoid barrel wear - in fact, between a steel barrel and the lead ogive it is the latter that wears - or continuous jammings between barrel and ogive if the latter were made of steel.

In fact, bullets of a known type have the ogive fixed to the wadding so as to be diametrically larger than the diameter of the wadding.

Moreover, it is important to note the toxicity of lead, which if the target is missed can be dispersed in the environment or, if the target is hit in game, can pollute locally, albeit minimally, the meat of the animal.

In order to obviate the above problem, bullets have been devised with wadding made of plastic material and with ogives accommodated inside the wadding at its end portion in order to decentralize the center of gravity, as described previously.

In this manner, however, slits are formed on the tip of the bullet and air can enter them during the flight phase with obvious variations of the attitude of said bullet.

The aim of the present invention is to provide a ballistic body that allows to obviate the drawbacks described above.

Within this aim, an object of the present invention is to provide a ballistic body that allows to obtain structural physical characteristics, shape and performance that are distinctly superior to currently commercially available products.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a ballistic body that allows to use for the ogive materials other than lead such as, for example, steel, copper, brass or plastic materials.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a ballistic body that allows to reduce production costs with respect to currently commercially available products.

This aim and these and other objects that will become better apparent hereinafter are achieved by a ballistic body, exclusively for use in hunting, sports and the like, comprising a main element which has a substantially cylindrical shape with a circular end face and a distal element, which are mutually associated and designed to be inserted in a firing cartridge, said distal element being made of a material that has a greater specific gravity than the material of which said main element is made, so as to decentralize the center of gravity of said ballistic body toward a distal end thereof, characterized in that said main element has, at at least one first end portion, a lateral rifling which is substantially longitudinal and oblique with respect to the axis of axial symmetry of said main element so as to form a plurality of longitudinal and oblique grooves which extend along the external circumference of said main element, and characterized in that said distal element has a substantially axially symmetrical shape with an increasing transverse cross-section, with the larger end face associated coaxially with an end face of said main element, said larger end face of said distal element having an outside diameter that is smaller than the outside diameter of said base of said main element and greater than the inside diameter of said main element formed between the bottoms of two of said longitudinal and oblique grooves which are radially opposite with respect to said axis of axial symmetry.

Further characteristics and advantages of the invention will become better apparent from the description of a preferred but not exclusive embodiment of a ballistic body, exclusively for use in hunting, sports and the like, according to the invention, illustrated by way of non-limiting example in the accompanying drawings, wherein:

Figure 1 is a schematic perspective view of the ballistic body, according to the present invention, exiting a rifle barrel;

Figure 2 is a perspective view of a firing cartridge for rifles containing inside it the ballistic body shown in Figure 1;

Figure 3 is an exploded perspective view of the firing cartridge shown in Figure 2;

Figure 4 is a longitudinal sectional view of the firing cartridge shown in Figure 2;

Figure 5 is a lateral elevation view of the ballistic body shown in the previous figures.

With particular reference to the cited figures, the ballistic body, exclusively for use in hunting, sports and the like, generally designated by the reference numeral 1, comprises a main element 2, hereinafter called wadding as technically termed, which has a substantially cylindrical shape with a circular end face and a distal element 3, hereinafter called ogive as technically termed, which are mutually associated and designed to be inserted in a firing cartridge 4.

In greater detail, the wadding 2, which can be made of a polymeric material such as polyethylene, is constituted by three portions 5, 6 and 7.

According to the invention, the first end portion 5 is characterized by a lateral rifling which is substantially longitudinal and oblique with respect to the axis of axial symmetry 8 of the wadding 2 so as to form a plurality of longitudinal and oblique grooves 9 which are extended along the external circumference of the wadding 2.

These longitudinal and oblique grooves 9 are open at the end face of the wadding 2 and are closed at the opposite end by means of walls 10 which are inclined in a direction that exits radially with respect to the axis of axial symmetry 8 and is opposite with respect to the ogive 3.

The second end portion 6 of the wadding 2 is formed at the opposite end with respect to the first end portion 5 and forms a hollow 11 adapted to contain gunpowder 12.

The third portion 7 is interposed between the two end portions 5 and 6 that have just been described and is shaped so as to be of the type that can yield elastically along the axis of axial symmetry 8 in order to store and release the energy released by the explosion of the gunpowder 12.

In the proposed embodiment, the third portion 7 comprises an alveolar structure adapted to provide the above described elastically yielding characteristic.

As regards the ogive 3, it is made of a material that has a greater specific gravity than the material of which the wadding 2 is made, so as to decentralize the center of gravity of the ballistic body 1 toward a distal end thereof.

In the proposed embodiment, the ogive 3 is made of a metallic material, preferably carbon steel, for example, C40.

According to the invention, the ogive 3 has a substantially axially symmetrical shape with an increasing transverse cross-section, with the larger end face 13 associated coaxially with the end face of the wadding 2 of the first end portion 5, with the larger end face 13 having an outside diameter that is smaller than the outside diameter of the base of the wadding 2 in the first end portion 5 and greater than the inside diameter of the wadding 2 in the first end portion 5 formed between the bottoms of two longitudinal and oblique grooves 9 which are radially opposite with respect to the axis of axial symmetry 8.

Advantageously, the wadding 2 and the ogive 3 are mutually associated with each other by means of a male-female coupling comprising, respectively, a shank 14 and a corresponding receptacle 15.

In greater detail, the shank 14 is formed by the ogive 3 so as to exit normally from the larger end face 13 and axially with respect to said ogive 3 in the direction of the wadding 2.

The receptacle 15 is formed instead in the first end portion 5 of the wadding 2 along the axis of axial symmetry 8.

Furthermore, in the proposed embodiment, the ogive 3 has a first cylindrical end portion 16 with a circular end face, a ffustoconical central portion 17, which extends increasingly from the first cylindrical end portion 16 toward the wadding 2 and the smaller diameter of which is equal to the outside diameter of the first cylindrical portion 16, and a second cylindrical portion 18 with a circular end face, interposed between the ffustoconical central portion 17 and the shank 14.

In greater detail, the second cylindrical portion 18 defines the larger end face 13 and has an outside diameter that is larger than the largest diameter of the ffustoconical central portion 17, so as to define an annular element 19 useful for the steps of flexural deformation of the firing cartridge 4.

For example, the ballistic body 1 can have the following dimensions:

- outside diameter of the wadding 2 equal to 18.5 milliliters,

- outside diameter of the shank 14 of the ogive 3 equal to 9 millimeters with a connection of 1 millimeter,

- total mass of the ballistic body 1 equal to 22.5,

- hollow 11 adapted to contain 2.00 / 2.05 grams of gunpowder.

The operation of the ballistic body 1 is described hereinafter.

Once the primer 21 has been activated by means of the hammer of the rifle or the like in which the firing cartridge 4 is loaded, the gunpowder 12 accommodated in the hollow 11 explodes, causing the forced expulsion of the ballistic body 1 from the barrel 20 of the rifle.

In greater detail, at the moment of the explosion, the third portion 7 of the wadding 2 undergoes an initial axial compression, accumulating energy, to then release it gradually in order to limit the recoil of the shot. In its path in the barrel 20, the ballistic body 1 slides along the walls of the barrel 20 at the wadding 2, preventing the ogive 3 from scraping by virtue of the fact that it has an outside diameter that is smaller than the diameter of the wadding 2.

Since the beginning of its motion and especially just after it has exited from the barrel 20, the ballistic body 1 is struck by a flow of fluid, in this case air, that initially strikes the tip of the ogive 3.

After flowing around the ogive 3 by virtue of its axially symmetrical shape with increasing cross-section, the fluid reaches the longitudinal and oblique grooves 9 without encountering substantial stagnation points and without penetrating between the wadding 2 and the ogive 3.

By being channeled in the grooves, the air flow imposes a rotary motion to the ballistic body 1 such as to allow it to have such an aerial stability as to keep the initial parabolic trajectory substantially unchanged.

Subsequently, once the inclined walls 10 have been reached, the air is expelled from the wadding 2.

In practice it has been found that the ballistic body, exclusively for use in hunting, sports and the like, according to the invention, fully achieves the intended aim and objects, since it allows to have stability both in the parabolic trajectory and in the rotary motion about its own axis and therefore have precision in reaching the target where the hole occurs neatly, without fraying.

This is a considerable advantage in the case of target shooting, in which the precision of the hole near the scoring rings is decisive.

Another advantage of the ballistic body according to the invention resides in that by virtue of wadding made of plastic material, in particular polyethylene, once the wadding has impacted the target it does not have any rupture point and lateral deviation in the ogive accommodating region or the ogive itself.

A further advantage of the ballistic body according to the invention consists in that it is possible to provide an ogive made of materials that are technologically more economical and environment-friendly than lead, such as for example carbon steel, since it cannot scrape against the internal walls of the barrel of the rifle.

Another advantage of the ballistic body according to the invention resides in that it is possible to compensate for any diameter variations of the barrel by virtue of the fact that the only part of the ballistic body that scrapes inside the barrel is a wadding made of plastic material, by virtue of the wadding made of plastic material.

In fact, by virtue of the mechanical characteristics of the chosen material, the wadding is capable of shaping itself on the diameter of the barrel.

The ballistic body, exclusively for use in hunting, sports and the like, thus conceived is susceptible of numerous modifications and variations, all of which are within the scope of the accompanying claims.

All the details may furthermore be replaced with other technically equivalent elements.

In fact, the inventive concept thus described can be applied to any rotating member or shaft supported at the ends by bearings which operate in severe environmental conditions.

In practice, the materials used, as well as the contingent shapes and dimensions, may be any according to the requirements and the state of the art.

The disclosures in Italian Patent Application No. 102018000006218 from which this application claims priority are incorporated herein by reference.

Where technical features mentioned in any claim are followed by reference signs, those reference signs have been included for the sole purpose of increasing the intelligibility of the claims and accordingly such reference signs do not have any limiting effect on the interpretation of each element identified by way of example by such reference signs.