BULLET LOADING APPARATUS FOR SHOOTING DEVICES FOR USE IN SPORT AND/OR RECREATIONAL SHOOTING RANGES AND SHOOTING RANGE HAVING SUCH APPARATUS

Field of the invention

This invention finds application in the field of recreation and leisure devices, and particularly relates to a bullet loading apparatus, particularly for shooting devices for use in sport and/or recreational shooting ranges.

The invention further relates to a shooting range having such apparatus.

State of the art

Small arm airsoft/airgun shooting ranges are known to have increasingly developed in recent times, and sports and game competitions have become increasingly popular among enthusiasts.

Unlike toy guns, which are conventionally used in recreational shooting ranges, small arms are real replicas of "real" firearms, which can faithfully reproduce the noise and vibrations produced by the latter during shooting and can generate more realistic effects for the users.

Italian utility model IT-U-0249971 discloses a small arms shooting range having multiple adjacent shooting stations, each at a certain distance from a fixed or movable target to be fired upon. Guns are fed with plastic bullets, which are manually loaded directly into the gun.

An apparent drawback of this solution is that play is frequently interrupted due to the poor capacity of gun magazines.

A further drawback is that the different stations of a shooting range are supplied with compressed air by a single source, substantially a compressor. Therefore, this system has to pass through several bullet loading steps, depending on the number of operating shooting stations at each time, which causes discontinuous operation and may lead to damages to the compressor.

In an attempt to overcome the above drawbacks, several solutions have been proposed in which a bullet storage chamber shared by multiple shooting stations is combined with a compressed air supply system, used both for loading bullets into the guns and for firing shots.

US 2003/0005917 discloses a solution in which an apparatus is provided which is capable of continuously supplying bullets into each gun. Such apparatus has a single bullet magazine wherefrom bullets are transmitted to all toy guns through auxiliary pressure means.

While this solution provides the advantage of affording continuous loading of shooting devices, it still has the drawback of using another compressed air supplying means, in addition to the conventional means for providing the required shot firing pressure.

This complicates the design of the supply circuit to the shooting stations and especially causes excessive energy consumption to provide such additional supply.

Summary of the invention

The object of this invention is to overcome the above drawbacks, by providing an apparatus that is highly efficient and relatively cost-effective.

A particular object is to provide an apparatus that allows continuous shooting while minimizing energy consumption.

These and other objects, which will appear more clearly hereafter, are fulfilled by a bullet loading apparatus in accordance with claim 1 , comprising a connecting line having an entry end and an exit end for bullets, means for storing bullets at the entry end, means for connecting the line to at least one device for shooting bullets at the delivery end, means for transferring bullets along the line to allow continuous feed thereof to the shooting devices and a chamber for collection of a predetermined amount of bullets along the line.

According to the invention, the collection chamber is a variable volume chamber.

Thanks to this particular configuration, the invention provides an apparatus that allows continuous play while minimizing energy consumption. The use of a variable volume chamber allows to alternately and periodically promote the feed of bullets to the connecting means and to fill the chamber with bullets coming from the storage means. Thus, bullets may be continuously fed to the shooting means, without using external compressed air sources or the like, as required in prior art.

The chamber may advantageously have a fixed side wall and at least one first movable bottom wall. Furthermore, the side wall may have a substantially tubular shape and define a longitudinal axis. Also, the first movable bottom wall may have a piston, which is slideably and sealably received within the side wall and is operatively connected to reciprocating means. By this arrangement, bullets may be loaded to the shooting devices in a very simple and efficient manner.

Suitably, the apparatus may comprise at least one substantially rigid loading tube, coaxially extending within the chamber, which may have an upstream end inside the chamber and a downstream end in communication with the connecting means.

The chamber may further have first limit stop means within the tubular side wall, opposite the upstream end of the loading tube, and second limit stop means outside the chamber.

Advantageously, the loading tube may be movable along the longitudinal axis between a first operating position with the upstream end abutting against the first limit stop means and a second operating position with the downstream end abutting against the second limit stop means.

Thanks to the above features, bullets may be loaded to the shooting devices in a very simple and advantageous manner.

Preferably, to prevent bullet jams along the line, the apparatus of the invention may include return means operating on the tube to normally keep it in the first operating position.

To prevent backflow of the bullets introduced in the loading tube and allow oneway feed thereof along the line, the loading tube may include nonreturn valve means near the upstream end thereof.

Any condensation formed along the line may be removed by providing the apparatus of the invention with venting means along the line downstream from the loading tube.

In another aspect of the invention, there is provided a sport and/or recreational shooting range as defined in claim 18, which comprises at least one movable or stationary target and at least one bullet shooting device.

According to the invention, the shooting range comprises a bullet loading apparatus as disclosed and claimed herein.

Brief description of the drawings

Further features and advantages of the invention will be more apparent from the detailed description of a preferred, non-exclusive embodiment of a loading

apparatus according to the invention, which is described as a non-limiting example with the help of the annexed drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a loading apparatus according to the invention; FIG. 2 is a schematic view of the loading apparatus of FIG. 1 in a first operating position;

FIG. 3 is a schematic view of the loading apparatus of FIG. 1 in a second operating position.

Detailed description of a preferred embodiment

Referring to the above figures, the loading apparatus of the invention, generally designated by numeral 1 in FIG. 1 , may be advantageously used in sport or recreational shooting ranges, e.g. of the "soft gun" type, to continuously load bullets B into shooting means S, such as a soft or toy gun G. Conventionally, such shooting ranges may be equipped with one or more movable or stationary targets and arrangements for providing various types of information to the players. The bullets B may be of different materials, such as rubber, metal or, preferably, PVC.

The bullets B, which are stored in special means 2, including for example a hopper 3, possibly with an auger facilitating the flow of bullets B, will be fed along a connecting line 4, comprising a flexible tube 5 connected to the gun G. The hopper 3 is situated at the entry end 6 of the line 4, whereas means 8 for connection to the gun G are provided at the exit end 7, which means comprise, for instance, a male-female quick connector.

As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, to feed the bullets B, which come from the means 2 and fall in a substantially vertical direction, as shown by arrow F-i, along the line 4, special transfer means 9 are preferably placed within a bullet collecting chamber 10.

As shown in FIG. 1 , near the entry end 6 of the line 6, the hopper 3 may have means 27 for conveying the bullets B to the chamber 10 in the direction F1. The conveyor means 27 may include a worm 28, which is rotated about the axis Y by suitable drive means, generally designated by numeral 29. Conveniently, the means 27 may be provided with nonreturn valve means, not shown. As an alternative to the worm 28, there may be provided a cylinder having hollows for conveying the bullets B.

In order to allow the bullets B to be fed along the line 4, the chamber 10 may be of the variable volume type, with a fixed side wall 11 and a movable bottom wall 12.

The wall 11 has a substantially tubular shape and defines a longitudinal axis X, whereas the movable wall 12 consists of the head of a piston 13, which is slideably and sealably received within the side wall 11 , and can be moved in the directions of arrows F ₂ and F ₃ by suitable means 14, which may be mechanical, electrical, electromechanical, pneumatic means or the like.

The apparatus 1 further comprises a rigid tube 15 for loading bullets B, which extends coaxially within the chamber 10, with an upstream end 16 having a widened, funnel-shaped configuration to facilitate the entry of bullets, and being situated within the chamber, and an external downstream end 17 in communication with the flexible tube 5.

For continuous loading of bullets B, the tube 15 is movable along the longitudinal axis between a first operating position, generally designated by Pi and shown in FIG. 1 , in which the end 16 abuts against first limit stop means 18 and a second operating position, generally designated by P ₂ and shown in FIG. 3, in which the downstream end 17 abuts against second limit stop means 19. For the tube 15 to be always held in the direction of the axis X, the tube 15 is rigidly secured to a wheeled 21 carriage 20, which moves in the directions of arrows F4 and F5 and returns to the first operating position P ₁ under the action of return springs 22. The tube 15 has nonreturn valve means 23, which may be of known type, to prevent the bullets within the tube from flowing back into the chamber 10.

In operation, the movement of the movable wall 12 is synchronized with the movement of the tube 15, using appropriate control means, generally designated by numeral 24. Thus, after a first transient state in which the piston 13 reciprocates to load the bullets coming from the means 2, the tube 16 will be moved by the carriage 20 in the direction of arrow F ₄ to the position P ₂ , in which the line 4 will be full of bullets, ready to be fired by the gun G. At this time, the tube 16 has its maximum extension outside the chamber 10 and the springs 22, which tend to return to their position in the direction of arrow F ₅ , have their maximum elongation. The limit stop 19, which contacts the end 17 in this position P ₂ , has a sensor 25' to automatically cause the piston 13 to move the wall 12 back to its idle position, corresponding to the maximum volume VMAX of the chamber 10.

As the bullets are fired, i.e. the amount of bullets in the line 4 decreases, the springs 22 pull back the carriage 20 in the direction of arrow F ₅ and the tube 15 into the chamber 10. As soon as the end 16 of the tube 15 abuts against the limit stop 18, corresponding to the position P ₁ , the sensor 25" of such limit stop will automatically cause the piston 13 to move the wall 12 to the longitudinal position to push the bullets B, stored theretofore in the chamber 10, into the tube 15, thereby causing the latter to displace in the direction of arrow F ₄ to the limit stop 19, i.e. to a position in which the chamber 10 has a minimum volume V _M IN _> and from which the cycle will be repeated.

To facilitate the feed of bullets B along the line 4, venting means 26 are provided along such line downstream from the tube 15, to remove any condensation formed therein.

The above disclosure clearly shows that the apparatus of the invention fulfils the intended objects and particularly the object of allowing continuous shooting operations while minimizing energy consumption.

The use of a variable volume chamber 10 allows continuous feed of bullets B to the gun G without requiring external energy sources, and further minimizes costs.

The apparatus of this invention is susceptible of a number of changes and variants, within the inventive principle disclosed in the appended claims. All the details thereof may be replaced by other technically equivalent parts, and the materials may vary depending on different needs, without departure from the scope of the invention.

While the apparatus has been described with particular reference to the accompanying figures, the numerals referred to in the disclosure and claims are only used for the sake of a better intelligibility of the invention and shall not be intended to limit the claimed scope in any manner.