US3289586A - Wad column - Google Patents

Description

Dec. 6, 1966 w. B. HORN ETAL WAD COLUMN Filed Nov. 9, 1964 h w Q Q. Ag @QQU Q Q [NVENTORJ' M/ILL /AMB./7'0RN ML 1. /AM /V. KING fDW/IRD EZMERR/TT ATraRA/srr United States Patent M 3,289,586 WAD CGLUMN William B. Horn, Minneapoiis, and William N. King and Edward E. Merritt, Anoka, Minn., assignors to Federal Cartridge Corporation, Minneapolis, Minn., a corporation of Minnesota Filed Nov. 9, 1964, Ser. No. 409,723 6 Claims. (Cl. 102-42) This invention is a combination wad column with or without a shot protector for shot gun shells which comprises two pieces that may be releasably secured together and featuring various structural devices such as a wall in the wad column portion that is purposely weakened to permit controlled deformation, a separable sealing wad portion that may drop away from the balance of the wad column to avoid using a one-piece wad column that tends to follow the shot too far, and a center post in the wad column portion of the unit which prevents blowing the center out of the gas sealing wad land unfavorably deforming the shot protector portion from the inertia of the shot.

Shotshell wad designers have always strived for wad columns that, in addition to scaling the powder gases behind the shot charge, have been light and compressible. Wad lightness permits the use of less propellent to obtain the same shot charge velocity and reduces the amount of recoil. compressibility is desirable to cushion the impact generated by the expanding powder gases so as to set the shot charge in motion more gradually. This reduces undue deformation of the shot, as well as lessening the pressure levels in the shell.

Various air enclosing structures have been proposed as a means of achieving these characteristics of lightness and compressibility. These have generally involved folding or assembling paper or fiberous materials to create air pockets or assembling together paper or plastic cups. Another approach has been to fill a flexible container with some compressible material such as cork or the like.

Gas scaling in these devices has been accomplished usually by using such methods as a flanged disc wad between the device and the powder or a trailing flange on the lower of the cups.

While these devices have provided both lightness and compressability, they have in fact been too flimsy or lacking in resistance. Under the pressure of the expanding gases, they tend to blow through in the center, or totally collapse on firing to such a degree that all gas sealing qualities are lost. Also, the sound of report of shells loaded with such wads is twangy and not conducive to confidence on the part of the shooter.

This invention shows how the use of two cooperating plastic wad column portions with a properly proportioned post between them will provide a wad column that is light, compressible, but retains suflicient rigidity and uniformity of collapse to be serviceable.

In the United States at least, there is a considerable amount of hand loading of shot gun shells done by individuals from components made available by ammunition manufacturers. Hand loaders benefit from a one-piece wad column that may be conveniently inserted as a single unit into the shell. When a wad of the air pocket type described above is desired, it is not detrimental that the pieces be assembled by the individual prior to loading into the shells. However, if such prior assembly were necessary before use by an ammunition manufacturer, geared to high production, it would involve another manufacturing step as well as modification of existing machinery, both of which would be highly impractical in terms of cost. The present invention provides a unit which may be assembled into a single, secure unit by a hand loader prior to loading it into the shot shell, or in the case of an 3,289,586 Patented Dec. 6, 1966 ammunition manufacturer, a unit which may be inserted into the shell as individual components and become secured together within the shell as an incident of some other necessary assembly step. Only a minimum of change in existing loading machinery is required.

The structure of the present invention also makes it possible to use wad combinations of various lengths in order to adapt shell tubes to various shot and powder charges more readily than is true when the entire wad is made in a single piece. By varying the size of the top portion of the combination, a standard and consistent'sized overpowder wad may be used, with resulting ease and economy in manufacturing.

There are many known devices to contain the shot charge, some presently being used commercially. These shot containing devices range from a sheet of material wrapped around the shot charge to a unitary cup-like pouch with various refinements. These cup-like devices or shot pouches, now most frequently made of plastic, hold the shot charge together until it leaves the barrel to improve the patterns achieved and also to prevent the individual pellets from contacting the wall of the barrel. Pellets deformed by engaging the barrel often fly erratically, and go outside the desired pattern for the shot. Incidentally, leading of the barrel is also avoided by the use of these pouches. Attempts have been made to use a unitary wad column combining a shot pouch with the filler-sealing portion. These unitary devices, however, tend to follow the shot charge, upon firing, for a considerable distance beyond the barrel as a result of their excessive inertia. Because heavier pouch wads tends to follow the shot, a trap shooter may mistake the wad pouch for a fragment of the target and thus confuse a miss for a hit. Heavy unitary devices usually lack compressibility, or when light and compressible, lack efficiency throughout a commercially required range of shell loadings.

The present invention solves the problems associated with a massive combination unit by dividing the mass of the combination and insuring that the combination will separate into its components upon leaving the gun barrel. It also brings the aforementioned benefits of lightness and compressibility and hand loading convenience to a unitary pouch wad structure.

Accordingly it is an object of this invention to provide an improved wad column for shot shells that is lightweight and cushions the shocks of firing in a controlled manner.

Another object of this invention is to provide an improved multipart wad column that may be conveniently handled as one piece for hand loading but retains the advantages of multiple piece wad columns for mass production machine loading.

A further object of this invention is to provide an improved pellet protecting pouch wad column which combines the two above mentioned improvements with the desired flight characteristic of the shot on leaving the barrel of a gun.

Still another object of this invention is to provide a wad column adaptable to a variety of loads.

In addition it is an object of this invention to provide a wad column that i particularly effective in cleaning or scrubbing the gun barrel and sealing the propellent gases.

The invention will be described with reference to the drawings in which corresponding numerals refer to the same parts and in .which:

FIGURE 1 is a longitudinal sectional view of the overpowder wad-shot pouch combination hereafter called pouch Wad;

FIGURE 2 is a longitudinal sectional view of the pouch wad as loaded into a shot shell;

FIGURE 3 is a pictorial view in reduced scale depicting the pouch wad leaving the barrel of the shotgun as separate components and dropping away ,from the shot charge;

FIGURE 4 is a longitudinal sectional view of the pouch wad at an instant after the shot shell has been fired; said pouch wad being shown at some point in the barrel of the weapon; the scale used is that of FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 5 is a longitudinal sectional view of a variation of the pouch wad in which a central snap joint is employed to releasably secure said components together; the scale is that of FIGURE 1; and

FIGURE 6 is a longitudinal sectional view of a further variation of the pouch Wad in which a central socket joint is employed to releasably secure said components together; the scale used is that of FIGURE 1.

In FIGURE 1 the shot pouch-Wad column, generally designated 12, comprises various portions or sections. One of the shot pouch portions is the cup portion 13 in which the shot charge is ultimately contained. Cup portion 13 is made up of a wall section which may be divided into a plurality of flaps 14 as is suitably accomplished by the multiple longitudinal slits 15. Slits 15 extend over a substantial portion of the length of cu portion 13. The base 16 of the cup portion 13 is solid and fixed to the bottom of said wall section in any suitable manner which when, as here, the pouch is made of plastic, comprises molding it integrally with the wall section.

Below cup portion 13 and secured thereto as by being integrally molded is a' spacer portion 17 Spacer portion 17 takes the place of the usual filler wads in loading a shot shell. Within the spacer portion 17, which is generally hollow, is a support post 18. The support post 18 is disposed along the longitudinal axis of the pouch- Wad column 12. Support post 18 may be formed in any suitable way to yieldingly space the bottom of cup portion 13 from the wad 11. In the drawings this support post 18 is represented as 'being hollow having a centrally positioned conical hole 35'. The spacer portion 17, upon firing, buckles which distorts the adjacent portions of the pouch and overpowder wad 11 to provide positive separation of them and also absorbs the initial shock of the explosion reacting against the shot charge. Consistent and precise buckling may be insured by any method of weakening said spacer portion 17 at a desired point, an example of which is the --use of annular groove 19 to provide an area of the annular wall of spacer portion 17 that is thinner than the wall generally. A rim 20 located at the bottom of the spacer portion 17 may be used, in part, to releasably secure the overpowder wad 11 to the shot pouch wad 12. Thus the rim 20 takes the form of one-half of a joint, as for example, the butt-lap joint 21.

The overpowder wad generally designated 11, although most sensibly molded in one piece, may be thought of as having various portions. One of these portions is the outer wall 22. The outer wall 22 has a rim 23 at each of its length extremities either of which is used in part to releasably secure the shot pouch 12 to said overpowder wad 11. Thus, one of the rims 23 forms the other half of the butt-lap joint 21. The Web portion 24 is positioned at the midpoint of and perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the overpowder wad 11. Web portion 24 is, when the wad is loaded into a shot shell, in direct contact with the propellent powder. Upon ignition of the propellent powder the web portion 24 in conjunction with the resilient outer wall 22 forms a gas seal with the barrel of the weapon. This gas seal keeps most of the gas generated by the burning powder behind the shot charge. A hub 25 is disposed along the longitudinal axis of the overpowder wad 11 and perpendicular to the web 24 to which it is secured. Hub 25 engages, or nearly so, the support post 18. These two portions of the pouch and wad inter- 1 act to support yieldingly the center bottom 16 of the pouch cup portion 13 in spaced relation to web 24 against excessive distortion from the propelling force of the powder reacting with the inertia of the shot.

In FIGURE 2 the pouch wad is shown as loaded into the shot shell generally designated 27. The shot shell case is of the ordinary type comprising a casing 28 which includes the tube 28 and head 28a, a primer 29, a base wad 30. Inside the case is the pouch wad 11-12 sep arating the powder 31 from shot charge 32, and any conventional closure such as crimp 34 closes the mouth of the case and holds the shot 32 therein until firing occurs.

In FIGURE 3 a shot gun designated generally 36 having a barrel 37 has been fired, the shot gun 36 being loaded with a shot shell incorporating the instant overpowder wad shot pouch combination. The overpowder wad 11 and shot pouch wad 12 are shown dropping away as separate components from the shot charge 32 after firing. Because of the separation of the ovenpowder wad 11 from the shot pouch 12, the mass of each piece of the combination is slight and the components lose their forward velocity very rapidly. They fall to the ground, therefore, sooner after leaving the barrel 37 than if they did not separate.

In FIGURE 4 the barrel 37 is containing the hot gases 31A generated by burning powder charge 31. The overpowder wad 11 is shown as being deformed into a gas seal by the gas pressure between the outer wall 22 and the barrel 37. A longitudinal pressure on the shot pouch 12 causes the weakened sides of the spacer portion 17 to buckle at the groove 19. The support post 1 8 also yields in a controlled manner to allow the buckling while preventing the center of wad 11 blowing out. This buckling of spacer portion 17 distorts the joint between the wad column 12 and the overpowder wad 11 in preparation for their separation and absorbs and cushions the inertial shock of the sudden pressure applied to the shot load. Buckling at groove 19 cause the wad column to engage the gun barrel for secondary scrubbing and sealing at several axially spaced surfaces as shown in FIGURE 4. Shot pouch wad 12 receives power from the powder gas 31A via the hub 25 which exerts a force against the support post 18 as well as from the edges of sealing wad 11 engaging the trailing edges of the spacer portion 17. In this manner the cup 13 and shot charge 32 is propelled from the barrel at a high velocity. The flaps 14 protect the shot of charge 32 from contacting the barrel 37 during its travel therein. This protects the barrel from leading as well as preventing deformation of any of the pellets from abrasion on the barrel. Upon leaving the barrel 37, the resilient flaps 14 are caught by air and extended outwardly which subjects the shot pouch to increased wind resistance. Consequently the pouch decelerates and frees the shot pellets to form a desired pattern.

In FIGURE 5 a variation of the combination of the pouch wad is shown. It is very similar to the structure illustrated in FIGURES 1-4. The structure of FIGURE 5 varies from that of FIGURE 4 in having its support post '40 provided at its inside bottom with annular groove 41 which forms the female half of a snap joint 41. The wad center post or hub 42 is provided with a ring formed thereon at both ends that matches the annular groove and provides the male half of the snap joint between the support post '40 and the hub or center post member 42 of the wad portion having a well 43. Also shown in this view is a modification of the joint between the outer wall 45 of the wad and the outer wall 46 of the shot pouch. As indicated at 47 it will be seeen that the shoulder or edge of wad 45 at the outside is beveled and a corresponding bevel is provided on the portion of the annular outside wall 46 of the spacer portion of the wad so that what may be called a beveled lap joint is provided between these portions. Multiple grooves 48 have been substituted for groove 19. This form of the pouch wad is found to perform generally in the same manner as the form shown in FIGURES 1-4 except that it is somewhat more secure when engaged.

In FIGURE 6 there is shown still 'another variation of the combination wad and shot pouch in which the support post 50 of the spacer portion of the pouch is of a diameter to exactly fit a raised portion 51 of the hub or center post 52 of the wad. Actually the portion 51 is flared slightly from its base to its free end and consequently the support post 56 of the pouch spacer portion provides a mild snap fit therewith. The joint 54 between the wad and the spacer portion of the pouch is substantially identical to the joint at this point used in that structure shown in FIGURES 1-4. In this figure also it will be noted that there are no annular grooves in the side wall of the spacer portion of the pouch. By having the structure made without any weakened portion in the side walls, the collapsing that takes place is less controlled but functional. A pouch wad spacer portion with ungrooved walls will collapse to absorb the shock of firing but in a less controlled and consistent pattern than the structure of FIGURES 15. A vent as at 55 in any form of the device allows air to escape when the wad column is forced into a casing during loading. Vent 55 when used, is located as shown in FIGURE 6.

While all of these variations in the shot shell are shown in pouch wad combinations of the same size, it is obvious that the spacer and shot cup portions of the pouch may be varied substantially in order to accommodate :a range of shot charges; variations in powder quantity, in short to occupy a greater or lesser amount of space in a shot shell as required. For example, a relatively light powder charge and :a load of shot such as for clay target shooting, at close range would require a large spacer portion. A magnum load for long range hunting would require less spacing. In this way many variations in shot shell pouch and spacers may be provided but always using the same wad structure.

While all of these pouch wads function in substantially the same way, the structures of FIGURES and 6 may have some advantage of being more secure when assembled for use by hand loaders for example.

In general the annular wall of the overpowder wad should be short and relatively thick at its free end as seen in particularly FIGURES 1-4 and 6 in order to avoid leaving any substantial amount of plastic at the gun muzzle. When the wall of the wad is tapered out to a thin trailing edge at the outside, as distinguished from the inner bevel of FIGURE 5, the wad tends to leave a ring of plastic at the barrel muzzle when variable tube choke devices are used. Thus, although a tapered edge form seems to recommend itself as a seal and is used by some of the known competitive devices as the preferred shape of a wall for this expanding seal type wad, it is to be avoided at least when polyolefins are the material from which the wad is made.

The structure of the present invention has been tested comparatively against other known wad columns, and the results of these tests are shown in Charts I, II and III below.

Flight distance of wad column Tests were conducted to determine flight characteristics of various wad columns with shot protectors of this invention compared to other commercial forms. In the tests, target shells having a load of 1 /3 ounces of No. 7 /2 shot and a velocity of approximately 1200 feet per second were loaded using each of several wad columns.

Shells were fired on a windless day at an angle of 13 degrees from horizontal. The average distance of travel of the Wild columns is indicated.

Only pouch shot protector section travels the 1061 distance; separating sealing wad travels much less.

b Wads 2 and 5 break into three pieces; travel of major piece is indicated 'Fhe wad columns of the invention and the known wadshot-protectors 1 and 2 are for shell cases having shorter base wads and therefore greater load capacity and wad requirements. Nevertheless, the structure of the invention has less average carrying distance than any of the others and substantially less carrying distance than wads of equivalent length.

Patterns The following are averages of ten round pattern test using 3 dram equivalent loads with 400 counted #7 /2 pellets. The gun used was the same for all shells fired.

After each round, a 30 diameter circuit was scribed to embrace the largest number of pellets piercing the target. This number was noted and expressed in the chart as a percent of the total of the pellets known to be in the shell. The number of circles of four inches diameter within the 30" circle that were not pierced by a pellet was also counted and noted in the second colequally loaded shell hulls as nearly identical as humanly possible except for the wad column used were prepared with each of several known wad columns and that of the invention. Breech pressure, pounds per square inch, and shot velocity in feet per second were measured for each shell as fired and the average of these measured pressures and velocities are recorded in Chart III.

CHART III Wad Column Velocity, Breech Presf.p.s. sure, p.s.i.

Invention 1, 257 10, 900 Known 1-. 1, 239 12,800 Known 2.. 1, 206 11,770 Known 3.. 1, 177 10, 460 Known 4.. 1, 178 8, 660 Known 5-. 1, 193 10, 200 Known 6 1, 174 10,800

It can be seen that only shells developing substantially greater breech pressures have a velocity comparable to that of the invention.

It is apparent that many monfic-ations and Variations of this invention as hereinbefore set forth may be made without departing from the spirit and scope thereof. The specific embodiments described are .given by way of ex- 7 ample only and the invention is limited only by the terms of the appended claims.

What I claimed is:

1. A combination shot pouch and overpowder wad comprising, a hollow cylinder member forming a pouch and spacer having a solid portion extending transversely thereof intermediate its ends and dividing said hollow cylinder into inequitable pouch and spacer portions, the latter being smaller, said pouch portion having longitudinal slits in its side walls, said spacer portion having at least one annular groove in its side wall at about its midpoint; said groove being deeper at one side than the other; a hollow support post secured to said transversely extending solid portion and approximately centered in said spacer portion, an overpowder wad comprising a hollow cylinder shorter than its diameter, a Web dividing said overpowder wad into two like ends, a hub formed centrally on said web and extending longitudinally equally in both directions; said hollow support post and hub engaging each other, at least on firing, to provide yielding spacing structure between said overpowder wad and shot pouch; the adjacent ends of said pouch spacer portion and overpowder wad engaging each other and providing thereby, at least in part, releasable means for securing said pouch and wad cylinders together.

2. A pouch wad for a shot shell, the combination of an overpowder wad, wad column and shot pouch in which the improvement comprises means for releasably securing said overpowder Wad to said Wad column and shot pouch, whereby said overpowder wad separates from said wad column and shot pouch upon firing, said means for releasably securing said shot pouch to said overpowder wad comprising but-lap joint located at the junction of said overpowder wad and said wad column; said overpowder wad, and shot pouch having cooperating support means to give support to the bottom of said shot pouch and the center of said overpowder wad, said support means comprising a hub in said overpowder wad and a hollow post extending from the bottom of said shot pouch, said wad column having an annular wall spaced from said post and separating said shot pouch from said overpowder wad, said annular wall having an annular groove therein to promote consistent radial distortion thereof on firing.

3. A combination shot punch and overpowder wad comprising, a hollow cylinder member forming a pouch and spacer having a solid portion extending transversely thereof intermediate its ends and dividing said hollow cylinder into inequitable pouch and spacer portions, the latter being smaller, said spacer portion having at least one annular grove in its side wall; said groove being deeper at one side than the other; a hollow support post secured to said transversely extending solid portion and approximately centered in said spacer portion, an overpowder wad comprising a hollow cylinder shorter than its diameter, a web extending transversely across said overpowder wad, a hub formed centrally on said web; said hollow support post and hub engaging each other, at least on firing, to provide yielding spacing structure between said overpowder wad and shot punch; the adjacent ends of said pouch spacer portion and overpowder Wad engaging each other and releasable means for securing said pouch and way cylinders together.

4. A pouch wad for a shot shell comprising in combination: a flanged gas sealing overpowder wad; a hollow cylinder of plastic material open at one end and having a transverse web intermediate its ends, said cylinder including longitudinally extending slits on one side of said Web communicating with said open end, said open end of said cylinder and said web forming a pouch for receiving the shot of a shot shell; an interconnecting portion rigidly secured to one of said flanged gas sealing wad and hollow cylinder and releasably secured to the other; and yielding means on said hollow cylinder on the other side of said Web allowing controlled and only limited collapse of said hollow cylinder upon firing of said shot shell.

5. A shot shell comprising a cylindrical casing, a wad column in said casing including a hollow cylinder open at one end and closed at the other, said cylinder engaging the inner surface of said casing, and a gas sealing overpowder wad releasably secured to and closing the open end of said hollow cylinder, said cylinder including a weakened area intermediate its ends, said gas sealing overpowder wad being a flanged member with a flange extending away from said hollow cylinder and means on said hollow cylinder walls causing them to yield axially and distort radially to form a series of axially spaced, gun barrel engaging, gas sealing surfaces.

6. A wad column comprising: a hollow cylinder closed at one end and open at the other; a symmetrically yielding post centrally arranged inside said hollow cylinder, secured to said closed end and extending axially therefrom to at least a point nearly at the open end of said hollow cylinder; and a member abutting said open end having a portion designed to engage said symmetrically yielding post, said symmetrically yielding post being hollow and said member abutting said open end being a flanged gas sealing overpowder wad including a transverse web and a radially central hub secured to said Web as to be adjacent said post and means provided as part of said hollow post for allowing controlled air passage through said hollow post during loading.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,095,817 7/1963 Clark 10-2-95 3,127,837 4/1964 Lockwood 102-95 X 3,180,265 4/1965 Rybak 102-42 3,191,534 6/1965 Vecchiotti 102-95 3,211,100 10/1965 Clark 102-95 X 3,217,648 11/1965 Foote et al 102-42 FOREIGN PATENTS 1,111,889 3/1956 France. 1,269,200 7/ 1961 France. 620,234 5/1961 Italy.

OTHER REFERENCES American Rifleman, vol. 114, No. 2, February 1966, pp. 28-30 (eflfective date July 1964 for pouch wads 1-3).

BENJAMIN A. BORCHELT, Primary Examiner. R. F. STAHL, Assistant Examiner.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION Patent N00 3,289,586 December 6, 1966 William B. Horn et all,

It is hereby certified that error appears in the above numbered patent requiring correction and that the said Letters Patent should read as corrected below.

Column 2, line 31, for "tends" read tend column 4, line 38, for "cause" read causes line 70, for "seeen" read seen column 6, line 26, for "circuit" read circle line 72, for "moifications" read modifications column 7, line 3, for "I" read is line 33, for "but-lap" read buttlap line 64, for "way" read wad Signed and sealed this 19th day of September 1967.

(SEAL) Attest:

ERNEST W. SW'IDER EDWARD J. BRENNER Attesting Officer Commissioner of Patents

Claims (1)

1. 4. A POUCH WAD FOR A SHOT SHELL COMPRISING IN COMBINATION: A FLANGED GAS SEALING OVERPOWDER WAD; A HOLLOW CYLINDER OF PLASTIC MATERIAL OPEN AT ONE END AND HAVING A TRANSVERSE WEB INTERMEDIATE ITS END, SAID CYLINDER INCLUDING LONGITUDINALLY EXTENDING SLITS ON SAID SIDE OF SAID WEB COMMUNICATING WITH SAID OPEN END, SAID OPEN END OF SAID CYLINDER AND SAID WEB FORMING A POUCH FOR RECEIVING THE SHOT OF A SHOT SHELL; AN INTERCONNECTING PORTION RIGIDLY SECURED TO ONE OF SAID FLANGED GAS SEALING WAD AND HOLLOW CYLINDER AND RELEASABLY SECURED TO THE OTHER;

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