The chief attributes of hand guns are simplicity of design, compactness and very light weight. These traits make side arms valuable hunting tools, especially in rough terrain or excessively brushy country where long guns, such as a rifle, can be difficult to carry. Hand gun hunting also represents a unique hunting challenge, a challenge which demands the utmost hunting skill and shooting ability. In spite of this, hand guns have enjoyed renewed interest by big game hunters across the United States. With the development of the 0.357 magnum, 0.41 magnum and 0.44 magnum hand guns, an experienced sportsman can kill animals as large as deer and elk at normal hunting ranges. In addition, hunters like the magnum hand guns in case of emergencies.
The magnum hand guns, however, have an undesirable heavy recoil which makes their shooting accuracy under average hunting conditions difficult. This is so because both hand guns and long guns, when fired, create a resulting reaction force driving such a firearm upwardly. As a result, hand guns have a generally downwardly depending hand grip which, when held, places the gun barrel at an elevation above the hand. Thus, when such hand guns are fired, reaction forces create a force moment couple tending to twist or rotate the gun so as to cause the muzzle to move upwardly. This form of action and reaction also applies to long guns which have a gun stock held against the person's shoulder when firing. In order to provide for aiming, etc., the long gun barrel is also at an elevation above that at when the gun stock abuts against the person's shoulder. The upward twisting motion of a firearm is also referred to as the upward kick of a gun.
The upward kick of the gun occurs very quickly such that the bullet passing through the barrel is actually still in the process of escaping the barrel muzzle when the upward kick occurs. Thus, sportsmen firing such firearms must learn to try to compensate for this error thereby imparted to the the path of the bullet, as by aiming the firearm at an elevation below the target which was intended to be struck by the bullet. In additon, since a hand gun bullet will do far less damage with marginal hits than a bullet from a medium caliber long gun, sportmen have found that pin point accuracy is required for quick, humane kills. To achieve this accuracy, a hand gun user must practice firing steadily prior to going to the field. In addition, he must perfect his hunting skills so that he can get as close as possible to the game. Prior to firing his handgun, the sportsman must assume a rock solid rest position whenever possible. This is because the human body is a semi-soft mound of quivering muscles, pulsating arteries and jumpy nerves. Therefore, holding a lightweight firearm at arm's length is not conducive to decent accuracy. Furthermore, since magnum hand guns have heavy recoils, a sportsman must "roll with the punch" by holding his gun so that he recoils straight back onto the line of his waist. It has been found that if one shifts the grip on the hand gun in order to fight the recoil, the bullets will be thrown to the left or right of the point of aim. Thus, magnum hand guns are difficult to fire rapidly and accurately.
Various known prior art devices have been devised in an attempt to overcome such upward kicks. One such prior art attempt was to actually machine holes in the gun barrel so as to have holes at the opposite sides of the centerline of the gun barrel and a generally upper portion thereof. This is a very expensive process of gun alteration and, though not, fully understood why, such attempts have not proven to be satisfactory because such altered gun barrels still exhibit a high degree of upward kick. Examples of such gun barrel modifications are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,916,970 to Mutter and U.S. Pat. No. 3,808,943 to Kelley. The Mutter device, utilizing a series of small rearwardly inclined drilled holes, produced a "blow back" of high discharge gases toward the operator of the firearm and a nozzling of gases resulting in increased noise. Kelly, on the other hand, provides venting directly to the atmosphere which causes an unbalance in the gas column which, in turn, created a decelerating effect on the projectile.
Other prior art devices teach the use of an adapter or an attachment to the muzzle of a firearm. For example, Cutts in U.S. Pat. No. 1,636,357 issued July 19, 1927, discloses a substantially cylindrical member threaded internally to engage one end of a muzzle of a rifle barrel. Reising in U.S. Pat. No. 2,313,669 issued Mar. 9, 1943, describes another such compensator for automatic firearms. Sieg, in U.S. Pat. No. 2,442,382 issued June 1, 1948, describes a compensator for rifles. Sieg teaches a compensator having a cylindrical body with the annular wall provided with a series of slots which are bevelled to assist in directing the gas forwardly. Finally, Lance in U.S. Pat. No. 2,322,370 issued June 22, 1943, discloses a compensator for firearms having an externally tapered form and an internal cylindrical bore uniform diameter. The wall of the compensator has a series of apertures spaced uniformly along the vertical plane with the apertures being forwardly inclined away from the muzzle at a uniform angle.
All of the aforementioned compensators are complex and difficult to manufacture and none of the known prior art designs work effectively with powerful, highly loaded big caliber magnum bullets which produce heavy recoils in a magnum hand gun. In addition, all of the aforementioned compensators cause the accuracy of the gun to suffer either because of poor manufacturing tolerances or due to the buidup of lead and unburned powder residue in the unit.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds