Pellets designed for use in air, gas or spring guns are typically made of either a simple projectile, e.g., a skirted lead pellet or a combination of a hard material projectile and a softer skirt portion attached thereto. In the case of skirted lead pellets, the material is soft enough not to damage the bore surface of the gun barrel; however, the skirts of these lead pellets are easily damaged and deformed out of shape prior to use, rendering them difficult to use or seriously impairing their accuracy in use.
Accordingly, combination pellets were intensively developed because they turn out to be more durable with respect to handling. These combination pellets were also developed to provide a low coefficient of friction and hence greater efficiency in use.
One example of a combination pellet is set forth in U.S. Pat. No. 4,251,079 (Earl et al.), which issued on Feb. 17, 1981. The pellet disclosed in Earl et al. comprises a head or projectile portion adapted to provide weight for the pellet for stability during flight and penetration when striking a target; and a skirt portion made of a different material which is essentially free of any metal filler and being proportioned with at least two portions which are larger in diameter than the head portion such that the skirt portion guides the pellet through the gun barrel. The skirt portion is made from plastic material having a low coefficient of friction and sufficient elasticity to regain its shape after deformation, such as polytetrafluorocarbon.
It will be understood that, since the head or projectile portion described in 4,251,079 has a smaller diameter than the skirt portion, the head portion does not contact the gun bore surface during passage of the pellet therealong. Moreover, the pellet of U.S. Pat. No. 4,251,079 has its skirt portion and head portion firmly secured together to prevent separation whereby the head portion will provide the necessary stabilizing weight in flight.
Unfortunately, it has been discovered that the fixedly secured skirt body can also affect the accuracy of the pellet once it exits the gun barrel.
The unique two-piece pellet design according to the present invention overcomes the lack of accuracy of conventionally skirted pellets.
Thus, one object of the present invention is that the projectile be removably retained by a novel skirt assembly for the purpose of handling the pellet and inserting same into the bore of a gun. Upon shooting the gun, the instantaneous injection of a gas under high pressure will create such rapid acceleration of the pellet as to cause the projectile to disengage, while still within the gun barrel, from the holding retention the skirt assembly exerts on the projectile, the skirt assembly then guiding and pushing the projectile out the end of the barrel.
Upon leaving the gun barrel, the projectile is free to travel by itself and the skirt assembly simply falls away due to air resistance, the skirt assembly having a mass about half that of the projectile. The projectile in flight will be unhindered, which is a substantial improvement over the conventional skirted pellets which retain the skirt portion during all or part of their flight after exiting the gun barrel.
The present invention also provides many additional advantages which shall become apparent as described below.