1. Field of Art.
This invention relates to a gun bolt having an oscillating head for a Gatling type gun.
2. Prior Art.
The classic modern revolving battery gun, as shown by R. J. Gatling in U.S. Pat. No. 125,563, issued Apr. 9, 1872, held its gun bolts in their locked disposition by means of the main helical cam. An oscillating bolt head having interrupted threads was introduced by H. McC. Otto in U.S. Pat. No. 2,849,921, issued Sept. 2, 1958. The M61A1 Vulcan 20 mm gun does not have an oscillating bolt head, it utilizes a pivoting lock bolt. The 7.62 mm Minigun as exemplified in U.S. Pat. No. 3,595,128, issued to J. P. Hoyt, Jr. on July 27, 1971 has an oscillating bolt head. The gun shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,611,871 issued to R. G. Kirkpatrick et al. on Oct. 12, 1971 has a head on a body which reciprocates in a splined tube, and which tube is oscillated. The gun shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,766,821, issued to T. W. Cozzy et al. on Oct. 23, 1973 has a fully rotating collar on a non-rotating bolt head. The GAU-8 /A 30 mm gun described in Technical Report ADTC-TR-73-66 dated September 1973, has a gun bolt with an oscillating head, shown in FIG. 14. In this bolt assembly, shown in FIG. 1, the cocking pin 10 is retained in the firing pin 12 by a spring cross pin 14 inserted through the firing pin and the cocking pin, and this pin 14 must be removed to disassemble the assembly. Subsequently, a spring cross pin 16 which secures a headed pin 18 to the bolt carriage 20 must be removed, to permit the bolt head 22 to be rotated 90.degree. within the bolt carriage, to permit the removal of a dowel pin 24 which secures a cam follower assembly 26 to the bolt head. The removal of these spring pins requires the use of a drift punch and a hammer.