Sabot bullet

• US 5,016,538 A
• Filed: 08/22/1989
• Issued: 05/21/1991
• Est. Priority Date: 03/30/1987
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: OLIN Corporation
• Original Assignee: OLIN Corporation
• Inventors: Sowash, Robert P.
• Primary Examiner(s): Jordan, Charles T.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Wendtland, Richard W.
• Application Number:
  US07/397,363
• Time in Patent Office: 637 Days
• Field of Search: 102/439, 102/448, 102/501, 102/517, 102/520-523
• US Class Current: 102/520
• CPC Class Codes: F42B 14/064 Sabots enclosing the rear end of a kinetic energy projectile, i.e. having a closed disk shaped obturator base and petals extending forward from said base

Abstract

A sabot bullet having a bullet body and sabot segments defining an outer cylindrical surface in surrounding relationship to the bullet body. The bullet body has a pair of spaced conical parts interconnected by a central part of cylindrical configuration. The central part increases the strength of the bullet body and assures that the bullet body will not break at the central part during penetration of the bullet body in a target. Another embodiment of the sabot bullet includes a bullet body having a front part of metallic material and a rear part of a second material, such as plastic or the like. The second part, being lighter in weight than the first part, reduces the overall weight of the bullet body to assure a higher velocity of travel of the bullet body with greater accuracy due to its lighter weight. An armor piercing sabot bullet is also disclosed.

Claims

1. A sabot bullet comprising:

a bullet body having an outer surface, a front part and a rear part, the front and rear parts being spaced apart from each other, each part having a conical portion and a cylindrical portion, the cylindrical portion of each part being remote from the other part, the front part being substantially solid throughout its entire length, the front part being axially longer than the rear part, said rear part having a hollow space extending inwardly from the rear end thereof, there being a plug in the space, whereby the rear part is substantially solid throughout, the conical portion of each part increasing in diameter as such conical part extends away from the other part, there being a cylindrical connecting member extending longitudinally of the bullet body for interconnecting the parts, said member being solid throughout and integral with the conical and cylindrical portions of said parts to form therewith a one-piece construction; and

a number of sabot segments for engaging the bullet body and forming a shell in surrounding relationship to the bullet body, each segment having an inner surface substantially complementary to the adjacent outer surface of the bullet body, said inner surface of each segment having a cylindrical surface portion for engaging a respective cylindrical surface portion of the outer surface of the cylindrical connecting member, the outer surface of the conical parts being at respective angles sufficiently shallow relative to the longitudinal axis of the connecting member to permit the sabot segments to be readily separable from the bullet body.