Subsonic Ammunition Casing

摘要

A subsonic ammunition cartridge casing having an engineered internal volume designed to allow for the introduction of precisely the amount of propellant necessary at precisely the desired location to reproducibly produce the desired projectile velocity and internal pressure is provided. The subsonic shell casing has an engineered internal propellant cavity built into the internal body of the casing itself that does not necessarily depend on the introduction of a separate volume reducing device such as tubing, filler, foam filler and the like. This ensures the integrity of the case, does not result in anything being expelled through the muzzle of the weapon other than the projectile, does not have any burning or combusting components, allows for very precise control of the internal volume and thus chamber pressure, and is economical to produce.

主权项

1. A method of reusing a subsonic ammunition article comprising:
providing a casing defining a generally cylindrical hollow body having a cap at a first end thereof and a caselet at a second end thereof, the caselet having a proximal end defining a body region and a distal end defining a neck region, wherein the cap is interconnected with the proximal end of said caselet such that the casing at least partially encloses an internal cavity, and wherein the outer diameter of the caselet narrows from a first diameter at the body region to a second diameter at the neck region, the article having at least one propellant chamber disposed within the internal cavity of the casing, the propellant chamber having an open internal volume that is at least 20% reduced in comparison to the open internal volume of a standard casing of identical caliber, the casing further having a propellant disposed and confined within said propellant chamber and a primer disposed at the first end of said casing in combustible communication with said propellant, wherein the caselet and the propellant chamber at least partially comprise a polymeric material, and wherein the ratio of the minimum thickness of the wall of the body region of the caselet to the average wall thickness of the neck region of the ammunition casing is greater than 3; firing the ammunition article; and discarding the fired polymeric caselet, retaining the fired metallic cap and attaching a new polymeric caselet to the existing metallic cap.