Elastic band gun

Claim 2

An elastic band gun comprising a body, means on the body for releasably retaining one end of a plurality of stretched elastic bands, a plurality of independently pivotally operative band retaining and releasing assemblies disposed rearwardly of the first recited means and oriented in a row extending front to back on said body, each of said assemblies being constructed and arranged to retain the other end of an elastic band stretched between it and the first recited means, and release said band upon actuation by an actuating means for discharging the band beyond the one end, and an actuating means mounted on said body for sequentially actuating said independently pivotable assemblies to permit said pivotal assemblies to release or retain stretched elastic bands, said actuating means including an axially reciprocative shaft and spring means, said spring means being separate from the elastic bands and being operative to bias said shaft to selected positions to cause the shaft to disengage or engage the assemblies to, respectively, release or retain stretched elastic bands held on the assemblies, and a manually operated sequencing means operative to permit sequencing movements of the shaft by engaging or disengaging the shaft while the latter is being biased by the spring means.

Claim 3

An elastic band gun as described in claim 1 further characterized by teeth provided on the shaft, and said manually operated sequencing means including a shaft restraining and releasing member pivotally mounted on the body which cooperates with the teeth on said shaft, and a trigger operatively connected to the shaft restraining and releasing member.

Claim 4

An elastic band gun as described in claim 2 further characterized by an adjustable linkage means interconnecting the trigger and the shaft restraining and releasing member for selectively connecting the trigger and the shaft restraining and releasing member causing the shaft with a single pull of the trigger to actuate one or multiple band retaining and releasing assemblies for semi-automatic or fully automatic operation of the gun.

Claim 5

An elastic band gun as described in claim 1 further characterized by said reciprocative shaft having an assembly supporting surface, said retaining and releasing assemblies being pivotally mounted releasers which are supported in the band retaining position by said supporting surfaCe on said reciprocative shaft, said supporting surface further having an interruption which sequentially aligns with the forward portion of said releasers upon movement of the reciprocative shaft under the action of said spring means for discontinuing said support of said releasers thus permitting the pivotal discharge of any of the bands retained on said releasers.

Claim 6

An elastic band gun as described in claim 1 further characterized by said reciprocative shaft having an assembly supporting surface, said retaining and releasing assemblies being pivotally mounted releasers which are supported in the band retaining position by said supporting surface on said reciprocative shaft, said supporting surface further having a plurality of interruptions, one for each releaser, which become sequentially aligned with the forward portion of their respective releasers upon movement of the reciprocative shaft under the action of said spring means for discontinuing said support of said releasers thus permitting the pivotal discharge of any of the bands retained on said releasers.

Claim 7

An elastic band gun as described in claim 1 further characterized by said retaining and releasing assemblies including pivotally mounted releasers and pivotally mounted triggering devices, one for each releaser, said triggering devices latchingly engaging said releasers to maintain said releasers in a band retaining position, movement of said reciprocative shaft under the action of the spring means acting to sequentially trip said triggering devices out of latching engagement with said releasers thus permitting the discharge of any of the bands retained on said releasers.

Claim 8

An elastic band gun as described in claim 1 further characterized by said retaining and releasing assemblies including a plurality of notches on the body for retaining the back ends of stretched elastic bands, and separate pivotally mounted scraping means on the body associated with each of the notches for sequentially lifting the back ends of any retained elastic bands out of their respective notches when said pivotally mounted scraping means are actuated by movement of said reciprocative shaft under the action of said spring means thus discharging said bands.

Claim 9

An elastic band gun comprising a body, means on the body for releasably retaining one end of a plurality of stretched elastic bands, a plurality of pivotally mounted elastic band releasing means for releasably retaining stretched elastic bands, said releasing means being disposed rearwardly of the first recited means and oriented in a row extending from front to back on said body, each of said releasing means retaining one end of one of said elastic bands stretched between it and the first recited means, and upon release being pivotally operative to release said one end of one of said bands and a movable member on the body, said movable member having a means over a substantial length of the movable member for supporting the releasing means in stretched band retaining positions, and supporting means having a means intermediate the ends of the movable member for permitting selective releasing and pivoting of each of the releasing means as the movable member is moved along the body in a stepwise manner, and the pivoting of each of said releasing means permitting the release of a stretched elastic band, said supporting means supporting each releasing means in its stretched band retaining position at all times except when the releasing means support is discontinued at a particular associated releasing means thereby singularly permitting that releasing means to pivotally release its retained elastic band.

Claim 10

An elastic band gun comprising a body, means on the body for releasably retaining one end of a plurality of stretched elastic bands, a plurality of pivotally mounted elastic band releasing means for releasably retaining stretched elastic bands, said releasing means being disposed rearwardly of the first recited means and oriented in a row extending from front to back on said body, each of said releasing means retaining one end of one of said elastic bands stretched between it and the first recited means, and upon release being pivotally operative to release said one end of one of said bands and a movable member on the body, said movable member having a means over a substantial length of the movable member for supporting the releasing means in stretched band retaining positions, and supporting means having a means intermediate the ends of the movable member for permitting selective releasing and pivoting of each of the releasing means as the movable member is moved along the body in a stepwise manner, and the pivoting of each of said releasing means permitting the release of a stretched elastic band, said supporting means supporting each releasing means in its stretched band retaining position at all times except when the releasing means support is discontinued at a particular associated releasing means thereby singularly permitting that releasing means to pivotally release its retained elastic band.

Claim 11

An elastic band gun comprising a body, means on the body for releasably retaining one end of a plurality of stretched elastic bands, a plurality of pivotally mounted releasers mounted on the body oriented in a row from front to back on said body, said releasers each being constructed and arranged to retain the other end of an elastic band stretched between it and the first recited means, and upon release to pivotally discharge said band at a level generally above that of the tops of any forwardly located unreleased releasers, and an axially movable member on the body having a surface for selectively supporting the releasers in the band retaining position, said movable member being positioned within a groove in the gun body, said movable member further having opposite surfaces engaging corresponding surfaces of the groove to support said movable member during its axial movement in said body, and an actuating means on the body spaced from the movable member and confined to a region substantially beneath the releasers for permitting travel of the movable member.

Claim 12

An elastic band gun comprising a body, means on the body for releasably retaining one end of a plurality of stretched elastic bands, a plurality of pivotally mounted releasers mounted on the body oriented in a row from front to back on said body, said releasers each being constructed and arranged to retain the other end of an elastic band stretched between it and the first recited means, and upon release to pivotally discharge said band at a level generally above that of the tops of any forwardly located unreleased releasers, and an axially movable member on the body having a surface for selectively supporting the releasers in the band retaining position, said movable member being positioned within a groove in the gun body, said movable member further having opposite surfaces engaging corresponding surfaces of the groove to support said movable member during its axial movement in said body, and an actuating means on the body spaced from the movable member and confined to a region substantially beneath the releasers for permitting travel of the movable member.

Claim 13

An elastic band gun comprising a body, first means on the body for releasably retaining one end of a plurality of stretched elastic bands, plurality of second disposed rearwardly the first recited means and oriented in a row extending front to back on said body for retaining and independently pivotally releasing the other ends of said stretched elastic bands upon actuation for discharging each band beyond the first means, a manually retractable reciprocative shaft which operates during a movement in a forward direction to sequentially actuate each of said second means to discharge any retained bands in the order back to front, and said shaft in its fully retracted position underlying said second means and preventing actuation thereof and a third means for biasing each of said second means which is not loaded with an elastic band stretched between said second means and the first means, when the gun is in a generally upright, horizontal position, to a band retaining position when the shaft is under the second means or when the shaft is not under the second means to enable the unfettered rearward retraction of said shaft underneath the second means.

Claim 14

An elastic band gun comprising a body, first means on the body for releasably retaining one end of a plurality of stretched elastic bands, plurality of second disposed rearwardly the first recited means and oriented in a row extending front to back on said body for retaining and independently pivotally releasing the other ends of said stretched elastic bands upon actuation for discharging each band beyond the first means, a manually retractable reciprocative shaft which operates during a movement in a forward direction to sequentially actuate each of said second means to discharge any retained bands in the order back to front, and said shaft in its fully retracted position underlying said second means and preventing actuation thereof and a third means for biasing each of said second means which is not loaded with an elastic band stretched between said second means and the first means, when the gun is in a generally upright, horizontal position, to a band retaining position when the shaft is under the second means or when the shaft is not under the second means to enable the unfettered rearward retraction of said shaft underneath the second means.

Claim 15

An elastic band gun as described in claim 10 further characterized by said second means including releasers each mounted on a pin extending transversely of the body, said shaft having a supporting means for selectively supporting the releasers in a band retaining position and discontinuing said support to permit release of the bands by pivoting of the releasers under the force of any bands impressed on said releasers, said releasers each having a portion located forward of its pin axis, which portion is supported by the supporting means whenever that releaser is being maintained in a band retaining position, each of said releasers further having its center of gravity located rearwardly of its pin axis whenever each of the releasers is in a band retaining position and the gun is in a generally upright, horizontal position.

Claim 16

An elastic band gun as described in claim 10 further characterized by said second means including releasers each mounted on a pin extending transversely of the body, said shaft having a supporting means for selectively supporting the releasers in a band retaining position, said supporting means having an interruption for discontinuing said support to permit release of the bands by pivoting of the releasers under the force of any bands retained on said releasers, said releasers each having a portion located forward of its pin axis, which portion is supported by the supporting means whenever that releaser is being maintained in a band retaining position, said interruption having a slanted forward surface which during the retraction of the shaft acts in cooperation with said forward portion of a releaser to restore that releaser to a band retaining position should that releaser become partially rotated out of a band retaining position during retraction of the shaft.

Claim 17

An elastic band gun comprising a body simulating in form a shoulder firearm, means on the body for releasably retaining one end of a plurality of stretched elastic baNds, a plurality of spaced apart means disposed rearwardly of the first recited means and oriented in a row extending front to back on said body for individually retaining the other end of an elastic band stretched between it and the first recited means and for releasing a stretched band, a safety shield disposed generally to the rear of said spaced apart means, said shield having openings in the front and rear, said front opening being spaced from and substantially larger than the rear opening, said openings being aligned to allow sighting on a target objective through the openings in the shield, over the tops of said spaced apart means and along the top of said body, said front opening of said shield having edges extending beyond both sides of the gun and above the gun to at least partially arrest a band discharged rearwardly along the body, said shield being of such length that no portion of a band in part arrested by the front opening can reach the facial area of a user who is sighting through said shield in a conventional manner.

Claim 18

An elastic band gun comprising a body simulating in form a shoulder firearm, means on the body for releasably retaining one end of a plurality of stretched elastic baNds, a plurality of spaced apart means disposed rearwardly of the first recited means and oriented in a row extending front to back on said body for individually retaining the other end of an elastic band stretched between it and the first recited means and for releasing a stretched band, a safety shield disposed generally to the rear of said spaced apart means, said shield having openings in the front and rear, said front opening being spaced from and substantially larger than the rear opening, said openings being aligned to allow sighting on a target objective through the openings in the shield, over the tops of said spaced apart means and along the top of said body, said front opening of said shield having edges extending beyond both sides of the gun and above the gun to at least partially arrest a band discharged rearwardly along the body, said shield being of such length that no portion of a band in part arrested by the front opening can reach the facial area of a user who is sighting through said shield in a conventional manner.

Claim 19

An elastic band gun as described in claim 13 further characterized by a transparent panel closing the rear opening of said shield.

Claim 20

An elastic band gun comprising a body, means on the body for releasably retaining one end of a plurality of stretched elastic bands, a plurality of pivotally mounted releasers each mounted on a pin extending transversely of the body and disposed rearwardly of the first recited means and oriented in a row extending front to back on said body, each of said releasers retaining the other end of an elastic band stretched between it and the first recited means, and upon release to pivotally discharge said band beyond the one end, and a movable member on the body having a supporting surface for selectively supporting the releasers in the band retaining position and discontinuing said support to release the releasers to the force of any bands retained on said releasers, said releasers each having a portion located forward of its pin axis, which portion is supported by the supporting surface whenever that releaser is being maintained in the band retaining position, each of said releasers further having means which upon the rotation of said releasers to discharge a stretched elastic band contacts the top surface of the gun body to limit the rotation of said releasers on their pins.

Claim 21

An elastic band gun comprising a body, means on the body for releasably retaining one end of a plurality of stretched elastic bands, a plurality of pivotally mounted releasers each mounted on a pin extending transversely of the body and disposed rearwardly of the first recited means and oriented in a row extending front to back on said body, each of said releasers retaining the other end of an elastic band stretched between it and the first recited means, and upon release to pivotally discharge said band beyond the one end, and a movable member on the body having a supporting surface for selectively supporting the releasers in the band retaining position and discontinuing said support to release the releasers to the force of any bands retained on said releasers, said releasers each having a portion located forward of its pin axis, which portion is supported by the supporting surface whenever that releaser is being maintained in the band retaining position, each of said releasers further having means which upon the rotation of said releasers to discharge a stretched elastic band contacts the top surface of the gun body to limit the rotation of said releasers on their pins.