Shawn Benard Ellis

US Patent:

57275386, Mar 17, 1998

Filed:

Apr 5, 1996

Appl. No.:

8/628850

Inventors:

Shawn Ellis - Watkinsville GA

International Classification:

F41A 1900
F41B 1100

US Classification:

124 77

Abstract:

This invention is an airgun that is loaded and fired electronically. It is comprised of an "electronic decision maker" 12 capable of accepting input and supplying output, sensors (8, 22, 24, 26) to report to the decision maker 12 the condition of various parts of the airgun or the projectile 18 to be fired, and actuators (2, 28, 4) that will effect the operations required to load and fire the airgun and are capable of responding to the commands of the decision maker 12 so it may `oversee` these operations. The present invention will be applicable to paintball, bb, pellet, and other projectile firing airguns. Instead of relying on unreliable and "dumb" mechanical mechanisms, this airgun senses its projectile 18 and mechanism positions to determine when it can fire, using an electronic decision maker 12. This decision maker 12 can also be used to determine firing rate and velocity, adding more flexibility than a fixed, mechanical determination of these functions. Mechanical airguns cannot be reliable if fully-automatic because their loading mechanism is not consistent enough and will load paint-balls, bbs, pellets, etc.