Ammunition feed

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Ammunition feed is the way in which ammunition is fed to a firearm . A basic distinction is made between manual, semi-automatic and fully automatic ammunition feed. The increase in the rate of fire is the motivation to automate the charging process. In the case of firearms, it was only possible to automate the loading process with the development of the cartridge from the middle of the 19th century.

variants

As a rule, a firearm only offers one way of feeding ammunition. An exception is e.g. B. the light machine gun FN Minimi , which allows a belt and magazine feed. Automatic loaders for guns usually also offer a manual mode in case the automatic system should fail. The ammunition supply can use external energy sources. This is very often the case with loading machines and unstrapped ammunition feeders.

  • Manual loading : The manual loading of a single-shot weapon is the earliest and technically easiest way to load a weapon. From the bow to the crossbow and the early firearms, this type was predominant until the 19th century. Even with modern cartridged ammunition, manual ammunition feed is still common today for hunting rifles, especially drop barrel rifles . Even today's guns often work according to this principle.
  • Magazine well: With this principle, the ammunition falls from a magazine well into the launching device under its own weight or through additional loading . Already in the 3rd century BC The principle was used with the repeating crossbow. At the end of the 19th century, the forerunners of the machine guns ( Gatling Gun or Nordenfelt Mitrailleuse ) took over this technical solution, as did some rapid-fire guns e.g. b. 40 mm Bofors gun .
  • Magazine with spring : The prevailing principle for handguns is the spring force that pushes the ammunition out of a magazine . As an advantage over the magazine well, the tensioned spring provides the necessary drive, regardless of how the weapon is held. The Henry rifle used this principle in 1862. The magazines are either magazines that are permanently connected to the weapon, such as the tubular magazine below the barrel, or removable magazines in various shapes such as plate or rod magazines.
  • Belt feed : The feed via an ammunition belt in the Maxim machine gun developed in 1885 revolutionized the weapon technology of the time and is still prevalent in machine guns and cannons today. A mechanism pulls the ammunition belt one link further after each shot. With light machine guns, the ammunition belt is often guided in a belt box on the weapon. Doppelgurtzuführer for automatic cannons make it possible to quickly switch between two different types of ammunition, such. B. armor piercing and explosive to switch. To prevent the ammunition belt from getting stuck or twisting too much, it is sometimes fed to the weapon through a belt channel (feed chute).
  • Loading frame: As long as Hiram Maxim held the patent rights to the belt feed with flexible links, other weapon manufacturers, e. B. the Hotchkiss M1909 , with a fixed loading frame. These metal frames, which held around 30 cartridges, were drawn in on one side in the same way as the flexible belts and discharged empty on the other side. The system was abandoned because of disadvantages compared to the belt feed.
  • unbelted ( linkless ): To very high income frequencies to achieve, have some modern machine guns, z. B. the GAU-8 / A Avenger , via an unstrapped feeder. The cartridges are here with special conveyor systems , such. B. screw conveyor supplied.
  • Car loader or automatic loading machine: Auxiliary equipment such as ammunition lifts were the prerequisite for loading large fortress and ship guns with projectiles weighing up to a ton. However, fully automatic loading devices are only available in modern ship guns, e.g. B. the Mark 45 lightweight gun available. The T-64 was at the end of the 1960s, the first battle tank with a loading machine for the primary armament. In the 1970s self-propelled guns followed, e.g. B. DANA with loading machines.

  • Manual loading of a gun

  • Bar magazine of a pistol

  • Magazine slot

  • Ammunition belt

  • Loading frame

  • Unbelted feed via a cartridge conveyor belt (flexible feed chute)

  • Machine-assisted grenade feed for a ship's gun

  • Fully automatic ammunition feed for a ship's gun

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ron Field, Richard Hook: Buffalo Soldiers 1892-1918. Osprey Publishing, Oxford 2005, ISBN 1-84176-898-7 , p. 29 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).
  2. Jump up ↑ General Electric patent for an unstrapped ammunition feeder. In: Google Patents. Retrieved October 14, 2019 .