Weaver rail

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Weaver mounting rail

In the weapon technology for handguns , the Weaver rail ( English Weaver Rail or Weaver Rail System ) is the world's first standardized rail system. Its basic principles were developed and introduced as early as the 1930s. The Weaver rail was originally developed as a system to securely attach rifle scopes to weapons and is a special form of assembly . In the meantime, it is also used to attach other accessories such as handles, tactical lamps or bipods to rifles in addition to optics To attach guns, bows or, more recently, to woodland markers in paintball .

Today's Weaver rails correspond in their basic structure to a "T-shaped" rail with larger bevels and a flat, wide top in order to offer the accessory a good support surface and at the same time enable a firm clamping . In addition, it has several slots or grooves of equal width across the rail in order to position the accessories and to absorb recoil forces when firing a shot.

History and technology

William Ralph Weaver (1905–1975) developed the Weaver splint in his company, WR Weaver Co., founded in 1930 . It was the first standardized rail telescopic sight mount for rifles, which up to this point had been attached directly to the weapon with grub screws and which could not be removed without special tools.

In contrast to the systems used until then, the connection between a Weaver rifle scope, the actual Weaver product, and the rail and not the weapon itself was standardized. The construction and execution changed several times over the years; so the first rails were still continuous and without grooves.

Detail of a Weaver rail with clamping bolts

The later inserted transverse grooves, then a uniform width of 0.180 inches were given permit to mount the accessory with high repeatability after disassembly without, for example, again the scope readjust on the weapon or new weapon inject . The grooves of the Weaver rail are used primarily for positioning and locking and for absorbing acceleration forces that occur when a shot is fired.

Older Weaver systems still had two very short rails that were mounted at a distance from each other. This was usually the distance that the ejector took. This system was granted a patent on March 24, 1953, which was filed in 1949. However, due to problems with the alignment of the two rails with respect to one another, tensions were generated in the telescopic sight, which led to changes in the optical axis and thus the accuracy of the shot. The two-part system also required demanding tolerances to one another in order to ensure perfect alignment, which could only be achieved with the help of a special device (alignment sleeves). The two-part system also reached its limits when there was not enough material thickness to attach the two rails or sufficient overall length. With the one-piece rail implemented later, however, the rail system remains neatly aligned and the previous problems were eliminated.

The Picatinny rail (STANAG 2324 or MIL-STD 1913) developed by the US Army at the Picatinny Arsenal site in the 1990s is ultimately just a standardization and further development of the key concepts of the Weaver system. It is also partially compatible with the Weaver splint .

use

M1903-A4 rifle with telescopic sight on early Weaver rails

One of the first uses of the Weaver rail was its use on the Springfield 1903A4 sniper rifle during World War II , which was delivered without fixed sights.

It was further developed over decades. Due to the more and more frequent use of accessories such as light sources, red dot sights or handles, it was more and more widespread among SWAT and special forces , which ultimately led to the further development of the principles by ARMS (Atlantic Research Marketing Systems) in the 1980s and later to standardization by the US Military led at the Picatinny Arsenal development site. Today the Weaver rail is practically no longer used in the military environment due to the widespread use of the Picatinny rail, which is to be replaced by the NATO rail in the future .

In the police and hunting environment and in shooting sports, it is still used for telescopic sights and other accessories, since the mechanical loads such as the recoil forces and the general handling of the weapon are lower. They are often used especially for red dot sights on the hunt.

In addition to the established “20 mm width”, it is now also available as a “micro mount” with a width of 11 mm. Even today there are further developments in the area of ​​or in referencing to the Weaver rail.

Compatibility with the Picatinny rail

The Picatinny rail (MIL-STD-1913 or STANAG 2324) is a development from the mid-1990s and has stricter dimensional and tolerance standards. The Picatinny rail has a nearly identical profile to the Weaver rail, but has an enlarged slot width of 0.206 inches (5.23 mm) to better accommodate the greater recoil forces of military weapons. Unlike the Weaver, it also has a continuous slot spacing of 0.394 inches (10.01 mm). Therefore, accessories for the Weaver rail mostly fit on Picatinny rails, but not the other way around, as the Weaver rail does not have any standardization of the groove spacing and smaller grooves.

Another difference is that the middle part of the Weaver rails - i.e. the part between the "toothed" rail and the part that is connected to the weapon - is made entirely of solid material, while Picatinny rails have uniform openings at the base, in order to be able to better compensate for tensions that arise, for example, from the heating of the weapon when firing or from the mechanical effects of firing a shot.

Web links

Commons : Weaver rail  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. a b c W. R. Weaver Telescopic Sight (US Patent 2623251). March 24, 1953, accessed September 17, 2014 .
  2. Aimpoint Micro Mount. Retrieved September 17, 2014 .
  3. ^ Mounting solutions. Retrieved September 17, 2014 .
  4. Olight Picatinny / Weaver Rail Mount. Retrieved September 17, 2014 .
  5. WEAVER SIGHT RAIL. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on October 25, 2014 ; accessed on September 17, 2014 (English).
  6. RAP4 Weaver Sight Rail. Retrieved September 17, 2014 .
  7. Bryce Towsley: 80 YEARS OF WEAVER SCOPES. americanrifleman.org, July 28, 2010, accessed September 17, 2014 .
  8. Dimensioning of accessory mounting rail for small arms weapons. (PDF) February 3, 1995, accessed on September 17, 2014 (English).
  9. a b Mounts and Ancillary Equipment. (PDF) (No longer available online.) May 18, 2006, archived from the original on September 24, 2015 ; accessed on September 17, 2014 (English).
  10. ^ A b J. Guthrie: Rail Crazy: Picatinny Rail Basics. October 23, 2010, accessed October 13, 2014 .
  11. ^ Martin Pegler: Out of Nowhere: A History of the Military Sniper. Verlag Osprey Publishing, 2006, ISBN 1-84603-140-0 , p. 214 [1]
  12. Kevin Dockery: Stalkers and Shooters: A History of Snipers. Verlag Penguin, 2007, ISBN 1-4406-2890-4 , p. 214 [2]
  13. Norbert Klups: Iron connection - hook and swivel assemblies. German hunting newspaper, accessed on September 17, 2014 .
  14. Holster with accessory holder. Retrieved September 17, 2014 .
  15. Attachment device. Retrieved September 17, 2014 .
  16. brownells.com: Picatinny Rails, Weaver Rails, What's The Difference? Retrieved September 17, 2014 .