Amusement devices: games – Aerial projectile game; game element or accessory therefor... – Projectile backstop
Patent
1997-06-13
1998-09-01
Grieb, William H.
Amusement devices: games
Aerial projectile game; game element or accessory therefor...
Projectile backstop
F41J 112
Patent
active
057999481
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The present invention relates to an outdoor protection device, preventing the leaching of lead from lead projectile particles contained in a projectile-arresting material, and allowing repeated shooting with a maintained function.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
During practice and competition shooting with powder-propelled projectiles at shooting ranges, the shots are aimed at target areas in the shape of ring-marked square targets or figure-like targets of various sizes and shapes. Behind the targets there is generally a projectile arresting arrangement.
The outdoor type arresting arrangement generally consists of ground masses or gravel being dozed into an elongated bank, or as an alternative, the arrester is a natural slope. The extension of the arrester is determined by the target area, and beyond that, by the regulated safety distances for the type of fire arms used and the manner of shooting. To avoid ricochets from the arresting material in e.g. arresting banks, these are supplemented by projectile-arresting material on the section being shot at. Such a material is carefully selected for the type of shooting and will arrest the projectiles inside the layer.
One of the problems with this type of projectile arrester is that the material is unprotected against precipitation, leading to large amounts of unwanted lead and lead compounds being leached by water and spread in an uncontrolled manner into the surrounding environment.
There are environmental demands for limiting these lead emissions, and imperative legislation concerning measures for cleansing of lead from shooting banks is to be expected.
A further problem is the freezing of the projectile-arresting material under extreme cold conditions, caused by large amounts of bound water. This limits the use for safety reasons.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The object of the leaching protector according to the present invention is to reduce considerably the amount of leached lead and lead compounds from the projectile-arresting material, and at the same time to prevent uncontrolled spreading of the drainage water to the surrounding environment.
This object is achieved by a device, which in short implies that shooting is performed against a projectile arrester which on the top surface has an elastic layer which, after the passage of the projectile, exhibits a very small entry hole, and that the projectile is subsequently arrested in the projectile-arresting material beneath it. This material in turn is contained in an enclosed space, having a bottom and sides consisting of a watertight layer, with the projectile-arresting material as a distance material, and with said top surface layer as a water-repelling cover. The enclosed space is drained by a drainage system. This means that surface water which has penetrated the elastic top layer via the minute projectile entry holes, or in other ways, is taken care of by drainage through the projectile-arresting material beneath it and conducted along the water-tight side and bottom layers down to the lowermost point of the enclosed space, where the drainage water is collected. From there, said water is drained by e.g. a closed pipe conduit to an enclosed reservoir or to a filtration plant.
The volume of lead-contaminated drainage water to be collected according to the present invention is of negligible size compared to the volumes which are today leached to the environment, and the disposal of this small amount of drainage water will cause only minimal problems.
The projectile-arresting material, which is kept protected from precipitation, may be optimised regarding its projectile-arresting capacity. Furthermore, the invention has the advantage of the elastic top layer also providing protection from winds, and it may provide ricochet protection. The protected location of the projectile-arresting material also means less freezing risk during extreme cold conditions.
The present invention provides the advantage of being able to use existing, already lead-contaminated projectile-arresting materials, as this means that
REFERENCES:
patent: 4728109 (1988-03-01), Simonetti
patent: 5255924 (1993-10-01), Copius
patent: 5435571 (1995-07-01), Wojcinski et al.
patent: 5564712 (1996-10-01), Werner
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