For the owners of sporting rifles there exists a recurrent necessity to test-fire their guns, e.g. for adjusting a telescopic sight or a diopter sight or for determining the accuracy after a change of ammunition. Testing of a gun requires a certain number of shots to be fired and cannot, however, be carried out without interruption, since the barrel of the gun under test heats up rather quickly.
This requires the sporting gun to be stood aside for cooling or, in order to avoid it being damaged, to be retained in a gun stand, inasmuch as otherwise the gun barrel might be harmfully affected by overheating. Cooling of the gun barrel requires considerable time, however, so that test firing of a sporting gun is a rather time-consuming operation.
It is thus an object of the invention to provide means enabling the period of time required for cooling a shot-heated gun barrel to be considerably shortened.
For attaining this object, the invention provides that the frame comprises a conduit extending at an inclined position relative to the ground for receiving at least the barrel of the supported sporting gun and being adapted to have a gaseous cooling medium conducted therethrough.
In this manner it is possible to considerably shorten the time required for cooling of a shot-heated gun barrel, so that test-firing of a sporting gun requires only short intervals.
In greater detail the invention provides that a blower driven by an electric motor is connected to the lower end of the conduit for feeding a gaseous cooling medium thereto.
Use is made of a high-performance blower. The inclined position of the conduit receiving the heated gun barrel results in the cooling air flow being directed obliquely upwards, so that the possibly warm air stream will not whirl up any loose particles from the ground or molest any persons staying in the shooting stand.
The invention further provides that the conduit gradually widens towards its upper end and has its inner side insulated by means of a heat-resistant, resiliently flexible material.
This provision ensures that the gun barrel to be cooled may be introduced into the conduit e.g. with a telescopic sight attached thereto, and that the cross-section of the conduit has only to be dimensioned such that the sporting gun, or the barrel, respectively, is enclosed on all sides by an air stream just adequate to carry off the heat. The lining or insulation of the conduit serves to protect the gun barrel against damage in case of it being introduced less carefully. At the same time the turbulence of the air stream along the insulation or lining of the conduit prevents heat transmission thereto.
In an advantageous embodiment of the support apparatus the invention provides that the conduit with its blower is supported on a tubular frame member extending at an inclined position relative to the ground and carrying the support members for the respective sporting gun, said frame member comprising a telescopically extensible and lockable tubular profiled rod carrying at its projecting upper end a pair of support members in the form of forks disposed at an angular spacing of 90.degree., one of said forks serving as a support member for a gun stock extending substantially in the direction of the gun barrel, and the other fork serving as a support for a gun stock extending at an angle to the gun barrel.
This embodiment enables the support apparatus to be adapted to the length of the sporting gun, since the support member for the gun stock is adjustable with respect to the upper end of the conduit, so that in any case the entire gun barrel extends into the conduit irrespective of the configuration of the remainder of the gun. The forks are disposed at the projecting upper end of the tubular profiled rod in such a manner that the gun barrel is positioned substantially at the longitudinal center of the conduit adjacent the upper end thereof.
In order to ensure that the gun barrel to be cooled extends substantially parallel to the longitudinal center axis of the conduit over its entire length the conduit contains a gun barrel centering support comprising a U-shaped yoke supported at the free ends of its legs for pivotal movement about a pivot axis extending transversally of the longitudinal direction of the conduit and extending into the conduit, the center portion of said yoke being bent into a V-shape for centering the gun barrel, with the apex of said V-shape being directed towards said pivot axis. The pivot axis of the centering yoke is disposed at the underside of the tubular frame member in such a position that even the shortest barrel of a sporting gun may be securely centered.
For adjusting the centering support, the pivot axis of the centering yoke is provided at least at one end thereof with an adjusting lever adapted for pivotal movement between two limit positions, said pivot axis or said adjusting lever carrying a cam engaging a cam follower of a cam follower limit switch for energizing the blower in the limit position corresponding to the centering position of the yoke. This enables centering of the gun barrel and starting of the blower to be carried out in a single operation.
Finally the invention provides that the frame is movable along the ground on ground-engaging rollers or, in an open-air embodiment, on rubber-tired cross-country wheels of larger diameter, and is stationarily positionable on rubber pads in the manner of a tripod. The support apparatus may thus be movably supported on the ground-engaging rollers and be brought to rest substantially immovably on the rubber pads.