Method and apparatus for handling beltless ammunition in a twin-barreled

Abstract

The loading, firing and ejection of beltless, cased ammunition is facilitated by the use of an oscillating breech having two breech chambers defined therethrough, which breech is disposed between two parallel ammunition chutes. Unfired rounds are provided to a load position in a first ammunition chute and the oscillating breech rotated to align one chamber with the load position. The unfired round is rammed into the aligned chamber, thereby forcing the spent cartridge just fired from the opposing end of the chamber into an eject position in a second opposing ammunition chute. Meanwhile, a second chamber within the oscillating breech is simultaneously aligned with a corresponding one of two barrel bores and fired. After firing, the oscillating breech rotates in the opposite direction to position the breech holding the just fired round in a position in alignment with the ammunition chutes while the breech having the unfired round just loaded therein is then positioned in alignment with a second one of the corresponding barrel bores. An unfired round is then loaded from the second ammunition chute, forcing the fired spent cartridge from the aligned chamber into an eject position in the opposing first ammunition chute. Therefore, unfired rounds enter through a first ammunition chute, are fed through a bore in an oscillating breech and then exit in the reverse direction in a second opposing ammunition chute. Similarly, a second group of unfired rounds are delivered through the second ammunition chute, loaded through a corresponding chamber in the oscillating breech and exit in the reverse direction through the opposing first ammunition chute.