A rear slip base plate for a round carrying a guidance and control unit payload, which round is launched from a rifled launch tube. To prevent the guidance and control unit payload from also being rapidly spun with the round, the slip base plate unit mechanically isolates the guidance and control unit payload from the round spin rate.

A radar-absorbing material projectile system including a projectile with an outer layer of radar-absorbing material (RAM). A carrier or armature is disposed around the projectile, protecting the layer of RAM during the firing sequence. In some embodiments the carrier is a discarding carrier which falls away after firing, rendering the projectile low-observable with regard to radar detection due to the layer of RAM.

A sabot having an extended casing for containing propellant charge and a slotted top portion for securing a projectile. The propellant charge is ignited by gases that enter the lower portion of the sabot from a puncture developed by the mating of the sabot against a breech plug. The breech plug has a piercing component in the form of a sharpened forward edge to initiate puncture of the breech end of the sabot.

A rifled barrel has a cylindrical channel longitudinally extending within the rifled barrel between an oppositely oriented muzzle opening and a breach opening, the cylindrical channel having a rifled portion and a non-rifled portion, the rifled portion having a land and a groove helically extending along a surface of the cylindrical channel from the muzzle opening toward the breach opening, the non-rifled portion being smooth and having a consistent diameter along a length. The diameter of the non-rifled portion of the cylindrical channel is equal to a diameter of the rifled portion measured between oppositely oriented sections of the groove. A transitional section of the rifled portion has a diameter measured between oppositely oriented land sections that gradually decreases along a section of the rifled portion adjacent to the non-rifled portion until equaling the diameter of the non-rifled portion.

A projectile for loading into a rifled barrel includes a casing having a cylindrical body, a forward aerodynamic end, and a free end opposite the aerodynamic end, the cylindrical body of the casing defining an interior cavity extending to and in open communication with the free end. The projectile also has a bullet sized to initially slidably engage the casing along a partial length of the interior cavity through the free end. Upon discharge of propellant, the bullet is forced to slidably engage the casing farther within the cavity, preferably such that an entire length of the bullet is housed within the casing cavity, whereby a circumference of the casing is increased such that the increased circumference of the casing catches barrel rifling of the muzzleloader rifle. This allows a smaller caliber bullet to be used in a fouled barrel, while increasing accuracy of the muzzleloader rifle.

A projectile system has a projectile with a metal body having a first outside diameter, a forward end and a rearward end, a plastic base wad engaged at the rearward end, the plastic base wad of solid plastic having a first length and a second outside diameter, greater than the first outside diameter, and a rifled barrel having a third inside diameter at the tips of the rifling, the third inside diameter greater than the first outside diameter but less than the second outside diameter, and a fourth diameter at the root of the rifling greater than the second outside diameter. With the projectile translating along the rifled barrel, the metal body passes inside the rifling, avoiding metal to metal friction, while the plastic base wad fully engages the rifling, imparting rotation to the metal projectile.

Muzzleloader systems include a pre-packaged propellant charge and primer for providing efficient loading and unloading of the muzzleloader. The muzzleloader accepts in the breech end the propellant containment vessel that abuts against a constriction portion with a reduced diameter portion. The propellant containment vessel having an end portion with a tapered surface that conforms to the constriction portion surface. A projectile is inserted in the muzzle end and seats against the constriction portion. The propellant containment vessel may be received in a removable breech plug. The constriction portion may be part of the breech plug or a separate component secured in the barrel by way of the breech plug. The containment vessel further comprises a primer mechanism that may be integrated into the proximal end of the containment vessel.

Nonlethal cartridges adapted to be chambered in a firearm having a barrel that includes rifling are provided. In one example, the cartridge includes a cartridge case and a sabot that is telescopically coupled to the cartridge case and that has a sabot mouth. A projectile includes a polymer base projectile portion disposed in the sabot mouth. A polymer front shell projectile portion is coupled to the polymer base projectile portion and has an outer surface that includes a circular locking rib feature that forms an interference fit with the sabot mouth. The polymer base projectile portion is configured to engage the rifling of the barrel to impart spin stabilization to the nonlethal projectile when propelled from the sabot in response to the expansion of a propellant gas.

An apparatus includes an energy source and an expansion structure. The energy source is configured to convey an amount of energy operable to increase a pressure of a compressible gas disposed in a chamber. The expansion structure is configured to be placed in fluid communication with the chamber and to receive a flow of the compressible gas in response to the increase in pressure. The expansion structure includes an inlet having a first diameter and an outlet having a second diameter greater than the first diameter and is configured to allow the compressible gas to expand as the compressible gas flows from the inlet to the outlet such that a supersonic free jet of the compressible gas exits the outlet. In some instances, the supersonic free jet of the compressible gas can accelerate, relative to the expansion structure, a projectile disposed outside of the expansion structure.

A fin-stabilized sub-caliber projectile adapted to be fired from a rifled barrel, the projectile having a penetrator with a tail fin assembly, a sabot arranged on the penetrator and having at least two sabot segments circumferentially joined to one another that are separated from one another after leaving the barrel by centrifugal forces acting on the projectile during firing. The sabot includes a main body and a front guide flange that is adapted to be supported on an inner wall of the barrel and a rear guide flange arranged at an axial distance. A connecting section of the sabot is arranged between the front guide flange and the rear guide flange and has a smaller outer diameter than the front guide flange or the rear guide flange. The sabot and the penetrator are joined together in a positive manner in a region of the rear guide flange.