Wilson Combat awarded two patents
Wilsons Gunshop (aka. Wilson Combat) has just had two patent applications approved. Both attribute Douglas D. Olson as the inventor.
The first, entitled "Bridged extractor spring for firearms" describes a a duel spring designed to prevent extraction problems in short barreled AR-15s.
Jay (jdun1911) pointed out that a $5 spring and o-ring will achieve the same result and does not require a modified bolt.
Does anyone know if Wilson has ever made use of this invention? The patent application dates back to 2007.
The other patent awarded to Wilson is for a new night time pistol sight. I only skim-read the patent, but form what I made out it uses a combination of an angled mirror, tritium insert and fiber optics to provide a supposedly superior night time sight picture.
New and unique improvements of prior known fiber optic sights for firearms with day and night time capabilities are disclosed that comprise (A) a sight base, (B) a fiber optic rod mounted in said base having an angle cut at the distal end which is positioned on the underside of the rod, and (C) an artificial light insert that is positioned in a cavity in the fiber optic rod. The cavity is sealed with a fiber optic rod plug and epoxied using an optically clear epoxy. The sight provides increased light output, co-located day and night sight views with increased illumination during the day, and uses a low power tritium insert for night time use. At night the sight achieves a transition from a bright ring during the day to a small central dot at night while maintaining the same color light for both.
Many thanks to Jay for his help.
Just because a patent is granted doesn’t mean it won’t melt like snow before a judge.
Doug Olson was previously with KAC, and before that, Qual-a-Tec. He is best known for his sound suppressor designs.
The extractor spring design would be for the various improved bolts (KAC, LMT, and LWRCI) that use two extractor springs.
Love the patent reviews. It’s a bit nerdy, but its neat to see the incremental improvements as they move through the system. Hard to grasp a lot of these once its assembled into a gun.