peashooter85: The Daisy Heddon V/L caseless ammunition rifle, There have been many experiments with
peashooter85: The Daisy Heddon V/L caseless ammunition rifle, There have been many experiments with the use of caseless ammunition, including firearms for military and civilian use. The first is perhaps the most unexpected, the Daisy Heddon V/L rifle. Produced by the manufacturer of boyhood BB guns, the Daisy Heddon fired twenty nine grain .22 caliber bullet with a compound of combustible nitrocellulose about the size of a pencil eraser. The ammunition had been invented by a dutch man named Jules Van Langenhoven in 1961. A year later, Daisy began to design a rifle to use the ammunition in 1962, and began production in 1968. The Daisy Heddon was a single shot breechloading rifle, with the trigger guard acting as a hinge to open the breech. Since the rifle fired caseless ammunition, the rifle lacked features of a conventional rifle which were unnecessary, such as an extractor or firing pin. When the lever was operated and the breech open, a spring loaded piston was cocked. When the trigger was pulled the piston would force air through an obturator, or an abrupt narrowing of the chamber. This compressed the air, the pressure of which instantly raised the air temperature up to 2,000 degrees F. This in turn discharged the round. In 1969 the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms rules that the Daisy Heddon constituted a firearm, and thus had to be regulated as a firearm. Daisy, which was not licensed to produce firearms, chose not to undergo the process to obtain such a license. Production of the Daisy Heddon was discontinued with 23,000 manufactured. -- source link