Peripheral primer firearm cartridge

DETAILED DESCRIPTION For this reason it is an object of the invention to eliminate these disadvantages and to provide a cartridge which is of the kind described first hereinbefore and can be economically manufactured, requires no axially acting firing means and will establish optimum conditions for a complete combustion of the propellant charge.
This object is accomplished in accordance with the invention in that the case has adjacent to its periphery at least one peripheral annular groove, which is open to the interior of the case and contains the priming material.
Owing to that simple feature the cartridge having a plastic case comprises at least one rim primer, which can be detonated by radially or tangentially acting firing means and which permits all disadvantages of axially acting firing means to be avoided.
As the rim primer surrounds the propellant charge like a ring, the ignition may be effected at any desired point of the periphery and the propellant charge will not be ignited from an internally disposed point but from an external annulus so that a reliable and complete combustion of the propellant charge will be ensured.
As the annular grooves can be formed without an additional expenditure during the shaping of the plastic sleeve and an increase of the thickness of the case bottom is not required, the cartridge comprising the plastic case is inexpensive and reliable and has a small length.
In a desirable embodiment of the invention the socket-forming head part of the case consists of a component which is separate from the case body, and the head part and/or the case body is formed with an annular groove.
Because the case consists of two parts, the entire manufacturing sequence can be performed more economically and the case bodies can readily be combined with different head portions in the manufacture of cartridges of different kinds, such as live cartridges, blank cartridges, illuminating cartridges or the like.
Besides, that division into two parts will simplify the formation of the annular grooves