The M6 Aircrew Survival Weapon was a specially-made .22 Hornet over

.410 bore The .410 bore is one of the smallest caliber of shotgun shell commonly available (along with the 9mm Flobert rimfire cartridge, and the less common .22 rimfire shot shell). A .410 bore shotgun loaded with shot shells is well suited for small g ...

combination gun A combination gun is a firearm that usually comprises at least one rifled barrel and one smoothbore barrel, that is typically used with shot or some types of shotgun slug. Most have been break-action guns, although there have been other desi ...

issued to

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Si ...

aircrews to help forage for food in the event of a plane crash. It was issued from 1952 until the early 1970s, in conjunction with the M4 Survival Rifle. Plans to replace both with the ArmaLite AR-5 (aka: MA-1) never came to fruition and in 2018 was instead replaced with the GAU-5A Aircrew Self Defense Weapon in some instances.

History

The M6 was originally developed in 1946 for the

Air Materiel Command Air Materiel Command (AMC) was a United States Army Air Forces and United States Air Force command. Its headquarters was located at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. In 1961, the command was redesignated the Air Force Logistics Command ...

of what was then still the

United States Army Air Forces The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

by the

United States Army Ordnance Corps The United States Army Ordnance Corps, formerly the United States Army Ordnance Department, is a sustainment branch of the United States Army, headquartered at Fort Lee, Virginia. The broad mission of the Ordnance Corps is to supply Army comb ...

. Its official designation was ''Rifle-Shotgun, Survival, Caliber .22/.410''. It was designed to fit into the standard USAAF (later USAF) survival kit issued to all pilots flying over Arctic and other uninhabited regions.

Design

The M6 is made of stamped sheet steel, with a forged steel removable barrel assembly. The barrel assembly is connected to the stock/action group by means of a removable hinge pin. Unlike nearly all other firearms, there is no "furniture" on the M6 like a butt stock or a

forearm The forearm is the region of the upper limb between the elbow and the wrist. The term forearm is used in anatomy to distinguish it from the arm, a word which is most often used to describe the entire appendage of the upper limb, but which in ...

, the only parts which are not steel are the rubber butt plate and cheek rest. Aircrew were instructed to wrap the barrels with parachute cord as a field expedient fore-stock.http://www.oldjimbo.com/survival/v-shrake/m6.html The M6 Survival System The M6 was a superposed ("over-under")

, with a .22 Hornet rifle barrel located above the

shotgun barrel. It has 14-inch barrels and folds in half to a minimum size of 15 inches. A storage compartment in the stock held 9 rounds of .22 Hornet ammunition with 4 shotgun shells. A firing pin selector allowed the shooter to choose which barrel would be fired. Because most bomber crews operated in the Arctic region during the

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because t ...

, a trigger bar was used that could be depressed while wearing mittens as opposed to a conventional trigger. The M6 was never intended as a weapon with which to engage hostile troops. Instead it was designed so that a downed aircrew could forage for wild game, as well as defend themselves from more hostile wildlife. Its rifle element was considered to be accurate up to 200

yards The yard (symbol: yd) is an English unit of length in both the British imperial and US customary systems of measurement equalling 3 feet or 36 inches. Since 1959 it has been by international agreement standardized as exactly ...

. Overall weight of the initial version, including stored ammunition, was around 3 (pre-1959) pounds.

Other versions

Being a military firearm, the originals were sold only to the US military. The

Springfield Armory M6 Scout The Springfield Armory M6 Scout is a .22 Hornet over .410 bore combination gun that is virtually identical to the original M6 Aircrew Survival Weapon. It is also made in .22 Long Rifle over .410 bore and .22 Magnum over .410 bore. The Scouts are ...

is virtually identical to the original M6 and was made in three versions, a .22 Hornet over

.410 gauge The .410 bore is one of the smallest caliber of shotgun shell commonly available (along with the 9mm Flobert rimfire cartridge, and the less common .22 rimfire shot shell). A .410 bore shotgun loaded with shot shells is well suited for small g ...

, a

.22 Long Rifle The .22 Long Rifle or simply .22 LR or 22 (metric designation: 5.6×15mmR) is a long-established variety of .22 caliber rimfire ammunition originating from the United States. It is used in a wide range of rifles, pistols, revolvers, smo ...

over .410 gauge and a

.22 Magnum The .22 Winchester Magnum Rimfire, also called .22 WMR, .22 Magnum, .22 WMRF, .22 MRF, or .22 Mag, is a rimfire cartridge. Originally loaded with a bullet weight of delivering velocities in the range from a rifle barrel, .22 WMR is now loaded ...

over .410 gauge. The Scouts were also made with 18.25" barrels to comply with the

National Firearms Act The National Firearms Act (NFA), 73rd Congress, Sess. 2, ch. 757, was enacted on June 26, 1934, and currently codified and amended as . The law is an Act of Congress in the United States that, in general, imposes an excise tax on the manufact ...

. The later models had large oversized trigger guards and

Picatinny rails The Picatinny rail ( or ), or Pic rail for short, also known as a MIL-STD-1913 rail, 1913 rail or STANAG 2324 rail (cancelled), is a military standard rail interface system that provides a mounting platform for firearm accessories. It was ...

for mounting a wide range of sights and scopes. In 2010, Chiappa began marketing a version of the Aircrew Survival Weapon called the

Chiappa M6 Survival Gun The Chiappa M6 Survival Gun is an over and under combination gun that comes in four versions; with a 12 gauge or 20 gauge shotgun barrel over a .22 Long Rifle or .22 Magnum barrel. It has a similar appearance to the original M6 Aircrew Survival ...

. The Chiappa has a

12 gauge shotgun The gauge (or commonly bore in British English) of a firearm is a unit of measurement used to express the inner diameter (bore diameter) of the barrel. Gauge is determined from the weight of a solid sphere of lead that will fit the bore of the f ...

20 gauge The 20-gauge shotgun, also known as "20-bore", is a type of smooth-bore shotgun that fires a shell that is smaller in caliber () than a 12-gauge shotgun (). It is often used by beginning shooters for target practice and for hunting small game. D ...

barrel over a

barrel. In addition, it comes with "X Caliber" adapters sleeves that fit inside the 12 gauge barrel allowing it to fire:

.380 ACP The .380 ACP (9×17mm) ( Automatic Colt Pistol) is a rimless, straight-walled pistol cartridge developed by firearms designer John Moses Browning. The cartridge headspaces on the mouth of the case.Wilson, R. K. ''Textbook of Automatic Pisto ...

, 9mm Luger,

.38 Special The .38 Special, also commonly known as .38 S&W Special (not to be confused with .38 S&W), .38 Smith & Wesson Special, .38 Spl, .38 Spc, (pronounced "thirty-eight special"), or 9x29mmR is a rimmed, centerfire cartridge designed by Smith & ...

.357 Magnum The .357 Smith & Wesson Magnum, .357 S&W Magnum, .357 Magnum, or 9×33mmR as it is known in unofficial metric designation, is a smokeless powder cartridge with a bullet diameter. It was created by Elmer Keith, Phillip B. Sharpe, and Douglas B. ...

, .40 S&W,

.44 Special The .44 Smith & Wesson Special, also commonly known as .44 S&W Special, .44 Special, .44 Spl, .44 Spc, (pronounced "forty-four special"), or 10.9x29mmR is a smokeless powder center fire metallic revolver cartridge developed by Smith & Wesson in 1 ...

, .44 Magnum,

.45 ACP The .45 ACP ( Automatic Colt Pistol) or .45 Auto (11.43×23mm) is a rimless straight-walled handgun cartridge designed by John Moses Browning in 1904, for use in his prototype Colt semi-automatic pistol. After successful military trials, it ...

.45 Long Colt The .45 Colt (11.43×33mmR), is a rimmed, straight-walled, handgun cartridge dating to 1872. It was originally a black-powder revolver round developed for the Colt Single Action Army revolver. This cartridge was adopted by the U.S. Army in 187 ...

and

ammunition. It has a similar appearance to the original M6, however it's a unique design that uses a skeletonized metal buttstock that surrounds a polypropylene foam insert. It also uses double triggers and an enclosed firing mechanism. In 2019, a version began to be produced by TPS Arms. While very similar to the Springfield version, it added a cross bolt safety and removed the hammer selector safety.

References

External links

The Athens Arms & Ordnance M6ScoutBest Survival Rifles That You Must Have One
* {{Multiple Barrel Firearms .22 LR firearms Combination guns Multiple-barrel firearms Rifles of the United States Shotguns of the United States Survival guns United States Army equipment United States Army Air Forces United States Air Force Military equipment introduced in the 1950s

History

Design

Other versions

See also

References

External links