HISTORICFIREARMS

The best info comes from the Gun Parts Corp catalog and some old Army Ordnance pubs. GPC catalog (which includes many parts for these) says: "These rifles were rushed into service during WW2 as part of the survival package for downed pilots. The guns were essentially an H&R .22 rimfire rifle (M265 series) modified to be compact and in the more powerful .22 Hornet cartridge. It used a 14" removable barrel, had a telescoping stock, and weighed in at just 4 lbs. It is interesting to note that rather than develop their own magazine, they merely used a .22 Hornet magazine that Savage/Stevens already had for the M23D (later used on the Savage M322 and 340 rifles)." I have never seen mention of these in any WW2 period ordnance dept material, and Hackley, Woodin & Scranton do not include any mention of .22 Hornet ammo in their exceptionally thorough and well documented History of Modern US Military Small Arms Ammunition. Therefore, these are more likely circa 1950s. ORD 7-8 SNL B-43 , "Organizational, Field and Depot Maintenance Allowances for Rifle, Survival, cal..22, M4 (T38) (Hornet Cartridge)" dated November 1951 does not supercede any previous publications, and inclusion of the "T38" designation implies it was just then being standardized. The M6 survival rifles (over under .22 Hornet/.410) are covered by ORD SNL B-45 dated June 1951, and include a T39 designation, so they may have both been under development about the same time. This may also be about the time that the lightweight M13 revolvers were being developed for the USAF. I think that "survival" guns were a hot topic about that time, where previously aircrews were either unarmed, or issued some sort of sidearm from standard stocks but as more of a combat weapon than intended for survival use. Of course, the M12 and M15 .45 ACP shot cartridges developed during WW2 are exceptions. This is a field where someone like yourself may be able to dig into old NAVAIR/BUAERO/ or comparable USAF pubs and find some neat stuff. For what it is worth, I owned some sort of orange aluminum USAF survival kit container with late 1950s dates that included "M1A1 gun ser no. xxxxxxx" markings. M1A1 carbine would just barely fit in one. I can probably dig out full nomenclature if you are REALLY interested. Have had indications from some visitors that RCAF interceptor pilots also carried survival rifles (connected to ejection seat?) in 1960-70s. I forget if they mentioned that they were the M4 or M6. Both M4 and M6 are scarce on the collector market, as they must be either (a) registered with BATF during 1968 amnesty period, or (b) rebarreled to meet minimum barrel length of 16" for rifles or 18" for shotguns. I own a rebarreled M14 (plus a DEMIL scrap one) and recently saw a M6 without any barrels offered, but it was pretty rough. John Spangler