M6 ASW

The M6 Aircrew Survival Weapon was a specially-made combination rifle-shotgun originally developed in 1946 by the United States Army Ordinance Corps. It was issued to United States Air Force aircrews to help forage for food in the event of a plane crash, and was designed to fit inside of the standard USAF survival kit issued to all pilots flying over uninhabited regions. The M6 is a superposed ("over-under") combination gun, with a .22 Hornet rifle barrel located above a .410 bore shotgun barrel. A firing pin selector allowed the shooter to choose which barrel would be fired. Because most bomber crews operated in Arctic regions during the Cold War, a trigger bar was used that could be depressed while wearing mittens as opposed to a conventional trigger. The M6 is made of stamped sheet steel, with a forged steel removable barrel assembly. The barrels are 14 inches long, and the weapon folds in half to a minimum size of 15 inches. 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 buttstock or a front handguard: 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. A storage compartment in the stock held 9 rounds of .22 Hornet ammunition and 4 shotgun shells. 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. Overall weight of the initial pre-1959 version, including stored ammunition, was around 3 pounds. The M6 was issued from 1952 until the early 1970s, in conjunction with the M4 Survival Rifle. Plans to replace both with the ArmaLite AR-5 never came to fruition, and in 2018 the weapon was instead replaced with the GAU-5A Aircrew Self Defense Weapon.