Many quite rightly believe that the firearms of armored vehicle crews, pilots and others are secondary weapons and in most cases absolutely useless, due to the fact that characteristics are often sacrificed for the sake of reducing size and weight. However, among such samples, you can find quite interesting models of weapons, which were not obtained as a result of "castration" of normal samples, but as a result of the work of designers "from scratch" and with clearly defined tasks. One example of this would be the American combo survival rifle. It should be noted right away that a similar project existed in our country, albeit a little later, but the result surpassed a potential adversary quite seriously, well, in my opinion. But the domestic model will be discussed in another article, but for now let's figure out what was offered to US pilots in case of an emergency landing far from civilization.
The sample's full name is Ithaca M6 (survival weapon). The appearance of the weapon is such that it seems as if it was collected on the knee in some basement, but this is only an external impression. In fact, the excessive asceticism of the weapon is a deliberate and balanced decision of the designers in order to reduce the size and weight of the weapon, well, and the little things are unnecessary. Externally, the weapon is a "breaking point" with a vertical arrangement of short barrels. In order for the apparatus to take up as little space as possible, the stock is rotated 180 degrees and is fixed under the barrels, thus, the chambers in the folded position remain open, which is not good, in my opinion. The butt of the weapon contains 4 shot cartridges and 9 rifled cartridges. Not much, but better than nothing. Sights consist of a reversible rear sight and front sight. The rear sight is designed for firing from a smooth barrel at a distance of 20-25 meters and from a rifled barrel at a distance of up to 90 meters. To fire a shot, you need to press a fairly large key, which is not covered by anything. On the one hand, this seriously reduces the safety of the weapon, on the other hand, it allows you to shoot even when the hand is injured and mobility is reduced, well, or when the hands are protected by very thick mittens. On the large trigger there is a switch with which the barrel is selected from which the shot will be fired. The upper barrel of the apparatus is rifled, in.22 caliber, the chamber is designed for the.22 Hornet cartridge. The lower barrel is smooth, chambered for.410 cartridges. Standard ammunition for weapons was loaded with shot # 6.
It is easy to guess that this device is designed only so that the pilot has the opportunity to shoot himself something for dinner. Apparently, in case the pilot meets the bear, he was advised to smear the bear's face, but what to smear, the pilot would recognize when he met the bear. In case of a meeting with an armed enemy, it might not even be possible to shoot himself from the first shot. In general, the device turned out to be quite good for hunting small animals, but it is not suitable for anything else.
The total length of the weapon is 718 millimeters in the unfolded position, with the stock folded, the length was 381 millimeters. The length of both barrels is 335 millimeters. Weight together with ammunition is 2.06 kilograms.
Due to the fact that the device proved to be far from the most suitable for the tasks that a person faces when trying to survive in the wild, and even more so for survival on enemy territory, the device was removed from service, but soon appeared on the civilian market. weapons. Naturally, no one left it in its original form, the barrels were extended to 400 millimeters, and the rifled barrel chamber became shorter - for.22LR or.22WMR cartridges.
