M4 survival rifle

The M4 survival rifle was a small bolt-action rifle developed after the Second World War for the survival kits stored under the seats of American military aircraft. Its purpose was to let a downed airman hunt wild game for food. It was derived from a Harrington and Richardson sporting rifle, fitted to a sheet-metal frame with a telescoping wire buttstock, a detachable 14-inch barrel chambered for .22 Hornet and a four-shot detachable box magazine borrowed from a Savage Stevens sporting rifle. It weighed about four pounds and, with the barrel removed and the stock closed, packed into a bundle about 14 inches long. The ammunition boxes forbade its use against enemy personnel because of the Hague Convention ban on expanding bullets, although the United States Air Force later judged that self-defence would exempt such use. In the 1950s the M6 aircrew survival weapon supplanted it, and Canada and the United States are listed as users.