US Issue 410 rounds

[1917-1919]

I think these were intended for the USAF survival rifle. Dated 52

[1917-1919]

one more

[ValhallaMilitaria]

For the m6 and not something I have ever seen before. I might say this is a rare round to come across.

[1917-1919]

Yeah, I have not come across these before in all my years of collecting...good news...they were free!

Ken

[ValhallaMilitaria]

Ken- you can't beat that price and like I said, a very hard one to find at least IMO.

[Ordnance]

Well, that's an interesting coincidence. I just went to our annual cartridge collectors show in Southwest Washingon state yesterday and brought home this little crate. It's about 2/3 full, though most of the boxes have had their outer wrappers removed. Check out that lot number.

I collect U.S. combat shotgun ammunition so survival rounds are still a bit out of my field. But it occured to me that I'd never seen a .410 crate, empty or full, so it followed me home. And you still got a better deal as mine was definitely not free. Good fnds for both of us.

[1917-1919]

Wow very nice find! Any ideas as to what the rounds were used for?

[Johnny Peppers]

They were for the USAF M6 .22 Hornet/.410 survival weapon. The originals made for the military had 14" barrels, so come under BATFE regulations.

Later Springfield Armory, Inc. made a civilian version with 18" barrels. SA, Inc. also made a pistol version with shorter barrels.

[SPECTRE9MM]

Love the shells, I wouldn't mind trying a few out.

For those who don't know what an M6 looks like, here you go. As you can see it is a very basic over/under with a break open action. This particular one is a civilian model with the 18" barrels chambered in .22 L.R. (top) and .410 (bottom). The military version had 14" barrels as stated previously, and other than the barrel lengths the military and Springfield civilian models are pretty much identical.

The hammer has a selector to fire either the top or bottom chamber depending on what position it is in. The stock has a compartment which holds fifteen .22 caliber cartridges and four .410 shells as pictured. The trigger (if you can call it that) is the bar at the bottom, under the hammer. The trigger pull is long and creepy but it works for what it is. The sights are crude at best but it is surprisingly accurate when using .410 slugs.

This one is equiped with a quick take-down pin that allows the rifle to be separated into two parts for easy storage.

[Chet Sowersby]

I had the civilian model years ago and fired it several times. As noted, it worked well for it's intended use. The one thing that I did not care for was that once fired the shell cases were difficult to extract.

Chet