Bail Out Guns, Fireball Edition
The basis for many of today’s best survival and trail guns, the U.S. military developed a series of compact, takedown, and foldable designs to give aircrew something just in case they had to hit the silk.
You may know of guns like the M4 (the bolt-action .22 Hornet made by H&R in 1949, not today’s 5.56mm Carbine) as well as the M5 and M6 combination guns, but have you heard of the Individual Multi-purpose Weapon of the 1960s?
Designed at Eglin AFB’s weapon lab, Colt made five of IMP-221s (as they were chambered in .221 Fireball, or 5.56x36mm) for testing as the GUU-4P, which later led to the Bushmaster Armpistol.
For more, go down the rabbit hole in my column at Guns.com