How the Savage Model 24's Combo Gun Became a WWII Survival Tool

The Savage Model 24 is one of those guns that looks like a novelty until you dig into its history, and GUNS Magazine does exactly that, tracing a break-action rifle-shotgun combo from a 1938 Stevens design to a gun the Army Air Corps once packed into survival kits.

Snapshot

GUNS Magazine traces the Model 24 from its 1938 origin as the J. Stevens 22-410 through its WWII-era military use and decades under the Savage name. The piece digs into the gun's many chamberings, cost-cutting changes over time, and the surprisingly finicky internals hiding under a simple break-action exterior.

Key points

• Military roots: GUNS Magazine reports the U.S. Army Air Corps bought roughly 15,000 Stevens 22-410s for aircraft survival kits, pairing .22 rimfire and .410 shotgun barrels for downed airmen to take small game.
• Chambering sprawl: Over its run, Savage offered rifle barrels from .22 LR up through .22 Hornet, .222 and .223 Remington, .30-30 and .357 Magnum/Maximum, paired with .410, 20-gauge or 12-gauge shotgun barrels.
• Mechanical complexity: The author notes older Model 24s hide a surprisingly involved trigger bracket and barrel-selector system, one that's known for scattering pins and springs during disassembly.
• Variants galore: Models like the 24C "Camper's Companion," the varmint-focused 24V, and the side-lever 24S each tweaked the formula, while cousins like the Valmet-built Model 2400 pushed the combo-gun concept further.
• Still in production: The lineage continues today as the Savage Model 42 "Survival," an MSRP $629 .22 LR/.410 combo carrying the concept into the modern catalog.

Quick take

This is a deep dive worth reading if you're into obscure but genuinely useful American firearms history, especially the military survival-kit angle and the mechanical quirks that made these guns both versatile and occasionally maddening to service.

Read the full story: gunsmagazine.com