No flames please, I'm fully aware that this request will never see the light of day.

In this month's issue of American Rifleman, there's an article about a hybrid weapon created by a Marine at Iwo Jima. It was called the Stinger and only six were made. It was pretty much a standard .30 cal, except it had a stock, handle, and trigger from a BAR fused to the user end of it.

Soldiers gripped the BAR stock and trigger in their right hand, then gripped the carry handle by the barrel with their left hand. From the pics in the article, it looked like it was meant to be shot from the hip . . . those bad-ass Marines.

I'm still searching for an online ref pic.

That sounds really interesting. If you can, try to scan the article.

sounds like the recoil must be insane : p

From an article about the Fifth Marine Division on Iwo Jima

"Also with the Fifth was Tony Stein. A tool-and-die maker before the war, Stein had used his skills on a .30-caliber machine gun he pulled from a wrecked navy fighter plane, fashioning it into a one-of-a-kind hand weapon to be fired from the hip. He called it his "stinger." Once ashore on Iwo, Tony Stein quickly took the lead in his company's assault. With two marines covering him, he went after a pillbox that was holding up his company. Firing in rapid bursts, Stein held the Japanese down while another Marine used a demolition charge to finish them off.

Over the next several hours Tony used his stinger to knock out nine more strong points. Firing his weapon so much, he had to make eight separate trips back to the beach to get more ammunition. Tearing off his boots and helmet each time, he would sprint to the rear. But each time he stopped to help a wounded Marine back to the beach. It was on his ninth trip that the savage enemy fire finally caught up with Tony Stein. Shrapnel tore into his shoulder and his company commander ordered him back to the beach for evacuation. But Stein refused and for the rest of the day he attacked one pillbox after another. Twice enemy fire knocked the stinger from his hand. Twice he picked it back up and continued to hit the Japanese with deadly effectiveness. Thanks to Stein, and many others like him, the Fifth Division drove successfully across the island, and the defenders of Mount Suribachi were cut off from the rest of the island.

Tony Stein finally consented to evacuation that night. But he would return to the island within days, and on March 1, Stein was killed during a bitter fight against Hill 362A. On February 19, 1946, his mother was presented with his posthumous Medal of Honor."

More info about him can be found on Congressional Medal of War sites. Yet to find a picture of this stinger though...seems to have been a one off.