In an episode of “Band of Brothers”, a character is trapped in German-controlled territory and hides out in a farm. There is a scene where he opens what seems to be a compartment on the stock of his rifle and take out something to eat (it always looked like a sausage to me). Were rations like that hidden in gunstocks? And what were they?
There is a compartment on the butt of an M1 Garand (and other military rifles) that is designed to house its cleaning kit (info and pictures). I believe Bull pulls a tobacco plug out of his buttstock, which is not something I've heard of elsewhere but wouldn't be terribly surprised by. U.S. troops carried C- and K-rations, which came in different "meals" and consisted of canned meats with vegetables, biscuits, tablets/cubes/packets of dextrose/malted milk/bouillon, D-ration chocolate bars, dried fruit, and coffee (along with salt, sugar, toliet paper, chewing gum, cigarettes and matches) in a cardboard box. (Lt. Winters struggled with one of these cans at the end of Ep. 2)