British No. 8 Bayonet Find

I masked-up and made a quick pass through a very small swapper at our local sportsman club last Saturday. I was late to miss any crowd that might have been there for opening. There were probably 15 tables and the exhibitors outnumbered the lookers when I went through.

There were only two bayonets and I came away with one of them that was tagged: “SMLE Bayonet.” I knew that wasn’t the case. I didn’t see any markings, except for a tiny number on the crosspiece. I thought it was a standard-length Indian 1A SLR bayonet (which appealed to me, as my standard Indian 1A example is really beat up and this was a nice upgrade).

When I got home, I was looking it over under good light and saw “SMT” and a broad arrow on the pommel end. Not what you would expect on an India piece. Got out Skennerton and sure enough, had me a British No. 8 bayonet. Go figure: how this ended up in rural north Texas, the only bayonet on a table with a bunch of hunting stuff, commercial knives, etc.? It just goes to show that there is still good stuff out there and you never know where it may turn up.

https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...omposite-1.jpg

Very cool

You've done well if this in any indication.

I had one walk in the door of a surplus shop I was working for in 2004, I knew what it was and the guy didn't want to sell anyway. Eventually it showed up in a militaria shop a couple years later when he needed cash. Few are seen around, nice catch.

British Trials No.8 Poole S.L.E.M. Bowie Knife Bayonet, manufactured in 1946 with only 2,400 produced. Trialed for use with the S.L.E.M. (Self Loading Experimental Model) Rifle and although not adopted into service, this is a well documented Trials Bayonet in use with an Experimental Rifle.

The No 8 Trials Bayonet is designed for the 7.92mm S.L.E.M. (Self Loading Experimental Model) rifle. The muzzle ring is 14.8mm as opposed to 22.6mm on the No 5 Carbine Bayonets, both the No 5 and No 8 hold the same bowie knife edge, grips and pommel.

Over the past many years I have been very fortunate to obtain and display 3 x No 8's in my collection, picture attached of one of these examples - With the low numbers in production, you have done extremely well to obtain the one you did at the swapper meet.

Nice looking bayonet...

Great Find!

i had the pleasure of examining an example of this extremely rare rifle at Warminster the other year...

Just a bit large to sneak it out like a poachers gun Mr Clark !

Very cool!

I don't think I would have got far Ron, about 6 feet would be my guess before I got felled!:rofl:

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Originally Posted by mrclark303

at Warminster

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Good to see you...yes, very nice as I expect everything there was.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by browningautorifle

Good to see you...yes, very nice as I expect everything there was.

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Cheers Jim, it's an incredible collection, I like to visit when I can. I happened to spot the trials semi auto on the wall, the FN49 is obviously a direct development of this prototype.

It's a fascinating design and it's potential is clear to see.

Years ago there was one in a shop here that had been modded to simulate a No5 bayonet: the guard had been swapped and the stakings which held it on gave the game away once the grips were removed. Probably the fate of a good many of them when the No5 was in demand and the No8 was not.