Utica M5 Bayonet

[Bill Ricca]

The M5 is my favorite. Unfortunately there are tons of M5A1's round, but not too many US M5's. The Utica is quite scarce.

It has the Ordnance Bomb markings. None of the other M5's or M5A1's have it.



I saw a publication that covered Utica's production and it said 28,000 Utica M5's were produced. That must be a very small percentage compared to the rest of production. The M5A1's production started in 1962.


Here is a publication showing the productions of the M5A1's.

http://www.billricca.com/pubs/m5_comb_fin2.jpg

Information

Warning: This is a relatively older thread This discussion is older than 360 days. Some information contained in it may no longer be current.

[Joe W]

The following is from Gary Cunningham's "Bayonet Points"

"Within a fairly short time, complaints began to come in from the field that the M5 was sometimes very difficult to remove from the rifle, especially if wearing gloves. It was found that under many conditions it was too hard to sufficiently depress the latching lever, and that on some rifles there was a little fore-and-aft movement. Further development led to a modification of the latching lever and the cuts in the tang for the placement of the coil lever return spring. The spring angle was altered to change the direction of the load to an angle from the rear from its previous vertical position, and the hole in the lever was changed to an oval shape to allow some lateral movement to tighten the lever against the bayonet stud when locked. These changes caused the nomenclature to be changed from M5 to M5A1. I have not found the record as to when the change officially occurred (although it apparently was in the 1956 time period) - does anyone have that information? In the photo below, note the more or less vertical backcut (the line between the true edge at the bottom and the centerline of the blade) used on US contract M5 and M5A1 bayonets other than those made by J&D Tool Co which is discussed later in this article."

I have a M5A1 that happened to come home with me when I was discharged from the M.C. in 1959. It was in 1956 that I was issued a M5 or M5A1 Bayonet, not sure at this time which it was. I most likly got the M5A1, which I still have, sometime in 1957.
I am guessing that you may be speaking only of those M5A1 bayonets manufactured by Utica. The "Development Background" is surely wrong if it is implying that it was only between "Oct. 1962 and March 1967" that the M5A1 was manufactured.

[Bill Ricca]

No, Utica made only M5's. Again it was a very small contract.

I have never let out information, but in 1986 I purchased about several Utica M5's that were early experimetal production. They made 50 of them. The springs were different. There were no grips made yet. They were never sent as part of the contract because they were working on processing production. Two of them have misaligned holes.

I got them from a pair of guys who were responsible for selling a lot of old material for Utica. They had lots of commercial knives, but I got all the military they had left. I worked with SARCO and we purchased over 5,000 WWII M1 Bayonets, in partial production. Many still need lots of cuts. I have several that are neat as examples of forging.

[Joe W]

Bill, My point was that the M5A1 was manufactured long before 1962. More likely in 1956.
As I said, less the part about the Utica, " I have a M5A1 that happened to come home with me when I was discharged from the M.C. in 1959. It was in 1956 that I was issued a M5 or M5A1 Bayonet, not sure at this time which it was. I most likly got the M5A1, which I still have, sometime in 1957.
The "Development Background" is surely wrong if it is implying that it was only between "Oct. 1962 and March 1967" that the M5A1 was manufactured."

[Bill Ricca]

What markings are on your M5A1?

[Joe W]

What markings are on your M5A1?

PM sent

[Joe W]

What markings are on your M5A1?

Believe it to be marked with the "Eagle and 3 stars" DAS. It is an AERIAL which is marked M5-1 instead of M5A1.