The bayonet will only effect the POI when the gun is fired by a inexperienced shooter with poor form . If you do not hold the rifle correctly to manage the recoil , the weight of the bayo will hold down the muzzle climb . The bayo has never made a difference with any of the good shooters I have seen ,nor any of my 80 Mosins . Another internet myth is that a Mosin " has the barrel "" tuned "" for the bayonet " and shoots better with it on the rifle . Facts : any movable , vibrating weight on the barrel is bad for accuracy . Mosin's were designed to be made quickly and in large numbers , the barrel has a convex mating surface and is screwed in until the rear sight base is close to the top . The resulting barrel pressure with vary from 25 to 250 lbs [ on the ones I have removed barrels from ] , not hardly " tuned " . Russianicon snipers did not shoot with bayo's on , a lot of their snipers had non scoped rifles .