Bayonet moves point of impact

[Gil Boyd]

Jim,
You'll remember it was always instilled in training to fix bayonets as a fear tactic, nothing more nothing less!
It is perhaps regarded as a safety blanket in CQB where you just physically don't have the time to change mags you are that close in.
It is then the SLR with its length gave you some degree of comfort, sadly the SA80 brings you right in close, as a much shorter rifle, so aggression is the key to success as shown in Afghanistan on a number of occasions.
I am sure the Armourers on here will tell you, it is what it is.............a sharp point and the extension to your arm. Never saw any soldiers in my Regiment ever sharpen the blades either, if thrust properly, it did its job first time, and exactly what it was designed for.

No need for sharpening, as Chefs have decent knives to cut up your chips when needed

[CINDERS]

Accounts I have read regarding the use of the bayonet in WWI our chaps in the AIF were very adept at using it in close quarters as the Turks and the Germans found to their peril some of the close stuff where the boys had to tear the roof off the trenches at Gallipoli then jumping in to get at the Turks in a dark and dusty trench beggars description.
The Germans in WWI hated being across from the Australians due to the fact of the dexterity our chaps had with the bayonet once in amongst them in their trench.

I remember a story I read on the Falklands conflict where the Ghurka's were to assault a known position up on a hill, the Argi's got wind of the impending attack and fled apparently not in the mood to face the men from Nepal armed with their Kukri's such was their reputation with that blade.

[browningautorifle]

It is perhaps regarded as a safety blanket in CQB

That was what I told the troops too, if you have a stoppage, it'll be when you're right on top of him.

[Gil Boyd]

............or out of ammo

[browningautorifle]

out of ammo

Remember...out of ammo is treated as a stoppage. Done as a drill.

[Gil Boyd]

[jesse_]

Have you checked your barrel dampening? On a mauser or 1903 you have a couple of pounds of up pressure at the forend tip.
On an m1 the front ferrule pulls the lower band *down* to dampen.

Here is a ferrule being glassed in place with a 40 pound oil bucket providing downforce.

Kuhnhausen specifies 30-50 pounds.

Many many stocks have zero dampening.

[browningautorifle]

Kuhnhausen specifies 30-50 pounds.

I hadn't heard that one...

[jesse_]

I should be home in a few days.

Will post the page from Kuhnhausens book as well as the Nat Match specs from that 1962 or 1963 manual.
The national match manual specs the ferrule datumed from the top of the stock.

Also there is a tool to check spec that i dont have. There is one critical dimension but no actual print for the tool.

Lets talk in a few days. If interested i can post my long journey on fixing this particular stock tenon from hell so i dont crap up the OPs thread

[ROCK]

It is perhaps regarded as a safety blanket in CQB where you just physically don't have the time to change mags you are that close in.

I was reading today of one such incident. A Marine veteran interviewed in a new book, The Rifle, gave an account of his personal experience during a very large Banzai charge on Saipan. A Japanese soldier attacked him before he had a chance to reload his M1. The soldier ran up to the Marine and impaled himself on the bayonet of the M1; probably didn't see the blade in the dark. The Marine was unable to pull the bayonet from the body and was then attacked by another Japanese who needed to be dispatched by the Marine's Ka-Bar.