M7 vs M9 Bayonet

Which bayonet would you choose, and why?

  • M7

    Votes: 17 81.0%

  • M9

    Votes: 4 19.0%
  • Total voters
    21
  • Poll closed .
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As a bayonet, the M7 is better than the M9. They tried to do too much with the M9 (utility knife, wire cutter, saw, etc.), making it too big, heavy, and clunky. And it doesn't do any of its jobs very well.

Among M7 bayonets, the best, IMO, is the Canadian C7 made by Nella. If you can find one, buy it! As an added bonus, the scabbard, in combination with the latest frog, is designed to fit on PALS webbing. Neither the M8A1 nor the M10 scabbard works very well with modern webbing. (Even the Bianchi-style clip on M9 scabbards does not work well on PALS webbing. You really need to use an adapter.)
 
M6 wont fit the gun he has. M7 is the same blade but different everything else.

hso,

I thought the m1912 trench gun used the M1917 bayonet like the older '97guns used.

If there is today no bayonet training how can a young 2Lt. given an impossible task answer the immortal question, "What Now , LT?" The correct answer used to be "Fix Bayonets!" with partial credit for "Fire mission, SPLASH, on my position, HE VT, fire for effect"

-kBob
 
Ive got an M11 EOD knife which is just an M9 without all the bayonet attachment stuff. At least they were honest about what it is.

I just remembering getting in a lot of trouble for sharpening my issue M7 to make it useful as a knife.
 
M9 Junk, ACB Rules

I would have to take the lighter M7 for it's better carbon steel that will take and hold an edge. The M9 is a cheap pry-bar subject to snapping. Hell, it's not even full tang! Best overall tool?

Have and gone thru M-7's, M-9's, Ontario Army Special Purpose, the nice OKC 3S, all the assorted Italian-made Foxes, and even the sweet Zero Tolerance... Wouldn't pay nearly that price for an Extrema Ratio bayonet! It would have to be the Bushmaster Advanced Combat Bayonet (ACB, if not the actual Fox Leonida II it is a version of). Overall for superior design, materials, and workmanship vs. price, when you could still get them, it is the benchmark.

Bushmaster%20ACB%20on%20AR_zpsfp5xrdga.jpg
 
Last edited:
kBob,

I was specifically thinking of the 16" bayonet used on the 1917, 1903 and early M1s instead of the shorter later Garand bayonets.
 
kBob said:
M6 wont fit the gun he has. M7 is the same blade but different everything else.

-kBob
Click to expand...

NSS. :rolleyes: I was implying an M1A might be a good weapon to put a bayonet on........:evil:


I just remembering getting in a lot of trouble for sharpening my issue M7 to make it useful as a knife
Click to expand...

Me too, yugorpk. Ironically, the "Bayonet" Division {7thID(L)} did not like their soldiers' bayonets to be sharp. My M6 is sharp, as are the various other bayonets I own.
 
hso,

the 1917 does not use the same bayonet as the 03 and M-1 but its own bayonet used only on it and WWI era US trench guns. It features a full fuller blade and wooden grips that are marked by having two grooves to make it easy to identify.

The blade is basically the blade used on the SMLE of WWI marks.

-kBob
 
entropy,

Every bayonet in my Infantry company arms room was sharp, both bottom long edge and short "false" edge.

My unit had troopers under arms 24/7- 365 and ran small 3 to 6 man night patrols under arms 365.

We also kept our old style wooden handled e-tools sharp on the left side and both portions of the point, though at a different angle than the bayonets. There was a hand operated wheel with two guides on it in our arms room and one setting was to sharpen bayonets and the other guide for the e-tool.

It amazed me that units like 7thID got miffed over sharpening knifes. I guess it depends on the CO at whatever level.

My first CO expected everyone to have their own pocket knife well carried for as well and would get more pissed off about a fine German Acorn switch blade being dull and nasty than that it was a switch blade. Same-same German paratrooper gravity knives.

Later we got a CO that had a caniption fit if you had any sort of autoknife or a knife with a blade longer than your palm and started Article -15 proceedings. He even frowned at the Buck lockblades in belt pouches that were all but uniform but tolerated them begrudgedly.

-kBob
 
the 1917 does not use the same bayonet as the 03 and M-1 but its own bayonet used only on it
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info! <skurrying off to play with bayonets and rifles>
 
I think I have 11 milsurp rifles with bayonets. Not because I intend to run into combat with them or spear burglars in my foyer, but because I think they look cool and I hope to someday have a secure place to display them along with my other militaria stuff.

Operative word here is "secure".....
 
kBob said:
entropy,

Every bayonet in my Infantry company arms room was sharp, both bottom long edge and short "false" edge.

My unit had troopers under arms 24/7- 365 and ran small 3 to 6 man night patrols under arms 365.

We also kept our old style wooden handled e-tools sharp on the left side and both portions of the point, though at a different angle than the bayonets. There was a hand operated wheel with two guides on it in our arms room and one setting was to sharpen bayonets and the other guide for the e-tool.

It amazed me that units like 7thID got miffed over sharpening knifes. I guess it depends on the CO at whatever level.

My first CO expected everyone to have their own pocket knife well carried for as well and would get more pissed off about a fine German Acorn switch blade being dull and nasty than that it was a switch blade. Same-same German paratrooper gravity knives.

Later we got a CO that had a caniption fit if you had any sort of autoknife or a knife with a blade longer than your palm and started Article -15 proceedings. He even frowned at the Buck lockblades in belt pouches that were all but uniform but tolerated them begrudgedly.

-kBob
Click to expand...
For a while there in the mid 80's I had a CO who was German. He was in the American Army but had only moved to the states when he was 17. Ironically he went to the same high school I did. In any case he was an idiot. He didnt want privately owned weapons in his arms room. I had 4 or 5 handguns and a couple of rifles at the time and was living in the barracks. He just told us to keep our privately owned weapons in the wall locker because nothing goes better with drunk barracks guys than firearms.
 
The M-7 is lighter, and, if you are at home will probably have wire cutters, a saw, bottle opener, and whatever else the M-9 is supposed to do. I have a Phrobis dive knife modeled on the M-9. Pretty impressive as appearances go but it's hard to sharpen, doesn't hold an edge, and the saw blade barely works.

I'll second the suggestion for the Stoner. I had one of those and sold it with my SP1. That was a cool bayonet. As someone else mentioned, it can do everything the M-9 can but weighs as much as the M-7.
 
On my surplus guns the main use of bayonets is to keep a grounded weapon off the damp ground. Yep fix the bayonet then shove the bayonet into the ground short of the rifle muzzle. Of course you have to clean the bayonet later, but foe the day you kept you rifle out of the muck.

Taught to me by a WWII and Korea vet.

Did disturb some folks as it was also how to mark a hasty grave for graves registration during those wars.........

Makes one wonder how many bolt less M-1s there where floating around Europe in the late 40's.

-kBob
 
I'm pretty sure I think the OP is going for a traditional/authentic look, but I just discovered that Zero Tolerance makes a ZT-9 bayonet that is lightly modeled after the M9 but looks to be one heck of a knife with it's 1/4" full tang and S30V steel. Not cheap though (north of $300)!
 
The M1917 bayonet was also produced during the Vietnam era, for use with trench / riot shotguns. This is in all respects like the WW1 era bayonet, except that it is all parkerized and has checkered black plastic grips instead of the grooved wooden grips. These are getting a little hard to come by.

The WW1 M1917 bayonets are identical to the Pattern 1913 bayonets made under contract to the British, except for the markings. The first bayonets issued with U.S. M1917 rifles were simply Pattern 1913 bayonets pulled from the British contracts. Then, the British markings were crossed out and U.S. markings overstamped. Finally, bayonets were produced with only U.S. markings. This series makes for an interesting collection, along with the various scabbards issued with them.
 
I do like "sword" bayonets a lot*. I just don't like them on my rifles!

*I tend to like knives that most people think are swords, in any case.
 
When I joined the Army in 1962, I trained on the old series of weapons -- t he M1 Rifle, the M1919A5 Machine Gun and the M1917 BAR. We used the M1943 bayonet, which was simply the M1905 bayonet cut from 16" to 10" -- mine, I remember, had the bowie point.

And I agree with RC -- a man with an M1 rifle and a bayonet is a deadly opponent. There is a science to bayonet fighting -- designed to result in an unstoppable onslaught.

As a boy, I killed quite a few deer with an M1917 (mine was made by Eddystone.) I had an M1917 bayonet for it, but no sheath. I made one out of deer hide, and actually used my bayonet to make sure of a downed deer. I was amazed at how easily the bayonet went through the carcass.

In 1969, we ambushed a VC platoon coming out of a village, killed a couple and drove the rest back into the village. Then we fixed bayonets and went in after them, but somehow or other, they got out, because we never made contact with them. Later we captured some of the same platoon, and they told how terrifying it was to see us coming in, with artillery illumination showing that we had fixed bayonets.
 
The M9 bayonet is the worst. As a unit armorer, I've had to code out over a dozen due to the short, flat tang. They snap off at the hilt or at the wire cutter hole. The blade is too thick for any serious stabbing attempt, and you have the hardest time getting even a decent edge on the blade.

I voted for the M7 due to it's thinner, yet stronger blade and proven track record.

I prefer the new Marine Corp bayonet, with a better bowie design, full tang, and none of the swiss army knife bs.
 
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