Best bayonet for AR-15?

CapnMac said:

In fifty years, our "junky" M7 (and M8/9/10s, etc.) will be "valuable milsurp."
And people will argue over how many kwatloos ought be spent on one, too.
And that one guy will be all wrong all day, too []

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In the mean time, I'll keep my ratty old M7 that has been with me all over the world right next to my M16A2 clone rifle.

wmgeorge said:

By the time you run out of ammo for your AR and you need to fix bayonets it will not see much use. The bayonet was useful when we used trenches and it was over the top. But for modern combat its nice to have a good sharp knife in one hand and your Beretta in the other, just my 2 cents worth.

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You keep bringing up trenches, and now "over the top". I guess you mean WWI trenches? The kind of trenches where going over the top put a soldier in harms way of machine guns and artillery?

CapnMac said:

In fifty years, our "junky" M7 (and M8/9/10s, etc.) will be "valuable milsurp."...

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Already happened. Semi-recently wanted to make a bayonet light mount for a shotgun and just to have it generally as a backup for borrowed training rifles etc. Old school thing before rails on everything. Take an old M7 with a broken blade, toss the scales, grind the rest of the blade flush-ish with the guard, weld on a 1" ring. I was gonna weld on a rail but same thing.

Nope. There are now ZERO 5 gal buckets of rusty M7s at surplus stores. Go to eBay and the broken, rusty, cracked scales ones are $50, or more. Immediately usable ones are going $100 to the sky's the limit. Folks asking $800 for certain markings, etc.

(I did the project still but had a friend with a plasma cutter make a "knife" blank of aluminum plate for me, and got a rusty M7 guard and pommel with working clips for /only/ $25. Ugh.)

entropy said:

M7. Adapter as shown. But why would you want a bayonet on a 16" carbine anyway?

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or for any reason at all since the 1870 or so?

greyling22 said:

or for any reason at all since the 1870 or so?

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When guarding prisoners or trying to control rioters, a bayonet gives an option short of shooting them with live ammo.

wmgeorge said:

Why bayonet training is still just as important for today's troops - We Are The Mighty

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That article made some very good points. I was highly disappointment when the Army did away with bayonet training. And even what you learn with pugil sticks comes in very handy when you breech a structure and you have to fend someone off with your rifle.

greyling22 said:

or for any reason at all since the 1870 or so?

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One thing I have discovered is that when you have a sharp pointy implement on the end of your firearm others are less inclined to attempt to grab it to remove it from your possession.

Best bayonet? A sidearm. Bayonets became mostly obsolete with the repeating rifle. Even the military rarely trains with them. I never carried one after basic training. I suppose they may still be a practical tool for intimidation purposes for riot control and such, but I don't recall seeing anyone during the recent/current unrest with a fixed bayonet.

A bayonet is only as effective as the attitude / aggressiveness of the man behind it. The main purpose of bayonet training was in instilling the warrior spirit. (I guess the army has found other ways to do this, or dropped the whole idea entirely.)

i carried one in vietnam, and found the bayonet was useful to hold my m-16 up by jamming the bayonet into ground when on a quick lay down brake. never used it on a human.

eastbank said:

i carried one in vietnam, and found the bayonet was useful to hold my m-16 up by jamming the bayonet into ground when on a quick lay down brake. never used it on a human.

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I use the folding bayonet on my SKS when cleaning the rifle. I disassemble the bolt group/gas tube components, extend the bayonet, and stab it into the ground to hold the barreled action in place. I can then spray brake or carb cleaner through the chamber, where it can drip out of the muzzle (don't tell that bartender chick aoc) before I start running cleaning rods with brushes and patches thru the bore. Best use I have found for a bayonet.

Can we move to some real discussion about something that matters? No longer Watching.

wmgeorge said:

Can we move to some real discussion about something that matters? No longer Watching.

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If you were the thread creator, you could ask a mod to lock the thread.

Since your not the thread creator, and neither am I, our option is to go read something else.

jdh said:

One thing I have discovered is that when you have a sharp pointy implement on the end of your firearm others are less inclined to attempt to grab it to remove it from your possession.

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I got to do some "intruder training" with a gentleman who was very well versed in CQB. As in he was the intruder with a "knife" and I got to have a blue AR. It seems like every time I came around a corner, my rifle was pointed at the ceiling and I had a rubber knife poking me somewhere. It is apparently pretty easy to make the end of a longer AR point away from you if you are within 6 feet, quick, and are not shy about grabbing the barrel. And most of the places in my house are within 6 feet of the middle of a hall or room. I am hoping an actual burglar would be easier to sneak up on. And I have a new respect for the efficiency of a knife inside a suburban home.

He was trained to keep a bayonet fixed for solo room clearing, or if he was first into a room. This was one reason why.

Every man needs at least one rifle that can fix a proper bayonet.

There are still instances in these days where the good guys run out of ammo. An example is the Mamasapano Massacre on Minadanao Island, Philippines

A Special Ops National Police op targeting an Abu Sayaf terrorist wanted by the US went badly wrong and a 44 man blocking force got surrounded in a corn field. They held out for hours but their relief elements never got to them and they were wiped out with only one or rwo survivors. They ran out of ammo while the MILF attackers were able to resupply.

There were no wounded, only KIAs whi were stripped. The MILFs then used the dead troopers cell phones to call the families of the fallen to taunt them. Classy.........

Bayonets may not have saved them but at least they could have taken more of the MILFs with them because you never run out if point with a bayonet.

So in the above case, while your fixing your bayonet someone shoots you!! Do you think they are going to run up to you and get stabbed?? They would have better off leaving it behind and carrying more ammo.

Every rifle that I own capable of fixing a bayonet has one except for my 03A3, but it has a broken bayonet lug and would be about my seventh or eighth choice for a combat situation anyway. One day I'll replace that broken lug then start shopping for its bayonet.

I never received any bayonet training while in the service. I did however grow up around a few old men who had seen service in the Second World War. One of them told me once that a bayonet was for when the enemy was within literal spitting distance. If you run out of ammo having a fixed bayonet and the willingness to use it might buy you enough time to either load a fresh mag or pull your sidearm. If, by then, you haven't got either a bayonet beats hell out of a clubbed rifle. I like the M7.

Make sure to get training in the proper yell to scream when you actually use the bayonet.

Very important bit, often overlooked. lol

We were critiqued by our basic training drill sgt. in this in bayonet training when using M-14’s in 1967. He was a harsh critic.

I have fond memories of bayonet training in BCT at Fort Dix, C-4-2, Summer of 1967-"WHAT'S THE SPIRIT OF THE BAYONET !!!!" We were taught to aim for the throat.

FL-NC said:

Even the military rarely trains with them. I never carried one after basic training.

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I never trained with one in the Army, was never issued one and never had them in my MTOE.

Having said that, I was Armor. Can you imagine getting the order to "FIX BAYONETS" while inside the turret of an M1A with 3 other dudes?

Nature Boy said:

I never trained with one in the Army, was never issued one and never had them in my MTOE.

Having said that, I was Armor. Can you imagine getting the order to "FIX BAYONETS" while inside the turret of an M1A with 3 other dudes?

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Besides the 1 day we ran around stabbing tires and things and yelling (under close drill sgt supervision, cause infantry trainees are very incident prone in '87) the only other instance where we had those things was at graduation, fixed. It was August, and people kept passing out with these things at right shoulder arms. I was concerned I would get stabbed and not be allowed to start jump school later that afternoon. Your post did make me imagine a HUGE blade on the main gun of an abrams tank though. Up front, on the initial push into bagdad. THAT would be cool.

Darth-Vang said:

It looks so complete….

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Except for the missing carry handle and fixed rear stock.

CapnMac said:

In fifty years, our "junky" M7 (and M8/9/10s, etc.) will be "valuable milsurp."
And people will argue over how many kwatloos ought be spent on one, too.
And that one guy will be all wrong all day, too []

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You are using my technique for predicting the future!

O Great Sage, what will the future bring?

A: More of the same.