Thisisyourcaptin
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i found this in my stash of stuff. It’s been in the family for years. Was my grandpas. I think. That or my dad bought it from the base. Either way we have no idea what rifle it came from. Anyone here know?
What rifle does this bayonet go to?
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badkarmamib
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It is an M5 Garand bayonet that mounted via the stud in the gas plug, rather than a ring over the barrel.
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Thisisyourcaptin
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Huh. Not familiar with the M5. Is that the version used in Korea? That and Vietnam where the two wars my grandpa was in.
badkarmamib
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"The M5 was introduced in 1953 to replace the M1 and M1905E1 bayonets used with the M1 rifle. The M5 mated the blade of the M4 bayonet with a hilt incorporating a novel attachment system. In place of a muzzle ring, the crosspiece had a steel stud that inserted into the M1 rifle's gas cylinder lock screw."
http://worldbayonets.com/Bayonet_Identification_Guide/United_States__Post-War_/us_post_war_2.html
7th one in the list
http://worldbayonets.com/Bayonet_Identification_Guide/United_States__Post-War_/us_post_war_2.html
7th one in the list
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Thisisyourcaptin
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Awesome. Thanks. Never seen that web sight. Guess now I need to try and find a rifle for it.
badkarmamib
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bannockburn
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Yep, we've got a winner!
This a surplus West German (possibly Carl Eickhorn manufacture),copy of the M5 bayonet where the latching lever has been removed and the hilt has been rounded off and refinished.
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Thisisyourcaptin
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So I think I understand this wrong. The M5 is the bayonet. Right? The rifle is still an M1 Garand. Correct?
So if I’m looking for a rifle for this I need to look for a early to mid 50s model that holds the M5 bayonet.
Sorry. Know little to nothing about garlands, pretty have spent all my time on the 1911 and Mausers.
badkarmamib
Member
Any M1 Garand rifle can use either an M1 bayonet or an M5 bayonet. They simply attach to different points on the rifle. (It doesn't help that the military used the same nomenclature for rifles, bayonets, tanks...)
M1:
M5:
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AlexanderA
Member
To mount the M5 bayonet, the Garand must be equipped with a late-type gas-relief lock screw (plug). (This is the type that opens up the gas system when the right type of grenade launcher is attached.) The M5 bayonet will not work with the WW2 slotted lock screw. But switching lock screws is easy.
The lower bayonet in your first picture is an M1905 bayonet as produced in WW2 (sometimes called an M1942 by collectors), with plastic grips and Parkerized blade. The upper bayonet in the same picture (attached to the rifle) is an M1905E1, which is an M1905 with the blade arsenal-shortened to 10 inches. Two styles of blade tips were produced: the spear point (as shown), and the Bowie style. The M1 bayonet is the same style, except with the blade originally made in 10 inches, with the fuller (groove) not running all the way to the tip.
The Garand, as well as the Springfield, will also mount the M1892 Krag bayonet (which was based on a Swiss prototype). Krag bayonets remained standard issue for the cadets at West Point, even when they were using the Garand as their standard rifle.
The M6 bayonet is the same as the M5, except that it has a normal muzzle ring instead of the stud. The M6 is the bayonet for the M14 rifle.
FL-NC
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Yep, Garand bayonet. I have one just like it I took from a cache in Haiti.
lysanderxiii
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After WWI and Korea, the gas lock became the "high hump". The hump was part of the grenade launching system. That meant the traditional bayonet would not fit over the newer style high hump gas lock. The M5 had the device added to the hand guard that fit into the slot of the gas lock screw. kwg
https://www.ammogarand.com/m1-garand-gas-cylinder-lock-post-wwii-whum1.html
AlexanderA
Member
That's not correct. The muzzle ring of the M1905 or M1 bayonet fits over the portion of the gas lock that's in front of the hump. This portion serves no purpose except to increase the Garand's muzzle diameter, so that it can accept Springfield bayonets.
herrwalther
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Looks just like the M5A1 I have. Garand bayonet used in Korea and Vietnam.
CapnMac
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One of my sevearl books (of course, I can't remember which one) stated that the M5 was built in anticipation of various flash hiders becoming standard on Garands (which never actually happened). The flash hiders would not be of a diameter to fit the muzzle ring, hence, use the gas plug.
AlexanderA
Member
This is plausible. The M2 cone-type flash hider used with the M1C and M1D would block any bayonet from being mounted, so that issue is moot. But the T37 prong-type flash hider, developed post-Korea and used with late M1D's, would block a ring-type bayonet but not the M5. However, a bayonet hardly would have been used with a sniper rifle. And the M5 bayonet preceded the T37 flash hider by several years.
CapnMac
Member
Yeah, I started poking through references over the various T models ginned up over the 13 year gestation of the M-14, to see if one of those retained a close-to-muzzle gas port, which would have meant keeping the M5 as a useful item. Got nothing so far.
The M6 for the M-14 pretty much had to have a muzzle ring, from the design of that firearm.
AlexanderA
Member
Speaking of accessories for the M14, a very useful one -- and for the M1A as well -- is the muzzle compensator that was designed for the squad automatic variant (M14A1).
https://www.gunbroker.com/item/825315580
This slips over the standard flash hider and locks to the bayonet stud. (So obviously a bayonet cannot be used at the same time as the compensator.) This helps prevent muzzle climb in rapid fire.
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