As I said during 30 years of various military service.
"Instead of making me carry this big, dull, stupid 2 pound bayonet around, why not let me carry a pistol that weighs the same? "
Dude, no S. I was in the infantry for chrissake, and I NEVER ONCE drew a bayonet from the arms room. NOT ONCE. Every time I deployed, I'd leave it behind too. If they ever had made me carry it, I'd have lost it along the way and just paid for it. I hated carrying it that much.
Now a good field knife, that was different, but I drew the line at the KaBar, and it was only useful for so much. Best knife for a soldier has GOT to be that little Gerber Applegate/Fairbairn folder, the tiny one, or something like it. Most useful though is a certain plastic safety coupon cutter you can get. It is tiny, fits on your gear easy, doesn't cut you, and you just pull 550 cord through it and it cuts it right up. Considering this is 90% of what you'll be cutting, that makes it the most valuable tool.
If you find yourself fighting with a knife, and the fight isn't over in seconds, you've probably done lost. Knife fighting takes skill most of us don't have the time or need for anymore. I'm great with a rifle, good with a pistol, okay at groundfighting, but I have no illusions that I am any degree of knife fighter. They just don't exist by and large, particularly in the US.
I've run the bayonet course in the army, but thank God only one day at basic. I must admit it was fun, but kind of useless. We broke otherwise decent M16's and a bunch of dummy rifles (they have a rubber receiver and are built out of varying amounts of real parts --some are all plastic with just the barrel, some have just plastic receivers, so they do recycle some of the weapons...). You take your DPMS rifle and do that with it, expect broken parts. Mil spec doesn't even hold up. Personally, I think the only reason they do it still is because of tradition (nobody has come along with enough authority and told them how stupid it is yet) and because of bloodlust.
Nothing gets you pumped up and violent for no reason like that bayonet course. Nothing. Only place I ever saw rifles get broken like sticks and dudes so fired up over nothing, ready to KILL.
But for HD? Judging by the OP and some of the responses, it must be a young thing. If not, if you are an adult, then you are definitely a mall ninja, no doubt about it, and probably a high ranking one too, like a general or something. As a kid, I was fascinated with bayonets too. I don't know why, but I still have a Mauser bayonet from Toledo 1895 --blade is spring steel, it bends but snaps back. Sure don't make 'em like that anymore! And for hunting, pretty sure that is under "mutilation of animals" and is illegal most everywhere. It is also cruel too. A bayonet doesn't kill fast and painless, it is like getting stuck with a tire iron. So unless you are an aspiring serial killer and like to make animals suffer, just stick to a pistol to the head or a sharp blade for desanguination. If you are using this to put game down, I hope you trip and fall on it on the way out, you deserve it.
Finally, as has been mentioned, it ruins any zero you may have had. It ruins handling. If you think an FAL is too big for negotiating rooms, you might be surprised to learn it is better than an M4 with a bayonet. At least it doesn't get hung up on crap.
In the future, to keep from looking TOO novice or like a GAP GI Joe, keep the bayonet discussions limited to collecting. Just a little advice, as that is what they are good for really. That and parading around in your tighty whiteys, flip flops and army helmet with a beer in one hand and a bayonet affixed to an M4 in the other, but that's a different story.
Bayonets indeed.
