How useful are bayonets?

Forget all my negative comments thus far. I have begun watching "Lost in Space" on Netflix. Why I began watching a series based on a bad TV show & a worse movie is beyond me, but in the pilot I discovered the perfect use for a bayonet. If you are ever on a rocket, traveling in space and then crash & you & your family get out and save a Geodesic dome tent & some other stuff & then realize you forgot the generator and will freeze to death in 6 hours & your daughter ( with her space suit ) dives into the lake to find the generator from the now drowned ship, recovers a generator & then swims back, only to discover that the hole she jumped into is now covered in about a foot of solid ice, then a heavy wood & metal 1903 with a thick bayonet is the perfect tool. One shot into the ice to create a crack, & then stand over the ice & then jab it about 5/6 times & then hit the ice with the butt of the rifle about 3 times & repeat about a dozen times & pull the child & generator from the ice. Should take all of 5 minutes. Cynics may say this is an unlikely scenario, but the Cubs won the Series, Trump won the election & Roseanne got another series. Clearly our universe has drifted into the Mickey Mouse Club Wednesday (anything can happen day) stage of it's existence. I must rush to a curio & relic store to get an old heavy rifle before they are all gone.
 
If I recall bayonets are to be kept dull so they can be removed from the body they were stabbed in easierly. They maybe sharpened I guess if more utilitarian tasks were needed.

Once incident did make me get a bayonet for the AR was a bear tried to crawl in my window one March when I had to poke it with my replica viking sword that was made out of carbon steel. It was an early thaw and I was cooking up a literal storm of bacon, after the poke it raked the blade with its paws giving it more hurt and ran away. Good thing I got the carbon steel replica and not the "More Authentic" looking weird breakable metal alloy. The blade was "dull" and I guess that's why it came out after the panic poke with massive adrenaline behind it, as the longest sharp device I subconsciously grabbed and used. It was over before I realized what happened, and had the adrenaline after shakes after the episode.

That got me thinking of a few feral dog packs that like to form when they are abandoned by their owners or PETA "Liberated Ones!" that pack up at times and go after any things that moves.

That's where a bayonet on an AR could come in handy! If you got to reload and have to time for it, you got a nice pokie thing to stab them with and drive them off if they catch you between reloading! Being on the business end of a few big packs like that made me usually carry a high cap pistol for feral dog protection and a big knife if I had to "get down and dirty" and such. I had the good fortune of a neighbor who showed me how to safely use a knife when going in to close "encounters" when I was younger.
 
Roguer said:
That got me thinking of a few feral dog packs that like to form when they are abandoned by their owners or PETA "Liberated Ones!" that pack up at times and go after any things that moves.

That's where a bayonet on an AR could come in handy!
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Bayonets throw your aim off. Besides the sound will scare away most dogs.

Oh and PETA is against abandoning animals. They try to adopt them, but they do euthanize animals.

Roguer said:
I had the good fortune of a neighbor who showed me how to safely use a knife when going in to close "encounters" when I was younger.
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Oh yeah, what did he show you? I am all ears.
 
not2sharp said:
Depends on the application. The bayonet turns the rifle into an improvised pike. Nothing says stop better than a sharp pointy thing hanging right in front of you.

It is an interesting subject, since the bayonets, which is a relatively recent invention (the first ones were made about 300 years ago), cycled through just about every historical blade shape ever invented.

n2s
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True! but i think yes it is good that it gives advantage of distance between your attacker but at the same time i think it is kind of difficult to quick draw it, whereas with a knife i think it will be quite fast to draw but of course it has its own disadvantages. still the confusion remain what will be better in a defense kind of situation, it can be an animal attacking while out doors or in a close combat battlefield.
 
Hi all, I have two bayonets in my collection. The first is a USMC K-bar dedicated to an M8. The sheath that it is carried in and which I have is metal and web and designed to be carried on a military web belt. The second bayonet is an AK-47 CCCP with a nine inch blade and sheathed in a tan leather sheath. This bayonet appears to be in new condition and I have had this for a few years. The M8 may be from the Korean war era or even the Vietnam war era, These are just guesses on my part. The K-bar is a double sided blade with one side sharpened half way up the spine. It is also very sharp, both sides, as one member thought that bayonets were kept dull, they were not. The AK47 bayonet is also very sharp and has a nice thick blade and wood and stainless handle on it. I am quite pleased with both of these bayonets and am quite sure I could use the AK for a backwoods/canoe adventure and have no problems with it at all. Thanks for your time, your friend, Trevor Calhoun.
 
Trevor55 said:
.... It is also very sharp, both sides, as one member thought that bayonets were kept dull, they were not. The AK47 bayonet is also very sharp and has a nice thick blade and wood and stainless handle on it. ....
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I just wanted to add a note on whether these weapons were sharpened. The bayonet in addition to being a weapon or tool, was a part of the soldier's uniform dress. As such there was a reluctance during peace-time to sharpen these things as it would change the appearance of the bayonets while on parade.

n2s
 
Trevor55 said:
Hi all, I have two bayonets in my collection. The first is a USMC K-bar dedicated to an M8. The sheath that it is carried in and which I have is metal and web and designed to be carried on a military web belt. The second bayonet is an AK-47 CCCP with a nine inch blade and sheathed in a tan leather sheath. This bayonet appears to be in new condition and I have had this for a few years. The M8 may be from the Korean war era or even the Vietnam war era, These are just guesses on my part. The K-bar is a double sided blade with one side sharpened half way up the spine. It is also very sharp, both sides, as one member thought that bayonets were kept dull, they were not. The AK47 bayonet is also very sharp and has a nice thick blade and wood and stainless handle on it. I am quite pleased with both of these bayonets and am quite sure I could use the AK for a backwoods/canoe adventure and have no problems with it at all. Thanks for your time, your friend, Trevor Calhoun.
Click to expand...

Bayonets were often not sharpened until more modern times. There have always been some types of bayonets that were but only in modern times are sharpened bayonets the norm. This is because they are often intended to do double duty as a knife.
 
Reading "The Jungle Survival" pocket manual, a compilation of what mainly the British and some American Lessons Learned fishing against the Japanese in WWII. Concerning the rifle and bayonet it says" Against the Japanese, the mere threat of the bayonet is not sufficient. It must be used to kill them. It should be the ambition of every infantryman to redden his bayonet with the enemy's blood". John
 
There is a good reference article to read on the history of the bayonet that I just finished at "History and evolution of the Bayonet" on Bing, and it suggests that indeed some bayonets were kept dull and used for practice purposes. But, as one with some military experience I must ask myself, if I was given a bayonet from stores as part of my dress, would I keep it sharpened? Yes I would as I would keep all my kit in ready shape. Your friend, Trevor Calhoun.
 
I saw a good use for a bayonet today. The kid popped a heavy cap off a bottle of beer using a bayonet attached to a Yugo SKS rifle. Have to figure out how to upload it.
 
As an actual weapon of modern warfare , I don't think the bayo is statistically very significant as a cause of combat deaths and casualties . The psychological and spiritual factors may still be important . " FIX BAYONETS !!! " , might still mean something about determination and commitment to keep fighting no matter what .
 
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