Bayonet usage... info and/or photos?

[crazy horse]

ok thanks Mat, like you, I like to have a bayonet for all my rifles, oh well I guess with the Russian military ammo, nobody will get that close to me anyway.

[ToxicGas]

Indeed. Glad to help.

Mat

[Yakov]

I think the official rule was bayonets at all time except for trains and houses. Also, the rifle wasn't sighted in with the bayonet on the Cossack version. Here is a tidbit from 7.62x54r.net:

Shortly after the adoption of the M91 Infantry rifle two shorter versions were developed for mounted troops. The M91 Dragoon was intended for mounted infantry and the M91 Cossack for cavalry. At 48 ¾” they are 2 ½” shorter than the M91's 51 ¼”. The primary difference in the two is the Dragoon was sighted with the bayonet attached and the Cossack was not issued with a bayonet. Cossack rifles are scarce today and easily recognized by the mark "Ka3" on the chamber. Production of these models only took place at Izhevsk and Tula and overlapped M91/30 production by a few years in the early 1930s. Most of these rifles were later updated to M91/30 specifications with new sights, handguards, and barrel bands, but will retain the earlier barrel markings shown on this page. They are commonly referred to as "ex-Dragoons" or "updated Dragoons" by collectors. "Updated Cossacks" are much less common, but have been documented.

[Dave]

The use of a bayonet definately effects the accuracy of a weapon, but to what degree depends on the type of weapon and the zeroing of the weapon. I'll try my best to explain why. Each time a weapon is fired the dirrerent parts of it flex, jump, and vibrate in differing ways. Through repeated shots, these vibrations course through the weapon in a predictable way and allow it to be effectively zeroed to that particular configuration. By adding a bayonet to the end/extending it, the weight distribution has changed, so the behavior of the weapon while firing the shot has changed. It will move differently while absorbing recoil, and though this produces small changes, over significant distances it can become quite a problem. This is exactly the reason that I was always forbidden to use my bayonet except when specifically instructed to (almost never).

Interestingly, I have also heard of a test conducted on several different weapon systems and was able to drag up some more info on it...Test groups were shot with and without a bayonet with an M1, K98, SMLE, Mosin-Nagant, and Arisaka. The first of those three showed marked decrease in accuraccy while firing with bayonets, while the Arisaka and Mosin-Nagant actually had a bit of IMPROVEMENT in accurracy while firing with fixed bayonets. Why did this happen? The Mosin-Nagant and Arisaka seemed to be factory zeroed with the bayonet taken into account, while the others did not.

Lesson? In most cases, a bayonet will throw off your shots slightly, as it changes its behavior, but that is assuming the weapon is properly zeroed before affixing the bayonet. If you zero the weapon properly with the bayonet attached you will not be gouging your accuraccy, but then removing it will decrease your accurracy. Zero with bayonet, or zero without for best results.