Reference sources of information about surplus bayonets for your curio & relic rifle

[loademup]

I've seen a few posts in the past with questions about bayonets for curio and relic military rifles.

I was gradually lured into bayonet collecting as a side hobby to curio and relic gun collecting after a bayonet came with some of the C&R guns I bought.

To become a somewhat informed bayonet buyer (and I am by all means NOT an expert on this subject), takes some reading and research from those who are experts and may lead you to not over paying for something or being duped by something that is being mis-represented as genuine military issue. Note: Reputable bayonet sellers will identify their product as either being genuine military (as in USGI, for example) or reproductions.

I have listed some major web sites below where you can get good information about military bayonets of the past and present.

There is a whole world out there of reproduction and genuine military bayonets; and there are many sellers to be found. So maybe next time you are at a gun show or browsing the web looking for a good surplus bayonet for your curio and relic or modern clone military rifle, you can be a bit discriminating armed with some knowlegde about what you are buying...reproduction or genuine military issue if that matters to you. If you are selective about the curio & relic arms that you buy, then you should also be equally selective about the bayonet you are thinking about buying for them...at least to my mind.

US Military Knives, an excellent web site with links to other web sites of bayonet knowledge experts:

http://www.usmilitaryknives.com/Table%20of%20Contents.htm

At the above site, I recommend the link to "Gary Cunningham's Bayonet Points Index" if you are interested in U.S. Military bayonets. You could spend hours reading there. I also recommend "Willam Humes' M7 Bayonet Page" for information that may be useful about buying and collecting M7 bayonets.

World of Bayonets:

http://worldbayonets.com/index.htm

This site contains information and pictures of bayonets from all over the world. The "Bayonet Identification Guide" link will take you to a page where information and pictures of bayonets can be viewed by country.

M9 bayonet information:

http://www.old-smithy.info/bayonets/HTNL%20DOCUMNETS/m9_bayonet_and_variations.htm

I found this site recently while researching for information about M9 bayonets. It seems a lot of M9 bayonets (the current U.S. military bayonet model) have come on the market recently at sellers like Midway and Sarco, Inc..

So, if you have that old bayonet stowed away somewhere with your rifle or if someone is offering you a bayonet for sell, you might find it interesting to learn some history about the one you own or the one you are thinking about buying.

Part of my own small and humble personal bayonet collection is shown below. I am trying to cure myself of yet another collecting habit, but have been unsuccessful so far.

[risingsun212]

Very informative. Thanks!!!

[sbo80]

Some good stuff there. I have Cunningham's American Military Bayonets of the 20th Century and it's an awesome reference, especially to check on serial/production numbers to get an idea of relative rarity of a piece. I see some of those similar numbers in that Cunningham link above, not sure if they're all there or not.

[loademup]

I have Cunningham's American Military Bayonets of the 20th Century and it's an awesome reference, especially to check on serial/production numbers to get an idea of relative rarity of a piece. I see some of those similar numbers in that Cunningham link above, not sure if they're all there or not.

I believe Gary Cunningham's book is more authoritative than his online "Bayonet Points" articles. I'm also sad to say from notes posted on some other gun forums (m14forum.com and ar15.com) that it looks like Gary has passed away from us in April 2017. Rest in peace Gary.