# Spirit of the Bayonet



## Damaged Goods (Dec 17, 2020)

When your bayonet has speared an enemy and you are unable to retract your rifle, the instruction says to pull the trigger.

Hell, why not do that in the first place as the two of you are charging each other?

Some kinda gentlemen's agreement between you and the enemy?


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## chic (Dec 17, 2020)

I never heard this one. It makes sense. Thanks for the laugh.


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## Damaged Goods (Dec 17, 2020)

chic said:


> I never heard this one. It makes sense. Thanks for the laugh.


chic, That's what they taught us in Basic at Ft. Jackson, 1966.  I guess that bayonet combat is passe since inception of M-16.  Could stand corrected.


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## win231 (Dec 17, 2020)

Well, I've never been in battle, so I didn't recognize it as a joke & I was about to ask a silly question:  "Isn't a bayonet there to use when the rifle is empty & there is no time to reload or there is no ammo available?"


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## fmdog44 (Dec 17, 2020)

As sharp as they were in the 70's it's hard to believe it can't be removed.


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## Tish (Dec 17, 2020)

Ummm alrighty.
Sounds a bit strange to me but then again, it is what it is.


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## win231 (Dec 17, 2020)

The only rifle I have that came with a bayonet is my SKS & that's because it's military surplus.  There were several versions & mine is a Chinese version & the bayonet is a Spike type with deep grooves on the sides of it.  Someone who was in the army explained what those grooves were for - channels to allow blood to move out of the way so the bayonet goes in & out easier.   YUK.  I'm glad my rifle was new & unissued.  If it was previously issued, who knows where that bayonet might have been........


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## Tommy (Dec 18, 2020)

Damaged Goods said:


> When your bayonet has speared an enemy and you are unable to retract your rifle, the instruction says to pull the trigger.
> 
> Hell, why not do that in the first place as the two of you are charging each other?
> 
> Some kinda gentlemen's agreement between you and the enemy?


I'm curious to know Which rifle and What instructions.  Single shot muzzle loader?  Government issued instructions?  It certainly makes a difference.


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## Damaged Goods (Dec 18, 2020)

Tommy said:


> I'm curious to know Which rifle and What instructions.  Single shot muzzle loader?  Government issued instructions?  It certainly makes a difference.


At the time, Basic trainees at Jackson were using the M-14.  The M-16s were issued in AIT.

The instructions were given by the bayonet DI.  He repeated then frequently.


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## cdestroyer (Dec 18, 2020)

you were not supposed to sharpen your bayonet, that makes it bite into a rib bone and hard to pull out thus making you pull the trigger.....bayonets were not the 'knife' fighting weapon, they were only for piercing...there are rules of war (didn't you know). so as to that here is a question.....how many of you know why the 7.62 nato round is full metal jacket.....give you a hint,,,it is by geneva convention......


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## Damaged Goods (Dec 18, 2020)

It's enemy-friendly?


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## win231 (Dec 18, 2020)

cdestroyer said:


> you were not supposed to sharpen your bayonet, that makes it bite into a rib bone and hard to pull out thus making you pull the trigger.....bayonets were not the 'knife' fighting weapon, they were only for piercing...there are rules of war (didn't you know). so as to that here is a question.....how many of you know why the 7.62 nato round is full metal jacket.....give you a hint,,,it is by geneva convention......


That explains about something I was wondering about - why the bayonet on my SKS is not sharp at the tip.  It's like the tip of a screwdriver.


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## Damaged Goods (Dec 19, 2020)

win231 said:


> The only rifle I have that came with a bayonet is my SKS & that's because it's military surplus.  There were several versions & mine is a Chinese version & the bayonet is a Spike type with deep grooves on the sides of it.  Someone who was in the army explained what those grooves were for - channels to allow blood to move out of the way so the bayonet goes in & out easier.   YUK.  I'm glad my rifle was new & unissued.  If it was previously issued, who knows where that bayonet might have been........


Good Lord, that looks like something I've seen in war movies.  Never saw a bayonet like that in my stint.


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## cdestroyer (Dec 19, 2020)

well now I guess yall don't know about the rules of war. Geneva convention signings by combatant countries and agreeements of engagment....the 7.62 nato bullet is full metal jacket meaning it is completely incased in a copper coating.. this by the accords of the geneva convention is to prevent the bullet from spreading upon penetration of a human body in order to do no grevious harm, or not to blow off an appendage or create serious body damage. We those syfy weapons but are banned from using them because they do major body damage, the laser weapon can cut off an appendage and leave very little blood loss..,.banned due to the grevious harm...hey I didnt make the silly rules.


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## win231 (Dec 19, 2020)

Damaged Goods said:


> Good Lord, that looks like something I've seen in war movies.  Never saw a bayonet like that in my stint.


Just about every SKS I've ever seen comes with it already attached.  It's a very clever design; the bayonet swivels down & that ring snaps over the front of the barrel.  When it's folded, notice how it sits in a groove in the stock, out of the way.  The Viet Cong soldiers used it extensively.
(Bayonet info at 4:45 of the video)


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## Damaged Goods (Dec 19, 2020)

cdestroyer said:


> well now I guess yall don't know about the rules of war. Geneva convention signings by combatant countries and agreeements of engagment....the 7.62 nato bullet is full metal jacket meaning it is completely incased in a copper coating.. this by the accords of the geneva convention is to prevent the bullet from spreading upon penetration of a human body in order to do no grevious harm, or not to blow off an appendage or create serious body damage. We those syfy weapons but are banned from using them because they do major body damage, the laser weapon can cut off an appendage and leave very little blood loss..,.banned due to the grevious harm...hey I didnt make the silly rules.


Like I said, enemy-friendly.


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## drifter (Jan 14, 2021)

win231 said:


> Well, I've never been in battle, so I didn't recognize it as a joke & I was about to ask a silly question:  "Isn't a bayonet there to use when the rifle is empty & there is no time to reload or there is no ammo available?"


It is and as long as I had a shell in my weapon or in my clip I wouldn't use a bayonet. I might run back a bit a toss a grenade or yell for a buddy to shoot the son of a gun. The only time I had a bayonet fixed and was prepared to use it but talked a civilian down. It was in the riots in Seoul in 1954 against Sigman Rhee. (Spelling may be wrong.) We formed a diagonal line across the street. All streets were blocked from the capital by Korean and US soldiers. I was a squad leader and called for everyone to fix bayonets. A tall South Korean civilian in a pushing and joshling line in front of me said in english, Ÿou wouldn't use that knife in me. I told him I was a soldier and solders do what they are ordered to do and that was hold this line.
If you keep pressing me I'll not only stick you but also the ones on either side of you. If that don't work, I'll pull the trigger. I had made up my mind where I was going to stick him and was about to do so when he threw his hands up shoulder high and said, "Í think you would." It would have been easy to hit him on the jaw with the butt of my weapon but someone might have grabbed it. It ended peacefully but it was stressful.


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## drifter (Jan 14, 2021)

I did sharpen my bayonet. and used it once to cut the head off a poisonous snake coiled up tall grass in front of my face
while sitting up an ambush. I was scared but we were told to be quiet. I also practised throwing my bayonet.


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## old medic (Jan 15, 2021)

Damaged Goods said:


> chic, That's what they taught us in Basic at Ft. Jackson, 1966.  I guess that bayonet combat is passe since inception of M-16.  Could stand corrected.


I learned bayonet training with the M-16 on Tank Hill in 81


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## Pappy (Jan 15, 2021)

1956. Garand M-1 rifle. Fix bayonets and stabbed the hell out of hay filled dummies. Not much training using bayonets at Fort Dix, NJ.


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## Damaged Goods (Jan 15, 2021)

Damaged Goods said:


> chic, That's what they taught us in Basic at Ft. Jackson, 1966.  I guess that bayonet combat is passe since inception of M-16.  Could stand corrected.





old medic said:


> I learned bayonet training with the M-16 on Tank Hill in 81


I stand corrected.


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## Chet (Jan 15, 2021)

I was in the Air Force so we just bombed the hell out of them, and went back for lunch.


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## fuzzybuddy (Jan 21, 2021)

I'm no military historian, or anything.  I thought that, in the Civil War, bayonet charges really weren't effective killing tactics. They scared the hell out of your foe, who ran away. And I thought bayonets weren't that great in hand-to-hand combat? But if I had a choice of shooting him, or stabbing him, I'd pull the trigger.


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