I have an Australian SMLE that I decided to buy a bayonet for. This is a repro Pattern 1907 with the hooked quillon. The idea behind the “hook” was that a soldier engaged in a bayonet duel with an enemy soldier could hook his opponent’s bayonet and snap the blade, or maybe twist the rifle from his hands. This proved to be a dead end idea, although (IIRC) the Japanese kept this feature on their Arisaka bayonets.
The long sword bayonets look cool, though:
Cool. I will have to find a bayonet like that. I have an original 1917 Australian No1 MkIII SMLE to put it on.
Mine is one of the Jovino “parts guns” from the early 1990’s or so. Basically, an importer bought all the remaining SMLE parts from the Australian Govt. and assembled them into rifles. This rifle is essentially made from all unissued parts (with a mint bore), but has pretty much zero collectibility. Haven’t shot it yet. The stock is coachwood (with a 1942 date stamp), so that means I’ll need to inspect for the presence of recoil plates in the fore-end. If they’re absent, that’s not a good thing and I’ll have to find a pair somewhere.
It looks nice. I have a few No 4 Mk 1/2 that are “arsenal” refinished that look like yours in terms of “finish” etc. They shoot well.
I got my No1 Mk III aussie gun and what is supposedly an authentic No 5 Jungle Carbine from a local SMLE collector who was an ROTC instructor at BYU and was being transferred to Japan by the army and was disposing of his non-mauser collection. Both have seen use from their condition but having a piece of history is cool. I cannot claim to really be a collector – I don’t know much about my pieces and have not had them authenticated, taking the ROTC instructor officer’s word for it. I actually bought them sight unseen and had my brother pick them up as I had recently moved to NH to work for a Y2K startup (this was in 1998). They looked good for the prices paid (which were not surplus cheap but not a huge amount either and I was single and doing contract work for good money though I do not remember what I paid for them)
Anyone know of a good online bayonet referance guide? I have what I believe to be a WWI bayonet and would like to find out the particulars.
Okay how long is the gun with bayonet attached?
Total length measures out at 5 feet 2 inches.
The SMLE is a shortened version of an earlier Enfield. When they shortened the rifle it was thought necessary to lengthen the bayonet to achieve the same reach (this was evidently considered important at the time).
Moose -
This may be helpful:
http://worldbayonets.com/Bayonet_Identification_Guide/bayonet_identification_guide.html
Yeah bayonet charges in WWI & WWII were still a reality. I would not want to be there withan M4 and 6-7"bayonet the reach just wouldn’t be enough! Scary, scary shit!
Thank you sir!
16 May 2004 Soldiers from the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders (UK) mounted a bayonet charge with there SA80’s on firing and mortar positions held by more than 100 fighters loyal to the outlawed cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.