Went to the range today, got curious about POI shift with a standard issue USMC bayonet.
Ammo used was Lake City M855 fired from a BCM 20" A4 Clone with a TA31RCOA4 ACOG. Bayonet was an OKC USMC bayonet (Basically, the same shit a US Marine would be rocking)
The first group was 9 rounds in the top right corner without the bayonet. The bottom left group is with the bayonet and is 10 rounds. Two of those rounds on the white paper are old and from a previous target, but I have no way of knowing which.
Overall, it looks like the groups opened up about a minute and shifted to ~5:00 by a minute as well.
Winds were 20mph+ from 12:00. While they may not have affected bullet travel much, they certainly affected the target as they were swaying back and forth in the wind. I’m not one make excuses for my shooting, but when your target is bucking back and forth in your optic you can’t help but mention it. It’s not like I’m bragging about any skill here anyway, I was shooting from a rest. :laugh:
Well, there you have it. If your LtCol tells you to Fix Bayonets on your M16A4, you know to adjust your TA31RCOA4 3 clicks up and 3 clicks left
If the Colonel were to tell me to fix bayonets, I’d inform him that maintenance activity is not authorized at the AVUM level and FEDLOG shows no parts in stock
Same here. You should see the POI shift on old bolt action military rifles built prior to 1964. Mosin Nagants and Mausers were sighted in with the bayonet attached. When you shoot them without the bayonet, you have to make a significant change to the windage on the front sight.
Anything hanging off the barrel shifts POI. As others have indicated, if you need the bayonet you won’t have time to notice.
I thought it would actually open the groups/shift them more than it did. I know, like T2C was saying, with an M44 Mosin Nagant I get crazy shifts with the bayonet attached vs folded. Think 6-10 MOA.
I really wish I had used a fresh target, as the impacts from the previous target irritate me a bit as I don’t know which are which. There’s only two of them, but I don’t know if it is the far bottom two, or two of the ones closest to the paper.
More data:
11 rounds of M855 out of the same rifle at 300 yards w/ Bayonet. I attribute the “flyers” to the wind. 20 MPH is just no joke.
In 20 years Army Infantry, I’ve never mounted them outside of a rare bayonet training environment, we do have, maintain, and rarely issue them though. That said, the rifle is just about as lethal striking without the bayonet mounted in the same way as if it was provided all your body weight is behind it.
There have been a handful of bayonetings in the GWOT by US forces and at least two bayonet charges by U.S. Marines in Iraq. The first was in the early days of the invasion when elements of the 3rd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment came into contact with Fedeyeen at close quarters in some marshland. The second was at An Nasiriya when a company of the 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marines fixed bayonets when it came into close contact with insurgents in a palm grove.
While not bayonet charges during the Battle of Najaf there was heavy hand to hand fighting involving Marines to include bayoneting of several insurgents while clearing a hotel occupied by Mahdi Army.
