@@SerpentineJack99 Very possible, but they also claim that the prototype that won was the only one to pass all tests. Could be something the people in charge of the product spread to get public interest, but if it’s true…
Bayonet are cool, but the only time I saw them was in the arms room. We would count them, put them into tac boxes, then lock and seal the boxes, only to open the boxes and count them once a year or for a change of command.
There is no Geneva Convention prohibition against sawback bayonets. None. And not just because the Geneva Convention, by and large, doesn't say much about prohibited infantry weapons - that's the Hague Conventions (which most nations never signed) that details things like "no expanding ammo", and not even the Hague Conventions discuss sawtooth bayonets (why would they, when pretty much *every* major nation at the time issued them to their combat engineers?) And the sawteeth on the M9 were designed and intended to cut through the sheet aluminum typical of unarmored *aircraft* fuselages, not wood. Which is why it was advertised as cutting through sheet aluminum - that was literally the reason they were there, to enable emergency rescue after an aircraft crash. (Sure, it's a stupid requirement, but it is a requirement the M9 meets better than anything else about it. Never mind the fact that 99% of the troops - even in a war - will ever have an opportunity where they need to cut through a helo fuselage, and the ones who are realistically going to be called on to do so will likely have proper extraction tools designed for the job, because they're "crash & smash" on an airbase.)
The U.S. can also use hollow point ammunition because we never ratified it, which it is now doing and has done since OTP (Open Tip Match) ammo was authorized to penetrate windshields of cars at roadblocks in Iraq. Ball ammo can bounce off a slanted windshield and can be a cause for fresh underwear.
I think it because of the tendency that people who would see the saw and think it breaking the Genova convention and would execute the soldier carrying it. That what happen in ww1 with the German pioneer saw bayonet.
One thing said about the AK-47 bayonet is the Soviets did not design it to be a knife, but a wire cutter. It looked like a knife so the typical Soviet soldier would not throw it away. It is almost impossible to sharpen.
when I finally got a edge on a AK bayonet it was probably the worst cutting tool I ever held lol . They make for some great beater tools and obviously you can stick the f out of something with it. But yeah definitely not a knife .
“It hurts more when you stab someone” or “the military was worried people would hurt themselves if it was sharp” are the two usual bs excuses I hear from gun store commandos.
@@tinyfox7349 ooh, I forgot about that one. That’s on par with “the blood groove helps you pull the blade out easier because poking a meat based target creates a vacuum that will hold on to the blade”… even though it’s literally just a fuller that’s designed to make the blade lighter while not decreasing rigidity.
Keeping edged weapons intentionally dull in a garrison environment is an old practice. Privates do dumb shit when given sharp objects and left to their own devices. As far back as the 18th century for example British military sabres were all issued quite dull and left that way until it was time to rotate out on foreign service. Increases the life of the blade (no needless material removal keeping it sharp in a place you don't need it to be) and reduces the risk of incidents (there's a story of an overeager junior officer who lopped off the tip of his poor horse's ear while drilling somewhere). Then the institutional rot sets it, you're in the Red Army, and because bayonets are issued dull Private Conscriptavitch is told in no uncertain terms by his micro managerial leadership (that has as much or less experience than he does) that it shall stay that way "or else."
Also Mickey Finn was used as a slang term for a drink spiked with some kind of date rape drug. Not sure why or where in this timeline that fits, but another footnote nonetheless.
I was forced to carry one of these wretched things during my time in the army (despite carrying an M249 machinegun that couldn't mount a bayonet). It's obscenely HEAVY, and adds to the soldiers already excessive load. It was dull and resisted sharpening. And the round handle was extremely uncomfortable in the hand. And whenever we went to the bayonet assault course, we always ended up breaking several of them. The M9 was so bad that a lot of our guys ended up carrying a more useful fixed blade (in addition to the shitty M9), just so they'd have something that was useful as a knife. The Kabar was popular for this role. The M7 bayonet might not have been fancy, but it was rugged, strong, and lightweight. And we never broke any of them.
It’s heavy, but I abused the hell out of mine and never had an issue. “Resisted sharpening” is not something I had trouble with. Proper technique is required, but it sharpened as well as anything else. The real draw back just comes down to big and heavy.
Interesting; in my NATO unit, we could spot the Nam vets cz they always carried a German made Puma hunting knife on their belts, even in garrison. They were nice, useful field knives.
It amazes me how it was possible to mess up a knife design in the late stages of the Cold War after fielding one of the best bayonets ever. If they had a full tang and threw out the pry bar requirement, it should’ve been fine.
But the military, in their infinite wisdom (read idiocy) had started that phase of wanting everything to be a “do it all” kind of tool. It’s the cause behind half of the shitty things we’ve gotten over the last few decades. The military tries to make everything too modular and in response lose out on a weapon or item that isn’t focused enough on one thing to be good at that one thing.
Yeah. One of my friends own one of these and oh my god is it a literal brick. For all the supposed endurance testing, the blade constantly wiggles loose even from light use. If you use the handle as a hammering surface, it'll break. The double compound bevel edge and hard steel makes it a pain to sharpen with the included whetstone being pathetic which made it impossible to use as an actual knife. The whole "Jack of all trades" argument he made in the video doesn't float. This thing is just really poorly designed and they only survived whatever testing they did by having more material.
In 1987, our Battalion CSM actually ran onto the assault course at Fort Ord to tell us that bayonet training was cancelled. We found out later that day 8-12 bayonets broke in the first wave of soldiers going through the course. We would have preferred to leave them in the arms room. Everyone carried a pocket knife. Every squad had wire cutters. The Achilles heal of the M9 was the blade was prone to break.
Saw one break in the ROK in 1990 when we are on guard duty on the DMZ and the soldier accidently dropped it. Blade broke clean in half. Also the break had what I imagine a cast steel bar would look like as opposed to a forged steel one. Knew right then that it was crap. However, it was what we were issued, so we carried it. However, I shortly thereafter bought a Gerber Mark Two which I also carried. Sadly I lost my Gerber to a home burglery years later. I regret having lost that more than anything else in the house.
I kept mine. It's been my field, camping, and hiking knife ever since...21 years. I see no problems with it. I've cut wood with it. Opened cans. Dug shallow drain/trenches with it. It's always been a good knife.
"if you can't get an edge good enough to shave with it, ain't good enough to keep it," my father when I asked how to find a good knife. Governments really do love giving soldiers stuff they don't want, punishing them for not keeping it, then finding excuses for not providing what they actually need.
The USMC went a different route with our bayonette, but more to your point, i did have Master Guns sit on the back of my truck with his canteen cup and bayonette and shave during one of our convoys. The USMC uses the OKC3S from Ontario Knife Company Edit: didnt realize they would mention it in video
It's actually funnier than that! Few are the units that will issue them, as we're talking about a rather expensive knife, so it's an accountable end item. End result, the damned things languish in the arms room, where they defend it by bulk. Not even useful in bulk, as nobody keeps full sandbags in the arms room, that might be useful.
Sharper Image hawked a Buck 🔪 in the 1980s. They claimed it was used by SEALs 🔱 SpecWar. They sold it in matte stainless & a carbon black but the black version was not a public item for long. I heard the large field knife had mixed reviews.
@@DavidLLambertmobile It was used by a few SEALs but it wasn't issued across the board to all the teams just like there are 1000 knives called "SEAL" knives but only a few are really issued to SEALs.
@@jacobmccandles1767 Never a grappling hook for climbing, but to grab lines or cables, or an anchor. Whicih is fitting because every time someone picks up one of mine they say "darn; heavy as a boat anchor".
Poland didn't accept M9 as a bayonet. Sure, there were soldiers who bought it independently, but it was never issued to them. Unless we are talking about SF units that already carry western weapons- but you seem to suggest the mass issuing.
@@BayonetRedneck Because Joe's don't ever use them, they stay in the supply cage, unissued. These things break easily because they do everything wrong that you want out of a knife.
Brother, it is the year of our lord 2024, and you were still considering buying an 80s Rambo bayonet for practical use lol? For clarity, I own a surplus LanCay M9 that actually saw use, but purely for collector and historical purposes. I would never even consider using it for bushcraft or survival knife purposes, nor for what it was actually made for either. I have knives that fulfill all 3 of those roles better in every way because knife tech has made so much progress since then. If you want something nowadays that fulfills the m9s role well, then you probably should look for something with full tang, at least .15 in blade thickness and made from a good CPM steel that had a good heat treatment process. Also, should have a micarta, carbon fiber, or g10 handle, no wood. For ex, a good suggestion would be a Benchmade bushcrafter, extremely good brand and just found one discounted for only $150.
Commenting before I watch cause I want to see if my predictions are right. 1. It's an absolute brick, ridiculously heavy and the blade is as thick as my thumb, if I ever had to actually stab someone with this it would probably feel like stabbing them with an Egyptian pyramid. 2. Despite the blade being chunky enough to club a baby seal with it has a rat tail tang, which makes any task beyond light knife work risky business, and it wasnt very good at light work cause it's an absolute club. 3. Wire cutter doesnt work very well and you'd be better suited just carrying an actual wire cutters or mini bolt cutters along with you. Same with the screwdriver on the scabbard, speaking of which the scabbard is a brick too, if you run out of ammo you could probably just throw it at the enemy and kill them on impact. 4. saw/file on the back is absolutely useless, I've heard that it was actually for ripping the thin aluminum skin of a helicopter in the event you crash and get stuck but I'm not totally convinced it would actually be useful for that, though I've never seen it used like that so I could be wrong. I'll say the two things I did like about it are the fact that it's stainless steel so it doesn't rust and the scabbard is ambidextrous (you can slip the bayonet in either way) which was nice since I'm left handed.
The funny part is some of those fake ones meant to look like video game versions have a full tang. Which by the way is what I feel to be the biggest problem with the knife. Everything else can be kinda excused because it can be modded or whatever but a survival knife that breaks on you when you try to pull it out when it gets stuck is like having no knife.
I actually got one of these from a outdoor flea market when I was 14. I remember me and my buddy tried using the wire cutter on some low gage steel wire and it took us forever to get through the thing it was so clunky and weird. I can't imagine anyone in the field actually using that for that function. Same with using the serrations to cut through metal.
I had a FDE tan Gerber 🔪 2010s for around 6yr. The USAF SERE blade was thick, meant to aid air crews, downed pilots. The edge got dull after 2-3yr ⬇️ . I rarely used the field knife. It didn't have a full tang either. Some 🔪 collectors, outdoor-campers said Gerbers are +/- in terms of design, QC. I sold the knife around 2018.
@@section8usmc53 That was a different set of serrations. It's like seeing someone use the OG design and then use a bread knife, expecting the same results. Would you expect a SAK to cut through wire with a serrated edge?
@@section8usmc53 The video is ultimately flawed. Yes, the bayonet ended up worse than promised. The problem is for the performance promised, the costs would have skyrocketed. And if you're choosing between funding accurized air dropped munitions or a bayonet, what are you going to pick? Anyone can make a prototype look great. Because costs of a prototype don't matter. When you're manufacturing hundreds of thousands of an item, then costs do matter. Soft steel is better for thrusting. It is worse for cutting metal, and holding an edge. So, why would you expect a metal tool for thrusting to be great at cutting?
I was a US Army Infantryman and later an Infantry Officer (2004-2014). LIterally the only time I ever saw these was when we had Division Parades and Change of Command Inventories. They're too large to be used in the field and not worth the hassle of issuing them out when soldiers would lose or break them.
The field knife I settled on was an M7 with the barrel rig cut off and ground down. I got one at a surplus store back when they were about $15. I like to be able to run my thumb along the back of the spine when cutting stuff. It was pretty durable and not so expensive I'd be scared to put it to hard use,
-Rattling Handle. -Heavier that it needed to be. -Wirecutter shealth is a cute idea but good luck cutting through a regular fence without someone a half mile away hearing every second of it. Not to mention, I hope you have the strongest arms in the planet because cutting that piece of wire was a pain in the ass for even the strongest guys I served with because of no torque. -MOST units not even issue them because within minutes people are going to the hospital over stupid private "look what I can do" issues. Seriously. They issued ours in 2007 and immidately took them back the next day because in one day like 30 people got hospitallized playing around with them. -handle sucks, the designer obviously never had to cut anything before. -Did I mention it rattles the whole time? -I know you mentioned it, but the thing is half the weight as the M4 rifle it goes on. -I broke the handle on mine opening a box of grenades trying to bend the little metal hooks.
I have an Ontario M7 bayonet reproduction with a rubberized grip in the style of the oval rings of the M3. It is the perfect fighting knife and bayonet. Strong, has a false edge, easy edge alignment, incredibly secure grip, but not sticky nor will fill with dirt like the checkering of the original.
I want to get my hands on a German Eickhorn B2K Bayonet because it seems like a better alternative to the M9, and Canada uses it as the B2005CAN for their Bayonets. Sidenote, I have an Ontario version of the M9, and it has a MUCH better handle. It's better shaped and not just a hard cylindrical plastic handle, feels a lot better in the hand. And it has a revised sheath.
After a quick Google I found that Eickhorn bayonet on a website called German Knife Shop, although given that I've never heard of the site before I can't say for 100% certain that it's legit.
The spikes on the handle of the Buckmaster are supposedly for use in anchoring functionality used by navy divers, i.e. underwater related tasks. They are not for grappling but for attachment or anchoring. That's my understanding.
As a former US Army Infantryman I, unfortunately do agree that the US Marines M-7 bayonet is far superior then the US Army's M-9 bayonet. The Marines keeping with the K.I.S.S. principal seems to always works out better than the Army's way of over complicating every thing. If you try and create something that does everything it turns out it does nothing well. This has been a problem with the Army for a very long time! 😠🇺🇸
Have to agree with you, I carried a USN MkII fighting knife for close to 12 years. Never had a moment of worry that it would let me down. A few years back I managed to buy a used USMC M7 and jumped on it. Granted my days of dismounting are long gone but I do appreciate a good knife.
I was issued an M-9 when I went to Bosnia in '96. It was definitely a big ass slab of steel. It was more useful as a pole axe than a spear. I eventually bought an Ontario made M-7 with an M-10 scabbard that carried for the majority of that deployment and in Iraq in 2010-11. The infantry unit I was in in 2014-15 actually had Vietnam era M-7s with M-8 scabbards in the arms room.
I'm an Iraq veteran and carried a Phrobis M9 bayonet in 2003 and still own it, I love the M9. The M9s an awesome bayonet, I hate it when civilians try telling us what's good and what's not.
A very random question, but what flag is that supposed to be at 0:16 on the bottom left? The closest I can get is Tonga but with the red cross in the canton removed...
Beer bottles of course. Yeah I can use a lighter or brick wall, fence, but the proper one on my keychain (crown cork 1940s that cost $3) is easier. Glock knife has a nice one btw.
The stupid things were so expensive they were treated like high dollar value items like rifles and Night Vision Devices. Usually only the infantry got them and often they wouldn't even issue them for fear the grunts would lose them in the field. In my 27 year career I rarely saw one and only handled one briefly. The biggest problem with bayonets is they're obsolete and have been for over a century. Yet there is no other weapon used in basic training that drives home to the average recruit that _killing_ is an explicit part of their job description no matter their MOS.
We got them for a hot minute in Bosnia, then guys who had never been camping or had a sheath knife before started screwing around and cutting themselves so they got taken away and locked up till the end of the deployment. One of the guys in my platoon decide to "hang on" to his, and it was absolutely treated like someone lost a pistol or a set of NVGs.
Kind of a dumb opinion. Yeah it's not 1863 anymore, but soldiers can always benefit from a decent field knife. The OKC bayonet I had in the marines was quite useful to that purpose, so much so I bought one after I got out.
@@patrickbateman312 I suppose I should be insulted you called my opinion dumb. And hey, some of them are, even IMO. However, I aimed my critique at bayonets, not field knives. I never said field knives were bad. So it's a reading comprehension thing for you. You're not obligated to live up to Marine stereotypes.
@@EricDaMAJ right, so as rifles have evolved so too have bayonets. It's not impossible or impractical to have a field knife which doubles as a bayonet. Get your life together, boomer.
@@patrickbateman312I agree. I started with the M7 (a sturdier knife than the M9, but a lousy field knife overall for anything more involved than cutting open MREs), moved to the M9 (a *slightly* better cutting implement, but a worse bayonet and too easy to break). The OKC the Marines adopted after the M9 is a better bayonet than either of them, and a *far* better field knife overall. It's such a good field knife, it's what I use camping - the blade is the right length and weight to allow it to be a good chopper on small saplings while still being a good *cutter* and not so ridiculously large and heavy as to be a net disadvantage to the force overall. And the small serrated portion near the base of the blade is excellent at cutting straps and ropes. There are better bayonets, but the next one up in quality and performance costs about $500 for *minimal* improvement - and you can't afford to equip the whole infantry with such Gucci knives. The OKC does the job 99% as well (and better than anything cheaper than it), for a cost the military can reasonably afford. Which is what a bayonet *should* be, since the development of the bolt action rifle with a box magazine in the late 19th Century. Troops will *always* need a good, sturdy field knife that can cut and chop, isn't a ginormous clunky weight, and is has a good carry system. Since they really need that, might as well put a bayonet mounting system.on it for those few occasions where the bayonet is actually useful. Note that bayonets aren't good weapons *as bayonets* because they're great at inflicting *casualties* directly... they're *psychological* weapons attacking the enemy's morale, so it's easier to *shoot* then as they freak out becayse they think they're going to get pinned like a butterfly by some bloodthirsty barbarian who *enjoys* that kind of crap. That was even true back when bayonets and "cold steel" were a typical thing used in most battles. The point of the bayonet was to break enemy formations and deter cavalry charges going home, because of a very deep fear of being *stabbed* . It took well disciplined, well drilled forces who confident they were *better* bayonet fighters than the enemy closing with them to hold the line against a bayonet charge in the muzzle loading days with 2 feet of bright steel on the end of every musket.
I noticed during Desert Shield/Storm all the troop trucks had slats on the seats that popped off the green M7 sheath tips. You'd find them under seats and at least a third of my unit had them snapped. Can't imagine getting hung up with a wire cutter on the bottom.
Ft Benning A 2/58 Inf in 1987. We had a former West Point Cadet with a long scar on his forearm, said he got sliced by a bayonet while doing D&C. Of course he could have been bullshitting but he never struck me as a bullshitter. Our (Infantry 1987- 1991) bayonets were sharp. Also, we did DIV COC ceremony at Ft Campbell with fixed bayonets. While marching to the parade field there was a delay then we saw a huge puddle of blood in the road. They said someone got sliced, which didn't surprise me because those things were sharp and it was bound to happen with a large group in closed/tight formation.
Great video, and a lot of information packed in here! I'm used to the ASEK or Aircrew Survival Egress Knife used by the Air Force. Has a similar look to the M9, just missing all the little features.
i had an M9 bayonet attached to my AR-15 last year when someone tried to break into my house, it was lackluster at best, my M7 bayonet i got 2 months later was and still is my best knife for mounting on my rifle
The bayonet will never be redundant we (British) used it during the Falklands war, during the Iraq War and during Afghanistan. It is the second last resort, the last resort is fists and rocks.
They are redundant in modern warfare. They're useless against enemy combatants wearing any generation of body armour from the past 30+ years, which is more common now. British infantrymen would be better off carrying an extra 30-round mag than a bayonet. If you're in a situation where bayonets are viable, then those 30 extra rounds per man is more than enough to solve the problem. The enemy is close enough for accurate shot placement too.
@@BlossomField91 except time and time again, the British army finds itself using them. our current near peer adversary is not rolling out any generation of body armour for their new troops, and to top that off they have yet to come out with body armour for your face and thighs. Trench warfare should be redundant in modern warfare with the advent of the tank and combined arms back in 1918, and yet here we are a century later with trench warfare and bayonets being used alongside drone warfare
@@AE-wv8jd You think Russia and China are "near-peer" to the UK? lmao. That's a US term. I said any body armour from the last 40 years, which certainly most army do have. I'd be careful about believing every story coming out if Ukraine if I were you. Russia engages in a lot of propaganda, so does the West. The first casualty in war is the truth. Again - more ammo or a sidearm are much better options than bayonets for any situation that'd require a bayonet. If the situation doesn't require it, you've got an incompetent/glory hounding unit commander who is willing to put his men's lives at risk for medals/promotion. Even as far back as WW2, veterans claimed the bayonet was the most useless thing they had to carry.
My experience oversees was that troops preferred a gerber, leatherman, or a plain old folding knife. The m9 was heavy, and all of the tools were less useful than a multitool
Had no idea these were so bad. I also had no idea they could do so much. Is the extra heft really that big of a problem? I figure the extra heft would make it a sturdier weapon, maybe a more cumbersome tool though.
The problem is that its not put together sturdy for how heavy it is to many weak point where it could break from heavy use and abuse. For something that heavy you would expect it to be damn near indestructible.
@@thomasstevenhebert It does as its supposed to double as a work tool. Imagine spending 200 USD on a multitool that's dull and doesn't work for anything.
@@happyjohn354 yes and it still doesn’t matter as the tool literally never leaves the arms room. Even on deployment, they sit in the tough box in the arms room connex. They are on MTOE but they aren’t used by any anyone. There are enough unit or personal bought pocket knives & multi tools for normal knife work. Track or Truck BII Ax if you need a larger blade.
I wish someone manufactured modern spike bayonets that fit the M7/M9 bayonet mounting lugs. Spike bayonets are more simple to manufacture lighter due to less material. Just add a grip so you have something like a modern rondel dagger.
Spike bayonets only do one thing, a thing that really hasn’t had anything to do with modern combat for a long time. From the end of WWII onward, the US Army and others have known that bayonet fighting is obsolete; but if you’re going to issue a highly useful field knife, what’s the harm in making it possible to put it on the rifle just in case? Think of these things as knives first (and the M9 is doodoo as a knife).
@@509Gman Not necessarily you can still give a spike bayonet some usability if you make it flat it would work as a pry bar or screw driver. And for knives most guys just carry a pocket folder even if they are issued a bayonet because using a bayonet to open a box is overkill.
We got the M9 brand new and loved it at first. I used the screw driver function to fix our M113 radio, though my Swiss Army knife was more functional, I used the bottle opener during the long convoys back to base. I even used the saw to get through tree roots at the bottom of my fighting position. I like the intimidation factor if I ever had to clear a college campus of long hairs. Many times we used the M9 to cut through constantinena wire. But, I worried about sticking someone in the rib cage and not being able to pull my bayonet out. I also worried about losing the damn thing since the webbing on the scabbard broke down and we spent days and hours walking in long lines trying to recover bayonets lost while training. The fix was to use 5 50 cord to dummy cord it to our Load Bearing Equipment harness. This combat non-functionality made me resent the weight of it and long for the reliable M7 bayonet, which felt a lot better in my hand.
Cool designs and honestly some designs sound great in theory. Though I will say, when a knife is no more a knife than a screwdriver or prybar, it can’t really compete with other knives. When I was in the Army we used the Gerber LMF2 and that was pushing it. Now they switched over to the Gerber StrongArm and from what I hear the current soldiers who have them absolutely love them dearly. So much so that they buy their own to keep as personal property because they like to use them so much.
The m9 bayonet was a crowbar with an edge. It was one of those things I had to lug around in my kit for inspections but I never actually used. After trying several knives, some fairly expensive, I ended up with the original SOG seal pup and an EOD multitool on my gear. The M11 EOD variant was developed because of the Army's impractical regulations surrounding bayonets...not because EOD guys wanted another crowbar. It didn't have a handle for hammering, it had a cap instead of the locking lug mount so that it wasn't a "bayonet" under US Army regulations.
The M9 and M11 have a strong cult following in the American bushcrafting scene. Surprising the tang is extremely tough. Used surplus M9’s are already made very sharp from long service, and OKC M11’s come out the box razor sharp. (Being honest from personal use, few people use the Bolt cutter and unscrew it for less weight.) Overall, very customizable to the user.
I have the M11 I attached to my get home bag. It’s a beast. When employed, I would be sent to other urban/suburban locations as a court clerk. I wanted something I could use as an urban entry tool as well as a weapon. The handle is oval shaped and much more comfortable to grip. Also a sillcock key, tarp and enough food & water for 2 days. Unfortunately my M9 sheath was damaged in a fire. It seems a better design could be had now. There are better utility/combat knives for soldiers out there-much lighter and more comfortable to use. Like the Gerber Strongarm, Cold Steel SRK, Esee 5s and others. Buy a wirecutter if you need one.
I bought a M9 as just a collector's piece to go with my AR and I wodered why besides being heavy which I tend to like in my knives it still felt odd in my hand. That threaded tang design has now instantly regulated it to the "display only" part of the collection.
@@shatara42 or BiC lighters, or rocks, or sticks. Any flat surface with an edge. Probably better to teach military not to use magazines than to waste tooling on such a superfluous feature 🙄
@LordThree Actually, it's easier to add a bottle opener than getting soldiers to stop using things they shouldn't. There's a reason militaries throughout the world have added bottle openers to random bits of equipment since detachable magazines became standard issue.
@@Askorti yep. Some Billy badass would think he would look cool carrying one and suddenly he’d become a bullet magnet and all the secret sauce inside him would be outside him, feeding the grass.
Even though it gets bashed all the time I really didn't care. Having the models for the M4, M14, M1 Carbine, Garand, P17, some AK models, I got one many years ago and it's a Lancay. Later I got a Mossberg 590A1 that came with an Ontario M9. The M7 I have is a Colt marked one. I find Bayonets very interesting.
I don't know where this genius gets his information from, but: 1. the Geneva conventions do not prohibit the use of saws in combat, or any other weapon for that matter. Neither do the Hague Conventions. 2. The M7 was no great piece of gear. It was a knife one could affix to the end of a rifle and was mostly used to open MREs when replaced with the M9 that was mostly used for the same. 3. Almost 40 years later the M9 is still in service with no plans to replace it. How does it have a "downfall"? 8:16 - How is that a flaw in the design? All sorts of stuff needed to be reconfigured to MOLLE. Ammo pouches, canteen covers, etc
I was in the military (not the US…) for 12 yrs in the 1990/2000s and my first thought when I saw the knife and read “failure” was: I guess it was too heavy! All the great “on paper” features that you never really use will be less important to regular soldiers if they add weight to what they have to carry around already.
Might as well ask here as well; for context, I just came from the short about the M9. My question isn't seven about the bayonet. I just wanna know the name of the song in the beginning. I've been looking to find that synth beat for ages (I've heard it somewhere before, but never found the original/full version). If anyone knows the name, or the creator of the video could credit it, I would be the luckiest person on this planet. Thanks in advance
Anyone who puts saw teeth or serrations on a bayonet doesn't understand how bayonets actually work. You might get it in, but then the saw teeth will snag and stop you pulling it out. Then your rifle is inconveniently attached to one very pissed off enemy soldier.
Bayonets are essentially obsolete anyway, the idea was basically to make a general-purpose military knife that can also be popped on the end of a rifle in a pinch.
@@jic1 I don't disagree with you. But experts have been saying bayonets are obsolete for the last 60 years and yet they're still being used in close combat. They may have limited practical use these days, but psychologically they can still have a big impact.
Has a bayonet ever run out of ammunition? And if a bayonet is stronger than your rifle barrel it can bend the rifle barrel and what does that do to your shot grouping?
As a collector I have quite a few of these M9's, both Lansky and Phrobis and a couple of the EOD versions. I love them, but then I have NEVER had to carry one in combat.
Ive had the pleasure of trying one of these, and it made me very happy that the military in my country just issues you a slightly modified version of a Mora, Fiskars or Hultafors depending on where you serve. Those things are awesome and do such a better job for the things you need a knife for 95% of the time. But hey at least the M9 looks cooler!
Agree with you, redacted2763. I'm sitting here pretty puzzled. I was in the 82nd Airborne Division (325th AIR) back in 1984-1989. Sometime in that period we were issued the Humvee, the 9mm pistol, lightweight BDUs, and.....the M9 Phrobis bayonet. With all of the off-Bragg deployments, EDREs, NTC, JRTC, Jungle School, jumps and so forth, like you, I never heard a complaint about it as regards breaking or other quality issues. Never heard of a jump injury from the screwdriver blade. Nothing came loose; mine still rock solid. We carried them all the time, and we used them. Troops had been carrying whatever knife they wanted, such as a Buck, K-Bar, USAF aircrew knife, even a few older guys with Randalls. Our task force Field SOP was changed to require everyone to carry the M9. Still have my original Phrobis on my original LBE. (I bought a banged-up used M9 Phrobis from a surplus store on Yadkin Road and used that one to turn-in when I PCS'd! Funny thing was, many guys started doing the same thing--keeping their M9s--but that was stopped when IG and Command Inspection people started noticing non-Phrobis non-reg knock-offs showing up in the arms rooms inspections and inventories! 😉).
I was thinking the same thing. Not saying I really used it much but… All of these RUclips “experts” Like did the person making the video ever even hold one
We were issued the M9 bayonet for a few months - absolute garbage. They weren't full tang, and the handles would fall right off, often just from being bounced around in the sheath on our hips. We'd get back from a week in the field, and like 10% of the bayonets would just be a blade in a sheath with no handles by the time we got back., with a bunch of others loosened up and ready to come off. They pulled them almost immediately after they issued them to us and we went back to the M7. Years later I was issued the OKC-3S bayonet which was an absolutely fantastic knife and bayonet.
First knife I ever bought with my own money was a Buck M9, back in the mid/late-1980’s. I love it for sentimental reasons but it’s a terrible knife-super heavy and there’s way too much width behind the apex to cut anything. The M7 wasn’t great, either, because its steel is crummy and won’t take a good edge. (Or at least my surplus M7 is crummy.) What’s funny is that it doesn’t seem like a hard problem to take a good field knife, put a barrel ring on the guard, and a clip on the pommel. But your video is probably right that the requirements were the real issue, and you just can’t make something that checks all the boxes without weighting two pounds. Thanks so much for another superb video. Your channel is absolutely first rate!
@@mr.stotruppen8724 my surplus M7 was definitely made by the lowest bidder. Perhaps it’s 1095 with poor heat treatment; I don’t really know, but for the life of me I can’t get a good edge on it. I just spent another 20 minutes working on it and it’s still terrible. Could just be mine, of course.
I can believe that they didn't look too hard at the heat treat on a stabbing implement designed to be manufactured as quickly and cheaply as possible out of stamped steel blanks. I'm OK with the M7 being a crummy work knife tbh. If forced to carry one I'd prefer it be decent at one or two jobs (bayonet + fighting knife) than be terrible at seven. For the weight of it you could carry an M7 and an actual work knife and still carry less weight than an M9.
I carried one of these on me every day in Afghanistan and Iraq. Never got a chance to hear, "afix bayonet", and we all had pocket knives and fighting knives so I never used mine except in training. I did watch a fellow paratrooper try to pry open a can of potted meat with his bayonet and the blade snapped right in half with very little pressure. I preferred my k bar.
Hold up. It has little to no tang, relying on a screw pipe to hold the blade. But how did it passed the army's test? Surely they did some prying test? Or was the standard for their prying test very low?
I was issued one when I was in Iraq in 2004. A lot of soldiers never bothered to read the manual for it. Several didn't even know about the wire cutting feature. Later, I bought a M7 bayonet and intended to deploy with it, but I was issued a M4 instead of a M16.
@@dobridjordje I think I may actually have one of those (my grandfather brought back a Japanese bayonet from the war, but I'm not sure of the exact model). If people are complaining that the M9 is too big and heavy that's even worse, and it's next to useless as a general-purpose knife.
@@jic1 Type 30 were known to be extremely sharp and yes a bit weighty but were essentially used as short swords which could do a lot of damage in close quarter combat, especially when mounted on the type 99 or 38 rifle.
I did buy one of these for my 590a1, and it does look pretty cool fixed to the end of the barrel. I admit that I haven't used it in the field, simply because it doesn't feel good in the hand and it's heavier than I want to deal with.
Here is a case where the problem isn't the multifunction isn't the problem, but the implementation is nonsensical. Giving up the modularity and the prybar functions would make the knife better at being a jack of all trades. It would be stronger and lighter.
Our bayonets 101st 3rd BDE Rakkasans were sharp AF, never saw One break but we didn’t use them often. I didn’t have a bad experience with mine and when I got out of the service I purchased one for myself. Still use it and no failures yet and though it takes work, you can get them razor sharp.
I only had two complants with the M9. 1. the weight, carrying them all day on your belt was a pain & only could be balanced by an M9 pistol on the opposite side. 2. The ones equiped with the sharpening stone on the back of the sheath, the constant rubbing against your leg woul wear out your pants unless you wrapped a ranger band or tape around it. Mine ended up in my ruck or left behind & carried a Benchmade switchblade & Leatherman.
My entire time in service, I never got issued a bayonet, and I'm glad. Instead we were just issued Gerber Multitools which were far more useful and practical. In the days of reliable rifles and sidearms, the bayonet is no longer needed. Sure, people will point to a handful of scenarios over the past few decades where some British soldiers did a bayonet charge when running low on ammo, but against any reasonably disciplined force that would have been a suicide charge.
I kept mine for D&S. It stayed at garrison. That said, I had Kuri, for slashing, vines and limbs. I had an old K Bar for a field knife. Back then you could get a name brand for less than 40 bucks. The off brand I could get for about 20. If I lose a 20 dollar knife on a jump or repel, I not going to cry. I do believe back in the 80's when they came out the were $160 if you lost one. I also used Leatherman's and other knives. The K bar's had a hidden tang, so I basically made a 6 in bowie as my first knife. It was like the western bowie, just smaller.
Anyone that wants to say bayonets are “obsolete” needs to ask the British, who have led a successful bayonet charge during the current decade, I doubt they would say it is “obsolete” and I doubt they would have been better off without it.
@@redclayscholar620 "Not since Korea..."? How about Moore's 7th Cavalry at Ia Drang in 1965 (Read the book, We Were Soldiers Once...And Young, not the movie). In 1982, the British Army mounted bayonet charges during the Falklands War, notably the 3rd Battalion, Parachute Regiment during the Battle of Mount Longdon and the 2nd Battalion, Scots Guards during the final assault of Mount Tumbledown. In 1995, during the Siege of Sarajevo, UN peacekeepers of the French 3rd Marine Infantry Regiment charged Serbian forces at the Battle of Vrbanja bridge. Actions led by the regiment allowed the UN peacekeepers to retreat from a threatened position. Two fatalities and seventeen wounded resulted. During the Second Gulf War and the war in Afghanistan, British Army units mounted several bayonet charges. In particular, in 2004, at the Battle of Danny Boy in Iraq, the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders charged mortar positions of the Mahdi Army. The ensuing hand-to-hand fighting resulted in an estimate of over 40 insurgents killed and 35 bodies collected and nine prisoners. Sergeant Brian Wood, of the Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment, was awarded the Military Cross for his part in the battle.
Bayonets are not supposed to have an edge at all. They're not knives. They're for poking holes. You should be issued an additional field or fighting knife. The M9 & AKM bayonets are not good bayonets and not good knives. Pick a lane.
I see the merit of attempting a do-both-things blade to reduce the amount of issued stuff, but at the same time you're totally right. If i was responsible for development (and not forced by lobbyists in my decisions) i'd make a short pokey bayonet that's as small as possible whem carrying and ask Victorinox to provide SAKs, just as they do for the swiss military since decades now.
Really? This guy doesn't know what he's talking about. They are still our issued bayonet. Current contract is held by Tri Technologies. Most of what he said was video gamer B.S. They work just fine. I've cut C-wire with them, no problem. The saw back is for metal cutting, no it's not going to work well on wood. Join up and get a real one bud, learn how to use it. 🤨
@@dobridjordje Lighter, but we found some either bent or broken. I think the nation of production has a lot to do with it. I have a couple of friends that served in the Soviet army back in the 80s. They had mixed feeling about their bayonet too.
@@HaroldLittell You should see the Yugo M70 bayonet, excellent craftsmanship, also Chinese type 56 spikers are nasty, a lot of Vietnam vets remember, my personal favorite is FAL bayonet, but also I'd like to clarify, this video is smoking crack, M9 bayonet is pretty solid piece of gear, just asked Marines in Fallujah what would be the go to weapon after ammo runs out.
@@dobridjordje Right on. I have a Yugo under folder and RPK. Great guns. They over built them! All used the heavier RPK trunnion and 1.5 mm thick steel for the receiver while everyone else used 1 mm. Yugoslavia set up the Iraqi AK production in the 80s so we ran into the pattern all the time.
Anything with a round handle and no through tang is on my "no" list. BTW- what is the obsession with bottle openers?? WHY is a bottle opener such a necessary thing? Has anyone ever used one in the last 20 years?
![The LEGENDARY KABAR WW2 Fighting Knife [What You NEED to Know!]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/6kEYm61ChJg/mqdefault.jpg)
![The LEGENDARY KABAR WW2 Fighting Knife [What You NEED to Know!]](/img/tr.png)
No tang but overly heavy. Cylindrical handle. Madness.
Retarded engineering.
AND you're supposed to trust that tiny little tang for prying.
One has to wonder how many were snapped trying to use it for that purpose.
NO TANG?! WTF is wrong with the people who decide on what will be standard issue?
That "tang" is downright comical
Personally I'm not interested in any fixed blade knife unless it has a full tang.
It's fine. Carried one for years.
The fact that the M9 prototype was one out of 6 prototypes competing for the contract means there were 5 worse knives that almost got the green light.
or just slightly more expensive to produce.
What the other guy said, could totally be they were better blades, but cost too much
@@SerpentineJack99 Very possible, but they also claim that the prototype that won was the only one to pass all tests. Could be something the people in charge of the product spread to get public interest, but if it’s true…
I like how “pass” all tests implies just barely.
It broke too easy
I never understood the sudden urge to spend $200+ on new bayonets when the M7 has been around in one form or another since 1943 and costs
The Mo has serrations and a wire cutter for "better" utility
@@Justin-rq6kfcombat units don’t need a bayonet that cuts wire, the units I was in already had wire cutters in our platoon inventory.
@@Williameagleblanketi liked my issue one , just tore the bdus at least mine did but not always
@@Williameagleblanketnever cut wire like you said we had wire cutters but I sharpened mine and used it a lot in the field at Campbell
It completely disregarded the lessons learned from the WW2 Pacific theatre
Bayonet are cool, but the only time I saw them was in the arms room. We would count them, put them into tac boxes, then lock and seal the boxes, only to open the boxes and count them once a year or for a change of command.
You are so right! I saw the exact same from 1983-87 during my service!
Never saw bayonet issued
That’s still the case in 2024
Maybe because you don't need a bayonet in barracks.
Same during my time (2001-2016). They didn't ever come to Afghanistan with us.
“…Their work on suppressors and BULLET PROOF CLIPBOARDS”
Me just trying to eat lunch: “Wait, what?!”
If you know you know, bullet proof clipboards were A thing for patrol officers upon availability, anything to put between you and a bullet.
Now if only they had sharpened those clipboards on one side.
For real 😳
Fuck it. Bullet proof lunch trays for everyone. Fuck your tax dollars. RAAAH
CIA Managers too sleek with bulletproof clipboards and pistol pens
There is no Geneva Convention prohibition against sawback bayonets. None. And not just because the Geneva Convention, by and large, doesn't say much about prohibited infantry weapons - that's the Hague Conventions (which most nations never signed) that details things like "no expanding ammo", and not even the Hague Conventions discuss sawtooth bayonets (why would they, when pretty much *every* major nation at the time issued them to their combat engineers?)
And the sawteeth on the M9 were designed and intended to cut through the sheet aluminum typical of unarmored *aircraft* fuselages, not wood. Which is why it was advertised as cutting through sheet aluminum - that was literally the reason they were there, to enable emergency rescue after an aircraft crash. (Sure, it's a stupid requirement, but it is a requirement the M9 meets better than anything else about it. Never mind the fact that 99% of the troops - even in a war - will ever have an opportunity where they need to cut through a helo fuselage, and the ones who are realistically going to be called on to do so will likely have proper extraction tools designed for the job, because they're "crash & smash" on an airbase.)
Most of the Geneva and Hague conventions are utterly stupid and not worth the paper and ink they’re written on.
The U.S. can also use hollow point ammunition because we never ratified it, which it is now doing and has done since OTP (Open Tip Match) ammo was authorized to penetrate windshields of cars at roadblocks in Iraq. Ball ammo can bounce off a slanted windshield and can be a cause for fresh underwear.
The hague is useless, having that court think of laws for war when the country its in DOESNT EVEN ALLOW SELF DEFENCE is bullshit
I think it because of the tendency that people who would see the saw and think it breaking the Genova convention and would execute the soldier carrying it. That what happen in ww1 with the German pioneer saw bayonet.
Based on experiences in Vietnam, it was not a stupid requirement. Downed Hueys were exactly the reason for that requirement.
One thing said about the AK-47 bayonet is the Soviets did not design it to be a knife, but a wire cutter. It looked like a knife so the typical Soviet soldier would not throw it away. It is almost impossible to sharpen.
Get diamond rods. Easy to sharpen.
Not correct.
Only sharpens on one side. This is typical of Siberian knives.
It can be sharpen, but it still would be a shitty knife. And you'll face consequences from your sergeant
when I finally got a edge on a AK bayonet it was probably the worst cutting tool I ever held lol . They make for some great beater tools and obviously you can stick the f out of something with it. But yeah definitely not a knife .
I get unreasonably irritated when civilians tell me bayonets aren’t supposed to be sharp.
“It hurts more when you stab someone” or “the military was worried people would hurt themselves if it was sharp” are the two usual bs excuses I hear from gun store commandos.
@@thetallone7605 my favorite is “because the blade gets stuck in the bones”
@@tinyfox7349 ooh, I forgot about that one. That’s on par with “the blood groove helps you pull the blade out easier because poking a meat based target creates a vacuum that will hold on to the blade”… even though it’s literally just a fuller that’s designed to make the blade lighter while not decreasing rigidity.
Keeping edged weapons intentionally dull in a garrison environment is an old practice. Privates do dumb shit when given sharp objects and left to their own devices. As far back as the 18th century for example British military sabres were all issued quite dull and left that way until it was time to rotate out on foreign service. Increases the life of the blade (no needless material removal keeping it sharp in a place you don't need it to be) and reduces the risk of incidents (there's a story of an overeager junior officer who lopped off the tip of his poor horse's ear while drilling somewhere).
Then the institutional rot sets it, you're in the Red Army, and because bayonets are issued dull Private Conscriptavitch is told in no uncertain terms by his micro managerial leadership (that has as much or less experience than he does) that it shall stay that way "or else."
@@mr.stotruppen8724 Old, stupid practice that is absolutely useless. Got it.
Deli worker to arms manufacturer to golf club designer
Fucking wild career
All things a guy could love sandwiches, weapons and golf.
Also Mickey Finn was used as a slang term for a drink spiked with some kind of date rape drug. Not sure why or where in this timeline that fits, but another footnote nonetheless.
Only in America!
I was forced to carry one of these wretched things during my time in the army (despite carrying an M249 machinegun that couldn't mount a bayonet). It's obscenely HEAVY, and adds to the soldiers already excessive load. It was dull and resisted sharpening. And the round handle was extremely uncomfortable in the hand. And whenever we went to the bayonet assault course, we always ended up breaking several of them.
The M9 was so bad that a lot of our guys ended up carrying a more useful fixed blade (in addition to the shitty M9), just so they'd have something that was useful as a knife. The Kabar was popular for this role.
The M7 bayonet might not have been fancy, but it was rugged, strong, and lightweight. And we never broke any of them.
when where you in? I did 6 years (2016-2022) and I never even saw one. like I have never seen one in an armored or anything.
@@jesseterry6461 in an armored?...
It’s heavy, but I abused the hell out of mine and never had an issue. “Resisted sharpening” is not something I had trouble with. Proper technique is required, but it sharpened as well as anything else.
The real draw back just comes down to big and heavy.
Interesting; in my NATO unit, we could spot the Nam vets cz they always carried a German made Puma hunting knife on their belts, even in garrison. They were nice, useful field knives.
@@joelee2371 hell yeah they were.
It amazes me how it was possible to mess up a knife design in the late stages of the Cold War after fielding one of the best bayonets ever. If they had a full tang and threw out the pry bar requirement, it should’ve been fine.
But the military, in their infinite wisdom (read idiocy) had started that phase of wanting everything to be a “do it all” kind of tool. It’s the cause behind half of the shitty things we’ve gotten over the last few decades. The military tries to make everything too modular and in response lose out on a weapon or item that isn’t focused enough on one thing to be good at that one thing.
Also the deeply stupid concept of a round handle.
Yeah. One of my friends own one of these and oh my god is it a literal brick. For all the supposed endurance testing, the blade constantly wiggles loose even from light use. If you use the handle as a hammering surface, it'll break. The double compound bevel edge and hard steel makes it a pain to sharpen with the included whetstone being pathetic which made it impossible to use as an actual knife.
The whole "Jack of all trades" argument he made in the video doesn't float. This thing is just really poorly designed and they only survived whatever testing they did by having more material.
@@eloryosnak4100asymmetrical guard negates a lot of the issues there
In 1987, our Battalion CSM actually ran onto the assault course at Fort Ord to tell us that bayonet training was cancelled. We found out later that day 8-12 bayonets broke in the first wave of soldiers going through the course.
We would have preferred to leave them in the arms room. Everyone carried a pocket knife. Every squad had wire cutters.
The Achilles heal of the M9 was the blade was prone to break.
We used them and never broke any. Not saying I liked it but
Saw one break in the ROK in 1990 when we are on guard duty on the DMZ and the soldier accidently dropped it. Blade broke clean in half. Also the break had what I imagine a cast steel bar would look like as opposed to a forged steel one. Knew right then that it was crap. However, it was what we were issued, so we carried it. However, I shortly thereafter bought a Gerber Mark Two which I also carried. Sadly I lost my Gerber to a home burglery years later. I regret having lost that more than anything else in the house.
I kept mine. It's been my field, camping, and hiking knife ever since...21 years. I see no problems with it. I've cut wood with it. Opened cans. Dug shallow drain/trenches with it. It's always been a good knife.
"if you can't get an edge good enough to shave with it, ain't good enough to keep it," my father when I asked how to find a good knife. Governments really do love giving soldiers stuff they don't want, punishing them for not keeping it, then finding excuses for not providing what they actually need.
Inability to sharpen a knife is user error
The M7 could do that and due to being made out of corrugated steel could be sharpened to a razor sharp edge that lasts with a shop grinder.
You can sharpen ANYTHING!
The question is: how many nails can I hammer before it stops being a knife?
The USMC went a different route with our bayonette, but more to your point, i did have Master Guns sit on the back of my truck with his canteen cup and bayonette and shave during one of our convoys. The USMC uses the OKC3S from Ontario Knife Company
Edit: didnt realize they would mention it in video
It's actually funnier than that!
Few are the units that will issue them, as we're talking about a rather expensive knife, so it's an accountable end item. End result, the damned things languish in the arms room, where they defend it by bulk. Not even useful in bulk, as nobody keeps full sandbags in the arms room, that might be useful.
The Buckmaster looks like a bootleg toy, those downward spikes make it unusable.
They unscrew, one of the pouches on the sheath is where you’re supposed to store them.
Sharper Image hawked a Buck 🔪 in the 1980s. They claimed it was used by SEALs 🔱 SpecWar. They sold it in matte stainless & a carbon black but the black version was not a public item for long. I heard the large field knife had mixed reviews.
@@DavidLLambertmobile It was used by a few SEALs but it wasn't issued across the board to all the teams just like there are 1000 knives called "SEAL" knives but only a few are really issued to SEALs.
@@brittburton3264 for what purpose?
@@jacobmccandles1767 Never a grappling hook for climbing, but to grab lines or cables, or an anchor. Whicih is fitting because every time someone picks up one of mine they say "darn; heavy as a boat anchor".
Poland didn't accept M9 as a bayonet. Sure, there were soldiers who bought it independently, but it was never issued to them. Unless we are talking about SF units that already carry western weapons- but you seem to suggest the mass issuing.
I had no idea the tang was that bad. I guess I’ll be passing on this one and going with my original choices.
Same.
Was looking at one myself.
That's sad, these blades are basically " Joe " proof and rarely fail.
@@BayonetRedneckare we talking Average Joe Proof or Joe X Proof?
@@BayonetRedneck Because Joe's don't ever use them, they stay in the supply cage, unissued. These things break easily because they do everything wrong that you want out of a knife.
Brother, it is the year of our lord 2024, and you were still considering buying an 80s Rambo bayonet for practical use lol? For clarity, I own a surplus LanCay M9 that actually saw use, but purely for collector and historical purposes. I would never even consider using it for bushcraft or survival knife purposes, nor for what it was actually made for either. I have knives that fulfill all 3 of those roles better in every way because knife tech has made so much progress since then. If you want something nowadays that fulfills the m9s role well, then you probably should look for something with full tang, at least .15 in blade thickness and made from a good CPM steel that had a good heat treatment process. Also, should have a micarta, carbon fiber, or g10 handle, no wood. For ex, a good suggestion would be a Benchmade bushcrafter, extremely good brand and just found one discounted for only $150.
Any knife without a full tang should be disregarded as default.
Commenting before I watch cause I want to see if my predictions are right.
1. It's an absolute brick, ridiculously heavy and the blade is as thick as my thumb, if I ever had to actually stab someone with this it would probably feel like stabbing them with an Egyptian pyramid.
2. Despite the blade being chunky enough to club a baby seal with it has a rat tail tang, which makes any task beyond light knife work risky business, and it wasnt very good at light work cause it's an absolute club.
3. Wire cutter doesnt work very well and you'd be better suited just carrying an actual wire cutters or mini bolt cutters along with you. Same with the screwdriver on the scabbard, speaking of which the scabbard is a brick too, if you run out of ammo you could probably just throw it at the enemy and kill them on impact.
4. saw/file on the back is absolutely useless, I've heard that it was actually for ripping the thin aluminum skin of a helicopter in the event you crash and get stuck but I'm not totally convinced it would actually be useful for that, though I've never seen it used like that so I could be wrong.
I'll say the two things I did like about it are the fact that it's stainless steel so it doesn't rust and the scabbard is ambidextrous (you can slip the bayonet in either way) which was nice since I'm left handed.
The funny part is some of those fake ones meant to look like video game versions have a full tang.
Which by the way is what I feel to be the biggest problem with the knife. Everything else can be kinda excused because it can be modded or whatever but a survival knife that breaks on you when you try to pull it out when it gets stuck is like having no knife.
the irl equivalent of video games having 'knife durability" enabled
Yeah exactly. You would be mental to not have a knife in the field, but also mental for that knife to not be a full tang
I actually got one of these from a outdoor flea market when I was 14. I remember me and my buddy tried using the wire cutter on some low gage steel wire and it took us forever to get through the thing it was so clunky and weird. I can't imagine anyone in the field actually using that for that function. Same with using the serrations to cut through metal.
Why are you using serrations on a knife to cut through metal? Do you use a serrated swiss army knife to cut through sheet steel?
@@SlavicCelerySo you didn't watch the video.
I had a FDE tan Gerber 🔪 2010s for around 6yr. The USAF SERE blade was thick, meant to aid air crews, downed pilots. The edge got dull after 2-3yr ⬇️ . I rarely used the field knife. It didn't have a full tang either. Some 🔪 collectors, outdoor-campers said Gerbers are +/- in terms of design, QC. I sold the knife around 2018.
@@section8usmc53 That was a different set of serrations. It's like seeing someone use the OG design and then use a bread knife, expecting the same results.
Would you expect a SAK to cut through wire with a serrated edge?
@@section8usmc53 The video is ultimately flawed. Yes, the bayonet ended up worse than promised. The problem is for the performance promised, the costs would have skyrocketed. And if you're choosing between funding accurized air dropped munitions or a bayonet, what are you going to pick?
Anyone can make a prototype look great. Because costs of a prototype don't matter. When you're manufacturing hundreds of thousands of an item, then costs do matter.
Soft steel is better for thrusting. It is worse for cutting metal, and holding an edge. So, why would you expect a metal tool for thrusting to be great at cutting?
I was a US Army Infantryman and later an Infantry Officer (2004-2014). LIterally the only time I ever saw these was when we had Division Parades and Change of Command Inventories. They're too large to be used in the field and not worth the hassle of issuing them out when soldiers would lose or break them.
Exactly! I packed a box cutter. Nam '71 11B
The field knife I settled on was an M7 with the barrel rig cut off and ground down. I got one at a surplus store back when they were about $15. I like to be able to run my thumb along the back of the spine when cutting stuff. It was pretty durable and not so expensive I'd be scared to put it to hard use,
-Rattling Handle.
-Heavier that it needed to be.
-Wirecutter shealth is a cute idea but good luck cutting through a regular fence without someone a half mile away hearing every second of it. Not to mention, I hope you have the strongest arms in the planet because cutting that piece of wire was a pain in the ass for even the strongest guys I served with because of no torque.
-MOST units not even issue them because within minutes people are going to the hospital over stupid private "look what I can do" issues. Seriously. They issued ours in 2007 and immidately took them back the next day because in one day like 30 people got hospitallized playing around with them.
-handle sucks, the designer obviously never had to cut anything before.
-Did I mention it rattles the whole time?
-I know you mentioned it, but the thing is half the weight as the M4 rifle it goes on.
-I broke the handle on mine opening a box of grenades trying to bend the little metal hooks.
I have an Ontario M7 bayonet reproduction with a rubberized grip in the style of the oval rings of the M3. It is the perfect fighting knife and bayonet. Strong, has a false edge, easy edge alignment, incredibly secure grip, but not sticky nor will fill with dirt like the checkering of the original.
Got that one too probably my favorite. There is a serious lack of options for people who actually want a bayonet though.
I had the M7B but I hated the rubber material. I ended up getting a surplus Imperial Knife Company M7 instead.
I want to get my hands on a German Eickhorn B2K Bayonet because it seems like a better alternative to the M9, and Canada uses it as the B2005CAN for their Bayonets.
Sidenote, I have an Ontario version of the M9, and it has a MUCH better handle. It's better shaped and not just a hard cylindrical plastic handle, feels a lot better in the hand. And it has a revised sheath.
I think the KM 2000 uses N695 steel, which is like Spyderco's VG-10. Good stuff.
Ontario closed in 2024. RIP.
After a quick Google I found that Eickhorn bayonet on a website called German Knife Shop, although given that I've never heard of the site before I can't say for 100% certain that it's legit.
Does the Ontario version have a full tang?
The spikes on the handle of the Buckmaster are supposedly for use in anchoring functionality used by navy divers, i.e. underwater related tasks. They are not for grappling but for attachment or anchoring. That's my understanding.
As a former US Army Infantryman I, unfortunately do agree that the US Marines M-7 bayonet is far superior then the US Army's M-9 bayonet. The Marines keeping with the K.I.S.S. principal seems to always works out better than the Army's way of over complicating every thing. If you try and create something that does everything it turns out it does nothing well. This has been a problem with the Army for a very long time! 😠🇺🇸
Have to agree with you, I carried a USN MkII fighting knife for close to 12 years.
Never had a moment of worry that it would let me down.
A few years back I managed to buy a used USMC M7 and jumped on it.
Granted my days of dismounting are long gone but I do appreciate a good knife.
* F-35 has entered the chat *
I came here for knowledge on bayonets…but now I want to know about about “bullet proof clip boards” (2:20)
I was issued an M-9 when I went to Bosnia in '96. It was definitely a big ass slab of steel. It was more useful as a pole axe than a spear. I eventually bought an Ontario made M-7 with an M-10 scabbard that carried for the majority of that deployment and in Iraq in 2010-11. The infantry unit I was in in 2014-15 actually had Vietnam era M-7s with M-8 scabbards in the arms room.
Ontario are very good
I'm an Iraq veteran and carried a Phrobis M9 bayonet in 2003 and still own it, I love the M9. The M9s an awesome bayonet, I hate it when civilians try telling us what's good and what's not.
oh look, the minority
I'm a veitnam vet and I like the old one still using the old one today
A very random question, but what flag is that supposed to be at 0:16 on the bottom left? The closest I can get is Tonga but with the red cross in the canton removed...
Emirate of Abu dhabi
@manshoe1738 Ah, that's right, thank you!
@@manshoe1738Which also looks like a New England flag.
We in the old Army just went out and bought our own. My favorite in 1976-80 was the Buck 112 and the Swiss Army Knife.
Round handle is jist dumb. Flatten it a bit. Then you can properly index the edge.
What does everyone use a bottle opener for and why does it seem so important to have I've gone 30 years without using one?
I use my M4 Bottle Breacher for 🍺 or sodas on occasion. Bottle Breacher is a veteran owned; SEAL company.
Beer bottles of course. Yeah I can use a lighter or brick wall, fence, but the proper one on my keychain (crown cork 1940s that cost $3) is easier. Glock knife has a nice one btw.
Beer and some sodas
It's in case you are attacked by a bottle.😏
so soldiers dont break their magazines trying to use them as a bottle opener for lack of a proper bottle opener. it was actually a problem.
The stupid things were so expensive they were treated like high dollar value items like rifles and Night Vision Devices. Usually only the infantry got them and often they wouldn't even issue them for fear the grunts would lose them in the field. In my 27 year career I rarely saw one and only handled one briefly.
The biggest problem with bayonets is they're obsolete and have been for over a century. Yet there is no other weapon used in basic training that drives home to the average recruit that _killing_ is an explicit part of their job description no matter their MOS.
We got them for a hot minute in Bosnia, then guys who had never been camping or had a sheath knife before started screwing around and cutting themselves so they got taken away and locked up till the end of the deployment. One of the guys in my platoon decide to "hang on" to his, and it was absolutely treated like someone lost a pistol or a set of NVGs.
Kind of a dumb opinion. Yeah it's not 1863 anymore, but soldiers can always benefit from a decent field knife. The OKC bayonet I had in the marines was quite useful to that purpose, so much so I bought one after I got out.
@@patrickbateman312 I suppose I should be insulted you called my opinion dumb. And hey, some of them are, even IMO. However, I aimed my critique at bayonets, not field knives. I never said field knives were bad. So it's a reading comprehension thing for you. You're not obligated to live up to Marine stereotypes.
@@EricDaMAJ right, so as rifles have evolved so too have bayonets. It's not impossible or impractical to have a field knife which doubles as a bayonet.
Get your life together, boomer.
@@patrickbateman312I agree. I started with the M7 (a sturdier knife than the M9, but a lousy field knife overall for anything more involved than cutting open MREs), moved to the M9 (a *slightly* better cutting implement, but a worse bayonet and too easy to break).
The OKC the Marines adopted after the M9 is a better bayonet than either of them, and a *far* better field knife overall. It's such a good field knife, it's what I use camping - the blade is the right length and weight to allow it to be a good chopper on small saplings while still being a good *cutter* and not so ridiculously large and heavy as to be a net disadvantage to the force overall. And the small serrated portion near the base of the blade is excellent at cutting straps and ropes. There are better bayonets, but the next one up in quality and performance costs about $500 for *minimal* improvement - and you can't afford to equip the whole infantry with such Gucci knives. The OKC does the job 99% as well (and better than anything cheaper than it), for a cost the military can reasonably afford.
Which is what a bayonet *should* be, since the development of the bolt action rifle with a box magazine in the late 19th Century. Troops will *always* need a good, sturdy field knife that can cut and chop, isn't a ginormous clunky weight, and is has a good carry system. Since they really need that, might as well put a bayonet mounting system.on it for those few occasions where the bayonet is actually useful.
Note that bayonets aren't good weapons *as bayonets* because they're great at inflicting *casualties* directly... they're *psychological* weapons attacking the enemy's morale, so it's easier to *shoot* then as they freak out becayse they think they're going to get pinned like a butterfly by some bloodthirsty barbarian who *enjoys* that kind of crap. That was even true back when bayonets and "cold steel" were a typical thing used in most battles. The point of the bayonet was to break enemy formations and deter cavalry charges going home, because of a very deep fear of being *stabbed* . It took well disciplined, well drilled forces who confident they were *better* bayonet fighters than the enemy closing with them to hold the line against a bayonet charge in the muzzle loading days with 2 feet of bright steel on the end of every musket.
I noticed during Desert Shield/Storm all the troop trucks had slats on the seats that popped off the green M7 sheath tips. You'd find them under seats and at least a third of my unit had them snapped. Can't imagine getting hung up with a wire cutter on the bottom.
Ft Benning A 2/58 Inf in 1987. We had a former West Point Cadet with a long scar on his forearm, said he got sliced by a bayonet while doing D&C. Of course he could have been bullshitting but he never struck me as a bullshitter. Our (Infantry 1987- 1991) bayonets were sharp. Also, we did DIV COC ceremony at Ft Campbell with fixed bayonets. While marching to the parade field there was a delay then we saw a huge puddle of blood in the road. They said someone got sliced, which didn't surprise me because those things were sharp and it was bound to happen with a large group in closed/tight formation.
I got my thigh sliced when doing the bayonet assault course in basic at Ft Benning
1991
Great video, and a lot of information packed in here! I'm used to the ASEK or Aircrew Survival Egress Knife used by the Air Force.
Has a similar look to the M9, just missing all the little features.
i had an M9 bayonet attached to my AR-15 last year when someone tried to break into my house, it was lackluster at best, my M7 bayonet i got 2 months later was and still is my best knife for mounting on my rifle
LMFAO what the fuck???
@@benfennell6842 i was feeling saucy at 4am
@@hugosinclair6798 go go gadget stab wound
@@benfennell6842 it was either the rifle and bayonet that scared the methead off, or the fact the naked fatguy screaming "FRESH MEAT!" holding it
TALLY HOO!
10/10 Would not want to be the dumb s.o.b who breaks into your place.
The bayonet will never be redundant we (British) used it during the Falklands war, during the Iraq War and during Afghanistan. It is the second last resort, the last resort is fists and rocks.
When you've relying on the SA80, no wonder, you're probably going to need it...
They are redundant in modern warfare. They're useless against enemy combatants wearing any generation of body armour from the past 30+ years, which is more common now.
British infantrymen would be better off carrying an extra 30-round mag than a bayonet. If you're in a situation where bayonets are viable, then those 30 extra rounds per man is more than enough to solve the problem. The enemy is close enough for accurate shot placement too.
@@BlossomField91 except time and time again, the British army finds itself using them. our current near peer adversary is not rolling out any generation of body armour for their new troops, and to top that off they have yet to come out with body armour for your face and thighs. Trench warfare should be redundant in modern warfare with the advent of the tank and combined arms back in 1918, and yet here we are a century later with trench warfare and bayonets being used alongside drone warfare
@@AE-wv8jd You think Russia and China are "near-peer" to the UK? lmao. That's a US term.
I said any body armour from the last 40 years, which certainly most army do have. I'd be careful about believing every story coming out if Ukraine if I were you. Russia engages in a lot of propaganda, so does the West. The first casualty in war is the truth.
Again - more ammo or a sidearm are much better options than bayonets for any situation that'd require a bayonet. If the situation doesn't require it, you've got an incompetent/glory hounding unit commander who is willing to put his men's lives at risk for medals/promotion.
Even as far back as WW2, veterans claimed the bayonet was the most useless thing they had to carry.
@@AE-wv8jdThe rest of the world has evolved beyond the use of bayonets by issuing rifles that work. Have the British tried that?
My experience oversees was that troops preferred a gerber, leatherman, or a plain old folding knife. The m9 was heavy, and all of the tools were less useful than a multitool
Had no idea these were so bad. I also had no idea they could do so much. Is the extra heft really that big of a problem? I figure the extra heft would make it a sturdier weapon, maybe a more cumbersome tool though.
The problem is that its not put together sturdy for how heavy it is to many weak point where it could break from heavy use and abuse. For something that heavy you would expect it to be damn near indestructible.
It doesn’t matter this video is longer than anyone in a line unit will actually hold a bayonet outside arms room inventory, in their entire career.
@@thomasstevenhebert It does as its supposed to double as a work tool.
Imagine spending 200 USD on a multitool that's dull and doesn't work for anything.
@@happyjohn354 yes and it still doesn’t matter as the tool literally never leaves the arms room. Even on deployment, they sit in the tough box in the arms room connex. They are on MTOE but they aren’t used by any anyone.
There are enough unit or personal bought pocket knives & multi tools for normal knife work. Track or Truck BII Ax if you need a larger blade.
I wish someone manufactured modern spike bayonets that fit the M7/M9 bayonet mounting lugs.
Spike bayonets are more simple to manufacture lighter due to less material. Just add a grip so you have something like a modern rondel dagger.
Spike bayonets only do one thing, a thing that really hasn’t had anything to do with modern combat for a long time.
From the end of WWII onward, the US Army and others have known that bayonet fighting is obsolete; but if you’re going to issue a highly useful field knife, what’s the harm in making it possible to put it on the rifle just in case? Think of these things as knives first (and the M9 is doodoo as a knife).
@@509Gman Not necessarily you can still give a spike bayonet some usability if you make it flat it would work as a pry bar or screw driver.
And for knives most guys just carry a pocket folder even if they are issued a bayonet because using a bayonet to open a box is overkill.
We got the M9 brand new and loved it at first. I used the screw driver function to fix our M113 radio, though my Swiss Army knife was more functional, I used the bottle opener during the long convoys back to base. I even used the saw to get through tree roots at the bottom of my fighting position. I like the intimidation factor if I ever had to clear a college campus of long hairs. Many times we used the M9 to cut through constantinena wire. But, I worried about sticking someone in the rib cage and not being able to pull my bayonet out. I also worried about losing the damn thing since the webbing on the scabbard broke down and we spent days and hours walking in long lines trying to recover bayonets lost while training. The fix was to use 5 50 cord to dummy cord it to our Load Bearing Equipment harness. This combat non-functionality made me resent the weight of it and long for the reliable M7 bayonet, which felt a lot better in my hand.
Nice work. I stopped watching the knife video I was watching to watch this knife video.
Knife’s
I mean….
Nice !
Wait, incompatible with molle? I've been using issued Bianchi clip gear with molle for years.
Say what you want, but you can’t deny how mean the M9 looks on the end of an M4. Thiccc
Cool designs and honestly some designs sound great in theory. Though I will say, when a knife is no more a knife than a screwdriver or prybar, it can’t really compete with other knives. When I was in the Army we used the Gerber LMF2 and that was pushing it. Now they switched over to the Gerber StrongArm and from what I hear the current soldiers who have them absolutely love them dearly. So much so that they buy their own to keep as personal property because they like to use them so much.
The M9 weighed as much as a bowling ball and was almost as sharp. Useless
Mine came razor-sharp.
Mine was sharp also
1:45 ~ The one with the wire cutter looks good to me. Did that one get produced in any capacity?
Whoever wrote the script for this video just barely knows what they are talking about.
Seems to be the case with a lot of RUclips videos
The m9 bayonet was a crowbar with an edge. It was one of those things I had to lug around in my kit for inspections but I never actually used. After trying several knives, some fairly expensive, I ended up with the original SOG seal pup and an EOD multitool on my gear. The M11 EOD variant was developed because of the Army's impractical regulations surrounding bayonets...not because EOD guys wanted another crowbar. It didn't have a handle for hammering, it had a cap instead of the locking lug mount so that it wasn't a "bayonet" under US Army regulations.
The M9 and M11 have a strong cult following in the American bushcrafting scene. Surprising the tang is extremely tough.
Used surplus M9’s are already made very sharp from long service, and OKC M11’s come out the box razor sharp.
(Being honest from personal use, few people use the Bolt cutter and unscrew it for less weight.)
Overall, very customizable to the user.
I have the M11 I attached to my get home bag. It’s a beast. When employed, I would be sent to other urban/suburban locations as a court clerk.
I wanted something I could use as an urban entry tool as well as a weapon.
The handle is oval shaped and much more comfortable to grip.
Also a sillcock key, tarp and enough food & water for 2 days.
Unfortunately my M9 sheath was damaged in a fire.
It seems a better design could be had now.
There are better utility/combat knives for soldiers out there-much lighter and more comfortable to use.
Like the Gerber Strongarm, Cold Steel SRK, Esee 5s and others.
Buy a wirecutter if you need one.
I will say it makes a decent survival knife on its own, but as a bayonet, not so much. It still doesn't compare to the AK bayonet.
I bought a M9 as just a collector's piece to go with my AR and I wodered why besides being heavy which I tend to like in my knives it still felt odd in my hand. That threaded tang design has now instantly regulated it to the "display only" part of the collection.
Why would it need a bottle bottener? Even non-twistoffs can be opened with just about anything
Because 'just about anything' includes things like 'magazine feed lips'
@@shatara42 or BiC lighters, or rocks, or sticks. Any flat surface with an edge. Probably better to teach military not to use magazines than to waste tooling on such a superfluous feature 🙄
Putting a bottle opener on anything makes it tactical, add a carbide tip to smash glass and now you've made it special forces
@LordThree Actually, it's easier to add a bottle opener than getting soldiers to stop using things they shouldn't. There's a reason militaries throughout the world have added bottle openers to random bits of equipment since detachable magazines became standard issue.
My father had an M9 when he was in the Marines (before the OKC3S). Or, four. He broke three of them just stabbing tires.
imagine having a sword sized version of the M9 bayonet that you wear as a side arm
It would be absolute garbage.
@@Askorti yep. Some Billy badass would think he would look cool carrying one and suddenly he’d become a bullet magnet and all the secret sauce inside him would be outside him, feeding the grass.
you mean like a Pyramid head in Silent Hill Homecoming? 😀
Every few hours you'd have to swap which side you carry it on.
I actually made one while I was quarantined
Even though it gets bashed all the time I really didn't care. Having the models for the M4, M14, M1 Carbine, Garand, P17, some AK models, I got one many years ago and it's a Lancay. Later I got a Mossberg 590A1 that came with an Ontario M9. The M7 I have is a Colt marked one. I find Bayonets very interesting.
I don't know where this genius gets his information from, but:
1. the Geneva conventions do not prohibit the use of saws in combat, or any other weapon for that matter. Neither do the Hague Conventions.
2. The M7 was no great piece of gear. It was a knife one could affix to the end of a rifle and was mostly used to open MREs when replaced with the M9 that was mostly used for the same.
3. Almost 40 years later the M9 is still in service with no plans to replace it. How does it have a "downfall"?
8:16 - How is that a flaw in the design? All sorts of stuff needed to be reconfigured to MOLLE. Ammo pouches, canteen covers, etc
The geneva convention absolutely probibits weapons. Chemical, for one.
I was in the military (not the US…) for 12 yrs in the 1990/2000s and my first thought when I saw the knife and read “failure” was: I guess it was too heavy! All the great “on paper” features that you never really use will be less important to regular soldiers if they add weight to what they have to carry around already.
Speak for yourself I loved my M9 Bayonet.
Might as well ask here as well;
for context, I just came from the short about the M9. My question isn't seven about the bayonet. I just wanna know the name of the song in the beginning. I've been looking to find that synth beat for ages (I've heard it somewhere before, but never found the original/full version). If anyone knows the name, or the creator of the video could credit it, I would be the luckiest person on this planet.
Thanks in advance
5:27 "Made in China" right on the blade.
GREAT Video my friend, you deserve more views !!!
YES!
They broke very easily. The first time I took one to the field it broke cutting constina wire. The second one broke when it was dropped on the floor.
i was up at Ft. Drum from 2016-2019. we had a whole tufbox of these in the arms room. we never used them cause i was in an artillery unit
Anyone who puts saw teeth or serrations on a bayonet doesn't understand how bayonets actually work. You might get it in, but then the saw teeth will snag and stop you pulling it out. Then your rifle is inconveniently attached to one very pissed off enemy soldier.
Bayonets are essentially obsolete anyway, the idea was basically to make a general-purpose military knife that can also be popped on the end of a rifle in a pinch.
@@jic1 I don't disagree with you. But experts have been saying bayonets are obsolete for the last 60 years and yet they're still being used in close combat. They may have limited practical use these days, but psychologically they can still have a big impact.
It happens but somethings gone horribly wrong if you are fighting a guy with your bayonet. Most soldiers will only use it as a weapon in training.
Has a bayonet ever run out of ammunition? And if a bayonet is stronger than your rifle barrel it can bend the rifle barrel and what does that do to your shot grouping?
@@member2845 If you're reduced to fighting with your bayonet in a modern context, you no longer care about your rifle's accuracy.
That’s hilarious as soon as I saw the blue prints for it I thought “it’s not full tang” and that was literally the next thing he talks about
As a collector I have quite a few of these M9's, both Lansky and Phrobis and a couple of the EOD versions. I love them, but then I have NEVER had to carry one in combat.
Ive had the pleasure of trying one of these, and it made me very happy that the military in my country just issues you a slightly modified version of a Mora, Fiskars or Hultafors depending on where you serve. Those things are awesome and do such a better job for the things you need a knife for 95% of the time. But hey at least the M9 looks cooler!
Bullshit! We were issued M9 bayonets for deployment and I NEVER heard anyone complain about it. The damn knife is awesome.
Agree with you, redacted2763. I'm sitting here pretty puzzled. I was in the 82nd Airborne Division (325th AIR) back in 1984-1989. Sometime in that period we were issued the Humvee, the 9mm pistol, lightweight BDUs, and.....the M9 Phrobis bayonet. With all of the off-Bragg deployments, EDREs, NTC, JRTC, Jungle School, jumps and so forth, like you, I never heard a complaint about it as regards breaking or other quality issues. Never heard of a jump injury from the screwdriver blade. Nothing came loose; mine still rock solid. We carried them all the time, and we used them. Troops had been carrying whatever knife they wanted, such as a Buck, K-Bar, USAF aircrew knife, even a few older guys with Randalls. Our task force Field SOP was changed to require everyone to carry the M9. Still have my original Phrobis on my original LBE.
(I bought a banged-up used M9 Phrobis from a surplus store on Yadkin Road and used that one to turn-in when I PCS'd! Funny thing was, many guys started doing the same thing--keeping their M9s--but that was stopped when IG and Command Inspection people started noticing non-Phrobis non-reg knock-offs showing up in the arms rooms inspections and inventories! 😉).
I was thinking the same thing.
Not saying I really used it much but…
All of these RUclips “experts”
Like did the person making the video ever even hold one
We were issued the M9 bayonet for a few months - absolute garbage. They weren't full tang, and the handles would fall right off, often just from being bounced around in the sheath on our hips. We'd get back from a week in the field, and like 10% of the bayonets would just be a blade in a sheath with no handles by the time we got back., with a bunch of others loosened up and ready to come off. They pulled them almost immediately after they issued them to us and we went back to the M7.
Years later I was issued the OKC-3S bayonet which was an absolutely fantastic knife and bayonet.
First knife I ever bought with my own money was a Buck M9, back in the mid/late-1980’s. I love it for sentimental reasons but it’s a terrible knife-super heavy and there’s way too much width behind the apex to cut anything. The M7 wasn’t great, either, because its steel is crummy and won’t take a good edge. (Or at least my surplus M7 is crummy.)
What’s funny is that it doesn’t seem like a hard problem to take a good field knife, put a barrel ring on the guard, and a clip on the pommel. But your video is probably right that the requirements were the real issue, and you just can’t make something that checks all the boxes without weighting two pounds.
Thanks so much for another superb video. Your channel is absolutely first rate!
M7s are made out of 1095 carbon steel. Not fancy but not bad or anything.
@@mr.stotruppen8724 my surplus M7 was definitely made by the lowest bidder. Perhaps it’s 1095 with poor heat treatment; I don’t really know, but for the life of me I can’t get a good edge on it. I just spent another 20 minutes working on it and it’s still terrible. Could just be mine, of course.
I should add: the M7 is pokey on the end so it’s a fine bayonet. I’d just hate to rely on mine for knife tasks.
I can believe that they didn't look too hard at the heat treat on a stabbing implement designed to be manufactured as quickly and cheaply as possible out of stamped steel blanks.
I'm OK with the M7 being a crummy work knife tbh. If forced to carry one I'd prefer it be decent at one or two jobs (bayonet + fighting knife) than be terrible at seven. For the weight of it you could carry an M7 and an actual work knife and still carry less weight than an M9.
That short stub tang is THE reason I will never own one of these things.
Actually, although I do not like the stubby tang, it does not seem to be a problem. It just works for what it needs to do.
I carried one of these on me every day in Afghanistan and Iraq. Never got a chance to hear, "afix bayonet", and we all had pocket knives and fighting knives so I never used mine except in training. I did watch a fellow paratrooper try to pry open a can of potted meat with his bayonet and the blade snapped right in half with very little pressure. I preferred my k bar.
Id love to see a review of knives, including consumer items like the JerryRigEverything knife.
Hold up. It has little to no tang, relying on a screw pipe to hold the blade. But how did it passed the army's test? Surely they did some prying test? Or was the standard for their prying test very low?
china knife shown at 1:51.
One knife…
Dude it’s just an example
I was issued one when I was in Iraq in 2004. A lot of soldiers never bothered to read the manual for it. Several didn't even know about the wire cutting feature.
Later, I bought a M7 bayonet and intended to deploy with it, but I was issued a M4 instead of a M16.
KBAR for the win
KA-BAR isn't known for the strength of its tang either.
@@jic1I'd tather take the Japanese type 30 "short sword" Arisaka bayonet, that's one wonderful blade.
@@dobridjordje I think I may actually have one of those (my grandfather brought back a Japanese bayonet from the war, but I'm not sure of the exact model). If people are complaining that the M9 is too big and heavy that's even worse, and it's next to useless as a general-purpose knife.
@@jic1 Type 30 were known to be extremely sharp and yes a bit weighty but were essentially used as short swords which could do a lot of damage in close quarter combat, especially when mounted on the type 99 or 38 rifle.
@@dobridjordje It's not that I disagree with you, it's just that they would be nothing but a cumbersome nuisance to a present-day soldier.
I did buy one of these for my 590a1, and it does look pretty cool fixed to the end of the barrel.
I admit that I haven't used it in the field, simply because it doesn't feel good in the hand and it's heavier than I want to deal with.
"A jack of all trades is a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one." I still like these things. Pretty solid equipment.
Here is a case where the problem isn't the multifunction isn't the problem, but the implementation is nonsensical.
Giving up the modularity and the prybar functions would make the knife better at being a jack of all trades. It would be stronger and lighter.
Our bayonets 101st 3rd BDE Rakkasans were sharp AF, never saw
One break but we didn’t use them often. I didn’t have a bad experience with mine and when I got out of the service I purchased one for myself. Still use it and no failures yet and though it takes work, you can get them razor sharp.
I agree this is a bad design. Is it that hard to make a full tang design with a decent grind.
I only had two complants with the M9. 1. the weight, carrying them all day on your belt was a pain & only could be balanced by an M9 pistol on the opposite side. 2. The ones equiped with the sharpening stone on the back of the sheath, the constant rubbing against your leg woul wear out your pants unless you wrapped a ranger band or tape around it. Mine ended up in my ruck or left behind & carried a Benchmade switchblade & Leatherman.
My entire time in service, I never got issued a bayonet, and I'm glad. Instead we were just issued Gerber Multitools which were far more useful and practical. In the days of reliable rifles and sidearms, the bayonet is no longer needed.
Sure, people will point to a handful of scenarios over the past few decades where some British soldiers did a bayonet charge when running low on ammo, but against any reasonably disciplined force that would have been a suicide charge.
There were probably a box of M9s or M7s in the armory that only ever got pulled out for doing inventory. It's part of the M4's BII IIRC.
I kept mine for D&S. It stayed at garrison. That said, I had Kuri, for slashing, vines and limbs. I had an old K Bar for a field knife. Back then you could get a name brand for less than 40 bucks. The off brand I could get for about 20. If I lose a 20 dollar knife on a jump or repel, I not going to cry. I do believe back in the 80's when they came out the were $160 if you lost one. I also used Leatherman's and other knives. The K bar's had a hidden tang, so I basically made a 6 in bowie as my first knife. It was like the western bowie, just smaller.
It was good. I respectfully disagree, although I doubt you ever used one in service
He clearly didn't. Just another hate video for views
I've done several reviews and videos on a modern picatinny rail mount spike bayonet with multiple tips. The 12" version is insanely cool.
Anyone that wants to say bayonets are “obsolete” needs to ask the British, who have led a successful bayonet charge during the current decade, I doubt they would say it is “obsolete” and I doubt they would have been better off without it.
4 soldiers charging a handful of poorly trained hajjis with bad aim doesn't exactly lend credibility to the bayonet's role in modern combat.
Yeah the Brits know a thing or two about mass stabbings
@@redclayscholar620Pure nonsense. There're multiple large-scale bayonet assaults in recent years. You should read about them.
@@zoltancsikos5604 large scale? Name one. Not since Korea has there been any "large scale" bayonet charges.
@@redclayscholar620 "Not since Korea..."? How about Moore's 7th Cavalry at Ia Drang in 1965 (Read the book, We Were Soldiers Once...And Young, not the movie).
In 1982, the British Army mounted bayonet charges during the Falklands War, notably the 3rd Battalion, Parachute Regiment during the Battle of Mount Longdon and the 2nd Battalion, Scots Guards during the final assault of Mount Tumbledown.
In 1995, during the Siege of Sarajevo, UN peacekeepers of the French 3rd Marine Infantry Regiment charged Serbian forces at the Battle of Vrbanja bridge. Actions led by the regiment allowed the UN peacekeepers to retreat from a threatened position. Two fatalities and seventeen wounded resulted.
During the Second Gulf War and the war in Afghanistan, British Army units mounted several bayonet charges. In particular, in 2004, at the Battle of Danny Boy in Iraq, the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders charged mortar positions of the Mahdi Army. The ensuing hand-to-hand fighting resulted in an estimate of over 40 insurgents killed and 35 bodies collected and nine prisoners. Sergeant Brian Wood, of the Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment, was awarded the Military Cross for his part in the battle.
what is the back ground music he is using?
Bayonets are not supposed to have an edge at all. They're not knives. They're for poking holes. You should be issued an additional field or fighting knife.
The M9 & AKM bayonets are not good bayonets and not good knives. Pick a lane.
A fukkin men
I see the merit of attempting a do-both-things blade to reduce the amount of issued stuff, but at the same time you're totally right.
If i was responsible for development (and not forced by lobbyists in my decisions) i'd make a short pokey bayonet that's as small as possible whem carrying and ask Victorinox to provide SAKs, just as they do for the swiss military since decades now.
Okay bro you pack two knives
Pure nonsesne, Don.
M9 Bayonet: infamous for a flawed design at a high price.
M5 Sig Spear: hold my beer.
Really? This guy doesn't know what he's talking about. They are still our issued bayonet. Current contract is held by Tri Technologies. Most of what he said was video gamer B.S. They work just fine. I've cut C-wire with them, no problem. The saw back is for metal cutting, no it's not going to work well on wood. Join up and get a real one bud, learn how to use it. 🤨
AK/AKM bayonets are lighter and better bud. Plus they have killed a huge number of troops since 1949.
@@dobridjordje Lighter, but we found some either bent or broken. I think the nation of production has a lot to do with it. I have a couple of friends that served in the Soviet army back in the 80s. They had mixed feeling about their bayonet too.
@@HaroldLittell You should see the Yugo M70 bayonet, excellent craftsmanship, also Chinese type 56 spikers are nasty, a lot of Vietnam vets remember, my personal favorite is FAL bayonet, but also I'd like to clarify, this video is smoking crack, M9 bayonet is pretty solid piece of gear, just asked Marines in Fallujah what would be the go to weapon after ammo runs out.
@@dobridjordje Right on. I have a Yugo under folder and RPK. Great guns. They over built them! All used the heavier RPK trunnion and 1.5 mm thick steel for the receiver while everyone else used 1 mm. Yugoslavia set up the Iraqi AK production in the 80s so we ran into the pattern all the time.
@@dobridjordje And yes, smoking crack sounds right.
I enlisted in 1989. Never saw one after basic training. We used aviation survival knives. By the time I got out, everyone had Leatherman multitools.
Anything with a round handle and no through tang is on my "no" list.
BTW- what is the obsession with bottle openers?? WHY is a bottle opener such a necessary thing? Has anyone ever used one in the last 20 years?
My M9 has been my camping knife for a loooong time and I love it!