Original 18th & 19th Century Socket Bayonet Lot – American, British, Nepalese & Misc – 10 Bayonets – 1 Scabbard Original Items

Original Items: Only One Lot of 10 Available. Now this is a fantastic opportunity to add a beautiful variety of bayonets to your collection! All 10 vary in size, condition and country as well as rifle types. A few of the bayonets are even from our 2003 acquisition of the Nepal Royal Arsenal! Some have markings visible and most, unfortunately do not. Only one bayonet has a scabbard.

Some Of The Bayonets Included In This Lot:

4 U.S. Stamped Springfield Bayonets & 1 Scabbard
-1873 Springfield Trapdoor Bayonet With Scabbard: Stamped “U.S.” above an “S” for Springfield. Offered in excellent condition. The model 1873 “Trapdoor” Springfield was the first standard-issue breech-loading rifle adopted by the United States Army.
Socket Length: 3 Inches – Socket Inner Diameter: 18.88mm – Blade Length: 18 ½” – Scabbard Length: 18 ½”
-1873 Springfield Trapdoor Bayonet: Stamped “U.S.” above an “S” for Springfield. Offered in relic condition with cracks in the socket, diameter will measure larger. The blade has a slight curve to it.
Socket Length: 3 Inches – Socket Inner Diameter: 20.73mm – Blade Length: 16 ½”
-1873 Springfield Trapdoor Bayonet: Stamped “U.S.” above an “S” for Springfield. Offered in good condition.
Socket Length: 3 Inches – Socket Inner Diameter: 18.88mm – Blade Length: 18 ½”
-1873 Springfield Trapdoor Bayonet With Scabbard: Stamped “U.S.” above an “S” for Springfield. Offered in good condition. There is quite a bit of rust and the US stamp is barely visible. The socket is also slightly expanded.
Socket Length: 3 Inches – Socket Inner Diameter: 20.10mm – Blade Length: 18 ½”

-2 British Made Bayonets
-Martini-Enfield Rifle P-1895 Socket Bayonet: The only stamping still visible on the ricasso is the “WD” which would normally be above the Broad Arrow, Crown over E followed by a number and a date. Unfortunately we do not know the exact year this was manufactured but we do believe it to be produced in the late 1880s. This is not a converted bayonet.
Socket Length: 3” – Socket Inner Diameter: 18.04mm – Blade Length: 21 ½”

All bayonets vary in manufacturer, rifle type, condition and size. Almost all are complete with a locking ring, but a few are missing them. A few bayonets may even date back to the colonial era. All are beautiful and unique in their own way and they all come ready to display!

The socket fitting enabled a soldier to fix his bayonet but still fire his weapon.
Among single-shot musket-bearing troops of 17th century Europe, cold steel remained more effective than lead in close-quarters clashes. As early as 1611 put-upon musketeers were jamming pocket daggers into the muzzles of their guns. This makeshift weapon of last resort evolved into the plug bayonet, its name likely derived from the cutlery center of Bayonne, France. The first known mention of its military application appears in the memoirs of Chevalier Jacques de Chastenet, seigneur de Puységur, who describes the French use of crude, foot-long plug bayonets during the Thirty Years’ War (1618–48). Not until 1671, however, did General Jean Martinet standardize plug bayonets for his fusilier regiment. English dragoons adopted the weapon a year later.

By then the plug bayonet had proved a mixed blessing, as it was difficult to remove from the muzzle should an infantryman need to reload his musket and resume firing. At the July 1689 Battle of Killicrankie, Scottish Maj. Gen. Hugh Mackay lost half of his 4,000-man infantry to a Highlander charge when his troops failed to fix their plug bayonets in time. An early solution was the ring bayonet, offset from the barrel to allow firing with the bayonet fixed in place. Mackay re-equipped his surviving infantrymen with this variation.

In 1703 the French army chose the socket bayonet for its infantry. Secured to a lug/sight atop the muzzle by a zigzag slot, a butterfly screw or a spring-loaded catch, socket bayonets predominated on battlefields through the 1840s. Over the next half century, sword or knife bayonets eclipsed the socket type, as soldiers could wield such bayonets independent of their other weapons.