FN FAL Bayonet Country ID?

[old-smithy]

Peter, I think the UK versions are all marked X2 or similar

Information

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[tankhunter]

I'm no bayonet fiend or expert by any stretch of the imagination but isn't this a UK FN bayonet with those prongs that were supposed to act as a primitive flash eliminator when the bayonet was fixed - as we had faffed around with during the EM2 trials/No7 type bayonets?

I know what you're going to say......... Surely, if you need a flash eliminator, you need it ALL of the time, not just when the bayonet is fixed. Yep......, but I'm just saying what I saw and what we had tucked away at Warminster.

As for the scabbards. I would imagine that FN just supplied what the man with the money asked for. If he wanted oval, he got oval. Round and he got round. Square and...............

Trials bayonets for the FN were the X8E1. So stamped along the spine. And also the Rifles serial number on each Bayonet. To match the rifle.
Scabbard Throat tops were also X8E2 Stamped. But NOT serial numbered. (Not enough room around the periphery of the throat area)

[Aragorn243]

Peter, These bayonets were evidently used by quite a few nations and this one could be from the UK but it appears there isn't any real hard data on markings. One fellow says only Belgium used serial numbers, which here we learn that Argentina also used them along with both wood and plastic grips. So it appears likely it will remain a mystery as to what nation used this particular one although current odds point toward Belgium.

[browningautorifle]

Apparently we trialed both types at first. Flash prongs/no prongs. They used to be available at Epps surplus in Winnipeg MB back in the '70s at about $10 CDN...in the grease with scabbard.

[Aragorn243]

They aren't selling for that now. I've been watching them for a while but not bidding because they have been going for $80+ most times and I'm not interested in paying that for a relatively modern, common bayonet. I got mine for a good bit less than that.

[browningautorifle]

They aren't selling for that now.

Agreed and I would never imply they would...I also have a hard time actually paying for something that was so common...take a 1907 blade for instance...or FN C1 bayonet.

[Peter Laidler]

I think that I've got one marked EX something or another - with wood grips. Plus another butchered during trials where someone cut the pommel off in order to section it to prove to the trials board the invalidity of the so called 'recoil neutralising' attachment system. So said - and don't quote me here....., that such a system would not affect the zeroing with the bayonet fitted. Any truth in this chaps?

To my physics and engineering train of thought, it's the weight of the bayonet AND the weight effect ON the recoil that affects the MPI! Just thinking out aloud as I tend to do.........

[old-smithy]

Peter

The biggest effect is that of changing the harmonics of the barrel this can make a big difference to where the barrel is when the bullet leaves it and hence where it is going. I have seen reports that the accuracy (in terms of grouping) was improved while the point of aim moved.

[Aragorn243]

Are FN C1 bayonets rare now? I got one a couple of years ago at a flea market. Didn't pay much for it. I'm not implying that the bayonets aren't worth what people are paying, it is the market, my interests are just generally "older". There are a pile of new bayonets I probably should be getting that I'm basically ignoring.

[browningautorifle]

Are FN C1 bayonets rare now?

No sir...just that here in Canada they've started to ask $100 or thereabouts for a bayonet I carried for the first 15 years...