Quote:
Originally Posted by Agema
Sword bayonets were also standard for the British forces in WWI. They were designed to work as a short sword (or long knife) separate from the gun, they were about 45-60cm (18-24 inches) in length with point and blade. I don't much about needle bayonets to be honest, I assume they were sword bayonets without the blade.
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Thanks, didn't remember this. Needle-types were standart in earlier era but retained their deadliness, of course. Their business part looks like stiletto or epee blade flowing into "neck" joining it with a ring around the barrell:
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(I don't have picture on hand, so you can look it up - plenty of Russian troops photos at both world wars will show these). Ii was forbidden at Hague convention iirc, but main reason, I think, was that they were less useful at trenches than in open field
Quote:
Originally Posted by Agema
It seems inconceivable to me that the plastic details of assault rifles can't manage rough handling. I don't know about the M4/16, but the British SA-80 can be used fine in melee and bayonet charges and the plastic bits don't fall off. I don't own a gun so I'm not well up on cleaning barrels, but there will be plenty of Googleable sites telling you all about it.
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I wanted info from actual user, not from plenty of sites!
As for plastic butts - there were some grumbling on this at least for early M-16s. Still, plastics got better in the interim, so maybe modern ones are all right... (as for inconceivable - one guy who served in Israeli army got his rifle's (M-16) butt break in pieces when it was dropped on the floor! Of course, the rifle wasn't any new so probably it won't matter often.)