Tex, welcome back!, hope all's well & a SPEEDY & FULL recovery!!!!!!, M1 you're too quick, not much on my site right now but a couple pics, since this came up I'll post a bit here from my "notes" before it gets up on the site.
From what I have been able to "gather", the first US bayonets for the M16 series were the green handled, Colt marked blade bayonets for the 601, these were not military per se & technically are not M7's, they were supplied by Colt w/the 601's & possibly early 602's, they were mfg under contract to Colt possibly by Universal Industries (UI), who also made mags for them, 62316 is the Colt part number for the bayonet, Imperial also mfg bayonets under contract for Colt but these were true M7 bayonets after the military had "decided" on the design & assigned it a number, M7, these bayonets had the standard military style checkered plastic grips w/2 screws, full Colt markings on the blade (right side only) & standard US military M7 markings, US M7 on the crossguard, these bayonets (the Imperial contract Colt M7's) had 1 difference the maker was not on the crossguard as all other military M7 makers are, they simply had the US M7 & the Colt markings, it's not definitely known yet whether these were early or later mfg as Imperials contract for military M7's began in 73 (these had no Colt blade mkgs & the crossguard was marked US M7, Imperial), but may have been early mfg.
US military M7's after were:
1) Milpar, marked US M7, Milpar on the crossguard, VN era. NOTE: there are a few M7's known that have US M7 Milpar on the crossguard & the full Colt markings on the blade, these are VERY rare, BUT, there's no info that's been found that Milpar ever made M7's under contract to Colt & it's very possible that these bayonets are Imperial mfg that had a Milpar mkd crossguard fitted during repair, at this point the Milpar Colt blade mkd bayonets are a question
2) BOC, marked US M7, BOC on the crossguard, VN era
3) Conetta, marked US M7, Conetta on the crossguard, VN era
4) FZR, marked US M7, FZR on the crossguard VN era extremely rare!
5) Imperial, marked US M7, Imperial on the crossguard, NO Colt blade markings, ist mfg 1973, technically post VN
6) General Cutlery, marked US M7, GenCut on the crossguard, post VN
7) Ontario, marked US M7, Ontario on the crossguard, post VN, these are interesting as Ontario is the only known mfg who supplied M7 bayonets & M10 scabbards to the Govt at this point.
The above are the US military M7 bayonets to my knowledge, US M7's have been used by a bewildering number of countries & there are numerous small markings usually on the crossguard to indicate foreign usage, Israel & Korea mainly, rule of thumb US military M7's will have US M7 & the mfg on the crossguard (w/the exception of the Imperial Colt mkd ones), any other marking on the guard is "probably" indication of use by a foreign country. Also be aware that a lot of the military mfgs went out of business at some point & parts left over were purchased & assembled at times to sell the bayonets commercially so any deviation from the above guidelines would make the bayonet "questionable" to me, there are other indicators of commercial mfg or "assemblage" that are too numerous to go into here but involve tangs, crossguard mountings, grip material & blade runout!
Onto the German, Eickhorn M7's, first, as far as known NONE of the German mfg M7's were made for the US military or used by them, the first German M7's had no Colt markings on the blade, the 1st had the crossguard shortened on the bottom (they were made to fit the M16 & the German G3 which mounted the bayonet on top of the barrel, the guard was shortened so it didn't interfere w/the sight picture), the second was a "standard" M7, the examples of these that made it here are usually stamped "Germany" somewhere on the crossguard & again, there are minor differences in tangs, runout etc, the next group was the "common" Eickhorn M7 w/Colt markings on the blade, which are usually marked Germany or made in W Germany somewhere on them, almost always under the Colt markings & the scabbard throat, comparing my Imperial Colt M7 to an Eickhorn Colt the Colt markings on the right side of the blade on the German examples is a bit smaller & higher on the blade leaving room for the "German" markings, looking at the blade markings I don't think there's room on the US Imperial Colt for the markings so there is a minor difference in the markings. These German M7's were reportedly mfg for Colt (hence the Colt mkgs) for foreign sale. After these these is a bewildering variety of "Eickhorn" M7's most made for commercial sale, some of these have a Colt marking on the blade but it's just a stylized "Colt", no address, or part number.
Some of the info here comes from "American military bayonets of the 20th century" by Cunningham, & some from Mike Humes M7 bayonet internet page (both excellent sources for anybody interested in them!) & a lot from examining actual examples, info from importers & suppliers etc. At this point I believe the bayonets from Apex are in fact correct Imperial Colt contract bayonets from comparing them to my known original Imperial Colt & a few examples of German Colt M7's that I've had access to.
Hope this info is of some help & interest & hopefully I'll be adding all this, pics & more info on the site soon. I've attached a couple pics of a US military M7 crossguard here, these are the standard US military M7 markings (the mfg may vary) w/the exception of the green handled Colt 601 & Imperial mfg Colt mkd bayonets as described above.