Does anyone have any experience with these? Are they any good as a general field knife for us civilians. Does anyone know if they've seen much use in the military? Also, do any other branches allow their soldiers to carry that model?

Which are you speaking of...I've seen several variations all claiming to be teh "new" USMC bayonet.

http://www.ontarioknife.com/milissue.html

I assume you are referring to the OKC3S. I have one. It is a nice knife. The blade is an inch longer than the M9 and it cost a little bit more money than the M9. I think the Marines are the only ones using this right now but I'm not sure of that.

You mean this one.











Nice blade. Kinda pricey. It is larger then the full size Kabar. It is USMC issue, but I'm not sure everyone has one yet. That being the case I'm sure the other branches don't have any. And since the bayonet is a controlled item, I doubt you'll see anyone other then marines with them.

by "field knife" i will assume you mean can it do all the chores a knife would be expected to do on a camping trip or hunting situation.  sure it can.  i would classify it as a light survival knife.  you can abuse it to a point but you can break it if you go to far.  i say this because there are "lawn mower blades" floating around that you can use to dig in rocky soil and chop and split wood by beating into the log with a hammer and prying it apart but i don't know why you would want to do this.  i think you should have a knife to eat with and one to prepare food with.  if you want to chop wood or dig a hole use the proper tool.  not the knife you just put a razor edge on.  any  Ontario knife will give you a lifetime of service as a good hunting and "survival" knife and you can use it to open wooden crates and other light prying work.  it will take a moderate ammount of heavy abuse before you damage it.  

The new Marine Corps Bayonet is a combination Bayonet/Fighting knife designed in conjunction with the Marine Corps Martial Arts Program (MCMAP) to replace both the Marine Fighting Knife (Ka-Bar) and the M7 Bayonet.  It does both well, and is seeing service with Marine infantry units in Afghanistan and Iraq.  I haven't heard any after actions except one in a gun rag which I won't repeat.  I'm sure it would make a fine general field knife, but there are certianly better and more purpose built knives out there for that use as it is a little big.

I feel the lack of a solid pommel subtracts from the general "survival-knife" aspect of this and other M16 specific bayonets. The latch denies you the posibility to use it as a hammer or to make a non-lethal strike. The bayonets for the M14 and Garand were better designed in this matter.

I seem to remember that the Geneva Conventions specifiy that a bayonet cannot be sharpened. How do the Marines deal with that?

Geneva Convention does not cover weapons.  That is the Hague Accords.  Which, while we generally abide by, we are not signatories too.  That said, I've never heard anything about bayonets not being sharpened and would guess that that is another old wives tale like the one about .50 BMG being illegal for use against personnel.

I agree about bayonets not being the best survival knives.  If that's what you want, I have alwasy loved the old Air Force Pilot Survival Knife with the 5" blade and th ahmmer pommel.  Great little knife.  Gerber is also making a new 5" blade survival knife now too that looks pretty nice.  I wouldn't want to use the bayonet pommel as a hammer myself, but I also would not hesitate to use it as a striking surface in a fight.

I have never heard of a regulation about not sharpening a bayonet; Geneva, Hague, or otherwise.  I do believe it inlcudes something similar to the restrictions on hollow points.  Somthing about causing undue suffering.  This deals with the serations, I think (pretty crappy on the M-9).  Or we could all be wrong.

for a survival knife I don't know how you'd like it... it's a great all around knife though- from my limited experience with it during MCMAP and bayo training- seemes real sturdy and able to take quite a beating...

-Roth

Thanks everyone for the insight!

www.1sks.com and several other online dealers have these for sale, you don't *have* to be a marine to get one.

most knife dealer type websites have it


cheapest i've seen them was from impact guns for $104.44 with free shipping

By the way, about not sharpening it... it comes with a sharpining stone on the underside of the sheath behind the MOLLE attachement... you unhook the bottom and it's there.... and to give you an idea on the size- wearing it on the front of my interceptor vest it takes up more slots then there are...and I wear a large....

-Roth

Remember a bayonet lug, flash hider and an AR are not enough to use this bayonet as a bayonet. You need the full sized rifle or you'll have a very short blade flopping around on the barrel (not flash hider) of your 16 inch M4gery.

Quoted: Remember a bayonet lug, flash hider and an AR are not enough to use this bayonet as a bayonet. You need the full sized rifle or you'll have a very short blade flopping around on the barrel (not flash hider) of your 16 inch M4gery.

I've got my 14.5" bbl with permanently affixed Vortex flash hider.  

I think that the midlength gas systems on the AR's push the FSB close enough to the end of the bbl to properly use a bayonet?