SOG BAYONET: A MODERN TAKE ON THE BAYONET

Modern militaries are considering the idea of abandoning the bayonet altogether. If you look back in history, the military has not made much use of the bayonet. In the US Civil War, the bayonet was mostly used to dig, cook food, or holding candles. There were a good many battles where the bayonet was mounted, but very few people got the poke. Bayonets have undoubtedly had a place in history and in war all over the world, but many are starting to feel cold steel is obsolete. I am personally glad to see that SOG does not agree with that short-sighted opinion.

THE SOG BAYONET FOR ALL

The SOG bayonet is a modernized take on the bayonet, which some 1st world militaries have recently abandoned. The bayonet is named the BAR15, and I assume the name is a bit of an acronym for B- bayonet AR15. My bayonet has the suffix of T for tanto blade, making the name BAR15T. If you get the clip point version, the suffix will be C, making the name BAR15C. The bayonets come in three colors for the tanto blades (black, tan, and OD green). The clip points only have a black handle so far, but this will likely change with time.

The SOG Bayonet works with almost any rifle that sports an AR15-style bayonet lug. I was satisfied to see that it locks onto my Springfield Hellion 20” version, though I needed to hammer it on to force the fat grip around the barrel, which shucked off a little material.

BASIC FEATURES

The entire bayonet weighs over 19 ounces, not including the kydex sheath. The whole unit is 12” long and is pretty girthy, in a good way. It inspires confidence in it’s strength.

The sheath leaves a bit to be desired. The polymer is sturdy, but loud. Hanging the bayonet just on the belt without a leg strap is asking for the bayonet to be loud and to dance as you move. This was a less than desirable way of carrying the bayonet, so I used a Safariland holster leg strap to hold the sheath securely on my leg. The bayonet rides low in the sheath, allowing you to access it when wearing a tactical vest or chest rig.

The BAR15 bayonet uses a straight edge blade that is 7 inches long, made of AUS 8 steel.

As you can see, the blade gives you an imposing amount of length to the rifle.

The edge does not start for an inch, leaving a bit of room on the blade for you to curl your finger around and get good leveraging during utilitarian tasks. The blade is pretty thick, which means the blade will not bend or yield to prying forces easily.

The blade on the bayonet is treated with a black PVD finish, which holds up nicely to rough use. The blade uses a full tang design, though it is pretty thin, which may bother some knife aficionados, but I think that it has worked out well enough for the Ka-Bar and will work well for this bayonet.

PRICE

The blade will run you about $60-$80, depending on where you look. On Amazon, some sellers sold them for $65 for the OD tanto and $70 for the FDE version. On the SOG website, they have the option to purchase them at a relatively stable price of $65. Buying surplus bayonets can run you in the neighborhood of $80 (M7 Reproduction) to $250 (New USMC OKC Bayonet), depending on what you are looking for.

AUS 8 FOR A BAYONET?

Is AUS 8 a good steel for a bayonet? AUS 8 is a tough stainless steel made in Japan, and is renown for being a good hard use steel. AUS-8 is better than basic carbon steels for low-maintenance/rust resistance, and comparable to 440C (slightly tougher, easier to sharpen, but similar corrosion-resistance). It wouldn't be considered a "premium" like some super-steels, such as CPM S35VN that Cold Steel often uses on it’s folding knives, but it's proven reliable in hard-use knives that overlap with bayonet demands.

For comparison, the M9 is made of 420, which is pretty soft by comparison, but is designed to be cheap, corrosion resistant, and easy to sharpen. Also, think about the OKC USMC Bayonet that is made of 1095 but is exclusively designed as a utility/fighting knife/bayonet. The SOG bayonet is thicker and is more designed as a classic beater that can also be neglected and stowed away for a while, taken out occasionally as a story piece or a functional range toy.

G10 GRIP PANELS

The G10 grips of the bayonet are thick and very utilitarian, held by two screws on each side that use an Allen key pattern to secure the handle. The grips were locked onto the grip really tight and I was only able to get one of them off without stripping the screw. I wish they didn’t have that Allen key pattern, but instead utilized a simple deep flathead pattern.

The grip panels are very blocky but have triangular patterns cut out of the edge and back of the grip with semi-circular cuts and light texture for your hand to get a good purchase. The grip panels are a substantial 5 inches long and the AR-compatible ring acts as a sort of guard. The locking mechanism at the bottom of the grip is well sprung and tightly fitted onto the tang.

PERFORMANCE

After extensive testing and use on my PSA 20” and Springfield SA-16 A2 rifles, I found the blade to be very capable. I used a bunch of spare wood I had from construction sites as my test medium, and I accidentally hit the tip of the blade on a deck screw that I used to screw a board to my fence posts. This deformed the blad only slightly, which was surprising with how hard I thrust the bayonet into the board. All I had to do was use a medium-coarse sharpening surface to redirect the edge and get it fixed. Now the tip just has a slight serration to it.

The grip on the bayonet makes it capable of being used as a hand weapon in a pinch, but the G10 grips are not necessarily optimized for hand to hand combat. The knife is well balanced which makes it good for slashes and flicks, if it comes to that. But the heavy weight of the blade also makes it feel like a bit of a paperweight on the end of the rifle. This helps with getting more power into your thrusts and slashes, but it means that carrying the thing around until that time will be physically taxing.

WRAPUP

The SOG Bayonet is a great design that allows the civilian AR15 owner a chance to own a rifle-mounted weapon for those times when deer dispatching or intimate riot control is needed. I mean, who doesn’t appreciate the idea of having cold steel on the end of their rifle for when the neighborhood is trying to take your preps, or you want to LARP a Red Dawn scenario?