Unissued Condition / NOS / Scarce Canadian Arsenal!!! / Vietnam Era / Used on 1960's U.S trench shotguns / Size - 21.50 inches overall / 16.75 Inch blade "Minty" Parkerized / C-A & U.S M1917 Marked crossguard
History: The M1917 bayonet was designed to be used with the US M1917 Enfield .30 caliber rifle, as well as with the seven different U.S. trench shotguns. The blade is 16.75 inches long. The M1917 Enfield was the U.S. Version of the British P-14 rifle, and the bayonets used are identical, down to the double groove in the grips, used to differentiate the bayonets from the P-1907 for the SMLE rifle.
This bayonet however was not made for WWI or repurposed for WWII, this was produced for the Vietnam War era by shotgunners equipped with a shotgun that had an M1917 bayonet adapter. The most common encountered examples were marked “GEN CUT” on the crossguard on one side of the blade and “M1917” on the other. A contract was also given to Canadian Arsenal, Ltd. (Ontario, Canada) during this same period for additional M1917 bayonets of this type. These were marked with a small “A” enclosed in a larger “C” and “M1917” on the crossguard, like this example here.
These bayonets are rather scarce and would be proper for display with any of the U.S. military “trench guns” in service after about 1966 equipped with adapters for the M1917 bayonet, so if you have one and need a bayonet, you're in luck!
