Bad Fitting Socket Bayonets?

[Dispatch]

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[Dave Fox]

Presuming you're talking about a loose fit, an easy solution is to apply a quantity of apoxy cement to one wall of the inside of the socket and dress it down with a file as necessary.

[RaiderANV]

I just wacked mine with a no bounce hammer a few times and it made it ever so slightly oblong and it fit fine. You couldn't even tell.

[Eggman]

The same can be applied to a barrel band that gets loose after a decade or so, you know, as the wood shrinks, like on my Zoli Zouave. I can't remember if the hammer bounced or not.

[Mike w/ 34th]

The problem is that the OD of barrels by different manufacturers are not uniform.

I've silver soldered a sheet of brass inside a socket to keep it on tight but not mark the barrel. I have a bayonet I got from someone else that had the socket split, then squeezed back together and welded.

[John Harkness]

Hope this is not a duplicate response, my first couple replies appear to have "crashed".

Original "contract" system P53 rifle-musket muzzle diameters were larger than original P53 barrels made in the official Crown arsenals at Enfield & London Small Arms. The "contract" system arms were intended for British colonial troops or for export (as to US & CS governments) -- none had dimensionally interchangeable parts. The Crown arsenal arms were slated for issue to regular British troops & were not commercially exported -- they were fully interchangeable.

I suspect the replica Indian-made P53 bayonets are sized to the larger original "contract" arm muzzle diameter, but replica P53 rifle-muskets may be sized to the smaller original Crown arsenal muzzle diameter. A replica bayonet I bought for my original Nepalese-made P53 (both came from IMA/Atlanta Cutlery) fits perfectly & it also fits my original "Tower"-marked "contract" P53 muzzle. But an original British War Dept.-marked P53 bayonet is too small to fit either of the above arms, yet it does fit my original Crown arsenal-made "Enfield" P53 barrel. I cheated & reamed out a spare Crown-made bayonet socket to fit my original "contract" P53 muzzle.

To down-size an Indian bayonet socket I recommend "bushing" its bore -- historically .577 cal P53 socket bayonets were bushed for re-issue to the smaller-muzzled .577-450 Martini-Henry rifle in the 1870's. You won't need much bore reduction and a thin lining of epoxy or soft solder, hand reamed to a snug slip-fit on a replica P3 muzzle should work well and be simple to apply.

[Mike Stein]

Or buy the Italian made ones and hone to fit.

[Mike Stein]

Dixie Gun Works and Taylor's and Co. sell them and get them factory direct. Fall Creek and Blockade Runner also list them but are further down on the food chain (not the importer). Also check with Lodgewood. Pricing is in same range as originals $195+. They are made of spring steel so are not quite as bendy as the India/Pakistani ones. Shipping from Italy is sporadic so a 6-month wait is not unusual.

[Muley Gil]

Dispatch,

If you reread the responses, it is sometimes hard to find an exact fit due to the various barrel outside diameters that can be encountered.