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Imperial/ Colt blade marked M7 bayonet.


Misfit 45
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Over the last two years, there has been an influx of these bayonets on ebay.

Questions:

1. Where did they come from? Were they released from National Guard armories or other military bases? Were they in storage in a foreign warehouse and sent back to the US? Has anybody been able to get to the suppliers and have them divulge their source?

2. Where in the chronology of M7 bayonets does this bayonet reside? Bill Humes, http://www.usmilitaryknives.com/humes_m7_03.htm well known M7 collector has placed the Imperial/colt marked M7s with the green handled M7s and making the Imperial/colt and also the Milpar/Colt M7 the last in the line of the blade marked M7s (not counting the Eickhorn blade marked M7s) putting them in 1964 or earlier.

Because of the sloped back cut, WillyP on his website: http://imageevent.com/willyp/firearmsalbum...yitems/bayonets suggests these Imperial/Colt M7s were made closer to 1980 when the sloped back cut was approved by the military. He also mentioned that of the thousands of M7s he has gone through from suppliers that there were no well used and worn Imperial/Colt M7s, hinting that these Imperial/Colt M7 bayonets may never have been issued to anyone, ever, since all the ones we see are mint/near mint condition.

Any Ideas?

3. What is the possibility (anything’s possible). What is the likelihood that Imperial actually contracted with Eickhorn and Eickhorn actually made these Imperial/Colt M7s? If you examine the grip panels, they are held together with a screw and hex nut and the grips have hex shaped holes to keep the nuts from turning. These hex holes and hex nuts are found on the Eickhorn, W. Germany Colt marked M7s as well. On regular contract M7s, the screw goes into a knurled nut which is permanently imbedded in the grip panel. The scabbards also seem much closer in construction to the Eickhorn version than to any other US contract M7 scabbard. Any thoughts?

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Mistfit45, you beat me to it regarding this subject. I've been asking myself the same questions since the recent posts regarding the Eickhorn M7.

 

It would be nice to know if these are 64ish production or post 74.

 

Great observation in point #3 about the grip fastening.

 

Thanks for starting this thread. :thumbsup:

 

Another thought is the absence of the two slots in the tang.

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Here's a link to a thread from about a year and a half ago;

 

http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/ind...&hl=m7+year

 

On post #4 Gary provides some pictures.

Note that the part #'s for the grip panels are the same as the ones in your pics.

Also the first bayonet has the early version run out cut.

:think:

Just food for thought.

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I realize that in the absence of a solid foundation of provenance. The term (Imperial/Colt) is really nothing more than a tag that is popularly applied to a specific M7 bayonet that very little in supportable facts seem to exist.

 

After looking over my text in post #3 I think I could have elaborated on what I was getting at. From that link. Gary is discussing known Imperial made M7's. In it he displays the parts numbers for the two grip panels (11010068 and 11010069).

these are the same part numbers that appear on the inside of the grip panels of Misrfit45’s Imperial/Colt pictured above. Also in the picture Gary shows two Imperial made bayonets with different run out or back cuts. One might contemplate the similarity of the Imperial/Colt to the known Imperial. But I don’t know to what end, at least at this time.

 

I see this as an attempt to revisit a subject that has been touched on previously with the hope of seeing if anything new comes up. Would it have been better to piggy back this onto a previous thread?

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Other than having one of these Colt bayonet's, I can't add much.

I do notice that in Cole's knife book, the line drawing he created of this bayonet is dated 1978. So that suggests that this batch of M-7's date prior to that at least.

 

Kim

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My first question about what warehouse or military base or country these M7s came out of into the collector market should not be some TOP SECRET Classified information! Apex Gun Parts started selling these a couple of years ago for $49.00 after years of seeing these M7s go for hundreds of dollars. Isn't there someone who could break the silence about where Apex got them?

 

As for my second question about where these M7s fit chronologically with all the other M7s, time is running out for finding first hand information. Imperial/Schrade is gone! Robert E. Roy of Colt historian fame is gone! There must be someone out there who worked at Imperial who could tell the story about these bayonets. The closest that I came is a young man who was selling a pair of the Imperial/Colt M7s on Ebay who told me that his Aunt and Uncle worked at Imperial and gave them to him years ago. This was several years before this new batch came on the market.

 

We can research the knives and bayonets of WWII, but we can't find out anything about a little bayonet that was made in many of our own lifetimes.

 

Keep trying folks, and thanks for all the hard work that has gone in to this forum helping us all to be better and more knowledgeable collectors.

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  • 9 years later...

I just got this colt M7, marked US M7 only, crinkle scabbard with no maker. Got it from libertytreecollectors , 

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ECA71A54-AFF6-44C6-A32E-E369B1470389.jpeg

2589B948-8E23-48A5-880A-44740FD73544.jpeg

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Wildwood58,

Nice Imperial/Colt marked M7.  Since this post originated, some more information has come to light.  The timing of the manufacture has been established as 1964.   As to whether this bayonet was actually made by Imperial;  that has be settled as well.  The mark "M7" on the cross guard is definitely Imperial's mark.  Check out all the regular Imperial M7s on ebay.  Notice that the "M" has a very high center.  The center of the "M" comes down less than half way to the base line.  No other M7 has an "M" shaped like that.  You may notice that the US is somewhat narrow, however other manufactures have a narrow US and some use a little wider US. Some have periods behind the U. S. ,some don't, but that ""M" is exclusively Imperial. 

Marv

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Wildwood58,

I forgot to attach the two pictures of two different regular Imperial M7s.  Compare the USM7 mark with your bayonet.

Marv

Imperial M7 mark 1.jpg

Imperial M7 mark.jpg

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Wildwood58,

“ Nice Imperial/Colt marked M7.  Since this post originated, some more information has come to light.  The timing of the manufacture has been established as 1964.   As to whether this bayonet was actually made by Imperial;  that has be settled as well.  The mark "M7" on the cross guard is definitely Imperial's mark.  Check out all the regular Imperial M7s on ebay.”
 

Misfit 45, 

that is great news to hear !  Those older posts I had been looking at seemed to point that way. I’m glad to hear they turned out to be correct. Thanks for your response and info !

 

I do also have an imperial marked M7  ( not a colt ) that a co-worker gave me. Came sealed in box from The Civilian Marksmanship Program. Label on box

dated A-2 / 77, seal packaged M7 labeled A-4 / 74.

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