#bayonet practice

[poor-bloody-infantry]

© IWM (Q 53754) Troops of the 2/14th Battalion, London Regiment (London Scottish) practise bayonet fighting during their training, 1915.

[historicalfirearms]

Fencing Muskets

Bayonet fighting has long been a core element of a soldier's training.  In the late 19th century the British Army adopted an ingenious training tool, the spring loaded fencing musket.   Like the No.1 Dummy Practice Rifle, fencing muskets were scale replicas of the standard issue rifle, but instead of a rifled barrel in its place was a tube with rubber or a spring inside it, topped by a plunger.  This plunger or button-ended rod represented the bayonet and the spring inside the tube allowed soldiers to make lunges at practice opponents without the fear of killing them.  

A number of different marks were introduced over the years as improvements were made and new rifles were introduced.  Many versions such as the one shown above had handguards and ribbed grips.  The fencing muskets the men appear to be using in image one appear to be MkVIs.  You can see from the photograph above the two soldiers are fully clad in fencing masks, gloves and padded jackets to protect from injury.  From the looks of the uniforms worn in the background the photograph dates from circa 1914.  

Fencing muskets were developed by Wilkinson & Son in the 1860s with other companies such as W.W. Greener & Webley & Scott soon manufacturing them.  There are also examples of converted rifles with their breaches blocked and their moving parts removed, with a spring and plunger placed in their barrels.  Fencing muskets were used by the British Army up until the end of the Second World War.

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