Why/how does a bayonet on a rifle reduce the accuracy ?
In: 95
As a bullet is fired and travels down the barrel it accelerates until it leaves the end of the muzzle. During this time the firearm is also recoiling including the barrel itself. An attached bayonet is likely to change the way the barrel recoils and resonates during this movement and can alter where the bullet ends up going. A rifle sighted in without a bayonet attached can then tend to hit in a different location once it is attached, reducing accuracy.
This same kind of issue is why very accurate rifles such as used by snipers can tend to have “free-floating barrels” where contact with the barrel is minimized as much as possible. A conventional rifle might have a forward grip that contacts the barrel and anything that warps that grip (moisture, temperature change, etc) can influence the barrel and the resulting accuracy.
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