Why/how does a bayonet on a rifle reduce the accuracy ?
In: 95
It mostly has to do with something called barrel harmonics. Barrel harmonics is how the barrel of the gun vibrates and torques under the extreme force of the pressure from firing a round. All gun barrels due this when a round is fired. The effect is far too small for you to see and usually to small for you to feel, but it’s enough to change where the barrel is pointed by a tiny amount, which means it affects the direction the bullet goes when it leaves the gun, and especially over long distances and where accuracy and precision are critical, it adds up.
All things being equal, the vibrations will be the same every time the gun is fired, so the path of the bullet is not affected. You simply factor that into your sight adjustments and it’s consistent. Attaching something to the barrel however, like a bayonet, affects the barrel harmonics. Having something in contact with the barrel affects the way it naturally wants to vibrate, and causes it to vibrate in an unusual way, which means the bullet might leave the gun at different points in the vibration cycle where the barrel is pointed in slightly different directions. This means that the bullets will be going in slightly different directions, and instead of all hitting very close to the same spot, they’ll spread out a bit.
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