A nice selection of M9s. It is interesting the blue one has the black webbing. The first ones had this gaudy bright blue web suspension, which I understand was not received well when the bayonet was shown to Air Force officials. Also that bayonet (color) was never made with the conventional grip, but only with the ergonomic pattern.
As for checkering on the scabbard, Bill Porter mentioned to me the original/prototype P.I. scabbards had a different, finer cut to the grip panel. LanCay decided to make it more coarse for a better grip, so the mold to produce the scabbards had the old checkering recut . This was an economical way to avoid the cost of making a new mold, but also eliminated forever the original mold pattern P.I. scabbards but for those few which were made. Perhaps B.P. can refer or post a photo of them for comparison...
Last edited by pwcosol; 03-05-2010 at 09:18 AM.
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