The DrillMaster Store

Honor Guard/Ceremonial Drill

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The Honor Guard Manual, Second Edition


The only published honor guard manual. Extensive descriptions and photos of all honor guard movements for every ceremonial element.


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The Unknowns Documentary DVD


I'm thrilled to be working with the makers to offer the DVD here.

Witness volunteers from the U.S. Army’s elite ceremonial unit take on the intense training at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.


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Exhibition and Regulation Drill

Exhibition Drill for the Military Drill Team


Anyone with an interest in improving their drill team's performance needs to take a close look at the principles and techniques outlined in the first DrillMaster book.


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Exhibition Drill for the Military Drill Team, Vol II


An excellent resource for those who have very little to no drill experience and yet still contains information for those experienced in drill.


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Training for Military Drill Teams, Color Guards, and Judges


This replaces the Filling in the Gaps, series of books with the whole library of articles from the DrillMaster website from 2011 to January 2017.


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DrillMaster's Color Guard Coach's Field Manual (Spiral)


For all services, the portable lesson plan every coach needs. Like your service D&C manuals, but much more concise and explanatory.


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DrillMaster's Platoon/ Flight & Drill Team Coach's Field Manual (Spiral)


For all services, the portable lesson plan every coach needs. Like your service D&C manuals, but much more concise and explanatory.
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Military Drill Judge Education

The World Drill Association Adjudication Manual and Rule Book


The definitive manual on judging and running the modern drill competition (Regulation, Exhibition, & Ceremonial Drill) at all levels. Taking you through the modern judging process.


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The World Drill Association Adjudication Manual and Rule Book


An adaptation for the WDA of papers written for Winter Guard & Drum Corps International: So, You Want to be a Judge (Shirlee Whitcombe) and, The Process of Assigning Scores; The Principle and Process of Achievement; and Accountability (George Oliviero).


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Training for Military Drill Teams, Color Guards, and Judges


This replaces the Filling in the Gaps, series of books with the whole library of articles from the DrillMaster website from 2011 to January 2017.


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The DrillMaster Bayonet

DrillMaster Bayonets are no longer available. It was an incredible amount of work and I am spending more time on the education now, which I truly enjoy. If you want information on how to make one of my bayonets, just send me a message through the contact form on the front page.

Bring your exhibition drill to a higher level. Every Driller I have spoken with over the years, except one, has loved bladed drill. It adds a tiny amount of weight and length to the rifle and also brings the center of balance forward about a half inch, but flow work almost seems effortless with a blade.

The DrillMaster Bayonet is a real bayonet, but the tip is rounded and the blade is dull and has welds for extra stability. Armed drill has a certain amount of danger; drilling bladed ups the ante considerably. The DrillMaster Bayonet is a ‘safer’ bayonet for Drillers. By purchasing the DrillMaster Bayonet, you agree to take full responsibility for using the item for exhibition drill and hold harmless The DrillMaster. That being said, bayonets were never designed to withstand the rigors of exhibition drill. The welded version adds extra stability, but there is no way to guarantee that a DrillMaster Bayonet will never break. Click here and read all about bayonets.

Note to Parents & Drillers

OK, you or your son or daughter is thinking about going into bladed drill (exhibition drill with a bayonet attached to the rifle). I speak to parents throughout the school year who have some concerns about this, and rightfully so. Spinning a rifle has a certain amount of danger and adding a blade to the end of your rifle adds to that danger. Thankfully, DrillMaster Bayonets do not have a sharp edge or point.

The guidance I offer is that you should have at least two years of solo exhibition drill experience; three or four years would be even better- which means the student would be out of high school. With that said the minimum age to begin bladed drill would be 16, but preferably 18. High school students may not drill bladed at a competition, JROTC or otherwise. As far as I know, the four military services do not even want students owning a bayonet.  When you graduate high school, the bladed drill world is wide open. You don't have to, but please wait.

I ordered replicas from SARCO. They have real and replica bayonets.

Bayonet Information

Now you have a choice! You can purchase the non-reinforced, reinforced, ultra-reinforced and chrome versions of the DrillMaster Bayonet. All versions come with a scabbard. All DrillMaster Bayonet versions fit the:

  • M1 Garand
  • M1903
  • The Daisy Drill Rifle (with an upper band that has a bayonet lug); need an upper band with a bayonet lug? Click here and read this info.

You may have to take a rasp (metal file) to the bayonet if it does not perfectly fit your rifle's upper band bayonet lug. Not all lugs were made exactly the same- close, but not the same.
The M1905 Bayonet was designed to be used with the .30 caliber U.S. M1903 Springfield rifle. Variants of the M1903 rifle were produced during World War I and World War II by Springfield Armory, Remington Arms, Rock Island Arsenal, and Smith-Corona Typewriter. The blade is 16 inches (40.6 cm) long, and the handle is 4 inches (10.1 cm) long. It also fits the .30 caliber U.S. Rifle M1, or M1 Garand. In 1942, the same bayonet design (with plastic instead of wood for the handle) was again produced and renamed the M1942 bayonet, which was manufactured to keep up with wartime production of the M1 Garand. In 1943, the U.S. Army decided a shorter bayonet would be better, so as many of the M1905/1942s as possible were recalled, had their blades cut down to 10 inches, and were reissued. Shortened M1905s were redesignated M1905E1. New production 10-inch bayonets were designated M1 bayonets.

The M1 Bayonet was designed to be used with the .30 caliber U.S. Rifle M1. The blade is 10 inches (25.4 cm) long, and the handle is 4 inches (10.1 cm) long. Before 1943, the M1 Garand and all variants of the U.S. Rifle Model 1903 were using the M1905 bayonet and later M1942 bayonets. They functioned well in the European theater, where in the rare bayonet-actions of the time, they were matched up against the 9 3/4 inch long blade of the German S84/98 III bayonet fitted on the Karabiner 98k. However, in the Pacific theater, the much longer Japanese sword bayonets on the already very long Arisaka rifle caused many American troops to retain the long M1905 bayonet.

The M6 Bayonet is a bayonet used by the U.S. military for the M14 rifle. It was introduced in 1957, at the same time as the rifle itself. It is the only type of bayonet made for the M14, and the only other rifle it fits is the civilian version of the M14, the M1A. Like its predecessor, the M5 bayonet for the M1 Garand rifle, the M6 was intended to serve additional roles as a combat knife and utility knife. The basic blade design was like the M4, M5, and later M7 bayonets, based on the World War II designed M3 Trench Knife. The overall length of the M6 is 11 3/8 inches, with a blade 6 5/8 inches long. Contractors who manufactured the M6 included Aerial Cutlery Co., Columbus Milpar and Mfg. Co. and Imperial Knife Co. The M6 was replaced by the M7 bayonet after the Vietnam War, when the M16 Rifle was adopted by both the United States Army and Marine Corps as the standard service rifle. The most notable differences between the two are the diameter of the muzzle rings, the shape of the handle, and the locking mechanism. The M6 has a spring-loaded lever near the guard that when depressed releases the bayonet, and the M7's release mechanism is on the pommel. Both models are the same length, have the same black finish, and use the M8A1 sheath. Today, the M6 is mainly used for ceremonial purposes.

The fuller is a rounded or beveled groove or slot in the flat side of a blade (e.g. a sword, knife, or bayonet). A fuller is often used to lighten the blade, much in the way that an H-beam shape allows a given amount of strength to be achieved with less material. Longer knives or bayonets intended as offensive weapons may employ fullers (also known as 'blood grooves') to lighten the blade while maintaining its strength. When combined with proper distal tapers, heat treatment and blade tempering, a fullered blade can be 20% to 35% lighter than a non-fullered blade without any sacrifice of strength or blade integrity. This effect lessens as the blade is reduced in length. Short bladed knives may employ a fuller simply for their aesthetic effect.

The DrillMaster Bayonet is used by soloists and teams across America and around the world including  the Vancouver Police Department Honor Guard Drill Team, the Florida State Army ROTC Gator Guard Drill Team, members of the Norwegian Honor Guard (HMKG), The Air Force Honor Guard Drill Team, and many more!

Always tape your bayonet!

You need a second method of securing your bayonet, so be smart and safe and tape it to the barrel using strapping (reinforced tape that has small bands of fibers in it) or electrical tape.

If you are going to use the same bayonet in training and competition, take the plastic handle parts off and keep them and the screw in a safe place when practicing. Replacements for the handle pieces can be difficult to come by and there is no need to drill with a broken bayonet handle.

DrillMaster Bayonets & Accessories



I don't sell DrillMaster bayonets anymore. I also don't have any more bayonet grips. All the wood grips sold out (receiving them was a fluke) and the plastic grips I gave to the Coast Guard Ceremonial Honor Guard. The Coasties, USAF HG and Navy HG received my remaining chrome and other bayonets and scabbards. It was more of a hassle than it was eventually worth, although I learned quite a bit.

If you want to create your own safer bayonet. Purchase a replica online (they are all made in China now), remove the grips, take it to a welder and have him weld the blade onto the handle cross piece for a more secure connection and/or ask the welder to grind the sharp edge of the blade down by a 1/16th of an inch and round off the end.

If you want to have a chrome bayonet, after it is ground (you should always get it ground at a minimum, but not necessarily welded), you can mail it to Plano Metal Specialties, Inc. 320 US-34, Plano, IL 60545. Call them first and let them know what you want. They have good people there who have chromed a bunch of bayonets for me.

The whole process is expensive, so don't just pick up a bayonet, slap it on you rifle, and spin with it over your driveway for the first time only to watch it snap in two when you drop it during a spin. Spin over grass, first, but even that is not guarantee that you blade won't break off. If it does, get it welded again. Keep striving for excellence.