Countries experimented with a wide variety of spring-catches to better secure the bayonets. Some spring-catches were attached to the bayonets, while others were part of the musket. The springs were prone to breakage, which just created another problem. The Danish M1854 bayonet pictured below left has a unique locking spring designed by Johan Christian Wilken Kyhl (pronounced, 'cool'), first introduced in 1794.

However, the French again proved to be the innovators when, in 1770, they introduced the basal locking ring. The basal locking ring was simple and had no breakable parts. As its name suggests, a ring was placed around the base of the socket to positively secure the bayonet around the mounting stud. The Swedish m/1815 bayonet pictured at lower right is an example of the basal locking ring.

A problem with early socket bayonets was that they relied primarily on gravity to keep them in place. Early socket bayonets, like the U.S. Springfield Pattern 1807 bayonet pictured at right, had a simple L-shaped mortise that engaged a bayonet mounting stud on the musket barrel. (When located on top, the bayonet stud is often mistaken as a front sight. Smoothbore muskets of this period generally did not have any sights.) As one might imagine, the bayonet had a tendency to work loose at the most inconvenient times.

By the late 1770s, the French found that locating the locking ring in the middle of the socket a superior design. The U.S. M1835 bayonet pictured at right is an example of the medial locking ring. Initially slow to catch on, by 1840, nearly all new socket bayonets produced incorporated a medial locking ring.