Finland Troops use AK?!

[cbsbyte]

Finland was under Soviet influence during the Cold War even though Soviet troops didn't occupy her like Poland, East Germany, etc. It makes sense they would use the arms most available them them.

Yes, they where influenced by the Soviet Union after the war, but they where allowed to keep their independence unlike other eastern countries. They remained a free Democratic nation, but had to remain politically neutral in the Cold war like Sweden. They traded with both the west and east. The Soviet Union was still their biggest enemy after the war so using Russian styled weapons made more sense than buying weapons from the west.

 

[Fosbery]

8ball, let's be fair about the winning the Soviets thing... I'd put it that we came in as a close runner-up . It is true that the only European capitals in that war, which didn't end up occupied, were London, Moscow and Helsinki. Something to think about.

Berne, Switzerland
Stockholm, Sweden
Madrid, Spain
Lisbon, Portugal
Vaduz, Lichenstein
Vatican City, State of the Vatican City
Andorra la Vella, Andorra
Yerevan, Armenia

 

[HorseSoldier]

Yerevan, Armenia

The Armenians might argue they were already under occupation before WW2 began . . .

 

[geojap]

I would absolutely love to buy one of the rare Valmets that are here in the USA, but my Russian VEPR and Bulgarian SLR-95 shoot well enough that I can be happy with them, I guess. They cost about 20-25% of a Valmet but the Valmet sure would be nice to have and it still tempts me. /le sigh

In my collection, I have more Finn M39 Mosins (4) than any other single firearm. The bravery and resourcefulness of the Finns from 1917-1940 incredibly impressed me. My Finn M39 Mosins are my most prized firearms along with my M1 Garand.

 

[Ratzinger_p38]

In my collection, I have more Finn M39 Mosins (4) than any other single firearm. The bravery and resourcefulness of the Finns from 1917-1940 incredibly impressed me. My Finn M39 Mosins are my most prized firearms along with my M1 Garand.

Don't forget 1941-1944. They had off much rougher as Sweden wasnt talking as boldly as they were in 1939 (a number of far-right organizations, even National Socialists, were sent as volunteers to Finland from Sweden), with the western nations totally against Finland (and some like the UK even declared war on them). There was a period in 1944 were there was real danger of being defeated, during this time massive German aid as well as incredible heroism from the Finnish people prevented this from happening. If the Soviets had advanced much further past the Finnish and German divisions in Finland they would NOT have been willing to negotiate.

And I agree, the M39 is the finest and last in a long line of great Finnish improvments to the Mosin-Nagant.

 

[J L]

Google is a beatiful thing! I ended up here.
Interesting chat- keep on going.

Here´s my buddys M39- but not so usual version because of "SKY" stamps.
Meaning "SuojelusKuntien Yleisesikunta" = Civil Guard Generalstaff. So stamp would be something like CGG in english.
Stock has "S" in right cheek, meaning same "Suojeluskunta" or Civil Guard.

Anyways, since me and my buddy do hmmm... lots of sniper stuff, we decided to install repro PU on it.
Its rock-solid 1.3MOA@100meters/5-shot rifle, with original-like 13gram D166 ammo. Barrell is original from 50´s- so called "0-barrel" meaning it was re-barreled by army and never shooted after that.

Since here seems to be lots of Mosin fans, see pics.
Other rifle in photoalbum is army "7.62 TKIV 85" sniper mosin, mentioned earlyer in this thread.

Click thumbnail too see full-size:
http://jarno.fotopic.net/c920095.html

 

[elmerfudd]

It's a zombie thread, but those M39's are really some fantastic rifles. I picked mine up for $175 a little over a year ago in rough shape. The bore on it's worn, but it's still by far the best shooting Mosin I've got. With decent ammo and iron sights I get about 2" groups at 100 yards, (10 shot groups too, not some lucky 3 shots that just happened to land within 2" of each other). It's a real pleasure to shoot as well. It just seems to shoulder well and is comfortable to fire from various positions.

And to resurrect something from two years ago.

And I know that we have more guns/person than americans.

I think this is only half true. In terms of actual numbers, by most calculations, Americans have about 50% more guns per person. The thing most international groups don't take into account though is that the overwhelming number of them are sporting guns that would be better suited to fighting off an invasion of mallards than Manchurians. Yes, Americans have a lot of guns, but most of them are rimfires, shotguns, hunting rifles and revolvers. I would guess that nations like Finland and Switzerland, (#3 and 4 in terms of guns/person), tend to have more military style firearms than we do.

 

[Vaarok]

One point. The original poster is dead wrong. VKT, Valtion Kiivarihaus, became Valmet, and SAKO is still SAKO. VKT never became known as SAKO.