1858remington
Member
Being a gun history nut I have wanted one of these since they were first released. Early in production there were reports of issues with the guns and their reliability, so I held off buying. I recently sold a 1954 Russian SKS and was looking for my next buy when I discovered that the Suomi was still being sold. I read all the reviews I could find and watched all the youtube video's and decided to give it a shot. The gun is being offered by J&G Sales and Centerfire Systems.
The price was awesome, just $460 out the door. That got me the Gun with one 36 round stick mag and a leather sling. The first thing you will notice with the gun is its weight, man its heavy. It weighs more unloaded than my SKS was loaded. It is machined out of block steel, not stamped likethe PPsH41. The gun was parkerized, and I am told the originals were blued. The stock is stained and a little rough, but I was planning on refinishing it anyway.
I ordered 2, 36round stick mags ($15 each) and 2, 70 round drum mags $30 each) from Centerfire Systems, while I was waiting for the gun to arrive at my local FFL.
From everything I have read, the first thing these guns need is lubrication. They arrive dry as a bone from the manufacturer. So I whipped out the instructon manual I downloaded from the supplier and set to dissassembly.
Pleas note: The dissassembly instructions provided by the manufacturer are for the Full Auto suomi and NOT the Semi Auto suomi, and there are some differences.
Dissassembly of action:
1. Make sure gun is unloaded
2. For the Semi Auto you need to remove the trigger assembly prior to dissassembly (2 screws) as the hammer interferes with the bolt. The Semi Auto's hammer fits in a pocket within the bolt.
3. Place right thumb on top of receiver tube nut while pulling back the charging handle. At the same time rotate the nut with your left hand 7 turns till it removes.
4. Recoil spring may be removed and when gun is pointed upward the bolt will fall out.
Reassembly:
1. Prepair your curse words.
2. Slide bolt into reciever tube and insert recoil spring.
3. insert pin on receiver tube cap into the rear of the recoil spring.
4. Have curse words ready...
5. Now the fun part. You must hold the charging handle to the rear (under its return spring pressure) while you work the pin on the receiver tube cap through the spring (compressing it) and into the bolt. But thats not all!!! Since the charging handle MUST remain pulled fully to the rear since it has a tit that fits in a slot on the nut. WARNING: if you release the charging handle when it is not aligned with the nuts slot it will jam up on the knurling of the nut. The nut must be screwed on 7 turns, and the slot aligned with the charging handle before you can release the charging handle.
6. Apologise to any family near by for all your cursing.
7. Reinstall the trigger group.
At the Range:
I took my 3, 36 round sticks and 2, 70 round drums and loaded each with 10 rounds for function firing. I decided to bench rest the gun as the trigger pull was 20+ pounds (gonna have to work on that). Over all I was blown away by my results. All magazines functioned flawlessly. There was not one jam, failure to feed, or fail to eject, the entire time at the range. It even digested my fathers reloads. Accuracy was much better than I ever expected!! 50 rounds down range and a very tight group.
By smokingmetal at 2012-07-10
I took and raised the sight to its #2 position and shot 20 rounds from the rest and it was just about perfect. Feeling confident I decided to try the gun off hand and WOW!!! what a great group.
By smokingmetal at 2012-07-10
Conclusion:
If you are looking for a historical gun thats fun to shoot and has next to no recoil, BUY ONE. The only things I found to be an issue are the weight and trigger pull. The weight does have a few good sides, as recoil is nil, and it creates a very stable platform for accurate shooting. The trigger can be polished and made better so it's really not much of an issue.
The price was awesome, just $460 out the door. That got me the Gun with one 36 round stick mag and a leather sling. The first thing you will notice with the gun is its weight, man its heavy. It weighs more unloaded than my SKS was loaded. It is machined out of block steel, not stamped likethe PPsH41. The gun was parkerized, and I am told the originals were blued. The stock is stained and a little rough, but I was planning on refinishing it anyway.
I ordered 2, 36round stick mags ($15 each) and 2, 70 round drum mags $30 each) from Centerfire Systems, while I was waiting for the gun to arrive at my local FFL.
From everything I have read, the first thing these guns need is lubrication. They arrive dry as a bone from the manufacturer. So I whipped out the instructon manual I downloaded from the supplier and set to dissassembly.
Pleas note: The dissassembly instructions provided by the manufacturer are for the Full Auto suomi and NOT the Semi Auto suomi, and there are some differences.
Dissassembly of action:
1. Make sure gun is unloaded
2. For the Semi Auto you need to remove the trigger assembly prior to dissassembly (2 screws) as the hammer interferes with the bolt. The Semi Auto's hammer fits in a pocket within the bolt.
3. Place right thumb on top of receiver tube nut while pulling back the charging handle. At the same time rotate the nut with your left hand 7 turns till it removes.
4. Recoil spring may be removed and when gun is pointed upward the bolt will fall out.
Reassembly:
1. Prepair your curse words.
2. Slide bolt into reciever tube and insert recoil spring.
3. insert pin on receiver tube cap into the rear of the recoil spring.
4. Have curse words ready...
5. Now the fun part. You must hold the charging handle to the rear (under its return spring pressure) while you work the pin on the receiver tube cap through the spring (compressing it) and into the bolt. But thats not all!!!
Since the charging handle MUST remain pulled fully to the rear since it has a tit that fits in a slot on the nut. WARNING: if you release the charging handle when it is not aligned with the nuts slot it will jam up on the knurling of the nut. The nut must be screwed on 7 turns, and the slot aligned with the charging handle before you can release the charging handle.6. Apologise to any family near by for all your cursing.
7. Reinstall the trigger group.
At the Range:
I took my 3, 36 round sticks and 2, 70 round drums and loaded each with 10 rounds for function firing. I decided to bench rest the gun as the trigger pull was 20+ pounds (gonna have to work on that). Over all I was blown away by my results. All magazines functioned flawlessly
. There was not one jam, failure to feed, or fail to eject, the entire time at the range. It even digested my fathers reloads. Accuracy was much better than I ever expected!! 50 rounds down range and a very tight group.
By smokingmetal at 2012-07-10
I took and raised the sight to its #2 position and shot 20 rounds from the rest and it was just about perfect. Feeling confident I decided to try the gun off hand and WOW!!! what a great group.
By smokingmetal at 2012-07-10
Conclusion:
If you are looking for a historical gun thats fun to shoot and has next to no recoil, BUY ONE. The only things I found to be an issue are the weight and trigger pull. The weight does have a few good sides, as recoil is nil, and it creates a very stable platform for accurate shooting. The trigger can be polished and made better so it's really not much of an issue.
the distributer wants top dollar.
