Anyone on else a fan of Finnish Mosins? Let me state here and now I am a slacker when it comes to photos and finding a replacement for Photobucket so I apologize in advance for the photos I won't be posting.

Anyway, a lot of folks own and enjoy Mosin Nagant rifles and carbines but not everyone knows about the history of and or how to identify the ones that are unique to Finland. In a nutshell Finland never made a Mosin Nagant. They either purchased or captured them and then modified them slightly or a great deal into their own models/variations.

Over the years I've owned many Mosins from various countries but as far as the Finns go I've had the following models, often multiplies and more than one maker, i.e.., Sako, VKT, etc.

M91
M91/24
M27 (My favorite variation).
M39
M91/30

The M91/24 was probably the rarest one I had. Picked it up for just under $100 marked as "Russian rifle". I had three of the Model 27's. Two were virtually unissued. All three had the Popsicle sticks. Just loved the looks of that model and all were good shooters. Made money on every one but wish I'd have kept at least one.

Only had one M39 a 41 VKT, (going off memory on the year so might be off a year or two) which I still have. Got it from the old Burns Brothers up in NY as I recall for $60 listed as excellent condition. It was and is every bit of excellent and shoots better than I can.

Still have two 91/30's. One is an unissued hex receiver with a very attractive potbelly stock. Still has the hang tag on it. I believe the Finns rearsenaled these in the 50's and a bunch like mine were put away until sold off on the open market. My other 91/30 is a winter war capture with the 41 stamp. It looks every bit like it has been there done that. The least attractive Finn I've ever had but it would be the last firearm I'd ever sell.

That's pretty much all I have now days. I still run across some from time to time usually misidentified as a "Russian" this or that. There are a few identifiers that can clue you with just a glance if it's a Finn. Brush up on those and it's a lot easier to spot these gems.

Anyone else a "Finn Fan"?

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BCCI Life Member #2068

Count me in.

I have two or three M39s, including one with a plum colored barrel.

An M28 that was listed as a Mauser. The "been there, done that" stock scared away the other bidders. $85.

A Finn produced 91/30 dated 1944 IIRC.

A M91 rebarreled in the 1940s with the most amazing set of markings. Original NEW buttstock with "English Contract" roundel, Civil Guard numbers on the receiver AND the stock and the original bolt.

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Release the Kraken

I've seen/read about the plum barreled M39's. Pretty sure the barrels are from a particular maker or country but it's slipped my mind at the moment. Belgian! Just looked it up. The plum colored barrels were made in Belgium.

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BCCI Life Member #2068

Sako, reassembled many if not most 91s into the 39. I have a sail m39, and its not for sale.

I never knew that. Not all M91's became M39's but apparently all M39's started life as M91's.

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BCCI Life Member #2068

About 3 years ago I sold a Finn M28. Perfect stock (probably a replacement) but the action and barrel had a lot of "patina", and had, as I remember, three different SNs, two of which were lined out. It had the Civil Guard "SY" stamp on the front receiver ring. It also had a Hammerli barrel. A guy drove all the way from Houston to buy it, and he was really happy to get it. He didn't even attempt to bargain. I think I got $400 for it, but I don't remember the exact price.

I have a M39 VKT a rifle which is far and away the best of the Mosin Nagant family. It is an excellent shooter which I purchased twenty years ago on the recommendation of another shooter..

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Made it, Ma! Top of the world!

I've got a Sako made M39 made in 43'. Metal is nice with minimal pitting and the finish (pun intended) is almost "white". Dark bore, but the rifling is good. Shoots very well. Stock is nice and if I remember right from some marking it was rearsenaled at some point.
It sits in the back of the safe next to the 44' BYF K98k it came with. Didn't shoot them much. The M39 kicks like a mule, the Mauser worse. I told my son he can have them when he moves out.

Those were Civil Guard district numbers.

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Release the Kraken

Many years ago, CE Harris did a lengthy article roughly titled "shooting cast bullets in military rifles. With that article in mind the search was on for a really nice Moisin Nagant rifle. In actuality most of the ones I looked at were rode hard and put away wet. Met a shooting buddy at the local range and he asked if I wanted to swap the Lee Enfield #4 MKII for his M27 Finn. Bore on that rifle was beautiful so the deed was done. At that time all you could find for ammo was the expensive Norma or military surplus berdan primed and corrosive. I finally lucked out at a local gun show and bought 15 boxes of brand new Hansen Cartridge 7.62x54 ammo. Harris article used the lyman 314299 and 4759 powder. Wheel weights with 2% tin added and off to the range. Had to crank up the rear sight to 500 meters. 20 grains was the money load. Still have the rifle,brass and all the goodies. The only other Moisin Nagant I have is a 1944 dated M44 Russian carbine. Some yugo heavy ball makes a really good bang and impressive flame out the barrel. Corrosive so clean the barrel at the range and at home. So there you have it. Frank

Back in the 90's I use collect them,but I sold them except for White Death's 28-30 civil guard Sako. The type he used with near 700 kills in a target rich environment in Finland in 1939.

I had a VKT and a Sako M39's.
The VKT M39 I got form SOG. Looked near new. I think it was $100 at the time
The VKT was a favorite shooter for a long time,,why I sold it I can't really say. Still have a sealed wooden box of 2 of those spam cans of ammo for it in the garage somewhere. I remember buying the ammo. It was 69.95 for the 880rds at the time and it was a long way out to the truck. Bought 4 of the cases at the time. Lots of fun from that Bulgarian stuff.
The Sako I didn't own too long. Somebody saw it and the nice Sako gear marking on the stock and just needed to own it right then and there.

A few others,, a N/E-Westinghouse Finn stocked & marked M91 stands out in my fuzzy brain. That was a neat rifle. Had a sling and a bayonet.
Don't know what Finnish Model it might have been, I never really got into that collector side of them too far. I think it was around a $75 rifle at the time. Quickly sold it and made big money!....like $50 I suspect.
Livin' like a king! Fun times. Mosins, Turk Mausers and Star pistols....

I saw an interesting Sako target rifle at the local gun show today, built on an M-N action.

Love the Finn Mosins. They represent some serious history. I have a few "Finned" rifles like SIG 91/24, dragoons, M38, 91/30s,Tikka, Sako, VKT, etc. Also have an SA stamped SVT 40..

They are cool but one of my real favorite Mosins is a Westinghouse that has US property marks, Russian and Serbian marks and in an Romanian stock. I wish it could talk...

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Go West young man..

Well, if no one is going to post any pictures.....

I've got a SAKO M39 that is a great rifle. AWESOME trigger on it. Mine has a sticky bolt, though. Only thing that keeps me from loving it. My little Russian M38 carbine runs like a bat out of hades and makes a terrific thunder snap when fired. I also have a cut down sporterized one with 16 1/4" barrel that is like a small artillery piece going off!! So fun!!

I generally just take detailed images just for documentation purposes, mostly not very interesting..

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Go West young man..

Funny thing about the Moisins. Wether Chinese, Russian, Hungarian, Polish, Finnish and others was that they were usually cheap to build and shot by a lot of untrained shooters. However the Finnish basically bought or captured most if not all in their inventory. As far as I know they never did manufacture any actions. If you find one with steel or brass shims under the receiver ring, tang of the action. Do not remove them as they actually are a form of bedding and my M27 has them. Since all I ever shoot in it are cast bullets one a good day 2" groups at 100 yds are possible. The Finn M39 was the result of all the testing, barrel dimensions,stock and bedding all learned from decades of shooting these rifles. Frank

I handled my first Finnish Mosin a few weeks ago, it seemed to have a nicer fit and finish than the Russian ones I had owned. I wouldn't mind having one to be honest.

The 20 year old son of a hunting partner pulled out a pretty nice one from the case and said, "I bet you don't know what this is." I just smiled.

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Isaiah 41:10

I have two- a 91/30 I think re-arsenal round receiver I think it's a 1944 izhevsk model, and a lot of the parts have the serial number scribed in them instead of stamped (dealer told me it was a "matching number" gun- I immediately pointed out that it was not)

my other is a nice M44 carbine, 1944 I think, and was previously owned my a Massachusetts state police officer, and feels like butter.

They really are great guns, but I think for most combat purposes the standard Soviet M91/30 was not tremendously inferior, as some seem to think.

i've been a fan on the Finnish version ever since I first saw one... amazing how differently the M39 for example feels compared to a Russian 91/30. I had a C&R licesne back in the 90's when they were coming in and I bought a bunch cheap, M39's as cheap as $50. Sold a bunch and I regret every one now! Still have several M39's, one "B" barrel , one dated 1968 and a couple of other interesting variations.

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Old paratrooper in NC

"They are cool but one of my real favorite Mosins is a Westinghouse..."

Many M-Ns were made by Westinghouse under Tsarist Russian contract, but few, if any, were delivered to Russia as a result of the Russian Revolution. The U. S. Army used some of those M-Ns for troop training during WWI, and some U. S. units of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) - Siberia which fought alongside the White Russians and some other allied nation forces against the Reds in the 1918-20 period were also issued those M-N rifles. It would be very interesting to find a M-N rifle which could be definitely traced to the AEF-Siberia conflict. It's a little-known military action today, but became very significant in shaping American-Russian relationships later.

Most may be familiar with the Pedersen Device from WWI used for converting the M1903 Springfield to a semiautomatic rifle firing what were essentially pistol cartridges. There were some Pederson Devices designed for use with the M-N rifle, and there are several known Pedersen-converted M-N rifles. As was the case with the Springfield, none made it into combat.

I sure don't know how you could prove that connection but the one I have was surely in American military hands (numerous Springfield inspector stamps and several flaming bombs with the classic Serbian "C" in the right place.

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Go West young man..

Finnish civil guard M-28-30 Sako,mint bore.

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Mine has an 1894 Ch*tellerault receiver, so it's not a firearm under federal law.

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Now go make God proud...