Military rifle M/39 was the second try of Finnish Armed Forces in improvement of Mosin-Nagant. Often used nickname "Ukko-Pekka" came from Finnish Ex-President Svinhufvud, who as a well-known competition shooter. Opinion differences concerning requirements needed from military rifle between Suojeluskunta (Finnish Civil Guard) and Armed Forces had lead into introduction of both M/27 and M/28 & M/28-30 rifles, which had minor differences that made using the same spare-parts in both rifles impossible. However, neither of these two rifles was as good as they might have been, if work of both design teams would have been combined. Suojeluskunta, having less red tape, had been able to identify problems and solve problems better for their M/28-30 rifle. The same process in Finnish Armed Forces had lead into introduction of problematic M/27 rifle. Spring of 1934 Army finally woke and realised that large amount from M/27 rifles needed for frontline troops were unusable because of structural defects. Ordnance Department of Defence Ministry started seeking solution for this crisis in 1935. First developing of domestic semiautomatic rifle was considered, but having no ready semiautomatic rifle available to production soon buried this idea. Suojeluskunta was offering its M/28-30 as a solution, but personnel of Armed Forces weapons administration were very much against it and favoured shorter test rifle M/91-35, which had 111-cm long barrel.

Lack of funds and good semiautomatic rifle had already delayed the process (Leading Finnish firearms designer Aimo Lahti had made some designs, but none of them was very good). Colonel Leonard Grandell (War economy chief of Armed Forces) further fueled the argument by ordering production of M/28-30 rifle to be halted (He wanted both Finnish Armed Forces and Suojeluskunta to adopt the new rifle and didn't see any need to continue production of "old" M/28-30). This caused more irritation in Suojeluskunta organisation. This wasn't first or last argument between Armed Forces and Suojeluskunta but considering the delay caused by this argument the behaviour of both Suojeluskunta and Armed Forces representatives can be considered wretched.

Armed Forces tried get its own M/91-35 test rifle accepted without bothering to test it against reputed M/28-30 of Suojeluskunta. At the same time representatives of Suojeluskunta-one were unwilling to see anything to improve in their M/28-30 and wanted it to be accepted as service rifle of Armed Forces just as it was.

Especially the sights designed for M/91-35 were terrible, however it was the live-fire tests made with this rifle that finally buried plan about M/91-35 rifle. Short 111-cm barrel used in M/91-35 created excessive muzzle-flash especially with old cartridges loaded with S-bullets (while new 13-gram D-166 boat-tail bullet had been adopted in year 1936, Finnish ammunition stockpiles still contained mostly old ammunition with 9.7-gram spitzer-bullets). In addition to this the difference between points of impact with these two ammunition types proved too large from such a short barrel. October of 1938 the process finally started getting somewhere - decision was made to design a new rifle using proven M/28-30 as a starting point. New committee was established to design the new rifle. Members of the new commission contained for example A.E. Saloranta (co-designer of Lahti-Saloranta M/26 LMG) and Harry Mansner (designer of sights for M/28-30 rifle). Because of all earlier delays only one was week was given to this new committee to do the designing - after which it spent 6 months in this design work. 17^th of February 1939 the final test rifle (N:o 14) was finally received. New M/39 came to have following differences when compared to earlier M/28-30:

• New heavier stock with grip-area. The heavy stock also made M/39 as one of the heaviest bolt-action rifles introduced in 1930's.
• Metal rings used were new kind, which made dismantling and assembling the whole rifle easier.
• Sling attachment used loops, while in earlier Mosin-Nagant rifles had slots in rifle stock for this.
• Barrel had been modified from old M/91 (it was not thick as in rifles of Suojeluskunta).
• Inside measurements of barrel were not as tight as in M/28-30 (to make using of captured Soviet ammunition with its thicker bullets unproblematic).
• Cartridge chamber had been designed for 13-gram D-166 bullet (standard bullet of Finnish Armed Forces starting 1936).
• Sensitivity spring was left out from trigger mechanism.

Deliveries of M/39 rifles to Finnish Army by September of 1945:

Source: Report of Finnish Defence Forces GHQ Ordnance department concerning weaponry belonging to its area of expertise manufactured in Finland 1935 - 1945. T20207/F16 sal, Finnish Military Archives. Notice: The table doesn't include rifles delivered to home front troops. From manufacturers especially AV1 could also be called "assembly plant" for a good reason.

Especially sling and stock changes later proved more practical then the ones used in rifle M/28-30. 14^th of April 1939 the new M/39 rifle got excepted into use, this was highly unusual as there was no final prototype and even final blueprints didn't exist yet. Then came Winter War and messed the production plans, all depots and gun factories had their hands full without new rifle to be introduced to production. First order of 20,000 rifles was not made (to Sako) until April of 1940. Supply department of Finnish Army HQ sent some questions to all Army Corps asking experiences about existing rifles in war, feedback was used for suggesting changes to M/39 rifle.

The mass production didn't start until late summer of 1940 and even then Sako production was delayed. Finnish troops didn't get any M/39 rifles until 1941. Finnish Army HQ ordered 60,000 rifles of this type from Sako during WW2 and got about 53,500 of them before Continuation War ended. The remaining 6,500 were made soon after the war in year 1945. HQ of Home Troops ordered some 20,500 rifles from Sako with finances of Suojeluskunta (HQ of Home-front troops was ex Suojeluskunta GHQ), they managed get some 10,500 of those before war ended. Also Weapons Depot 3 (AV3) manufactured about 30,300 M/39 rifles. The rifles M/39 manufactured in Gun Depot 3 had barrels made by VKT (Valtion Kivääritehdas = State rifle factory), while Sako manufactured also the barrels for M/39 rifles that it produced. Large scale production of M/39 ended in 1945, but smaller scale production from existing and unfinished parts continued until 1970's (Last known years of this small-scale production were 1970 and 1973). Large number of rifle M/39 remained warehoused until they early 1990's, when Finland bought about 200,000 AKM-type assault rifles from Germany and China. Finnish military has been selling M/39 rifles since and at the moment (year 2006) almost all have been sold.

(7.62 mm vintovka obr. 1891/1930 g.)

Soviets concentrated improving dragoon rifle M/91 during mid- and late-1920's. The improvements they made led into M/91-30 being introduced to use of Soviet military in April of 1930. Obvious changes compared to dragoon rifle M/91 included:

• New rear sight.
• New ring protected front sight.
• New bayonet attachment
• Round bolt frame (not in first production series)

Izhevsk and Tula gun arsenals were main manufacturers of these rifles, their production grow until in late 1930's yearly production reached about 1.3 million/year. The Soviets manufactured over 4.2 million rifles M/91-30 by early 1940. During WW2 production numbers kept growing and in year 1942 alone over 3 million were made, after this production started to decrease as resources were transferred to submachinegun production. Introduction of carbine M/44 as general issue weapon of Soviet Red Army in January of 1944 was beginning of an end to rifle M/91-30 production - carbine M/44 replaced it in production. Total production of Soviet M/91-30 rifles is been estimated around 13 million. Generally speaking M/91-30 rifles made during World War 2 were not as well made as the ones made before the war. During Spanish Civil War Soviet Union delivered large number of these rifles to Republican Spain. The Germans captured large amount of M/91-30 rifle during World War 2 and called them "Gewehr 254 (r)."

Finnish military captured large amount of Soviet weaponry during Winter War. Captured weapons included 28,303 rifles M/91-30 in Finnish inventories by June of 1940. Also damaged M/91-30 rifles were captured by thousands, these were not included into inventories until they were repaired. The most heavily damaged rifles were cannibalised for parts that were used assembling M/91 and M/39 rifles. During early phase of Continuation War the amount of captured weaponry was even larger and Soviet M91-30 become one of the main rifle types used by Finnish troops. The basic structure of M/91-30 was very similar to old M/91, so same parts could mostly be used. Around July-August 1944 Finland also bought 55,722 Soviet rifles (most of them M/91-30) from Germany, most of them were in poor shape, so they were used as parts.

New sights of M/91-30 were designed for new kind of sight adjustment tools, which the Finns didn't have. So a new kind of a filling part was added to front sight, this allowed using the same adjustment tool as with old M/91 rifles. Also new rifle stocks were needed, so domestic production of rifle stocks for M/91-30 was started, Finnish made stocks had several differences to original Soviet ones. And finally in 1943 production of barrels for M/91-30 was started also. If captured Soviet M/91-30 had gone through all these changes identifying it still as M/91-30 was no longer easy. This Finnish modified version was sometimes simply called as "M/30". Year 1951 Finnish inventory included 91,334 rifles M/91-30, 4,279 of these were Finnish modifications. Rifles M/91-30 were kept warehoused until late 1980's. Soviet M/91-30 rifles were not typically as accurate as Finnish made rifles, but their reliability and functionality in the field were often even better.

(7,62 mm karabin obr. 1938 g.)

(7,62 mm karabin obr. 1944 g.)

Soviet M/91-30 rifle was not really suitable for all troops, so a carbine was designed for cavalry, signal troops, artillery and vehicle drivers. That carbine was carbine M/38 introduced to use of Soviet military in February of 1939. Mass production started already in 1939, and kept going until end of World War 2. Carbine M/38 was very similar to M/91-30 infantry rifle, but barrel and forward parts of stock were naturally shorter and rear sight plus holding rings different. Carbine M/38 also had no attachment for bayonet of any type.

The Finns captured 489 carbines M/38 during Winter War and during early phase of Continuation War more were captured. However number of Finnish captured M/38 carbines was never large. This carbine never got popular among Finnish troops mainly because of its large muzzle-flash. Large muzzle flash did not only give away the shooter even in daytime, but in the dark ruined night-vision of the shooter temporarily, in effect momentarily blinding him. Finnish troops captured also carbine M/44 in very small numbers during the last few months of Continuation War.

During 2nd World War Soviets started considering the lack of bayonet as a problem with carbine M/38, so tests were organised in May of 1943. Design of N. S. Semin with folding bayonet got selected and its mass-production started in January of 1944 replacing carbine M/38 and rifle M/91-30 in production (*). Carbine M/44 continued probably to early 1950's in Soviet Union, until being replaced in production by SKS. After WW2 copies of carbine M/44 were manufactured in least in Poland, Hungary, Romania, China and North Korea. In Finland the amount of captured carbines M/44 was never large, so they were classed under same name "7,62-mm carbine model 1930" as M/38 carbines. Remaining carbines of both types were sold to Interarmco in the same time and shipped abroad in 1960.

(*) Also M/44 carbines with barrel markings of year 1943 exist. These could be from field test series manufactured in November of 1943. Second possibility is that the barrels used in them were originally manufactured for M/38 carbines, but when M/44 replaced it in production they were used in these new rifles instead.