PICTURE: Captured Soviet M/91-30 sniper rifle with PEM scope. (Photo taken in Sotamuseo). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (9 KB).

During World War 2 the Soviet situation with sniper rifles was not the same that Finns had. The starting point for the two countries had been very much the same - unlike most countries that participated to World War 1 in large scale Imperial Russia didn't have scoped sniper rifles at that time. But the Soviets had been interested about snipers and sniping and started development of sniper rifle in mid 1920's by testing imported commercial rifle scopes in dragoon version of M/91 rifle. Important markstone of Soviet sniper rifle development was making 170 sniper rifles from M/91 dragoon rifles in year 1926. These rifles known as Moscow Dynamo rifles were equipped with Zeiss Zielvier 4X rifle scope and scope mount manufactured GECO (Gustav Geschow & Co). Testing and development took its time, so the Soviets they didn't introduce their first domestically manufactured sniper rifle until 1931. During those years new M/91-30 rifle replaced in manufacturing and Soviet sniper rifles were build on M/91-30 rifle. Year 1932 the newly born sniper rifle was introduced to mass-production. Sniper version of M/91-30 rifle typically had better quality barrel and smoother trigger than an average M/91-30 rifle. However actual main changes from standard military rifle to sniper rifle included only bolt with longer downwards turned bolt handle and installation point for attaching mount of sniper scope. Manufacturer of Soviet sniper rifles were Tula factory and Izhevsk factories. When Winter War started in end of November 1939 the Soviets had already over 54,000 sniper rifles equipped with PE (PT) and PEM (VP) scopes, while Finnish military had failed to introduce sniper rifle of their own in any real numbers.

Some Soviet sources are using different names from two of the Soviet rifle scopes mentioned in this page, than the ones most commonly used. The two rifle scopes are PE (which the Soviets knew also as PT) and PEM (also VP for the Soviets). To make this webpage compatible with western, Soviet and more recent Russian sources the both names are used about each scope. Both western and Soviet/Russian use the same name about the third and most widely manufactured Soviet rifle scope of the era - PU-scope.

PICTURE: PE (PT) scope with its mount in M/91-30 sniper rifle. Notice focus adjustment ring and installation on top of the receiver. (Photo taken in Sotamuseo). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (30 KB).

First scope introduced by Soviets to production was 4 x 30 PE (PT) scope, which basically was a copy of German Zeiss design (machinery for production was even reportedly delivered by Zeiss). Production of PE (TP) scopes continued until 1936 and production of M/91-30 sniper rifles equipped with them until 1940. Improved and simplified versions of PE (PT) scope were tested starting from 1935, these tests lead to development of PEM (VP) scope, which replaced PE (PT) scope to production at 1936. Before World War 2 Soviet M/91-30 sniper rifles equipped with PE rifle scopes saw use already in Spanish Civil War. 4.2 x 29 PEM (PT) rifle scope was basically simplified version without focus adjustment ring. Apparently at least one of the reasons for leaving out the focus adjustment ring was that it proved to be a weak spot of the design, allowing humidity and dust to enter the scope. As part of their efforts for replacing bolt-action rifles with new automatic rifles the Soviets stopped production of M/91-30 sniper rifles in year 1940 and started producing scope-equipped SVT-40 semiautomatic rifle instead. This proved to be huge mistake as SVT-40 proved to be less accurate and unreliable. Year 1942 they had to restart production of M/91-30 sniper rifle. When this happened in year 1942 very small amount of M/91-30 were build in Izhevsk seems to have been equipped with PEM (PT) scopes, because until new PU-scope wasn't yet in production. After production of PU-scopes picked pace sniper rifles M/91-30 of this new production were equipped with 3.5 x 22 PU-scopes. PU-scope was based to short scope earlier introduced with SVT-40 sniper rifles. This short SVT-scope was simpler, smaller and easier to produce than the earlier PE and PEM scopes. Starting from 1942 production numbers of M/91-30 sniper rifles rose to totally new heights and continued as long as year 1958. The Soviets manufactured some 275,250 sniper rifles equipped with PU-scopes between 1942 - 1958.

PICTURE: PEM (VP) rifle scope with mount installed on top of receiver of M/91-30 sniper rifle (Photo taken in Sotamuseo). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (22 KB).

PICTURE: PEM (VP) rifle scope with mount installed side of the receiver of M/91-30 sniper rifle (Photo taken in Sotamuseo). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (38 KB).

Finnish troops had acute shortage of sniper rifles all the time and captured sniper rifles were typically immediately taken to own use. Unfortunately captured sniper rifles were also top of the list items as war souvenirs for Finnish soldiers, so those fortunate enough to capture one usually also took the rifle home to be later used as a hunting rifle. Basically this lead to situation in which individual soldiers and units of Finnish Army had captured sniping rifles, but Finnish Army didn't have any control of those rifles. Official channels existed and captured weapons should have been delivered to them, but it simply wasn't happening. Mere 213 Soviet rifles ended up being delivered to official channels during Winter War and during Continuation War situation just got worse. While Finnish troops captured over 128,000 Soviet rifles during Continuation War only 67 captured scopes were forwarded to official channels. Situation was so dire that even domestic manufacture of PEM-scope copy was considered in 1943, but the idea never developed beyond consideration. Soldiers that had managed to captured sniper rifle and also their units were very unwilling to give forward any of the few sniper rifles that they had, as there was little hope of getting any back when needed. Year 1951 still 206 captured Soviet sniper rifles remained, these were kept warehoused until late 1970's.

PICTURE: PU scope in M/91-30 rifle. Only side installed mount was used with this scope. (Photo taken in Sotamuseo). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (40 KB).

PICTURE: Side mount of PU scope seen from another side. (Photo taken in Jalkaväkimuseo). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (38 KB).

The Finns had basically the same starting point as Soviets had in developing scoped sniping rifle. Only difference was that they lacked the bitter World War 1 experiences of fighting enemy snipers armed scoped sniping rifles, while lacking sniper rifle of their own. Finnish military got interested about scoped sniper rifles first in 1927 and in that year Finnish Ministry of War founded committee lead by Major T. Raatikainen to investigate scopes for rifles and machineguns. The committee tested eight rifle scopes and found six of them to be totally unsuitable. Only C. P. Goerz 4X and Zeiss Zeilvier 2.5X scopes seemed somewhat suitable and the committee ended up recommending the Zeiss made one. The suggested rifle with Zeiss-scope would have been equipped more robust version of German scope mount, longer downwards bent bolt-handle and removable cheek piece. But Finnish military decided to wait for new M/27 infantry rifle before going forward with in this project. This stopped the whole process in the Army until year 1931.

Suojeluskunta (Finnish Civil Guard) became interested about scoped rifles about the same time as the Army did. The start of Suojeluskunta sniping rifle was promising but their selection poor. First Suojeluskunta decided to test rifle scopes with 6.5 mm x 52R calibre Japanese rifles as quality of available (mainly captured Russian) 7.62 mm x 54R ammunition at that time was considered too poor for sniping use. Another bypath were six Japanese rifles modified to 7.62 mm x 54R calibre and equipped with Oigee Luxor 6X, Oigee Grom 4X and and Hensoldt Ziel Dialyt 3X rifle scopes. The modified Japanese M/97 and M/05 rifles designed by J.E. Kuusisto were not much of a success and Suojeluskunta got rid of its Japanese rifles few years later. In year 1929 the Japanese rifles were set aside and testing new scopes was started with new M/28 rifles. Funding for acquiring 700 scoped sniper rifles had been suggested to Suojeluskunta annual budget already year earlier, but only eleven M/28 sniper rifles were ever acquired. Being series made for testing rifle scope desings, these rifles had large variety of scopes. The scopes used in them included not only earlier Oigee Luxor 6X, Oigee Gnom 4X and and Hensoldt Ziel Dialyt 3X, but also newly acquired Busch Vizardrei 3X, Busch Vizarfunf 4.5X, Hensoldt Ziel Dialyt 5X, Zeiss Zielklein 2.5X and Zeiss Zielmunti 1-4X rifle scopes. Scope mounts for these scopes were manufactured by GECO (Gustav Genschow & Co). For not having other sniper rifles also these M/28 rifles with their varied scopes were issued and used during World War 2.

Suojeluskunta (Finnish Civil Guard) tested M/28 rifle with various scopes it had acquired and came come to conclusion that acquired Busch Visarfunf 4.5X (aka Busch Visar 4.5X Dr. Zf.104) rifle scope was the best suited for them. However the scope mount was still not ideal, so its development was continued and decision about acquiring the scopes was not made until early 1931. By that time Zeiss had also continued developing their own scopes and Suojeluskunta ended up changing its mind and acquiring new Zeiss Zielvier 4X rifle scopes instead of almost identical Busch Visarfunf 4.5X. Incidentally also the Soviets had acquired these same scopes bit earlier. But as new M/28-30 rifle was soon to be introduced the scopes were not installed to M/28 rifles, but instead Suojeluskunta decided to wait and install them to new M/28-30 rifles. It took until 1933 before they bought these 25 scopes and scope mounts for 25 rifles. The Sako-made scope mounts used demanded small piece removed from rifle stock and these rifles were equipped with bolts that had longer downward pointing bolt handle. These rifles were tested until late 1934, but as Finnish Army regained its interest and restarted testing of rifle scopes in 1935 Suojeluskunta decided to wait for its results. Sniper rifle M/33 was exceptional because it had its own special 5-round cartridge clips, which could be used in reloading them (the scope used made using the normal cartridge clips impossible). Apparently only few of these special cartridge clips were manufactured. Just like with sniper rifle M/28 even this small test series of sniper rifles was issued for combat use during World War 2.

PICTURE: Sniper rifle M/33. Zeiss Zielvier 4 X scope was installed to M/28-30 rifle with scope mount attached at side of the rifles receiver. (Photo taken in Sotamuseo). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (31 KB).

Finnish Army restarted its testing of scoped rifles in 1935, but somehow ended up doing the development in totally backward way. Selecting existing rifle scope and purchasing it or even using existing scope and developing new scope from it would have made sense, but that is not what was made. Instead Finnish military decided that it wanted a scope that could be used in several kinds of weapons (rifles, machineguns etc...) and gave only some instructions and the drawings of outer surface to Oy Physica Ab, which designed the scope. It seems that common wisdom such as "form follows function" and "jack of all trades - master of none" had been forgotten in this matter.

Resulting (3 x 24) Physica-scope was just about as bad as it could get. The basic design was quite suitable to be used in machineguns, but horribly unsuitable for rifle-scope use. Physica-scope was box-shaped, weighted about 1 kg, and designing good rifle mounting for installing it to M/27 rifle was a nightmare. Mounts setting Physica scope on top of the receiver were tested, but they set the scope so high that shooter had to raise his head unnaturally high, which pretty much ruined shooting stance. So the scope was installed to to left side of the rifle. As the Physica scope had to installed to left side of the rifle the rifle butt had be equipped with large cheek piece (it seems that all M/33 sniper rifles were not equipped with these). As if there would not have been problems enough Physica also had quite short (40 mm) eye relief, which easily resulted Physica scope of recoiling rifle hitting to brow of the soldier firing it. However the scope attached to side of the receiver came with one benefit - the rifle could be loaded by suing normal cartridge clips. Nevertheless the problems, once started, the plan went ahead. Finally in December of 1937 both the scope and mount were ready and Finnish Army Ordnance Department ordered 250 Physica scopes from Oy Physica Ab. From the 250 Physica scopes ordered 150 were intended as rifle scopes while 100 were reserved for Maxim M/32-33 machineguns (but later ended up being used in M/39 PH sniper rifles instead. Production of scopes was slow to start and Leonard Lindelöf's machine factory proved equally slow in manufacturing scope mounts. Finnish snipers received only handful of these sniper rifles during Winter War. Most of M/27 infantry rifles selected to become M/27 PH sniper rifles had Tikkakoski-made barrel with serial number over 80000. The rifles were assembled in Finnish Army Weapons Depots.

When Winter War started in 31^st of November 1939 only 84 of the ordered 250 Physica scopes had been manufactured and none had been yet installed to rifles. Production of scope mounts demanded extreme accuracy and was so slow that only few prototypes of new M/37 sniper rifle were made in time to be used in Winter War. Whole production run of 150 M/37 sniper rifles (rifle M/27 with precision trigger mechanism and Physica scope) was finished by June of 1940. During Continuation War Physica scopes were often moved to new M/39 rifles. Older variation installed to rifle M/27 was also called Sniper rifle M/27 PH during Continuation War. In addition of earlier listed problems the wartime use revealed the waterproofness of Physica-scope being questionable. Number of rifles equipped with Physica scopes was decreasing fast already during the war and in year 1951 only 24 sniper-rifles M/27 PH remained. Last ones of these rifles remained warehoused until 1970's.

PICTURE: Sniper rifle M/37 aka M/27 PH. Physica scopes mount is of final version. As can be seen this rifle also has cheek piece that was installed to some M/27 PH rifles, but not all. Cheek piece used in M/27 PH rifles was separate part added to rifle stock in left side of rifle butt. (Photo taken in Sotamuseo). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (43 KB).

Year 1943 Finnish Army HQ finally decided to something about soldiers taking captured sniper rifles and their scopes as war souvenirs, while the rifles would have been desperately needed for snipers in the frontline. So the HQ tried persuading the soldiers to give their "souvenir" scopes to official use by sending the soldiers appeals and orders asking this, but results of these were fairly small. Even after this the soldiers returned only small number of captured scopes. Both these captured scopes returned and some scopes originating from damaged captured down M/91-30 sniper rifles were installed by weapons repair personnel to new Finnish M/39 rifles around 1943 - 1944. This new mix of Finnish M/39 military rifle and captured Soviet scope was named Sniper rifle M/39 SOV. Total of these sniper rifles never reached 200 (another source claims their number was about 300). Basically all known Finnish M/39 SOV sniper rifles were equipped with PE (PT) or PEM (VP) scopes. Few Soviet PU-scope equipped Finnish M/39 rifles have been claimed to have been Finnish military issue from World War, but they have to be all considered extremely dubious. This is because Finnish sources don't know even single case of M/39 rifle with PU-scope in use of Finnish Armed Forces. Year 1951 Finnish military still had 122 of M/39 SOV sniper rifles and they remained warehoused until 1970's.

PICTURE: Sniper rifle M/39 SOV was combination of captured Soviet scope and Finnish M/39 rifle. In this case the scope is PEM (VP) and scope-mount is Finnish (VKT) made copy of Soviet mount. (Photo taken in Sotamuseo). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (39 KB).

As mentioned Physica scope had intended to be used also in machineguns. Year January of 1940 it was found that batch of 100 Physica scopes, which had been intended for Maxim M/32-33 machineguns, was sitting in depots without machineguns in which use to them. Decision about installing these scopes to M/39 rifles was made very fast. New sniper rifle that resulted from this was named sniper rifle M/39 PH. Like with M/27 PH sniper rifle Lindelöf made mounts for these scopes. Likewise the Physica scope installed to side of the rifle receiver demanded cheek piece being added to left side of rifle butt. Also special rifle stocks with glued-in cheek pieces were manufactured for this sniper rifle. However as mentioned Physica-scope had its problems with short (40-mm) eye-relief and not necessarily being waterproof. Most of the M/39 PH sniper rifles were delivered in year 1941. During Continuation War poor durability of M/27 rifles led more Physica scopes being removed from them and being installed to M/39 military rifles (in which point they became M/39 PH sniper rifles). Military rifles M/39 selected to become sniper rifle M/39 PH had VKT-made barrels. Weapons Depots 1 (AV1) in Helsinki and Weapons Depot 3 (AV3) in Kuopio assembled these sniper rifles. Losses of M/39 PH rifles were small and in 1951 there were still 193 of them left. M/39 PH sniper rifle remained in use of Finnish Armed Forces until 1970's and remained warehoused in Finnish Army Weapons Depots until 1980's.

PICTURE: Sniper rifle M/39 PH. Rifle stocks with cheek piece added to shape of rifle butt were designed and manufactured specially for these rifles. This rifle has such a special rifle stock. (Photo taken in Sotamuseo). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (33 KB).

PICTURE: Sniper rifle M/39 PH. Rifle stock of this particular rifle has been equipped with separate cheek piece. (Photo taken in Sotamuseo). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (19 KB).

By Continuation war it became quite clear that Physica scope was not the best possible scope for sniping rifle and it's production wasn't large enough either, so more and better rifle scopes were needed. Since Finland lacked proper industrial capacity for making rifle scopes, the only viable alternative was buying the scopes from Germany. December of 1942 Finnish Army HQ ordered 2000 Ajack 4 x 38 scopes from German firm A. Jackenroll only to find out that the Germans needed the whole scope production of A. Jackenroll to themselves, so Finnish order was cancelled. Summer of 1943 German OKW finally gave permission for Finns to buy 500 rifle-scopes, which A. Jackenroll delivered in winter of 1943 - 1944. This rifle had a mount of Finnish design and installing work was done in Weapons Depot 1 (Asevarikko 1 = AV1). Rifles used with these scopes were all Finnish M/39 rifles with VKT-made barrels especially selected for their accuracy. The Finns named Ajack scope as M/43 rifle scope. About 300 sniper rifles of this type were assembled before end of Continuation War. The M/43 (Ajack) scopes delivered to Finland were not all similar: Some had focus adjustment, while others lacked it. Sniper rifle M/39-43 proved to be the best of all sniper rifle types used by Finnish Army in World War 2 and after it remained first in training use and later warehoused for possible wartime-use until early 1980's.

PICTURE: Sniper rifle M/39-43. Ajack 4 x 38 scope had been installed with Weapons Depot 1 made scope-mount. (Photo taken in Sotamuseo). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (28 KB).

When A. Jackenroll had not been able to deliver the scopes needed, Finnish Army started looking yet another source for scopes. Professor Yrjö Väisälä, who was one of the leading experts in optics in Finland developed a domestic scope that was based to Ajack 4 x 38. If these scopes saw combat use is uncertain, one source claims they came too late while another claims that about 20 were issued in time. In either case their Ending of Continuation War in September of 1944 led first batch of 50 manufactured scopes also being the last. The instant need for more rifle-scopes vanished when the war ended, so the production was ended after that first batch. Some of these scopes named as rifle scope M/44 were installed to M/39 rifles and this combination was named as sniper rifle M/39-44. Like original Ajack scope also Finnish M/44 scope has 4-power magnification, but when compared to Ajack 4 x 38 scope it had smaller front lens and both ends of optics have been sheltered with bushings. The M/44 rifle scopes remained in use until 1970's and after that were warehoused until late 1980's.

PICTURE: Sniper rifle M/39-44. Notice m 44 marking. As can be seen Finnish made scope M/44 resembles Ajack 4 x 38. (Photo taken in Jalkaväkimuseo). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (27 KB).

Presumably there were also some less-official sniper rifles. During Continuation War Finnish authorities gathered scopes various rifle-scopes by purchasing all available rifle-scopes suitable to military use from sports shops and even from individual citizens. However the number of rifle-scopes acquired in this way could not have been very large as rifle-scopes were still very expensive and rare in pre-WW2 Finland. Finnish military also managed buying batch of some 40 mixed rifle scopes from Germany in 1943. The total number of the Finnish sniper rifles with mixed scopes was never larger factory few dozen. The scope-mounts for these scopes were very much improvised designs, which Weapons Repair Companies of Field Army designed and build for each individual rifle-scope. Typically the mixed scopes were installed to M/39 military rifles, but also other rifle models seem to have been used. Finnish military got rid of most of these scopes and their mounts soon after the war ended.

Note to collectors - warning for fake and reproduction sniper rifles:

Nowadays Finnish World War 2 era sniper rifle models vary from very rare (= very expensive) to extremely rare (= extremely expensive), so anybody planning to buy one has to be very careful and find out exactly what they are being offered, before possibly making the deal. Several commercial enterprises have later equipped Finnish rifles with various scopes and nowadays these newly scoped rifles are far more commonly available than the real World War 2 era sniper rifles. These newly scoped rifles vary from somewhat accurate reproductions with correct World War 2 era (Soviet) scopes to ones equipped with reproduction scopes, historically incorrect rifle-scope combinations and to old Finnish rifles equipped with modern scopes.

If some-one offers you Finnish World War 2 era sniper rifle (especially outside Finland) the chances are it is not the real thing. Certain foreign manufacturers have equipped normal Finnish surplus rifles with various scopes (Soviet PU-type rifle scope apparently being the most common of these) and these rifles are often advertised as authentic Finnish sniper rifles. This page contains all sniper rifle variations (except captured sniper-versions of AVS-36, SVT-38 and SVT-40) used in Finland during World War 2. Also while most Finnish post World War 2 sniper rifle designs (M/28-76 and M/85) were based to WW2-era rifles, but their stocks do not look anything like the wartime rifle stocks. Few basic rules for spotting a fake:

• All M/39-43 sniper rifles have VKT-made barrels and their 4 x 38 Ajack scopes are within certain serial number range (60001 - 60500) and have certain markings. Scope base is marked with two last numbers of the scope serial number. None of the Sako-made M/39 rifles were used for building sniper rifles.
• All known Finnish M/39 SOV sniper rifles were equipped with PE (PT) and PEM (VP) scopes, none of these rifles were equipped with PU-scopes. Scope bases for these rifles were manufactured by VKT (State Rifle Factory) and have its markings.
• Rifles M/91 equipped with PU-scopes were not used by Finnish Army. It seems that a handful of M/91 infantry rifles equipped with German scopes existed in Finnish use, but if one is offered to you, consider it highly suspicions.
• Only sniper rifles with PU-scopes used by Finnish military were original captured Soviet M/91-30 sniper rifles. The M/91-30 military rifles rebuild by the Finns with Tikkakoski made barrels were not sniper rifles. For obvious reasons Finnish-used M/91-30 sniper rifles should be SA-marked and manufactured year 1944 or earlier (practically all are manufactured 1942 or 1943).
• The Soviets never manufactured sniper rifles from infantry rifles M/91 or carbines M/38 and M/44 either.
• Lately reproduction rifles build from Soviet M/91-30 military rifles have appeared in large numbers. Many of these resemble the wartime Soviet sniper rifles very closely and determining if the rifle is authentic World War 2 era sniper rifle or later made reproduction can be very difficult. In addition manufacturing of PU-type scopes in area of former Soviet Union have continued to this day. And since the Soviets used PU-type scopes as sights also in some other weaponry (like antitank-guns), so all World War 2 era PU-type scopes are not sniper-rifle scopes. I highly recommend MOSIN-NAGANT.NET and Gunboards Forums for checking authenticity and value of old Soviet sniper rifles.

SOURCES:

Markku Palokangas: Sotilaskäsiaseet Suomessa 1918 - 1988 osat 1 - 3 (= Military Small Arms in Finland 1918 - 1988 parts 1- 3)

Timo Hyytinen: Arma Fennica 2, sotilasaseet (Arma Fennica 2, military weapons)

D.N. Bolotin: Soviet Small-Arms and Ammunition.

Article: M91/30 PU tarkka-ampujakivääri by Hannu Takala in Kaliberi magazine vol. 6/2003.

Article: Suomen Puolustusvoimien tarkka-ampujakiväärit ja niiden optiset tähtäinlaitteet by Markku Palokangas in Ase magazine vol. 2/1984.

Article: Suojeluskuntajärjestön kokeet tarkka-ampujakivääreillä, 42 kivääriä by Matti Virtanen in Ase magazine vol. 6/1984

Article: Puna-Armeijan tarkka-ampujat II maailmansodassa, historian suurin TA-voima by Heikki Jounela in Suomen Sotilas magazine vol. 1/2009.

Mosin Nagant dot Net More info about Mosin-Nagant rifles

Special thanks to Sotamuseo (Finnish Military Museum), Helsinki

Special thanks to Jalkaväkimuseo (Finnish Infantry Museum), Mikkeli