The Russian Mosin Nagant Forum

Hello!

I wanted to start this topic about history of sniper equipment used by Finland's armed forces. As you probably knew the finns used MOSTLY captured soviet sniper equipment (rifles and scopes) during and after ww2. Also some german scopes saw very limited use (Ajack). Yes of course I have seen some photos online but it would be nice to see and discuss about this stuff with you guys. I am very interested about history of sniping in general.

This is what I have. A finnish copy of PU-scope (I suppose) made by VALMET. Pretty rare I quess. Some old guy in my hunting club told me that these scopes were not produced long time because there was some kind of a production problem. These scopes were made after ww2 (maybe 1950's?) for the finnish military use. Also I have to admit that I am not sure for what weapon these were made. Some Mosin-Nagant based rifles of course but.. yeah. bought this from finnish military surplus store which is no longer active. BTW mounts were not part of the deal.

Thought you guys might be interested. Let the discussion begin!

I wouldn't mind some information as well. I didn't know Valmet made those--always learn something new. I have a Finnish captured PU sniper that I'd like to learn more about. For some reason, the mount/scope were removed and the bolt was replaced with a standard straight bolt (serial number on the bolt is Finn matched to the rifle).

Update: Valmet did not provide any information. The investigation contiunes..

steelbuttplate wrote:

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Section wrote:Update: Valmet did not provide any information. The investigation contiunes..

That's not a surprise, as the modern day Valmet has nothing to do with weapons manufacturing. The old Valmet manufactured pretty much everything especially in the 1950s, but I couldn't find anythin definite from my source books. But the Valmet scopes are rare here too.
There is and old thread with Finnish sniper pic in this forum's history section, http://www.russian-mosin-nagant-forum.c ... 00#p354682

Jallukola wrote:

Section wrote:Update: Valmet did not provide any information. The investigation contiunes..

That's not a surprise, as the modern day Valmet has nothing to do with weapons manufacturing. The old Valmet manufactured pretty much everything especially in the 1950s, but I couldn't find anythin definite from my source books. But the Valmet scopes are rare here too.
There is and old thread with Finnish sniper pic in this forum's history section, http://www.russian-mosin-nagant-forum.c ... 00#p354682

Jallukola, I think he is in Finland with you.

Freaking Finally!

I managed to pull some info together. During the Continuation War Finland had bought equipment to manufacture rifle scopes (Zeiss type) but production never started before the end of war. After the war Optical department (Army section) was moved under the control of VMT. Literal translation in english: Valtion metalli = State's Metal. VMT decided to design new rifle scope for army AND civilian market. Production started in 1950and lasted about one year. During one year VMT's name was changed to VALMET. This explains why some scopes have VMT markings and some have VALMET markings. Total number of built scopes: About 500.

Army tested the scopes after receiving some from factory. Optical features were described very high quality but construction was very bad. Adjustments moved easily because lensholding structure was weak. In short: VALMET scope could not take the recoil of 7.62x53. Army refused to buy VALMET scopes. VALMET tried to sell scopes to civilians but market price was considered too high so VALMET scope sells were low.

In late 1950's Optical Department was moved back under the control of army. This means that failed VALMET scopes were property of army. Years and years scopes were in storage and in early years of 2000's army decided to sell scopes out (80 euros/scope). Army has also used to scopes as a gift item. Some people say that scopes are very useful in low caliber rifles (22 lr. etc).