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M31 Soumi (Anyone have one of these?)

Posted: Mon Aug 06, 2012 6:56 pm
by Bkloes
Hope everyone is doing good, surviving the heat if you are around Washington...>I like my overcast, dark days:) So I was looking through the links and came across these replicas from "Centerfire Arms" I think was the company...Its a 9mm tommy gun style rifle....I think it was originally called a KP31 made by the fins in WW2. I was just curious if anyone had any experience with them.

Re: M31 Soumi (Anyone have one of these?)

Posted: Mon Aug 06, 2012 7:24 pm
by dou44
i do not have one but i have shot one and i liked it.i just wish that the barrel was the original length instead of the 16".the rifle felt heavy but shot great.it is on my list to buy one day :thumbsup:i do have the pps43 and plan on making it into a sbr later on.they shoot great but would be alot better if the stock were open,i just hate paying the$200 to make it a sbr to open the stock.

Re: M31 Soumi (Anyone have one of these?)

Posted: Mon Aug 06, 2012 8:57 pm
by desdem12
There is a store here that had 5 of them. They sold 3 already. They are HEAVY. Especialy with the drum. They do have the nice finn style stocks on them though. :D

Re: M31 Soumi (Anyone have one of these?)

Posted: Mon Aug 06, 2012 9:39 pm
by Bkloes
Yeah:) I saw that and I thought it was pretty cool. My girlfriend really likes the look of the Tommy guns with a drum magazine. I stumbled across these and figured win/win...she gets a Tommy Gun style rifle, I get a Fin replica of something WW2ish and it even shoots 9mm (same as my pistol). I have read many people comment about the weight, I have some more rifles on the want list so I will hold off maybe until I can hold one if these M31. Is it heavy bad (feels awkward) or just heavy but balanced? I mean, mosins aren't light and I think my Black Powder rifle is close to 10 lbs :thumbsup:

Re: M31 Soumi (Anyone have one of these?)

Posted: Mon Aug 06, 2012 10:38 pm
by target
The LGS has had one for a few years now and it is a very nice gun, very well made and very nice wood on it. The Muzzle is ugly compared to the original so that's a bummer but it comes with a couple drums and box mags. Can't remember what he wanted for it but it wasn't bad. Its a cool gun and it handles pretty well.

Re: M31 Soumi (Anyone have one of these?)

Posted: Tue Aug 07, 2012 5:46 am
by Junk Yard Dog
Looks cool, but I don't know anybody who has one, never saw any in the shops.

Re: M31 Soumi (Anyone have one of these?)

Posted: Tue Aug 07, 2012 4:19 pm
by tincansailor
Junk Yard Dog wrote:Looks cool, but I don't know anybody who has one, never saw any in the shops.
:biggrin: JYD are sure you don't have one stashed away that you may have forgotten about? :lol:

Re: M31 Soumi (Anyone have one of these?)

Posted: Wed Aug 08, 2012 10:05 am
by desdem12
They are heavy heavy without being loaded. It feels ok though not unbalanced. If i remember right it holds 72-74 something like that so weigh up that and add it to the overall and it will be he-he-heavy!! They look nice and i am betting they shoot nice too. Weighs much more then a 91/30 i would guess. I will go check again and see just for fun one of these days. All they have left is the stick ones though. I believe those hold 32. :D

Re: M31 Soumi (Anyone have one of these?)

Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2012 1:39 am
by Ironnewt
The nice thing about a heavy rifle (or semi smg) is tha it really soaks up the recoil. like shooting a .22

Re: M31 Soumi (Anyone have one of these?)

Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2012 5:19 am
by Junk Yard Dog
tincansailor wrote:
Junk Yard Dog wrote:Looks cool, but I don't know anybody who has one, never saw any in the shops.
:biggrin: JYD are sure you don't have one stashed away that you may have forgotten about? :lol:
I have a Cobray M11/9 stashed away that I sometimes forget I have, an old lady handed it to me at a flea market years back, the gun that made the 80's roar :lol: But I never much got into the black rifle stuff past what I needed just to piss off the Clintons.

Re: M31 Soumi (Anyone have one of these?)

Posted: Sat Aug 11, 2012 3:09 pm
by Mountain Man
I have one. As mentioned, they are well made but very heavy. Fully loaded, they weigh about 15lbs with the drum. With the stick, a little lighter. Fun to shoot because they are so heavy there is no recoil and once you understand the sight and the very, very heavy trigger pull - I have to use two fingers, somewhat accurate. But still, they are not, at least for me, very user friendly for off hand shooting. I shoot mine from a rest position.

Re: M31 Soumi (Anyone have one of these?)

Posted: Sat Aug 11, 2012 3:42 pm
by SA1911a1
I have toyed with the idea of getting one of those or the other similar rifles currently for sale at several of the big wholesalers. I have not been willing to blow my limited Mosin budget on a gun that neither has any historical value, nor any practical use. Not that I have never bought an unpractical or unhistorical firearm :roll: (I used to collect .25 cal. mouse guns)

I can see the fun value of these, but the novelty would burn out fast for me, but for heavens sake somebody here needs to buy one and report back. :D

Re: M31 Soumi (Anyone have one of these?)

Posted: Sun Aug 12, 2012 10:01 am
by mberoose
I sold mine a couple weeks ago. Was a TN Guns build. You can find them being sold right now through Centerfire Systems or J&G Sales for $430. Mags (drum or 36-round stick) are cheap.

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I got it for dirt, dirt cheap with the intention of re-selling it to make a couple bucks, but it was probably one of the most difficult sales I've ever made. It's almost criminal how fun they are to shoot....and how difficult they are to take apart. It's a thumb killer...if you've had one, you'll know what I mean. If you want to get one, you'll find out what I mean. :lol: The overall design is actually quite simple though. The vented barrel is actually just a shroud fitted to make it 16" and it comes right off. The originals were shorter and wouldn't be legal in the country without the appropriate tax stamp & whatnot.

Yes, they weigh a ton...11-12 lbs unloaded if I remember correctly. But, the nice thing is that from a seated position you can just rest it on the tall stick mag and shoot away. Standing is a different story, you'll get heavy arms QUICK. Made my M44 Mosin feel light in comparison. Trigger is heavy, probably about 12 lb. pull. But recoil is non-existent, and they're actually quite accurate. I was shooting decent groups at 50 yards with mine.

One beef I had with them is they parkerized pretty much all the innards, so combined with the stiff recoil springs, you really gotta manhandle it to chamber a round. Plus, it didn't like the weak Russian 9mm ammo I got with it, was so underpowered to the point where the trigger wouldn't reset, so it essentially became a single shot. Might be because of the added grit of all those parkerized innards and the stiff springs. But with standard or +P rounds, they work just fine. I've heard of people removing the parkerized finish and smoothing out the bolt assembly & whatnot which supposedly helps tremendously. Overall, with decent ammo I never had 1 malfunction. Ever. Surprised the heck out of me.

If you get one, I promise you you'll never get more attention at a shooting range. Yeah, it might be a novelty gun, but I promise you it's one novelty gun that you probably won't want to get rid of. The cool factor is off the charts. Highly recommended. Would've kept mine if I didn't have other priorities.

Re: M31 Soumi (Anyone have one of these?)

Posted: Sun Aug 12, 2012 1:45 pm
by Mountain Man
I had a brand new drum that never feed or function correctly. Might be the parkerized guts of the gun. I took the trigger assembly to a gun smith to get lightened but he said the assembly was a sealed unit that would be almost impossible to put back together. But it is fun to shoot. I load my own 9mm, so I can goose the loads up to make the gun function. Never had a miss feed with the hotter ammo and the stick mags.