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Today we are going to take a look at just how much historical be read from the features and markings of an individual rifle. This is an early production Finnish M28 “ski trooper” Mosin Nagant that can be traced from Russian manufacture to WW1 Russian use, Austro-Hungarian capture, rechambering to 8x50mm Mannlicher, concession to Italy as war reparations, sale to Finland, rebuilding as a Civil Guard M28, use in the Winter War and Continuation War, transfer to the Finnish Army, and finally importation into the United States.
Y’know… You really have to wonder what silk purse the Finns would have created, were they not working with the sow’s ear that the Mosin-Nagant was.
I remember going through my friend’s collection with him, and the astonishing observation that we both made that anything the Finns had in the way of Mosin rifles seemed to be exponentially “better” and far more accurate than anything he had from other sources. Even the stuff that was theoretically the exact same rifle, put together the exact same way. It was like “If the Finns ever owned it, it was better…”, through some magical forest practice or something.
My suspicion is that the actual deal was that the Finnish armorers worked over everything they ever got, and that anything they found wasn’t up to par got rebuilt entirely, while leaving the “Finnish acceptable” stuff alone.
What would be interesting to see is what had to exist in the way of Finnish documentation on all of this; there had to be manuals and “stuff” on all their processes, because I can’t imagine them doing it all “word-of-mouth” and unwritten “best practices”.
Somewhere in the depths of the Finnish archives, there’s something that discusses all of this, and what their accurization/reliability working practices and procedures were for these rifles. It would be interesting to see, if anyone can dig them out and make them available.
I mean, good grief… The Valmet M76 I owned for far too short a time was more accurate than the issue M16A1 rifles we had on hand, and it did rather better than some of the A2 variants I later shot. Out of a shorter barrel and a far less “inherently accurate” action. I still don’t know how the hell they did it, but there you were. Friend of mine was a graduate of the Marine Sniper program, and he reached the same conclusion: M76 in 5.56mm was more accurate than what we had in our arms rooms during the early- and mid-1980s. Which was a very hard admission for both of us.
The Finns probably made obsessive-compulsive tendencies a requirement for armorers. Attention to detail is what probably made the difference. “No sub-standard crap will leave MY workbench”
Someone could write an interesting book of philosophy on how virtues have been clinicalized as ‘disorders.’ Diligence as OCD, courage as ‘in denial’ etc. etc.
“The Babylon Bee” is sometimes hilarious satire, but other times they’re way too close to the dark, dismal truth to be funny. One of those was their article about how every kid is now diagnosed as autistic or ADHD.
Everyone who is rational, has an intellectual hobby, basic attention to detail, or cares more about facts than feeeelings is “autistic”, even if he’s successful, charismatic, and popular. Everyone with any initiative, athletic energy, or imagination is “ADHD”. Some are even both!
https://www.compactmag.com/article/the-great-feminization/
Thanks! And d@mn, that’s depressing. I choose instead to thank God I’m retired.
I am a teacher.Around 2003, I took a test for autism out of curiosity.I wasn’t autistic. Around 2012 my MD sister ‘discovered’ she was ‘on the spectrum.’ I took another test. I was closer. Suspecting the cause, I waited about 5 years. Sure enough I am now autistic. The tests are changing, not me. Call it ‘definition creep.’If there is government money for a problem, the problem has great incentive to turn into a crisis. For decades Field Marshall Montgomery was considered obnoxious. Now we hear he was actually ‘on the spectrum.’ Oh my acting hindquarters.
I agree: it’s absolutely an epidemic of overdiagnosis (period). The causation theories are even worse.
If “Kids Today” do behave differently from Boomer or GenX norms, it might be reasonable to look at differences in how they were brought up (social media, etc.). Conversely, any Gen Z-unique differences cannot possibly have resulted from shared factors (artificial colors, flavors, etc.) common to the upbringing of GenX, GenZ, and Boomers alike.
I’m absolutely convinced the Finnish gunsmiths (like USAMU ‘smiths) are actually some form of gnome. You never see them in daylight.
“None of this Schritt!” – (Good one)
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This rifle has a fascinating story to tell. A Russian, Austrian, Italian and finally Finnish rifle with a Swiss barrel. It is better travelled than most people.
I assume the Austrians bored out the 7.62mm barrel for their 8mm ammunition. However, there is no mention of the bolt face being changed. I wonder if the two rounds were sufficiently similar for this not to have been necessary?
Cartridges of the world (14 ed) gives the rim on the 7.62x53R as 0.445 inch and the 8x50R Austrian as 0.553 inch. I just measured the inside of the bolt face of a 91/30 and it’s 0.570 inch. It feeds and ejects 7.62x53R perfectly. If this represents the standard, no modification of the bolt face would have been necessary for 8x50R, they possibly would have needed to change the extractor.
Thanks, that’s good information.
Rim diameter is effectively the same. 7.62 Russian can be fired safely (not very accurately) in an 8×50 chamber.
8×50 won’t fit in Russian chamber, though. So the Austrians rechambered and resighted, and reslung the Mosins. I have one of these, and the barrel is still .314. I suppose they figured a quarter of a millimeter squeeze down wasn’t too dangerous.