The Arizona PCC (Pistol-Caliber Carbine) Championship is a 10-stage competition held every year at the Rio Salado Sportsman’s Club in Mesa, AZ. It is normally only open to semiauto carbines, but I was able to get permission to run a true submachine gun this year (full auto is truly not an advantage for this sort of competition…). So I took the opportunity to run nearly 750 rounds through a Stemple-Suomi, while kitted out in my proper Finnish Wanter War uniform. Any you know what? I had a great time and didn’t come in last!
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Conversion
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Well done Ian. Appreciate the content and thanks for replying to an email about an unidentified training rifle. Look forward to the future updates. Thanks.
This video will be cited endlessly against open-bolt full-auto vice closed-bolt semi-auto. Thanks for spending that much in ammo to prove a point.
I don’t think anyone has seriously suspected the superiority of semi-auto in shooting stationary small targets. Full auto really comes to its own when engaging multiple targets (room or trench clearing etc.) or moving targets. With pistol caliber ammunition it also gives that extra bit of insurance that your target also stays down.
As for the open vs. closed bolt issue, there is again little doubt that closed bolt weapons are inherently more accurate. That said, the Suomi is remarkably accurate for an open bolt gun in semi-auto. Finnish soldiers used the Suomi for small game hunting during the stationary phase of the Continuation War. Hitting targets like squirrels at moderate ranges was not a problem at all. Many of them also mentioned that hunting was pretty much the only practical use for the semi-auto setting. Official doctrine was to use semi-auto fire at long ranges (over 200 meters), but in practice most soldiers seem to have preferred short bursts even at such ranges.
Suomi SMG is stable, easy to control gun. If must have been a nasty surprise to Soviets.
As far as shooting this course it seems to need extensive memory preparation. I do not think I’d be able to do it.
“(…)If(…)”
Why if? Do you doubt in its actual use during Talvisota?
“(…)Suomi SMG is stable, easy to control gun(…)”
Well with 7,03 kg ready (with 71 round magazine) and common Rate-of-Fire (900) it would be strange other way
https://modernfirearms.net/en/submachine-guns/finland-submachine-guns/suomi-m31-eng/
“If” is a typo; it is supposed to be “It”.
Yes it is VERY heavy – indeed “pistolet-pulemyot” (pistol-machinegun) as Russians call it.
Pistol-machinegun is not much different from sub-machinegun (kind of average between sub-machinegun and machinenpistole in fact), it does not denote weight. Every SMG (eg. Ingram M11, Micro UZI) is a pistolet-pulemyot.
Certainly, weight limit is not stated. It can be anything up to weight of a real machinegun.
“(…)“If” is a typo; it is supposed to be “It”.(…)”
Then yes. Vasily Degtyaryov in his memoirs (titled Моя жизнь) states he was ordered to developed magazine with increased capacity for his sub-machine gun (i.e. PPD). And was able to provide drum magazine design after 7 days of exhausting working, as every hour was important with conflict against whitefinns (term used in Soviet Union to denote Finnish other than minions of Karjalais-suomalainen sosialistinen neuvostotasavalta)
As an older child I read a book by a Soviet author (cannot recall the title) which was about that war. He described Finns as blood-thirsty devious “fascists”. They prepared number of tricks/ ambushes in the way of our “beloved” Red Army soldiers. Either way you slice it, war is not a “cake-walk”.
So, did he buy one, or was there a manuf. rep there for ‘possession’? Or is the gun owned in AZ?
Carrying and shooting an 11-lb SMG makes for a long day.
Is that belt knife a Finnish bayonet in a civvie scabbard? I see that it’s rigged for a left hand draw.
‘Course a real Finn would shoot that match with his puukko handing from his belt on a thong, just the right length to trip over every third step.
It’s an M39 bayonet.
For my mind, all match videos need snack interludes
Looks like you were still knackered when you wrote the blurb. “Wanter War,” “Any you.” I think “Wanter War” has a ring to it, you may want to TM that. Thanks for the great video and well done!
(and thanks for not being perfect in every thing, I’m jealous enough anyway)