My book on Finnish small arms is available for preorder:
https://www.headstamppublishing.com/forged-in-snow
The M92S is the semiautomatic civilian version of the Finnish military rk95 rifle. The rk95 was intended to be a modernization of the Finnish AK platform, but it fell victim to military funding cuts as a result of the collapse of the Soviet Union. Only a small number were procured by the Finnish Defense Forces, and Sako only made about 2500 of the semiautomatic model for civilian and reservist use.
The M92 uses a brand new milled receiver design and includes a reinforced dust cover with rear aperture sight, a gas cutoff for rifle grenades (albeit never used), and mounting points for an optics siderail. The military rk95s all had sidefolding stocks, but the civilian model got a fixed stock as the folder would have made it much harder to register and own in Finland at the time.
These rifles, along with all the other Valmet factory semiauto rifles, just recently became importable thanks to the efforts of Postrock, of Garden City Kansas.
Military rk95 video:
[OFF-TOPIC so ignore if you wish]
Recently https://www.armyrecognition.com/news/army-news/2026/hicar-ussocom-m4a1-82000-psi-556mm-upgrade U.S. Special Operations Command launched Hypervelocity Improved Capability Assault Rifle (HICAR). Apparently they found XM7 lacking for their purposes, so they elected different approach, namely: crafting high-pressure 5,56 x 45 cartridge paired with new upper for M4A1 carbine, able to hold said pressure. Said new cartridge would have pressure at least 82000 compared to 62000 of existing M4A1 (more than 30% increase). Without doubt such weapon would be shorter than mentioned XM7, but I am wondering what would happen if, say allied HK416-totting special forces operators would bring such ammunition from unconscious users of higher-pressure-M4A1 and try to use it in their own weapon?
Nothing good.
Just on principle alone, I’d ban this entire idea from ever being put on issue.
Good God above, we had enough trouble with the transition to M855 from M193, and that was perfectly safe to fire. You have no idea how many idjit staff types there were who thought the two rounds were interchangeable, and we’d be given M193 to zero and qualify M16A2 rifles with, only to have abysmal scores result due to “reasons”. Same thing happened in the other direction, as well…
You want higher pressure rounds? Make a different cartridge that doesn’t fit into earlier weapons that aren’t set up for those pressures…
FYI: Postrock is selling one on Goonbroker right now. The auction starting price is $15k and the buy it now price is $25k. Huh.
Oi.
Ain’t going to be mine, unless I win the lottery.
Ah, well…
OFF TOPIC: Unless spoken of before…..
but want to comment:
Kirk’s gunna love this below…..Do you think dbl-line of vert marks on the reticle?
Diff colored ammo cans?…Or..”Who’s got the other barrel?”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid-Range_Gas_Gun
SOCOM’s boutique bougie weapons are a luxury we can only afford in peacetime when there are disordered minds running the military. As soon as things get serious, all that crap is going to go out the window.
I swear to God, you put me in charge of small arms procurement, and I’m going to have “slap elbow” from all the backhanded fists I’d be delivering unto all the responsible parties. This crap is madness on stilts, and what the hell they’re going to do when they roll up needing resupply from some line unit, the way they often did in Iraq, and discover that the line bubbas don’t have their super-speshul ammo? That’s going to be an imposition of reality they’re not ready for.
Not to mention the signature issue; when SF has super-speshul unique weapons, there goes their anonymity and concealment among the line troops. Guess who gets targeted?
There’s a lot of sheer stupidity running rampant with this stuff, and its like everyone just forgot about logistics and common sense.
SOCOM’s Super-Special Rifle converts between 7.62 x 51mm NATO and 6.5 x 49mm Creedmoor. But yeah, it can be converted to 6.8 x 51mm SiG aka .277 Fury, too.
The question is, why bother?
I’m always suspicious of any real infantry rifle with apparent genetics of a Johnny Seven OMA.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Seven_OMA
M16A1 + M203 was involved enough for me.
clear ether
eon
It’s all idiocy on stilts, in my opinion.
You want to have a weapon in an enemy caliber? Fine; grab one of theirs. You have a custom super-secret speshul 7.62X39 M16? That’s just going to stand out like a sore thumb, to any and every observer.
The idea is to blend in, not play Secret Agent Man with a barrel of speshul toys…
ON TOPIC Tikkakoski also manufactured sewing machines. Coincidentally Husqvarna in next=door Sweden, built both arms and sewing machines. Swords and plowshares?
“(…)Husqvarna in next=door Sweden, built both arms and sewing(…)”
Among many others items. According to themselves https://www.husqvarna.com/ie/learn-and-discover/more-than-325-years-of-innovation/
1689 The first Husqvarna factory is established by the waterfalls in the town of Huskvarna in southern Sweden (previously spelled Husqvarna) to manufacture weapons for the army.
1872 Husqvarna’s rifle contract with the Crown comes to an end and the company decides to branch out. This becomes the start of a very innovative and ambitious period, resulting in a broad array of new products including sewing machines (1872), hunting weapons (1877), wood stoves (1877), meat mincing machines (1892), the first Swedish typewriter (1895), and bicycles (1896).
1903 Husqvarna introduces motorcycles.
1918 new products to the portfolio: boilers and manual lawn mowers.
1947 first motorized Husqvarna lawn mower for commercial use
1959 first chainsaw
Then they keep improving said devices.
Firearms were basically the first mass-produced precision consumer product. All the various follow-ons like sewing machines, bicycles, cars…? All of those built off the same precision mass manufacture originating in the small arms industry.
As the AI puts it: “Early interchangeable parts trace back to the 1732 De Vallière system in France, which standardized cannon dimensions for logistics. The concept was advanced by Honoré Blanc in 1790, who demonstrated that musket locks could be assembled from randomly mixed parts, a method observed by Thomas Jefferson.
In the United States, Eli Terry achieved the first true mass production of interchangeable parts in 1800 using wooden gear clocks, predating widespread firearm adoption. Eli Whitney popularized the concept in 1798 with muskets, though he relied on hand-fitting; true metal interchangeability was later realized by Simeon North and the Springfield Armory by the 1850s.”
Note all the cites offered involving weapons. As well, the early use of machinery by the UK, where the Admiralty had a mass-production line set up for making wooden blocks, something that gave them a key advantage in the Napoleonic wars. On the Continent, such block production efforts were artisanal in nature.
A side note — the name of the company in Kansas selling the rifles is called “Postrock” This comes from the use of limestone columns, derived from a local formation, as fence posts, as there are no trees in the area to make wooden posts from.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fencepost_limestone