Love Machine
NES Member
I decided to go build a bolty. I don't believe in benchrest shooting, but I do believe in shooting off a crate in the prone position in a snowbank, possibly hitting a deer. So the time had come for a rifle to appear that I could mount a scope on, that would give me <1 MOA and could also take cheap surplus ammo.
Shit, where could I find one? Comrade, this calls for a bottle.
The cheapest ammo is for the Mosin-Nagant and you could barely hit a country with it. Don't get me started on the "sniper" editions that are sold to suckers here by unscrupulous comrades. The only option really left was a Finnish M39. The Finns built match-grade weapons for their soldiers with fantastic sights from leftover czar-era Mosins. They would put a high-quality match hunting barrel on it and use the slightly different 7.62x53R ammo (but still made it capable of firing the shit Soviet ammo).
But even in the M39s, there are different grades. You don't want a used 1941 one, because it's historic and because it's used. I got very lucky to be able to score an unissued 1971 M39.
Wait, what comrade? 1971? Did the Finns keep drinking in their trenches 30 years after WWII ended?
Well, the Finns kept drinking, but they also did a limited 70s run of rifles for officer's match grade competition. So right off the bat this rifle is brand new, accurized by competent gunsmiths with a great trigger (there are metal inserts in the receiver for accurizing) and it's a sporting, not a combat rifle. Shit the only thing missing is a good scope and a recoil pad.
The scope came about when I found out that Rock Solid started manufacturing mounts for the M39. I bought the stiffest one with 4 mounting points that allows a proper, not scout, scope to be installed on the M39 and also had a custom bolt handle manufactured. Then chop the wooden stock to fit the custom handle, put a recoil pad on the back, install a Millett TRS-1 and call it good. I'll take it to the range someday soon.