Rifles of Simo Häyhä: The World's Greatest Sniper (w/ 9 Hole Reviews)
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Published 2021-01-14
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Thanks to Henry from 9 Hole Reviews for the guest segment! Check out his channel:
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In light of the approaching Finnish Brutality: The Winter War match, I though we could take a look at the two rifles associated with the world's most successful sniper: Simo Häyhä. Häyhä was born in 1905, joined the Civil Guard at the age of 17, and did his mandatory military service from 1925 to 1927. He was first issued an American-made New England Westinghouse M91 Mosin as a Guardsman. After being discharged from the Army in 1927, he returned to active Civil Guard membership while living and working on his family farm in Karelia. He developed a reputation as an excellent marksman, both in competitive shooting and as a hunter.
When the Civil Guard developed the M28-30 pattern of Mosin, Häyhä was once of many who opted to pay a part of the cost to have his own personal rifle to keep at home, and it is with his personal M28-30 (slight correction from the video: Simo's rifle was s/n 35281, and had Civil Guard inventory number S60974.) that he went to war when the Soviet Union attacked in November 1939, starting the Winter War. The 28-30 featured a new style of sights to replace the Russian Konovalov pattern. Henry Chan from 9 Hole Reviews will give us some insight into why these sights were so excellent. In addition, the barrels were free-floated and the stocks made from two spliced pieces of wood to prevent changing temperatures and humidity from impacting rifle zero.
In his 95 days of active service during the Winter War, Simo Häyhä was credited with 542 enemy soldiers killed - mostly with his M28-30 Mosin Nagant (although he did also use the Suomi SMG and LS-26 LMG at times). He finally ran out of luck on March 6, 1940 when he was hit in the face by a Soviet exploding bullet. He was in a coma for 6 days, and spent several months in hospital, where some 26 surgeries were necessary to reconstruct his jaw - and he was permanently disfigured. His name is permanently linked to snipers worldwide, and also to the Winter War legacy "Kollaa kestää" - "Kollaa holds". He lived a quiet bachelor life as a farmer after the war, breeding hunting dogs and occasionally doing things like taking the President of Finland moose hunting. He passed away peacefully in 2002 at the age of 96.
For much more detail on Häyhä's life and practical shooting advice, I recommend "The White Sniper: Simo Häyhä" by Tapio Saarelainen:
amzn.to/3brM12y
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All Comments (21)
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Everybody gangster till the snow starts speaking Finnish
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Simo Häyhä with the most disgusting no-scope montage of 1939
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My parents found three old military rifles hidden in their hause. This was common in Finland after the war. I adopted the rifles and one of them is similar to the civil guard rifle what Simo used. Even the serial number is very close. My rifle has a serial number 60674 and Simos rifle has 60974.
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"Beware the man with one gun. He can probably use it." - Jeff Cooper.
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It's worth noting that despite his injuries he lived until the age of 96!
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Fun fact: The Winter War ended on the same day Häyhä woke up from his coma. Coincidence? I think not.
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5.7 sniper kills per day. To put it another way, about 1 per hour of daylight.
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The fame of Simo unfortunately overshadows an army full of outstanding marksmen that were extremely effective in frightful conditions. A significant number of Finns in this time period would be the top sniper in most other countries. Even putting Simo's achievements aside, the Winter War highlights the difference between an army filled with men acquainted with firearms from an early age and an army comprised of men that handled their first firearm a matter of months ago. While the Mosin action is a committee design with too many parts, its loose tolerances made it better suited to use in the frozen north than a more precision based design, which to a certain extent is also true of the use of a rimmed cartridge. I have two very late production M39 rifles that are a pleasure to shoot and a few of the original Russian M91 rifles that all I can say is "what were they thinking?" The Finns did an outstanding job with what they had in an incredible short time period.
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"I wanna fight in the continuation war." "They blew friggin' your face off!" "It's just a flesh wound..."
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Gun jesus talking about the sniper jesus's rifle
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As a finn, I am humbled by the detail and the amount of work you must've put in making of this video. As usual, I state "suomi mainittu, torilla tavataan!" meaning something like "Finland got mentioned, everyone meet at the city town Square" 🇫🇮
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Russian Soldier gets sniped Says to comrade: " Ivan, I think I am Finnish-ed"
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Sako makes to this day outstanding precision rifles
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In Finnish Army slang 28/30 was/is called ”Pystykorva” - The spitz. Because front sight sideplates are like ears of the spitz.
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Some guy in the United States is going to look through his Mosin collection after watching this video, take out his Finnish Mosin, and have a heart attack when he sees the serial number
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A unit of Russians were walking through the Finnish woods and they heard a voice shoutout "One Finnish solider is worth ten Russians". And so the Russsian officer in charge ordered them to attack and after a short gun fight no Russians return. The next day more Russian soldiers are marching through the woods and a voice shouts out " One Finnish solider is worth a hundred Russians" and so the officer again, orders them to attack. After several hours of gun fights and a few explosions no Russian soldiers return. The next day, in anger, the officer returns to the same spot with a thousand men and as he expected a voice shouts out "One Finnish soldier is worth a thousand Russians" and so the officer orders a bombing run on the near by woods and then an artillery barrage and then orders his men to attack, after a few days of intense fighting a single solider returns from the woods with a bandage over his eye and using a branch as a crutch and he turns to his officer and says "Don't send in any more men, it's a trap, there's two of them".
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As a Finn I wish to present my sincerest thank you to Ian and Forgotten Weapons for this excellent and humbling video about our history.
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-36,0° No-scope
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Dude was no scopping before no scope was a thing, absolute legend.
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"...who very much enjoyed shooting." That right there is "foreshadowing."
