Finnish Civil Guard m/33 Sniper (Built on the m/28-30 Mosin)

Duration: 10:54

The first Finnish Civil guard sniper rifle was the m/28, but its development was paused when the m/28-30 improved rifle was developed. Once that rifle wa sin production, they set about making a scoped version. The scope was the Zeiss Zielview 4x, and the Guard bought 25 of them to build the first run of rifles for testing. Sako took standard m/28-30 rifles off the production line and Civil Guard workshops fitted the scopes with a rathe complex side-rail type mount. They were completed in December 1933 and distributed to various districts for testing.

Before the testing was completed, the Guard learned about the Finnish Army's work developing a replacement for the m/27 rifle. They decided to pause further work on their own sniper until they could see what the Army decided to do. This ended up being the end of the Civil Guard scoped rifle project, as the Army sniper development took until 1937 to finalize, and by that time yet another new rifle was on the drawing board for the Civil Guard (the m/39).

The 25 rifles that were initially produced were seconded to Army control when the Winter War began, and they saw use through both the Winter War and Continuation War. Today only three know survivors exist.

m/27 PH Sniper video: https://www.floatplane.com/post/cDAB8aXhET