once upon a time, i a cold country located far, far away...

the finns exited ww2 in desparate need of firearms. being basic tightwads and broke from fighting the winter war and the continuation war (ww2), they stuck with the gazillion mosin-nagant reworks (1891/30's converted to m39's) as long as they could.

however, in the 1950's they realized they would soon be needing a modern tool for their small, but well disciplined and effective army.

noting that their old enemy, the russian bear, had developed a magnificent rifle for an ultra-cold climate and a very reliable and inexspensive one to produce, at...the finns ripped the design and started producing the kalashnikov, in a modified form, at home.

they took a classic type 3 milled variant and added a different sighting system, different bayonet, different front gas/sight block, different handguard and buttstocks and changed some other, minor details to suit their needs.

building an entire series of home grown kaashnikovs from the early 1960's into the mid 1990's, culminating in the wonderful sako m92/96 (sako/valmet.tikka may be considered one entity for all practical purposes. today sako/tikka is owned by beretta).

the israeli's thought so highly of the valmet that they based their own galil variant of the kalashnikov on the valmet receiver.

sadly, the homegrown finnish rifle got so exspensive to produce using finnish labor that the finnish government started procurring kalashnikovs from china. both types are in service in the finnish army today.

ryannakkokivaari malli 62 (m62) with the happy switch on 'grin'(in full auto mode).

valmet m76 supressed and scoped

valmet/sako m92's stacked.