So I'm selling my AK, partly so I can get a really nice Finnish M39.

Which will be my new hunting rifle.

Anyway, in the interest of seeing just how well these can shoot, I want to get a box or two of premium ammo to run through them.

What would you guys suggest? PPU? That Wolf Match stuff?

I should imagine the 200-grain Match ammo should shoot awful close to the 203-grain SP ammo's POI, shouldn't it? How far off is the 200grn vs the regular surplus 147?

I always heard the S&B 182gr Match was nice. AS far as surplus, the Czech silvertip light ball is well regarded if you can find any. I think Hornady makes some nice ammo as well if you have the cash. The Russians made a match loading as well. The Finns are beautiful rifles.

Ive had good results with the Russian match ammo through my PU snipers. I picked up a few crates when it came in the other year. Unfortunately I haven't seen it since.

Handload

bingo. its expensive match rounds like x54 that help pay off the initial fixed costs

If you go the handload route I'd mention that Finn rifles have .308ish bores opposed to the .312ish bores of the russian rifles. I slugged my M39 and the bore was .307. You can get away with shooting X54 with .312 bullets(I've done it), but ideally you should get bullets/ammo to match the rifles bore.

Ok... here is a topic relevant to my exploration of mosin accuracy.... I have a '43 made tula 91/30 that was already a little bubba'd but not much.... refinished the stock(was a horrible orangey-colored poly stain), did the trigger job polishing and bedded the stock with JB weld....Hey I got it for $75... what can I say, why not! I got three cases of 74, 76, and 77 manufactured 147 grain hardball... after figuring POI, and adjusting both front and rear sights to meet at POI, I was pretty pleased. I did two batches of ammo, one that was weighed on scale to match within .2 grains of each other, and another that was straight out of the factory packaging. The weighed rounds grouped only slightly better at around 1.25 inches at 100 yds with the factory packed rounds coming in around 1.5-1.75 inches.

When the factory 182 grain practice match ammo became available around 4 years ago (1969 manufacture), I wanted to try some...then, almost immediately, some of the olympic 203 grain ammo made in '71 came around.... got both.

The 182 grain ammo in my rifle went into groups that were averaging 2 to 2.25 inches at  100 yds, but the funniest thing was that the olympic match 203gn ammo was absolutely terrible..... at the best groups were at 3 inches... worst were around 4 inches.....and the recoil out of the 203 gn match ammo was terrible.... had to install the slipover recoil to deal with the recoil on the 203 grain rounds...UGH!

I thought only the M28/30 had a .308 bore while all other Finn rifles were .310 iirc.

I thought all M39 had the .310" bore also.

Actually, it was my understanding that all previous models before the M/39 were in 0.3082", while the M/39 started with the  0.3100".

Prvi makes some decent match X54R.

The best I have found is Black hills, but that was only 1 box many years ago.  I have no idea if it still exists today.

I have avoided reloading as I can't seem to find any good bullets for the task.

I've never used their x54, but Wolf Gold 7.5 Swiss (made by Prvi) was truly outstanding. Shot much better than the excellent GP11. Prvi brass is great for reloading, too.

Want to win? Need a Finn! Probably have to roll your own though.

The appropriate military accuracy load for M39 is as follows

Lapua D166
Lapua 53R brass trimmed, deburred
CCI LR primer
40 grains of VV N140 (Check weight from a manual).
C.O.L close to maximum.

Load is somewhat hot, but it is almost identical in V0 speed and grouping to the Finnish military accuracy load.

Another thing to try is a SAKO 124 grain cutter with N150 (tack driver accurate up to 150 meters). Recoil is ridiculously low. The load you have to check, but with this bullet I found my magical C&R competition load.

My Finn M39 shoots lights out with Czech surplus.

Finn Barrels can vary.  Mine is 0.3105 with a Sako barrel.  

You could have a Sako, Tikkakoski, or a B barrel.