Finnish M39, 1st day at the range: My Results

M

MEATSAW

New member
I was able to head out to the range this afternoon with my truck full of guns and ammo. Of course the most important was my recently acquired Finn M39. Today was the first time I put rounds down range with it. It is a 1942 B barrel on a 1903 Tula receiver. I was using Bulgarian 147gr FMJ (surplus). Wind was 10-15mph from the northwest. I was shooting to the southwest. I was shooting with iron sights. Before shooting I "battle zeroed" the front sight to dead center.

Here is a picture of the first 15 shots at 100 yards. Notice the 4 flyers. Not sure what happened with those.
first15_m39.jpg


Here is the next 15 shots. This time at 50 yards. I also broke them up into a 10-shot group and a 5-shot group.
M39_shotgroups.jpg



So for those of you that are familiar with M39 iron sights, how would I adjust the sights to zero the weapon? I read that the front sight adjusts windage 3cm@100m.

The gun was a lot of fun. The trigger was better than any other gun I own (except my 1911). That's no BS. After initial take-up it breaks unbelievably crisp. The bolt cycled smooth and didn't have any problems with feeding or extracting. My only problem is I wish the rear notch was larger or the front sight slimmer. I was pretty difficult to use the irons at 100 yards.

I strongly believe that this can be a 1 MOA rifle with good ammunition and with optics in a scout mount.

Finally, for those of you who think that C&R rifles or 7.62x54 rifles are crappy think again. This gun is beautiful, historical, and accurate.
 
This is from KraigWY on one of my post of my Soviet M91.

"You can drift the front sight which ever way you need to go.

To figure out how far to drift it, measure the sight radius (rear sight to the front sight). Divide that number by 3600 (100 yards = 3600 inches).

That should be about .0061. That is how much you need to move the front sight to move the impact 1 inch.

Lets say you are 4 inches right.

4 X .0061 .0244

So if shooting right, drift the front sight left .0244 inches."

It should be the same deal for your rifle.
Hope this helped.
Kraigwy was a great help on getting mine on track!
I figured I'd pass on the knowledge.
 
Nope. The front sight of the M39 does not drift. If you look at the sides of the front sight, you'll see screws. Loosen the screw on the side you want to move towards, and tighten the screw on the other side. This will push the front sight over.
 
The distance between the front and rear sight on my M39s is 22.6".

To correct windage by 2" at 100 yds, move your front sight blade 0.0125" to the right.

To correct elevation by 4" at 100 yds, you need to replace your front sight blade with another that is 0.025" taller than the one you have now.

Finnish armorers had sets of front sights of different heights so they could zero elevation for different manufacturing lots of ammo.

One way to adjust elevation without replacing front sight blades is to shoot bullets of different weight. Heavier bullets (180-205 gr) shoot higher than light bullets. Next time out, try light ball (148-149 gr bullet) and your elevation will be closer to the bullseye.
 
As noted I am already using light ball (Bulgarian 147gr).

If you look at the sides of the front sight, you'll see screws. Loosen the screw on the side you want to move towards, and tighten the screw on the other side. This will push the front sight over.
Click to expand...

I see this. Seems like a very imprecise way of adjusting windage. Moving the blade 0.0125" is great but that's a very small number which makes it also very easy to mess it up. Most iron sights on rifles I have dealt with move in set increments that will move your shot a known value at a known distance. For example if I loosened the right screw 1/4 turn and tightened the left screw it would move 1" at 100 yards. Surely there has got to be something similar on these M39s. I can't imagine a bunch of soldiers out zeroing their rifles with calipers and files.
 
Okay so after a fair share of googling I am a lot closer to figuring out solving the windage.
bc6ee162-orig.jpg


This is the left adjustment screw on the front sight. Notice the marks located around the screw. These marks correspond to a shift in the point-of-impact of 50mm @ 100m. Damn metric. So I instead of getting complicated I moved the screw two of these increments. That should get me darn close.

As far as elevation goes...I'll just aim lower :D
 
My vision isn't so great, but a 19 year old I take shooting on occasion can shoot 1.5" groups @ 100yds with my M39. I love it, its an excellent rifle. I'm considering picking up another. Enjoy yours.
 
This is the left adjustment screw on the front sight. Notice the marks located around the screw. These marks correspond to a shift in the point-of-impact of 50mm @ 100m. Damn metric.
Click to expand...

1 Inch is 25.4 MM. So your two marks are roughly 4" change in POI.

Trust me, Metric is a lot easier than the English system once you learn a few parts of it.
 
I personally would not have dinked with the front sight prior to shooting the rifle. My own M39 was just right as is. The others I have fooled with were also precisely adjusted for windage. It probably goes without saying, but you do not have to move those screws one increment at a time. Partial increments work just fine for getting it right. Nice shooting by the way.
 
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