Rk62: Finnish clone of a Kalashnikov assault rifle
A machine gun and a soldier, and also a mother with a child. The picture is just idyllic!
Go beyond the Urals, follow the Urals,
there is a lot of room for Molotov’s cottage.
We’ll send Stalin and their minions there,
political officers, commissars and Petrozavodsk scammers.
No, Molotov! No, Molotov!
You lie even more than Bobrikov himself!
Music: Matti Jurva, lyrics: Tatu Pekkarinen, 1942
there is a lot of room for Molotov’s cottage.
We’ll send Stalin and their minions there,
political officers, commissars and Petrozavodsk scammers.
No, Molotov! No, Molotov!
You lie even more than Bobrikov himself!
Music: Matti Jurva, lyrics: Tatu Pekkarinen, 1942
Weapon and firms. To start this material, dedicated to the little-known Finnish automatic rifle (in our "automatic") "Valmet", will have some explanation. First of all, what is this song and how did it appear? Appeared as an answer to our song about Suomi Beauty in 1942. But who is Bobrikov and why is he mentioned in this song of clearly anti-Soviet content? The “Bobricoff”, with which Molotov is compared in every refrain, is Nikolai Ivanovich Bobrikov (1839–1904), adjutant general, infantry general, member of the State Council, Finnish Governor-General, and also the Commander of the Finnish Military District, who conducted an active the policy of Russification of Finland. In 1904, in Helsingfors, he was mortally wounded by a terrorist Eugene (Eigen) Schauman, who also shot himself. In Finland, however, he was remembered. And not on the good side. And now here’s such a wonderful phrase, taken from the “Teachings made by a man named Ahtoy, son of Douau, his son, named Pepi, when he sailed south to the capital to send him to school”: “... and calmly so, how easy it is for someone under the lion. ” That's exactly what one can say about any small country bordering a large one. And it doesn’t matter whether she is peaceful or not, it’s important that her interests are “big” and they often do not coincide with the interests of a small country. And who in this case, well, just have to retreat? Of course, the country is small, since it cannot resist large. But what about national self-consciousness, which always believes a little more about itself than it is worth it? How is national pride?
Finnish submachine gunner in the forest ...
... and in dense thickets in ambush!
Just in the case of Finland, everything was not so bad. As part of Tsarist Russia, it was the freest country! Yes, the imperial Russian fleet was based in Helsingfors, but isn’t the direct benefit of the economy a large number of sailors wandering around taverns and officers wandering in restaurants? Yes, the empire had to pay taxes, but the Finns were called Chukhons, but they didn’t have to think about defense.
Rk60
Rk60 with bayonet
Rk62 left and right
Rk 62 with bayonet
Having become independent, Finland received all the preferences of an independent country, but also of a powerful neighbor, whose interests did not always coincide with the interests of this tiny country. And two wars between our countries have unfortunately proved this.
Rk62: incomplete disassembly
However, after these conflicts, the Finnish leadership realized that having such a strong neighbor as the USSR ... was simply beneficial. Profitable in every way. And so much so that, if you think about it, Finland could have abandoned the army altogether, declared its complete neutrality and disarmament, and live on living together and amassing good fortune, delegating its protection to its great neighbor. But it did not reach them that it was so possible!
Rk62 with tubular butt
And the army, although small, Finland in the post-war period still brought. Well, just in case. Because, if something happened, no army would just save her ... There were already examples of this.
Rk62m1
Be that as it may, Finland led the army. And she armed her with the most modern small arms of the time, created on the basis of the Soviet Kalashnikov assault rifle, which was very convenient precisely because of ... our common proximity.
Rk62M1 with accessories
The Finns called their "Kalashnikov" like this: Rk62 (from the Finnish word "rynnäkkökivääri 62", which means "assault rifle 62"), there is also an option M62. And the production of him or this "assault rifle" engaged in the company Valmet and Sako. Because of this, this machine gun is sometimes also called the "Valmet", and today it is the standard weapon of the Finnish Defense Army, both in the infantry and in other types of troops.
Rk62m3
The development of the Finnish assault rifle began in the 1950s on the basis of the Polish licensed version of the AK-47. Various foreign models were considered, the most successful of which was the Soviet AK-47. The first option was called Rk60. It was released in 1960 at the Valmet factory in Turul and was almost an exact copy of the Soviet machine gun. It decided to use the same cartridge 7,62 × 39 mm, which was used in the AK-47. Again, it is very convenient in terms of organizing the import of ammunition, and in the case of (save, save the Lord from this!) Military operations.
The very first "Valmet" Rk58 had a stock, a handle and a fore-end made of wood
He had a metal butt, a plastic forend and a pistol grip of the simplest form, but it did not have a trigger guard, as it was believed that this would facilitate the firing of these weapons in the cold Finnish winter when the soldiers wear warm gauntlets. The very first samples had wooden parts made from tinted birch. After testing by the military, the Rk60 received a trigger hook and was put into service under the designation 7,62 Rk 62.
Flame arrester and bayonet mount
One of the most noticeable features of all Valmet rifles, including the Rk62 and all its other variants, is the characteristic three-toed arrester and groove on the barrel for a specially designed bayonet, which can also be used separately and as a combat knife. This arrester is good because it not only extinguishes the flash of a shot, but also allows you to quickly "cut" the barbed wire, putting it on the barrel and firing at the same time. Production began in 1965 and continued through 1994. During this time, Valmet and Sako jointly produced 350 Rk000 rifles.
In August 2015, the Finnish Defense Forces announced the gradual modernization of existing Rk62 rifles. Her old tubular butt and leather belt will be replaced by a telescopic butt and a belt of synthetic fabric of increased strength. For all rifles, the Picatinny rail will be added to mount telescopic sights and night vision devices. In the same way, attachments for a tactical flashlight and laser designators will be placed on the barrel. The upgraded model was called Rk 62M.
Prototype Rk 62M
The Rk 62 is considered a high-quality variant of the AK-47. The biggest improvement, in addition to high-quality manufacture of the barrel, are sights. So, most AK variants have a rear aiming strip on the sighting block body, which, in turn, serves to mount the gas tube of the gas piston of the barrel liner. At Rk62, the rear sight is mounted at the rear of the receiver cover and can be supplemented with a night sight with tritium illumination. With this sight, the shooter acts more effectively in the dark. Moreover, the front sight also has a mode for "night work".
Rk76m2
A few years later, Valmet modernized the old machine, which in its new version received the designation Rk.76. The changes affected the shape of the forend, and it also became lighter in comparison with Rk.62, since they put a stamped receiver on it (similar to our AKM again), instead of the old and heavier milled one.
Rk. 95TP
The most modern version of Rk.62 was the Rk.95TP submachine gun, which also has a milled receiver, a stock folding to the right, and is made according to the stock type of the famous Israeli automatic rifle Galil, a new arrester, a plastic forearm slightly larger, and also bent upwards by about 45 degrees with the cocking handle of the shutter, and oversized trigger guard. There is a variant of the same machine for 5,56 × 45 mm small-caliber cartridge.
This is what the store looks like for the Rk62
All Rk variants are designed to withstand the extreme environmental conditions of Northern Europe.
And then bullpup rifles came into fashion, and Valmet immediately offered the army an original development of an automatic M82 rifle with a device like the Valmet M76, but ... with a magazine in the butt. Short and outwardly very comfortable.
Shooter with M82
They introduced it in 1978 and produced until 1986. But they released about 2000 units, mainly in the form of a semi-automatic version of the 5,56 mm NATO caliber, which was sold in the United States. Several samples were transferred to the paratroopers of the Finnish army, but they recognized it unsuitable as a service weapon. It turned out that the rear stance of the sight has a bad property to injure the face, nose and cheekbones of the paratrooper when landing. The rifle was also poorly balanced, since almost all of its weight was in the rear.
M82 disassembled
The caliber of the M82 rifle is 5,56 × 45 mm NATO for the model 255 470 and 7,62 × 39 mm for the model 255 490. The case is made of metal, but on top is covered with a layer of polyurethane. The trigger of the weapon was put directly on the barrel and connected by a thrust to the trigger, which remained in its place. Therefore, the metal base of the hook was also clad in plastic. After all, the barrel heats up when fired.
But in such packaging, the M82 was shipped to the United States.
Unusual in this rifle were sights. The length of the sighting line is 330 mm, about 55 mm of which are located above the barrel.
Outwardly, the M82 is even nothing ...
The front and rear sights were similar to those of the Bren machine gun, offset to the left of the barrel by about 1,25 inches (3,2 cm). This design led to the fact that it was difficult to fire from this rifle at a distance of more than 300 m. That is, it could be used only at short "city distances", and it was not intended to be any precise sniper tool. Moreover, it was practically impossible for left-handed people to use it.
Kyle Reese with his Westinghouse ...
But this machine was noted in the film industry. It is with this rifle in the distant future that he fights with robots "Skynet" the hero of "Terminator" Kyle Reese. It is he who plays the role of the Westinghouse M-25A1 plasma carbine, which is actually a Finnish Valmet M82A assault rifle, without a magazine, but with a fake futuristic sight.
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