THIS IS THE U.K. HISTORIC ARMS RESOURCE CENTRE.. - ..BEST VIEWED ON PC.. - ....FREE OF COOKIES, TRACKING & ADVERTISEMENTS
Please be aware that some specialist rotational imagery on these pages may take longer than usual to load
MENU....... Should the top navigation menu fail to load immediately please refresh the page or use adjacent links ....... MENU

The FINNISH LION TARGET RIFLE

"Suomen Leijona"


W.H. Fuller, in his comprehensively informative 1963 book " Small-bore target Shooting", writes of the Finnish Lion that it is

"perhaps the best known weapon typifying the development of the smallbore rifle to the particular requirements of three-positional shooting."

To have described a pure target rifle as a "weapon" was perhaps a forgiveable slip of the pen over forty years ago. In today's politically correct climate, such a description might herald criticism from some quarters. Nonetheless, the message in relation to the "Lion" is clear; it could reasonably be considered as having been a trailblazer.

In its three-positional configuration, the rifle was marketed as seen below:

The off-hand hook butt-plate and palm-rest could be removed and replaced with a plain butt-plate and hand-stop for prone use.

The rifle in its prone configuration is better illustrated below.

The bolt is open and the handle shows in what appears a Mauser-like upright position. In fact the main shaft of the handle exits the action horizontally, but the knob end has a near-right-angle upturn as can be viewed in the next image.

With the bolt closed, its handle drops into a deep recess in the woodwork, with only the knob protruding. Whilst a formidable precision shooting performer, the rifle is really not best set-up for rapid fire competition.

This particular example has been fitted with telescopic sight mounting blocks for use in "optics" competition. The large set-screw locks the fore and aft dovetail of the rear-sight mount, permitting adjustment of "eye-relief" to the shooter's optimum. (Eye-relief is the quite critical distance between the eye and the rear-sight aperture, to give the best definition of sight picture with least distortion or positional effect).

 

 

<......................THE FINNISH "LION"

 

 

 

 

 

Below is a close-up shot of the "thumb-hole" stock and adjustable prone butt-plate arrangement.

 

The sights came in a plastic box carrying the company name of Valmet, and their logo.

A 1951 issue of the journal of the National Small-bore Rifle Association - "The Rifleman"

carried an article on the contemporary model of the "Suomen Leijona".

This is shown below in facsimile.

 

 


Return to: TOP of PAGE

See this website's Raison d'être