The Sako 9,3x54R

HWL

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Today, I brought home a unicorn.... a unicorn at least for me.....

May be, in Finland, this is/was a common rifle, but I had never seen one her in town.

It is a Mosin Nagant, made or converted at Sako Riihimäki, 1943

Expect of a few dents in the stock it looks like new....

The cartridge is a 9,3x54R, the russian military cartridge 7,42x53R, opend up to 9,3 mm.

What to hunt with? finish moose, pigs, deer,?
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Nice!! Haven’t seen that before.

Whats the ring at the back of the action?

What to hunt?? Anything that crosses your path with that caliber.
 
Nice!! Haven’t seen that before.

Whats the ring at the back of the action?

What to hunt?? Anything that crosses your path with that caliber.

The ring at the back of the action is the safety.

You have to pull it and turn it left to safe condition.

Another interesting feature is the rear sigtht.

It is a cylinder you can turn, always a quarter turn, 100 m, 150 m, 200 m and 250 m.


HWL
 
The purchase of a rifle new to you is always a time for celebration.:D Cheers:
 
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I was looking closely at the last picture and noticed that it looks like the bolt and stock may have been modified.
Did this rifle come originally with a bolt handle that stuck out at 90 degrees?
Maybe turned down (cut and welded possibly) to clear some type of optic?
Regardless, I love the way the wood is figured.
 
I was looking closely at the last picture and noticed that it looks like the bolt and stock may have been modified.
Did this rifle come originally with a bolt handle that stuck out at 90 degrees?
Maybe turned down (cut and welded possibly) to clear some type of optic?
Regardless, I love the way the wood is figured.

Honestly, I have no idea....

I know, that the original russian military rifle had the horizontal bolt handle.

But I did not find russian proof marks....

What I found under the stock is a "9,3x53", without an "R"!

What I think is, that this is a sporterized russian or a finnish military rifle.

But not sure, made by Sako or any other gunsmith.


HWL
 
The 9.3x53r is the ballistic twin of the 9.3x57.....an excellent round for the Mosin or a Siamese

Roger
 
Honestly, I have no idea....

I know, that the original russian military rifle had the horizontal bolt handle.

But I did not find russian proof marks....

What I found under the stock is a "9,3x53", without an "R"!

What I think is, that this is a sporterized russian or a finnish military rifle.

But not sure, made by Sako or any other gunsmith.


HWL
Sako made Mosin-Nagant rifles and Wikipedia has an extensive explanation.
You may be able to narrow it down from the Finland list about half way down the page.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosin–Nagant
 
This cartridge is widely used in Russia, and they are interchangeable, but the diameter of Finnish bullets 9.3 mm and Russian of 9.27 mm. Pressure of 2900 bar for the Russian and the Finnish 3100-3400, the bullet 15 grams in Russian and I dunno remember in Finnish, like 16.
In Russia, it is officially considered suitable for hunting all animals, including the largest - the walrus. But only up to a distance of 200 meters. Since the Finnish cartridge is slightly more powerful, it is suitable especially, though 'rainbow' trajectory.

This instance has a modification of the safer according to the type of the Swiss rifle Schmidt-Rubin. By the way, the Russian rifle was modernized in 1930 and also with the borrowing of the Schmidt-Rubin, but was borrowed iron-sight. The bent handle was at sniper options, so you should look at the receiver, whether on the side wall of the reciever marks from the installation of the sniper scope. However, the bolts were interchangeable.

Generally speaking, there were all sorts of improvements caused by the need to use weapons in mittens, fabric or youself. I mean ball on the handle.

And a small note: the rifle - Mosin. A rifle Nagant is quite different, she has a more complicated bolt with screws under the screwdriver, and "Association" of these two rifles in one was a mistake of some gun writers in the 60-ies. When the Mosin rifle was manufactured in American and French factories at the beginning of the last century, it was a "Mosin rifle".

P.S. By the way: due to the fact that in the First and Second world war Russia received rifle gunpowder from the United States, the main rifle gunpowder was some ordinary gunpowder of DuPont, the technology was also transferred. This powder in the USSR was called VT. Loads,, the weight of the bullets was the same with the 30-06. Finnish industry partly inherited from the Russian Empire all that was before 1918, I think, and gunpowder, too.
 
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This cartridge is widely used in Russia, and they are interchangeable, but the diameter of Finnish bullets 9.3 mm and Russian of 9.27 mm. Pressure of 2900 bar for the Russian and the Finnish 3100-3400, the bullet 15 grams in Russian and I dunno remember in Finnish, like 16.
In Russia, it is officially considered suitable for hunting all animals, including the largest - the walrus. But only up to a distance of 200 meters. Since the Finnish cartridge is slightly more powerful, it is suitable especially, though 'rainbow' trajectory.

This instance has a modification of the safer according to the type of the Swiss rifle Schmidt-Rubin. By the way, the Russian rifle was modernized in 1930 and also with the borrowing of the Schmidt-Rubin, but was borrowed iron-sight. The bent handle was at sniper options, so you should look at the receiver, whether on the side wall of the reciever marks from the installation of the sniper scope. However, the bolts were interchangeable.

Generally speaking, there were all sorts of improvements caused by the need to use weapons in mittens, fabric or youself. I mean ball on the handle.

And a small note: the rifle - Mosin. A rifle Nagant is quite different, she has a more complicated bolt with screws under the screwdriver, and "Association" of these two rifles in one was a mistake of some gun writers in the 60-ies. When the Mosin rifle was manufactured in American and French factories at the beginning of the last century, it was a "Mosin rifle".

P.S. By the way: due to the fact that in the First and Second world war Russia received rifle gunpowder from the United States, the main rifle gunpowder was some ordinary gunpowder of DuPont, the technology was also transferred. This powder in the USSR was called VT. Loads,, the weight of the bullets was the same with the 30-06. Finnish industry partly inherited from the Russian Empire all that was before 1918, I think, and gunpowder, too.

Do you know the exact designation of this cartridge?

I found 9,3x54R, 9,3x53R, 9,3x53, 9x53R?....is this all the same or someting different?

Sako made cases and ammunition in 9,3x53R.


HWL
 
I'm pretty sure Sako was building/refurbishing rifles for military use only in 1943. The country was at war. My guess is that it was rebarreled, restocked, and otherwise modified later on - possibly by some local gunsmith.
 
There's more! Maybe 9х53, and just "9mm hunting ammo", because the other 9-mm then not released. This was the only large caliber and have us, and in Finland, so hunted on any game in these countries. More I will answer in the evening.
 
Probably, it was a former sniper rifle, because of the bent bolt handle and the holes in the receiver.

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Bending the bolt handle and adding the ring shaped safety were common modifications when people started making Moose hunting rifles out of surplus military rifles.

Googling for Sako 9.3x53R finds some examples with different stocks and sights. I was wondering if the thing ahead of the barrel markings is a rear sight. I haven't noticed anything just like that before - but I'm not an expert.
 
A rifle with a complicated destiny. Most likely Russian wartime (round in cross section receiver), got to the Finns, perhaps as a trophy or transferred to the Wehrmacht, may have been selected for good accuracy and converted into a sniper (mount optics not like a Russian sight). After the war, converted into a "hirvikivääri" ( "elk rifle.").
By the way, there was the modification mosin for cartridge with a mauser bullet of 8.2 mm.

Here Russian and Finnish

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It seems to be an early version (rear sight), made by the Sako facility himself.... not a local gunsmith.

Found this on Sakocollectors, looks similar to mine...

https://sakocollectors.com/forum/threads/m39-9-3x53r.7985/

...now I need cartridges or cases & dies...

I would like to go to Russia or Finland with this thing...


HWL
 
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Bending the bolt handle and adding the ring shaped safety were common modifications when people started making Moose hunting rifles out of surplus military rifles.

Googling for Sako 9.3x53R finds some examples with different stocks and sights. I was wondering if the thing ahead of the barrel markings is a rear sight. I haven't noticed anything just like that before - but I'm not an expert.

Do you have any experience hunting with this cartridge?

HWL
 

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Interesting. I learn something new everyday
 

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