Author Topic: Suojeluskunta M28  (Read 2399 times)

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Offline Greasemonkey

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Suojeluskunta M28
« on: March 23, 2018, 09:36:45 PM »
One of the harder Finn rifles to find, the Civil Guard M28... As has been quoted, maybe only 16,000 or so of these remained in Finnish arms depots in 1951. So only about half of the 33,016 made were lost in the past wars with Russia, possibly Germany or just beyond serviceable use and torn down and made into another model. These also did not get reworked and refreshed like the other rifles did, they are typically found as they were turned in coming off the field.
The Civil Guard, or Suojeluskunta, which is like the US National Guard was looking for an up graded version of the Finnish Army's M27, and a newer, slightly shorter rifle than the M91 they had been using. They took the M27 and gave it their own twist, different sights and a different barrel design were among the changes. They will consist of barrels made by the Swiss firm, SIG and their own home based barrels, Tikka. The rest of the rifle, the receivers are reused Russian Mosin receivers, the stocks are usually reworked M91 stocks. The Finn's made new hand guards, and modified the sights and used a different trigger setup. There are several different variants, different nose caps, a few had sniper scopes mounted and there were ski stocks.

My example is very well used, .. but, she still shoots good. It possibly saw service the Winter War, the Continuation War and maybe even the Lapland War.




Though it doesn't show well... in the finger grip is a very faint SYT in an oval...which is a stamp that was to show it passed inspection after shortening from an M91. The S110252 is the district it served at in Finland.. Etelä-Pohjanmaa itäinen. Most all Civil Guard rifles had an assigned district.


The SY is the Civil Guard designation, the T in the inverted triangle is Tikka manufacturing mark... Unlike the SIG barrels, the Tikka barrels are not date stamped. The Tikka barreled ones were made between 1930-1933. The Imperial Russian crest has been X'ed out, this rifle was built on a captured 1898 Tula receiver.



Now here is where things get interesting, with Finland, nothing is really set in stone... this M28 has a few M27 features, maybe arsenal fixes or a troop modification.. The trigger is the often sought after M27 non-pinned to the receiver trigger set up, and the rear sight is from an M27.. at the time when I got it and took these photos, the slider was on backwards, it has since been corrected. Also it has the one piece interruptor-ejector. The Civil Guards staff acceptance mark of a =S= is in 3 places on the barrel shank, 2 is typical.





Front sight design.. an adjustable blade and a nice barrel crown



The buttplate is matching which it means it is possible the stock is original to the rifle, The last 2 digits of the serial, seen above in the photo of the left side of the receiver, both are stamped 77. Also, the Remington butt plate, the small markings around the top screw are bore grading stamps.


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Leave the gun, take the cannoli.

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Offline Phosphorus32

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Re: Suojeluskunta M28
« Reply #1 on: March 23, 2018, 10:26:20 PM »
Great M28 and nice write-up! This is the only major Finnish model missing in my collection  drool2

It’s interesting how independent the Suojeluskunta and Suomi Armeija were, right down to designing and ordering their own small arms.

Offline carls sks

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Re: Suojeluskunta M28
« Reply #2 on: March 24, 2018, 09:27:16 AM »
good stuff, thanks for sharing.  thumb1
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Offline armedhippie

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Re: Suojeluskunta M28
« Reply #3 on: March 24, 2018, 12:24:35 PM »
Nice man, very nice  thumb1

Gotta love those thoroughly resourceful Finns. Makes for a fun night or three figuring out a Finn mosin. Think that's why I dig 'em so much.

Great write up  clap1
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