And I LIKE it!!
Of course as anyone who has researched one of these they are heavy but what the heck, I own a BAR so this is nothing! I ordered mine with two 71 rd drum mags and 3 extra 36 rd stick mags for a total of 4 sticks. All the stick mags were in excellent to new condition with 99% bluing or better and only one had some stubborn dirt that I have almost cleaned off by now. The drums are a mix. One is Tikka marked and in quite good shape inside and out and fits the mag well very snugly while the other is battered with some obvious wavy feed rails inside and it fits pretty sloppily in the rifle but may work just fine. Both have strong clock springs and should feed all 71 rounds without a hitch but testing will tell the tale.
The rifle is grayish parkerized and it is very smoothly done and the rifles overall appearance is very nice. The stock is typical of Finnish battle rifles and has a few dents and dings with some arctic birch figuring. Nothing gorgeous but just nice looking with no cracks or repairs. The barrel was easily removed once the barrel jacket comes off and to my surprise is a fully rifled 16, 1/8" long, not a factory barrel with an extension welded on and of course it was bright and brand new. The action was dry and the trigger pull must be 15 Lbs or more but since then I have completely disassembled the rifle, cleaned and oiled it so it may smooth up once I shoot a case of ammo through it. It can't get any worse, but I'm hopeful it will improve a lot. If not I will work on it until I'm happy with it.
I hope to range test it Monday and post vids and pics asap. It's going to be a lot of fun on the range and a welcome addition to my rather small Finnish battle rifle collection which is nothing compared to what it once was.
Oh, my stock only had the tiniest of evidence of the burn marks so many of these rifles seem to come with. I'm happy with the stock but I have another one in a kit coming so I will see if it is any better.
More to come..
