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76-424: Aimo Lahti had doubts about the original idea of a 13 mm anti-tank machine gun and started working on a 20 mm design. Officers who wanted smaller caliber anti-tank weapons believed that the muzzle velocities of 20 mm shells were insufficient to penetrate armor, and a weapon with a higher rate of fire and in a smaller caliber would prove useful. As a result, Lahti designed two competing anti-tank weapons:

152-600: A "half-cock" notch safety but the design was revised in 1983 due to numerous inadvertent discharges. The M1 Garand created a safety with a metal rocking lever at the front of the trigger guard that is now called the Garand-style safety , used in the Ruger Mini-14 rifle and Marlin Camp carbine . Some bolt-action rifle safeties have three positions: "fire" which allows the gun to fire, "safe" which does not allow

228-406: A 13.2 mm machine gun and a 20 mm rifle. After test firing both weapons in 1939, they found that the 20 mm rifle achieved better penetration. The rifle is a semi-automatic , gas operated weapon with the piston located beneath the barrel and ammunition feed from a detachable top-mounted magazine with bottom ejection for the spent cartridges. To reduce recoil, the rifle is equipped with

304-600: A block to prevent them from contacting the firing pin. In addition some manual safeties such as the Ruger SR9 pictured lock the pistol's slide closed when in Safe position whereas, for example, S&W M&P manual safeties do not lock the slide closed. The benefit of these design variances have not been clearly stated or pointed out by manufacturers, however, in the Ruger SR example, a chambered round cannot be ejected to empty

380-459: A button under the slide, whereupon tension from the striker spring would push it back to the engaged position. Thus, engaging the safety also relieved some tension in the striker spring. As the Ortgies is a pocket pistol meant for personal defense, this feature eliminates the problem of failing to disengage the safety when one needs to shoot. Gripping the pistol tightly is all it takes to disengage

456-472: A chambered cartridge. A second purpose is to allow the sear to "catch" a hammer that is falling when the trigger has not been pulled, such as in cases where a drop jarred the sear loose or when the hammer was not fully cocked before being released. However, a safety notch used to "half-cock" a firearm is an active feature that must be engaged, and does not positively prevent accidental discharges in all cases. A certain amount of manual dexterity and familiarity with

532-462: A covered viewing slit on the right side to indicate the number of rounds left in the magazine, and a 15-round magazine was later developed for anti-aircraft use. To combat the L-39's immense recoil, the recoil spring is so stiff that it would be impossible to cock the weapon with a traditional charging handle . Instead, a rotating crank lever on the right side of the gun, operating a rack and pinion ,

608-403: A decocker, manual safety, or both. However, the exact configuration depends on handgun type, year, make, and model. Double-action only (DAO) pistols, which usually use designs similar to traditional double-action but without the ability to remain cocked, do not usually have external safeties. Most single-action revolvers have no external safeties. The original designs, which dated to back before

684-501: A discharge, with internal safeties preventing non-trigger-pull discharges (e.g., dropping the gun). Almost all modern semi-automatic handguns, except some exact replicas of antique models, have some form of safety mechanism including a "drop safety" that requires a trigger pull to discharge a cartridge. Single-action designs such as the Colt 1911 virtually always incorporate a manual safety, while traditional double-action pistols incorporate

760-463: A feature, and as a result if the trigger was held the newly chambered round would be fired as soon as the breech had been closed. Such disconnects or interlocks are generally simple to incorporate, and in fact are a by-product of many firearms' actions; pulling the trigger while the breech is unlocked or open does nothing as the mechanism is not fully reset until cycling is complete. As such these features are often not considered "true" safeties, although

836-458: A firearm is also required to "half-cock" a firearm; unfamiliarity with how to engage the "half-cock" position can result in accidental discharges. Moreover, safety notch and "half-cock" style safeties are prone to breakage which can result in unintentional discharges leading to severe personal injuries or death. A firing pin block is a mechanical block used in semi-automatic firearms and some revolvers that, when at rest, obstructs forward travel of

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912-467: A firearm, helping to ensure safer handling. Safeties can generally be divided into subtypes such as internal safeties (which typically do not receive input from the user) and external safeties (which typically allow the user to give input, for example, toggling a lever from "safe" to "fire" or something similar). Sometimes these are called "passive" and "active" safeties (or "automatic" and "manual"), respectively. External safeties typical work by prevent

988-686: A five percent commission on the weapons that would have been produced in the United States. On the same day the Ministry reformed his older contract. Lahti received more benefits and rights to his inventions and therefore did not feel that moving to the United States was a better offer. Lahti continued to design weapons until the end of the Continuation War when the Allied Control Commission questioned him about

1064-460: A five-hole muzzle brake and a padded leather recoil pad . The barrel has a wooden jacket to allow for transportation after firing has caused the barrel to heat up. During the Winter War (1939–1940) Finland lacked anti-tank weaponry. Only two 20 mm rifles and a few 13.2 mm machine guns made it to the front, where the 13.2 mm machine guns were found to be ineffective and unreliable while

1140-406: A hammer follows the bolt carrier group forward as it closes. Examples of the variety of typical semi-auto mechanisms are a stiff double-action trigger pull with the safety off ( Beretta 92F/FS ), a double-action with no external safety ( SIG Sauer P-series , or Kel-Tec P-32 ), or a crisp single-action trigger pull with a manual safety engaged ( M1911 , FN Five-seven and certain configurations of

1216-413: A hammer, so the only way to return the trigger to its longer pull (safer) state is by means of a decocking or detensioning lever which actually releases the tension in the striker's spring without allowing firing pin full travel and internal safeties disengagement (such as the firing pin block which these types of firearms are generally fitted with). When a handgun is fitted with a "decocking" lever, there

1292-470: A loaded chamber indicator is an empty chamber flag . A trigger disconnector captures the hammer in the cocked position after a shot has been fired, even if the trigger is held to the rear as the gun cycles. This ensures the gun can only fire in the semi-automatic mode, as the trigger needs to be released to 'reset' and have the disconnector release the hammer back to the trigger sear. It also prevents out-of-battery " slamfire " malfunctions that occur when

1368-485: A loaded chamber under the hammer. Some single-action revolvers have relief cuts in between cylinder bores that allow the hammer to be rested directly upon the cylinder with no chance of interacting with loaded cartridges or primers. These are also known colloquially as "safety notches." They are usually found on black-powder revolvers, but there are also metallic cartridge-firing revolvers with safety notches. Most double-action revolvers have no external safety devices;

1444-517: A magazine disconnect, as a backup gun for law enforcement officers. "The absence of a magazine disconnect safety also is a benefit for tactical reloads that allow the user to engage a target with one round remaining in the chamber and the magazine out of the gun for reloading," Ruger said. A tactical reload is the tactic of replacing a partially empty magazine with a fully loaded magazine in a situation where increased capacity might be needed. These safeties, similar to grip safeties, are de-activated as

1520-688: A manual safety in its function, but is momentary; the safety is deactivated only while the shooter maintains their hold on the grip, and is reactivated immediately once the shooter releases it. The M1911 design is a popular example of a handgun with a grip safety, while the Uzi submachine gun and the HS2000 (marketed in the US as the Springfield Armory XD ) and its descendants are other notable examples of this type of safety. A related grip-type safety

1596-501: A mechanism that engages an internal safety such as a firing-pin block or trigger disconnect. An early example of its use was in the Browning Hi-Power pistol. As with any firearm feature, there is debate regarding the necessity of a magazine disconnect. Historically, most magazine-fed firearm designs had no magazine disconnector. There are exceptions, notably Ruger rimfire rifles and some of their newer handgun designs, and

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1672-436: A natural consequence of the shooter firing the firearm, but are engaged in most other circumstances. The trigger is composed of two interdependent parts, and the shooter in firing the firearm manipulates both parts of the trigger. Conversely, unintentional pressure or a strike against the trigger is unlikely to do so, and such an action will not fire the firearm. Such a design, made popular by Glock pistols but originally used in

1748-519: A single-action decocker was the Vis wz. 35 "Radom" redesign in 1932 to enable horsemen to safely holster their firearm with one hand. The earliest use of a cocking/decocking lever is the Sauer 38H from 1938. Ruger until 2007 manufactured "decock-only" variants of its P-series pistols, and the "two-way" decocking safety has been available on these pistols since their introduction. Many jurisdictions such as

1824-716: A son, Olavi Johannes Lahti. Olavi was later a pilot in the Finnish Air Force and died in 1944. After working for the railway Aimo Lahti joined the Finnish Army as a Master Armorer in 1921. He was influenced in this decision by Captain Rosenholm. In 1922, he started to design the Suomi M-31 SMG after examining the Bergmann MP18 , which had many design problems and was expensive. The new design

1900-404: A spring-loaded pad that forms the upper portion of the trigger face and manipulates a similar lock. This design has more moving parts, but is advantageous in that accidental pressure on the lock release has reduced leverage thus requiring more force to pull the main trigger, where force against the lower portion does not release the lock and will not move the trigger. The loaded chamber indicator

1976-595: A sufficiently firm trigger pull will always result in firing. The heavy trigger pull required to cock and then fire the firearm usually prevents accidental discharges due to dropping or mishandling the gun. Most modern double-action revolvers have an internal safety, either a hammer block or a transfer bar, that positively prevents firing without the trigger being pulled. The only modern double-action revolvers with external safeties are unusual cases available only on special order or modified through aftermarket conversions. Pistols made and imported by Glock Ges.m.b.H. , such as

2052-458: Is a device present on many semi-automatic handguns intended to alert an operator that there is a round in the chamber. It is typically a small button or pivoting lever (though sometimes a rod, such as on the Ruger series of .22 LR handguns, which are not slide pistols), generally located just behind the ejection port on the slide of the handgun that pops up to indicate the presence of a round in

2128-452: Is a switch, button or lever that, when set to the "safe" position, prevents the firing of a firearm. Manual safeties are as varied as the designs of firearms themselves, but the two most common mechanisms are a block or latch that prevents the trigger and/or firing mechanism from moving, and a device that disconnects the trigger from the firing mechanism of the firearm. Other designs may block the hammer or striker from forward movement or act as

2204-400: Is moved into place by the normal action of the trigger, providing similar "drop safety" to a firing pin block. Popular on bolt, pump and lever-action firearms such as shotguns and rifles, a bolt interlock disengages or blocks the trigger if, for any reason, the bolt/breech is not in its fully closed, ready position. A variation is the trigger disconnect which prevents the gun from firing until

2280-410: Is no need to pull the trigger while holding the lever like in a revolver. The actual process of "decocking" the gun is done by simply flipping the decocking lever to its "decocked" position with the fingers away from the trigger. A decocker or manual decocking lever allows the hammer to be dropped on a live cartridge without risk of discharging it, usually by blocking the hammer or retracting or covering

2356-403: Is that determining whether the gun is safe becomes linked to the presence of the magazine as opposed to actually checking the gun, opening the action, and making sure it is unloaded." Another concern is that if fatigue, debris or rust cause the disconnect mechanism to fail, it will most likely do so in the "fire" condition. Further arguments are that functionally without a magazine the firearm

Lahti L-39 - Misplaced Pages Continue

2432-493: Is the decocking grip found on some H&K pistols like the P7 Series . The firearm is cocked and ready to fire only when the front of the grip is squeezed by the operator. When the grip is released, the firearm is decocked, and the single-action trigger will not cock the firearm, therefore it will not fire unless the grip is squeezed and the trigger pulled. Alternatively, the trigger can first be pulled and then it will fire when

2508-424: Is used to pull the bolt back. While semi-automatic in function, the L-39's bolt locks back after every shot, and the grip safety also functions to release the bolt. The entire front of the grip and trigger is protected by a large guard and a rubber buffer to protect the operator's hands from the spent casings which eject from the bottom of the gun at very high speeds. The whole weapon weighs some 50 kilograms and it

2584-539: Is useless except as a club. Without the disconnect feature, a gun owner or police officer who accidentally releases the magazine in a gunfight would still be able to fire the bullet in the chamber; if a magazine was lost or otherwise not available, then at least the gun could be chambered with a single round to be used as a single-shot firearm. A Pro variant of the Ruger LC9s was introduced in December 2014, without

2660-460: The Glock 17 , incorporate a design with three levels of integrated safety, known as safe action ; there are no external safety switches on these handguns. First, an integrated trigger latch prevents the trigger body from moving unless the trigger is positively squeezed. Second, the gun's striker-firing mechanism is locked in place by an extension bar linked to the trigger; the striker cannot move unless

2736-511: The HK USP ). An alternative are striker-fired or " safe action " type firearms which have a consistent trigger pull requiring force greater than required by a single-action design, but lighter than needed for a double-action trigger. Many such firearms do not have an external safety or external hammer ( Glock pistols and the Walther P99 and variants). In both cases a trigger pull always sends

2812-479: The Lahti-Saloranta M/26 LMG, Maxim M/32-33 and Sampo L-41 MMG, Lahti L-35 pistol, and Lahti L-39 anti-tank rifle. Lahti also designed the 7,62 ITKK 31 VKT anti-aircraft machine gun and the 20 ITK 40 VKT anti-aircraft cannon. His work is considered decisive in defending Finnish independence and increasing trust in the reliability of domestic weapons produced there. Aimo Johannes Lahti

2888-443: The firing pin before releasing the sear . This eliminates the need to pull the trigger or to control the fall of the hammer; however, since all mechanisms can fail, it is still necessary to keep the muzzle of the gun pointed in a safe direction while decocking. A decock/safety is a combination manual safety switch and decocking lever. Two popular variants exist. In the "three-way" system, made popular by Heckler & Koch pistols,

2964-445: The firing pin , but is linked to the trigger mechanism and clears the obstruction to the pin just before the hammer or striker is released. This prevents the firing pin from striking a chambered cartridge unless the trigger is pulled, even if the hammer is released due to a faulty sear or the gun is dropped or struck by another object. A hammer block is similar to a firing pin block. It is a latch, block or other obstruction built into

3040-440: The 1897 Iver Johnson Second Model Safety Hammerless revolver , incorporates a trigger with a spring-loaded lever in its lower half. This lever which protrudes from the trigger face must be fully depressed in order to disengage a lock that allows the main trigger body to move. Unintentional pressure against the top of the trigger without pressing the lever does not disengage the lock and the trigger will not move. Other designs include

3116-479: The State of California require some form of "drop safety" on all new firearms, which are usually passive safeties designed to reduce the chance of a firearm accidentally discharging when dropped or roughly handled. Such safeties generally provide an obstacle to operation of the firing mechanism that is only removed when the trigger is pulled, so that the firearm cannot otherwise discharge. Drop tests were introduced with

Lahti L-39 - Misplaced Pages Continue

3192-410: The U.S. State of California passed legislation in 2006 requiring magazine disconnects on all new handgun designs sold in the state starting January 1, 2007, which has resulted in their widespread availability in other jurisdictions as well. The arguments in favor of a magazine disconnect are that if the gun cannot fire without a magazine, then an accidental discharge can be prevented if someone removes

3268-493: The US Civil War, had no internal safety to render them drop-safe, and were usually carried with an empty chamber under the hammer. Many original single-action revolvers have a half-cock "safety" notch on the hammer, but these are not drop-proof. Modern single-action revolvers, those made after the early 1970s, almost always have an internal safety, such as a hammer block or transfer bar. It is safe to carry such firearms with

3344-423: The United States. Today the rifles, especially those in working condition, are quite rare and highly sought after. Some deactivated weapons (with steel bars welded into the chambers) have been reactivated due to their value. Because ammunition is rare, they are often rechambered to .50 BMG to lower the cost of use. In the United States, civilian ownership remains possible, depending on state and federal laws. Because

3420-419: The action and normally positioned to prevent the hammer contacting the cartridge primer or firing pin when at rest. Similar to the firing pin block, the obstruction to the hammer's travel is removed as a consequence of pulling the trigger. This allows the hammer to contact the primer or firing pin only when the trigger is pulled. A transfer bar is also used in revolvers and some exposed hammer rifles, but works

3496-408: The base of the hammer, that allows the sear to catch and hold the hammer a short distance from the pin or cartridge primer, in a " half-cocked " position. The safety notch works first by allowing the handler to retract the hammer a short distance from the firing pin or primer, such that dropping the firearm on its hammer will not result in an energy transfer to the pin or spur, which could then discharge

3572-416: The chamber. Such devices have been in existence for decades; strictly speaking, loaded chamber indicators are not safeties, nor are they efficacious with an untrained user. Another form of warning is an indicator behind the ejector port that does not rise enough to disrupt a shooter's sight picture , but enough to be easily seen or felt to alert a user that there is a round in the chamber. The opposite of

3648-408: The cocked hammer, and thus an inadvertent trigger pull is less likely. However, the act of cycling the action on such a firearm (as a natural consequence of discharging the firearm, or to chamber the first round) will leave the hammer cocked in single-action mode. To return the pistol to its safe state, it is necessary to uncock (decock) the hammer, usually by holding the hammer spur, carefully pulling

3724-469: The dog breed's ears. This rifle was later issued to the Finnish Army as their service rifle. In 1932 Lahti and the Ministry of Defence signed two important agreements about Lahti's earnings and other economic benefits. It also gave the government rights to use and sell his designs. In the same year, he got an offer to move to an American weapon company. He was offered a check for 3 million marks and

3800-404: The factory. Lahti was fascinated by the rifle’s mechanism and visited local gunsmith Säteri with whom he examined the weapon closely. Aimo Lahti visited him several times, becoming familiar with weapon mechanisms. Lahti served his conscription in central Finland’s regiment during 1918 and 1919. On October 20, 1919, he married Ida Dagmar Lassila (1 December 1890 – 27 October 1968) with whom he had

3876-411: The federal Gun Control Act of 1968 for imported guns. A safety notch is one of the oldest forms of drop safety, used on older single-action revolvers manufactured before the invention of the hammer block, some lever-action rifles, 1911 -pattern guns, and hammer-fired semi-automatics that were designed before the invention of the firing pin block. The safety notch is a relief cut made in the tumbler at

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3952-461: The grip is subsequently squeezed. Finally, if both the grip is squeezed and the trigger pulled simultaneously, the pistol will fire. Another, unusual variant was found in the Ortgies semi-automatic pistols. To disengage the safety, a user would squeeze a lever until flush with the rear of the grip. The lever then would latch in the disengaged position until the user released it again by pressing

4028-488: The gun during or after the unloading process. With a magazine disconnect depressing the trigger into a bullet trap or other safe direction, such as downrange, will not clear the round in the chamber because the trigger is disabled. When an empty magazine is inserted the firing system becomes reactivated, even though the trigger has been previously depressed. The Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers' Institute stated that an "obvious concern with magazine disconnect features

4104-486: The gun has not only been fully and completely cycled, but the trigger is released and squeezed again. This defines the behavior of semi-automatic firearms which require a separate trigger pull to fire each successive cartridge and ready the next, and this is the preferred mechanism of disengaging the trigger on repeating-action firearms. Older pump-action shotguns such as the Winchester Model 12 did not have such

4180-584: The gun with the manual safety in the safe position. The safety must be OFF to clear the weapon. In the M&;P design, the slide can be manually actuated and a chambered round ejected with the manual safety in safe position. One possible benefit of the slide-safety lock may be that, upon holstering, the slide cannot be snagged and hung up out of battery. Manual Safeties are the oldest forms of "active" safety mechanism and are widely used; however, many "double-action" firearms such as revolvers do not have manual safeties as

4256-611: The handler may decock the firearm by pushing down on the safety lever from the "Fire" setting, or engage the safety (even on a cocked firearm) by pushing the lever upwards. A simpler "two-way" system was popularized by the Walther PP and is also commonly seen on the Beretta 92 : engaging the safety also decocks the firearm. The SIG Sauer line of pistols, such as the SIG P226 , frequently feature decocking levers. The earliest use of

4332-524: The heat of battle, but they were easy to replace. By the end of the war over 1,900 L39s had been manufactured by VKT (Valtion Kivääritehdas, "State Rifle Factory", modern day Patria ) and put in the field. Aimo Lahti Aimo Johannes Lahti (April 28, 1896 – April 19, 1970) was a self-taught Finnish weapons designer. Of the 50 weapons he designed, the best known is the Suomi KP/-31 SMG. Other well-known weapon designs of his include

4408-418: The interlock helps prevent misfires due to a cartridge not being fully in battery when its primer is struck by the pin (known as firing "out of battery"). Passing handguns or rifles to another person with the action open (known as "show clear") is recommended by elementary gun safety . A magazine disconnect feature does not allow a user to fire the gun when the magazine is withdrawn (even partially) by means of

4484-654: The larger 20 mm rifles proved successful against Soviet armor. Because of this, Finland finally settled on the 20 mm design and started production. The gun was also widely used in the "cold Charlie" counter-sniper technique, where the Finns would use mannequins posing as sloppily-covered officers. Soviet snipers would fire upon the mannequins, and the Finns would then return fire at the Soviet snipers with Lahti L-39s. The Continuation War ( Finnish : jatkosota , Swedish : fortsättningskriget , 25 June 1941 – 19 September 1944)

4560-423: The late 1990s and early 2000s include a mandatory integral locking mechanisms that must be deactivated by a unique key before the gun can be fired. These integral locking mechanisms are intended as child-safety devices during unattended storage of the firearm—not as safety mechanisms while carrying. Other devices in this category are trigger locks , bore locks, and gun safes. The most common form of safety mechanism

4636-399: The longer, harder trigger pull to cock and fire double-action provides adequate trigger safety, while keeping the firearm in a more ready state. A grip safety is a lever or other device situated on the grip of a firearm which must be actuated by the operator's hand, as a natural consequence of holding the firearm in a firing position, in order for the firearm to fire. It is usually similar to

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4712-478: The lost 30 assault rifles that he was designing and other topics. The commission banned him from working as a weapon designer anymore. He enjoyed a Finnish Army’s Major General ’s pension after the age of 50, until his death in 1970 in Jyväskylä at the age of 73. Safety (firearms)#Grip safety In firearms , a safety or safety catch is a mechanism used to help prevent the accidental discharge of

4788-417: The magazine but forgets that a round has been chambered. Also, if losing possession of the firearm is imminent, the operator can render the firearm useless by removing the magazine. Firearms expert Massad Ayoob found instances where during a struggle, police officers carrying a pistol with a magazine disconnect were able to prevent being shot with their own guns by ejecting the magazine. One disadvantage of

4864-399: The magazine disconnect is that it may add tension to components of the trigger mechanism, making the trigger pull uneven or heavy. A safety argument against a magazine disconnect is that if a round is left in a chamber due to extractor failure or other reason the firearm will revert to being live unexpectedly when an empty magazine is reinserted. This is a danger because the user may dry fire

4940-403: The opposite way from a hammer block. The transfer bar has the spur that would otherwise be on the hammer, or encloses a firing pin similar to autoloading designs. The hammer itself cannot contact a loaded cartridge, but must instead strike the transfer bar, which then contacts the cartridge primer with the spur or pin. The transfer bar is normally positioned out of line with the hammer's travel, but

5016-402: The safety. Most traditional semi-automatic double-action/single action (DA/SA) pistols are designed to be carried with the hammer down (uncocked) on a chambered round, with or without a manual safety engaged. The pistol is considered safe in this state as the "double-action" pull that both cocks and fires the firearm is both longer and heavier than the "single-action" pull that simply releases

5092-410: The striker, and the mechanism is designed to have insufficient force to ignite the primer of an active cartridge from this state even if the sear lock and firing pin block both fail. Rifles come with various safeties. Some use a cross-bolt safety button, others a wing safety at the rear, or even a "half-cock" notch (such as found on older lever-action rifles). The Winchester Model 94 originally utilized

5168-423: The trigger is depressed. Third, as with most pistols, a firing pin block actuated by the same extension bar prevents the pin coming into contact with the primer unless the trigger is pulled to clear the block. Although not generally considered a safety feature, the resting state of the gun (excluding a dry/misfire) has the striker in a "half-cocked" state; pulling the trigger will fully cock the weapon before releasing

5244-454: The trigger pull or prevent the firing pin from detonating the cartridge or both. Firearms with the ability to allow the user to select various fire modes may have separate switches for safety and for mode selection (e.g. Thompson submachine gun ) or may have the safety integrated with the mode selector as a fire selector with positions from safe to semi-automatic to full-automatic fire (e.g. M16 rifle ). Some firearms manufactured after

5320-399: The trigger, and then slowly lowering the hammer on the firing pin. Hammer-fired semi-auto pistols have a beaver tail to protect the shooter's hand from the slide, which makes it more difficult to securely and firmly grasp the hammer with the thumb than a double action/single action revolver, thus making an accidental discharge more likely. Striker-fired pistols, on the other hand, do not have

5396-429: The weapon fires rounds larger than .50 caliber, it is considered a destructive device and is subject to the 1934 National Firearms Act . Civilian ownership is dependent on compliance with this law and whether the individual state prohibits civilian ownership of destructive devices. Users found the L-39 to be heavy and difficult to move in the battlefield. Even its magazine weighs almost two kilograms. The magazines have

5472-533: Was born in Viiala on 28 April 1896, to Evert Williamson Lahti and Ida Sophia Carlsdaughter née Viitanen, the oldest of five boys. He had a safe and somewhat wild childhood. Lahti did not enjoy school and left after the sixth year of elementary school. He started working in the Viiala glass factory when he was 13 years old. In the same year, he bought his first weapon, a Berdan rifle , with five marks he had earned in

5548-536: Was even able to damage tank turrets and pin them to stop traversal of the cannons. Around December 1940, a Lahti L-39 replaced the original 13.2 mm L-35/36 machine gun on the Finnish L-182 armored car . This conversion was employed by the armored unit of 1. Divisioona (English: 1st Division ) during 1941. Several of the rifles remained in service after World War II serving as anti-helicopter weapons, while many others were sold to collectors, mostly in

5624-634: Was revolutionary because the reliability, accuracy, and rate of fire were excellent. The first 200 Suomi SMGs were produced in 1922. After the prototypes were made, he was ordered to work under the control of the Ministry of Defence and to design a light machine gun, which eventually would be the Lahti-Saloranta M/26 . He then improved the Mosin–Nagant rifle by designing the M/27 "Pystykorva" " Spitz ", named for its foresight guards' resemblance to

5700-702: Was the second of two wars fought between Finland and the Soviet Union during World War II. Although the weapon was not able to penetrate newer Soviet tanks like the T-34 and KV-1 , it still proved to be quite effective against bunker loopholes and embrasures , long range targets, and even aircraft. A fully automatic version of the L39 was made in small numbers that served as an anti-aircraft gun . Other good targets were snipers, and several weak spots on tanks, such as open top hatches, especially with phosphorus ammunition. It

5776-440: Was usually towed by horses, but when stripped down could be carried by several men. The rifle has adjustable iron sights calibrated between 200 and 1,400 meters and was equipped with an unusual "dual" bipod , with two sets of legs, one with spikes for use on hard ground and the other with skids for use on softer ground or snow. In the field, a two-man team was assigned to the gun to move and fire it. Some rifles were abandoned in

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