The Russian Mosin Nagant Forum

I picked up a what seems like to me a unissued 1943 Sako m39 I took it home and every screw on the gun was loose so I decided to take the thing apart and to my surprise it had no shims. Which could just indicate the rifles stock fit nicely and perfect was my assumption. But upon viewing to see if it was free floated it was not at all at he fore end tip much like a 1903a3 springfield it was incased in wood touching all sides. Now on the inside of the hand guards it looks like there is a generous amount of free space around the barrel just at the very for end maybe an inch and half does it fully 360 touch with wood. Now I know I should definitely test fire the rifle first and see how it shoots, but I'm more so wondering if this was a common practice on any of their rifles because always thought that they were free floated? I also worry that the no shims and the lack of free float means maybe it was never looked at by an armorer as like I said the rifle seems unissued the bluing and wear on the gun is almost nilch.

I'm certainly no expert on Finn rifles, but I would take it to the range and shoot it before making any assumptions. These are combat rifles; not target rifles.

Many of these M39's passed through the hands of the Burn's family in NY some 20 years back. I remember hearing storys about how they were pulling actions out of stocks looking at the tang dates on the receiver hoping for pre 1899 dates that they would then sell for more money as no FFL was needed to transfer them. I was told of a workbench covered in Finn rifle shims that fell out and had never been put back until too many customers bitched about it. These Finn rifles had been imported back in the 80's but a dispute with BATFE resulted in the business being shut down and more than a decade before BATFE allowed the remaining inventory to be sold. Back around 2006 there would have been hundreds of collectors waiting for the email containing the updated M39 list from Burns so the buying could commence.

Shoot it first, Yes! see how it is, then decide whether to shim /accurize it further. Somewhere I read it is usual for them to have a few punds of upward pressure on the barrel in the stock thats how they were made. Combat weapons yes not custom built target rifles. But they can be very accurate .

I drooled over that list of rifles many weeks and succumbed to my lust on many occassions.

Not all M39's have shims. Just a fact.

Darryl

https://www.milsurpaccuracyinc.com/

Shim it up with its best tech from back in the day.