Simo Hayha The worlds deadliest sniper. In the annuals of renowned military sniperdom, many names stand out. Carlos Hathcock, Chris Kyle, John Plaster, Vasily Zaytsev, Simo Hayha, and so forth. Wait, Simo who Well, pull up a chair and lets talk about that. Who was Simo Hayha Never a military prodigy, Hayha was a dedicated hunter both before and after the war. This pursuit forged his sniping skills. Born in the small village of Rautjrvi in what was then part of Imperial Russia Finland did not become independent until 1. Simo Hayha was a pretty normal man. He wasnt very tall or robust, standing just 5 3. The Russian Mosin Nagant Forum. Military Preservation Civilian Firearms Forums for Collectors. Skip to content. In 1. Finnish army but was otherwise an unremarkable soldier at the time. He remained a member of the Civil Guard much like the US National Guard and drilled with his reserve unit until 1. It was in that year that the 3. Soviet invasion of his country. In November 1. 93. Soviet Red Army troops invaded tiny Finland, whose own Army of some 8. Winter War. Hayha reported to duty and having extensive experience in hunting and target shooting was selected to be a sniper. The rest, as they say, is history. Effectiveness. During the Winter War, Simo Hayha was 5. Mosin Nagant Sniper Rifle Serial Numbers' title='Mosin Nagant Sniper Rifle Serial Numbers' />Russians not to invade Finland. He was nicknamed Belaya Smert White Death by the Soviet troops he stalked, and sent no less than 5. Infantry that he was working to support verified all these kills while another 2. In all, he accounted for taking nearly a whole battalion of Red Army troops out of the fight. The only thing that prevented his number from climbing higher was the fact that the war ended in March 1. Simo spent the last week of the war in the hospital, his face nearly shot off by a Soviet counter sniper. Mrwolverine/mosin_zps092eb97f.jpg' alt='Mosin Nagant Sniper Rifle Serial Numbers' title='Mosin Nagant Sniper Rifle Serial Numbers' />This Soviet sniper did not go home eitheras a wounded Simo returned fire and took his would be assassin out. Hayha compared to todays snipers. The standard military sniper of today has a few advantages that the pint sized Simo did not. Browse all new and used MosinNagant Rifles for sale and buy with confidence from Guns International. Id brand caliber bbl description price 28788 mosin nagant 7. The Soviet 9130 PU Sniper Rifle of the Red Star Words and pictures by Mick. The MosinNagant series of rifles. From top to bottom MosinNagant M91 MosinNagant M91 Dragoon MosinNagant M07 carbine MosinNagant M9130. RIFLES PART 2 Pre World War 2 Finnish MosinNagant Designs. Infantry Rifle M9124 Lottarifle PICTURE Suojeluskunta M9124 infantry rifle. Dont go there. I know the above video and many more like it show enthusiasts firing modified MosinNagants atand occasionally hittingtargets that are. Future Islands Wave Like Home Rar. Today Simo and his tactics wouldnt be that much out of place on a modern battlefield, but his equipment would certainly be better and he would have more training. Scout sniper teams. Today, US snipers work effectively in two to. US snipers receive extensive training and use modern optics to ensure success with every shot. Common practice today is for teams of military marksman who have qualified through special scoutsniper schools to work together in two to three man teams, with a spotter, a trigger puller, and sometimes a third shooter for security. These modern teams have dedicated sniper weapon systems made from the finest and most high tech components, high power optics, passive night vision and match ammunition. Hayha, a product of 1. Years of Production by Arsenal For all models see the Mosin Nagant Rifle Years of Production page. Tula Izhevsk 1930 to 1944 with minimal production into the early. Finnish made Sako Mosin Nagant Model 2. Tsarist times. The 2. Finn redesign of the old school WWI Russian Mosin 9. He had been offered a Swedish Mauser with optics but turned it down, preferring the Mosin he had trained with. Finnish WWII weapons of choice top, Suomi K3. Simo bottom, Mosin Nagant 2. Simo. How could this happenSo how did he accomplish his mission The answers lay in field craft, a target rich environment, and his talent. He was a master of camouflage after all you cant hit what you cant see and would. Simo Hayha used an all white camo, face veil and techniques using smoke to disappear into the snowy woods of Finland. Consequently, the Soviets had to counter unseen and accurate sniper fire with massive artillery fire, targeted over the whole area that they thought the Finn sharpshooter could be hiding, which proved to be quite ineffective. The front along the Mannerheim line was a mass of Soviet troops. With poor leadership amounting to the trench warfare mindset of World War 1, the Red Army crowded along the Finn trenches and battered their way into the country over a 3 month period, regardless of their losses. Along some parts of this battlefront, the Soviet Army outnumbered the defenders in ratios as high as 1. Hayha a cornucopia of targets to choose from everyday. Like many snipers before and since, he concentrated on officers, crew served weapons operators, and senior NCOs hand wavers, to make his shots count. The last essential ingredient was that, Hayha was a great natural shot. When asked in later years how he fine tuned his shooting skill, he simply said practice. Legacy. Simo Hayha had over 7. He was promoted to Lieutenant after the Winter War. Note the injury to his face from a Soviet snipers bullet. After their encounters with Finnish snipers, the Soviets revisited their stance on sniper training and equipment. Although the Russkies had made moves to build a sniper corps as early as 1. Hayha and his fellow Finn marksmen was a come to Jesus meeting and they started immediately increasing the number of snipers and introducing new sniper systems like the Mosin 9. PU and later PEM scope. It was these legions of Red snipers that helped turn back the German invasion on the Soviet Eastern front after 1. Stalingrad, Leningrad, and Kursk. The Soviet propaganda machine claimed that three shooters, Mihail Surkov, Vladimir Salbiev, and Vasiliy Kvachantiradze, all had more kills than Hayha, as many as 7. Nevertheless, what can be assured is that tens of thousands of Soviet snipers including some 2. Germans with a vengeance. The hordes of Soviet snipers led to increases in the numbers, training, and better equipping of the German snipers, which led to increases by the British and Americans, whichled to what we have today. Simo Hayha in quiet retirement with his huntingservice guns. Notice something missing on the guns No scopes. After killing 7. Russian and being shot in the face, Hayha died peacefully at the age of 9. Hayha himself survived the war, returned to farming, and died quietly as a retiree at age 9. His service rifle, serial number 6. Northern Karelia Brigade, and then moved to an undisclosed location. Rumors were that the Finns buried him with it, but this cannot be confirmed. Today, every modern military has specialized schools, selection processes, and training for snipers that includes the heavy use of field craft and camouflage. They are all, in their own way, a hat tip to the little Finn named Simo. Gun Review Mosin Nagant M9. The Truth About Guns. With our editors continued blessing, Ill be presenting reviews and profiles of exceptionally affordable yet dependable firearms. Aesthetically challenged guns that will never command a collectors premium. Guns that were often made by the tens of millions, in countries that either no longer exist or whose names cannot be pronounced by Western tongues. Guns that attract sneers and looking down the nose condescension from the bespoke shotgun crowd at your shooting range. Guns, in other words, for Cheap Bastards. Or, in this case, paranoid cheap bastards. If you find entertainment in marginally informed but strongly held opinions, youll never be bored with sports bars, talk radio and firearms bulletin boards. After interminable discussions of the best carry gun ever and is my AK clone 9. SHTF Shit Hits The Fan or WROL Without the Rule Of Law. When SHTF and society is WROL, it is opined, youll want a handy and reliable rifle at your side, as you try to survive or escape the ensuing Hobbesian jungle where life is nasty, brutish and short. Where anarchy provides liberty only to the strong and ruthless. Lets add IMHO to this theoretical search for a SHTF WROL firearm that you can stash away for a very rainy day, along with several hundred rounds of ammo and a can of dessicant, for two or three Benjamins. I recommend the Mosin Nagant rifle as your new GBFF Gun Best Friend Forever. History. The Mosin Nagant rifle fought the enemies of the Russian and Soviet Rodina from the 1. The weapons history is a 7. The Russians used their Mosin Nagants against the Japanese, the Germans, their fellow Russians, neighboring Finns and, finally, more Germans and more Japanese. The Mosin Nagant earns no great distinction in having been used and abused by millions of illiterate peasant soldiers and Soviet conscripts. It wasnt the best all around infantry rifle of its time. Truth to tell, the Mauser 9. Lee Enfield would be superior SHTF rifles in almost every categoryexcept reliability and price. Nothing holds a candle to the Mosin Nagant when it comes to price and reliability. Its not just a beer budget blunderbuss. During World War Two, the Mosin Nagant was the weapon of choice and necessity of Soviet and Finnish snipers. These grim reapers of the eastern front used the Mosin Nagant to single handedly kill entire companies of enemy soldiers. Sniper Vasiliy Zaytsev, fictionalized in Enemy At The Gates, used scoped Mosin Nagants to snuff 2. Wehrmacht Soldaten in four months. His sniper girlfriend, Tania Chenaya, who may or may not have looked anything like Rachel Weisz gave at least 8. Germans a dirt nap with her own Mosin Nagants. Lyudmilla Pavlichenko was even more effective she and her Mosin Nagants had 3. Even these Russian die hards couldnt keep up with Finnish sniper Simo White Death Hayha. He killed 5. 05 Soviet soldiers in just 1. Winter War of 1. 93. Finnish made Mosin and its iron sights. Gangsta It may be ugly and antiquated, but a Mosin Nagant in the right hands and a target rich environment is a nine pound weapon of mass destruction. Today, Mosin Nagants are the Mother of All Budget Minded SHTF WROL WTF is that rifles. With perhaps 5. 0 million weapons rattling around worldwide, theyre cheap as chips. Big 5 will sell you a Mosin Nagant for 1. Prices are even better at gun shows and gun stores. My own M4. 4 carbine, IIRC, cost a whopping 6. Your mileage may vary. The Trick to Training a Dog Buy the right dog. Not every Mosin Nagant is worthy of your zombie panic room. Triggers run from good to hideous, as do their bores. Its important to buy a relatively good one from a rack full of candidates, if only because you can. If you go Mosin Nagant shopping at a gun show, youll have to convince the dealer to snip the zip tie so you can check the trigger and barrel. If its a busy gun show, hell have other, more profitable sales to chase. Dont be surprised if youre SHTF gun elicits a TILI Take It or Leave It. Preferably on a slow day. Theres nothing magic about picking a good Mosin Nagant. Find one with a nice bright bore that doesnt look too beat up and locks up tightly. Test for a decent trigger pull. Mosin Nagants have so few moving partstheres not too much else that can go wrong. As a bonus, many of them have been arsenal refinished. Dont worry about collector value. Unscoped Russian Mosin Nagants have less collector value than remaindered Stephen King paperbacks. Now what As were asking a new 7. Mosin Nagant to perform SHTF duty, youll need to function test it and sight it in before you oil it up and put it in storage with maybe a thousand rounds of ammo. And hope youll never need it. Wheres the fun in that Once the Big Brown Truck drops off your crate of ammo, go ahead, make it pay. Blast holes in paper targets, tin cans and big game void where prohibited by law. If youre using steel core ammo, have a go at any metal plate less than. NB If youve loaded you Zombie Plague rifle with steel core bullets, keep in mind steel core bullets dont expand. Hint aim for the head. R ammo is cheap.  Russia and Eastern Europe produce hundreds of millions of rounds each year. An online bulk retailer will ship you a sealed 4. Compare that to the cost of commercial. Communist rifle has a strong Capitalist charm. This cheap ammo is no slouch, either. Depending on barrel length, the Mosin Nagant typically drives a 1. Some of the cartridges feature a mild steel bullet core. Its banned from some shooting ranges, itll punch holes in almost anything. CBs Cheap Bastards note surplus 7. R ammo is made with steel cases and Berdan type corrosive primers. No reloading for you. Another crucial tip corrosive primers require you to give the rifle a quick cleaning with Windex or another ammonia based cleaner promptly after shooting, followed by a regular cleaning with your favorite gun cleaner like CLP or Hoppes No. Cleaning a Mosin Nagant isnt difficult or terribly time consuming. But failure to do it even once can ruin the bore and trash the gun. Alternatively, you can buy non corrosive, non reloadable ammo from Wolf and Privi Partisan starting at 8. Ergonomics We Dont Need No Stinkin Ergonomics When it comes to shooting comfort and ergonomic controls, the Mosin Nagants got nothing. The nicest thing you can say about the club like stock is that youre not likely to break it by accident. It features a straight grip, a dismally short length of pull and a contusion inducing steel buttplate. The short pull length was meant to allow a proper hold while wearing incredibly bulky Russian winter uniforms. Whats good for Igor the Soviet Conscript sucks for you. If youre taller than 56 or if youre wearing normal clothing, youll have the bolt cocking piece nearly in your eye socketunless you attach a thick recoil pad. The butt end of the Mosin Nagant resembles a steel clad cudgel, destructible only by fire or chainsaw. If Barry Bonds tried to snap one over his knee like a misbehaving Louisville Slugger, hed be carried off the field with a shattered and protruding femur. Like most of its contemporaries, the Mosin Nagant sports a clumsy bolt handle that sticks straight out from the receiver at 3 oclock, instead of bending gracefully downward. Its ugly and awkward doing exactly nothing to improve the slightly balky cock on opening action. The Mosin Nagant isnt buttery smooth like a Lee Enfield, or a masterpiece of clockwork German engineering like a Mauser. It is what it is strong, ugly, cheap and functional. I Spit on Your Safety The. Mosin Nagants  safety mechanism isnt just clumsy its a useless failure. Engaging it requires griping a small, slippery cocking piece on the rear of the bolt and pulling it back with 2. Disengaging it requires the same knuckle crushing manipulation in reverse.