Valmet M76: Finland's Stamped Receiver AK
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- Опубліковано 4 жов 2024
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Finland adopted the AK in 1962, as the m/62 - a milled receiver pattern. By the late 1960s the Valmet factory was experimenting with stamped receiver design to reduce costs. The first stamped Valmet rifle was the m/71, which used forward-mounted open sights like a regular AK instead of rear-mounted aperture sights. The m/71 was rejected by the military, and so Valmet put the stamped receiver into its m/62 instead. This was approved for military used a the m/62-76 in 1976 and production began in 1977.
Valmet had also begun exploring options for export sales of rights in the 1960s, to balance out demand with potentially unpredictable military sales. They received permission to ell an export model of the m/62 in 1967, and from that point on they offered all their designs on the export market (including one like the m/71 that were not adopted by the Finnish military). The m/62-76 was no different, offered as the M76 commercially.
There were a bunch of options on the export M76, including both semiauto and full auto models (this one being a semiauto example) and at least four different buttstocks (wood, plastic, fixed tube, and folding tube). They were made in both 5.56mm and 7.62x39mm, with the majority of US sales being in 5.56 because 7.62mm ammunition was simply not available in the US at the time.
Production for the military ended in 1982, with the determination that the stamped receivers were less durable than milled, very difficult to repair when damaged, and they did not actually cost less for the military. Valmet scaled back its export production at the same time, choosing to focus on other rifle models instead.
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A have a rather unusual and funny story about the bayonets for these rifles. I lucked out on finding 3 of them for sale when I visited Helsinki years ago on my travels. At the SAR show in Phoenix, I sold one of them to a gentleman looking for one for years and wasn't having luck. He was happy as a clam and he walked away from my show table but forgot the bayonet! I managed to find him after wandering the entire show( people know what I am talking about as the SAR show is mixed with the Crossroads of the West show). Anyways, I told him to wear his bayonet on his belt so he won't lose it and he was laughing and he actually did that. At the following years show, he asked if we had another one and I told him I had one more, he promptly bought it because he told me when he got home the previous year, he said he lost it and all he had was the scabbard. I told him I bet it fell in the back of his truck seat and it's likely there.
We walked the SAR show parking lot and he checked the back seat of his truck and sure enough, the bayonet was right there sticking out.
So somewhere out there in Arizona is a man with an m78 and m76 and he owns two Finnish bayonets for them and is happy as a clam.
That's a wholesome story. Put a smile on my face. Thank you, good sir.
Who wouldn't be *happy as a clam* with two Finnish bayonets?
Thanks for the fun story.
Reading this story being happy as a clam.
Happy as a clam; goals.
Exactly how happy is a clam?
I fell in love with these Valmet guns when I first found out about them from youtube years ago. It's distinctive silhouette combined with It's matte parkerized finish and black plastic furniture gives it such a cool look. The fact that it's also an AK underneath makes it especially appealing to me.
Same here
I always thought of the aesthetics as "what if H&K AK?"
In a good way.
I fell in love with RK62, when i went to the military back in -96. It's a pretty good shooter for 150-300 meters with open sights. I think new version has red dot and suppressor attachment as well.
Al Pacino used one in "Heat"
@@zenjon7892 that was FN FNC
Fun fact: nearly all males in Finland go through mandatory conscript service which includes training to use this very same gun (without the folding mechanism and with full auto setting, of course). The mandatory training includes passing required tests which include tearing down the gun and rebuilding it in 30 seconds, blindfolded. I was a bit unlucky during the test day because I had to do it outdoors when it was -30 degrees Celsius outside, so it was quite hard for your fingers (some parts are small enough so you cannot keep using the winter gloves for the whole process). All the parts were obviously about -30 degrees Celsius because the gun had been outdoors with us for a couple days at that time.
I cannot remember if the body was stamped or milled in the gun that I had in 1998 for my conscript service.
All the rk's for conscripts are milled ones. They get so much abuse that the improved durability of milled ones come in handy.
So how bad were the rations on a scale of 1-10 when you were doing your time? 1 being horrible and 10 being delicious.
@@dominuslogik484 I would say food was typically around 7-8 out of 10.
@@MikkoRantalainen that's good, I was watching an MRE review for Finnish rations recently and the comments were full of younger Finnish conscripts expressing how awful the food was and how they typically would just refer to it as "hot and yellow"
@@dominuslogik484 I guess it depends on what you're expecting. It's definitely not haute cuisine fine dining but considering the circumstances, it was good. I don't remember skipping even a single meal during my 8 month service because the food wouldn't have been worth eating.
The worst part I can remember is that the liverwurst I was offered had too hard consistency. I like the soft stuff that you can smear with a knife and army stuff was much harder so you had to eat it sliced instead. That's not something I consider awful food.
As a service gun, could not have hoped better weapon back then. Accurate and simple weapon to use.
That's what I was thinking, but when my fellow reservist shooters introduced me to ARs, I had a change of heart.
@@edgarburlyman738 It's mainly because of the obsolescent 7.62x39 round. The 5.56 is inherently more accurate and better-behaved recoil-wise. It has to be said that as reservist shooters, we compete on accuracy. It's only half the story in a war.
@@edgarburlyman738 I've shot at cinder blocks and pig carcasses with both. It was a tie.
It was slightly weird seeing how many different variations of furniture there really were in actual usage during my conscription. I got lucky and had a really good RK62 (especially got lucky and had a fresh, really good bolt on mine, very tight dispersion, while some others who I knew could shoot really well had older worn bolts and struggled with dispersion a lot), with the plastic furniture shown here, but I saw plenty of guns with old furniture, and combinations like old pistol grip and new handguard, and old hanguard and new pistol grip. It was all over the place. Having handled all kinds, I definitely vastly preferred the new furniture, just felt better in every single way.
man, I loved my combination of new pistol grip and old cheese grater handguard, I had a position for my hand that felt just right, with the tip of my index finger pressing into one of the holes :)
that rifle also had the quirk of failing to eject every single time I shot it during my first ever shooting exercise, so after that me and the sergeant went to the gunsmith and had it fixed, worked like a charm after that! something about the bolt having cracked ever so slightly, if I remember correctly.
@Jj Giles I mean sure, the barrel was good too, but we tested the same rifle with a few different bolts when troubleshooting one gun's issues, and it definitely had a significant effect on the dispersion. Bolts locking up inconsistently, and or wobbling when in battery, has been linked to inaccuracy issues. Heck, people seem to be certain that there's a significant difference between bolt action rifles with lugs on the front or the rear.
Mind you that I'm talking like going from ~ fist size groupings at 150 meters to half torso sized groupings at the upper limit, not catastrophic accuracy loss.
@Jj Giles Shrug, you can see plenty of discussion on the front vs rear locking lugs online, and Ian has also brought the accuracy claims up on several occasions. The usual claims I see are that the long length of bolt ahead of the rear lugs means it can bend or compress while shooting, affecting the pressure curve, muzzle velocity (potentially some harmonics issues) and as a result accuracy. Similar claims have been said to cause reduced accuracy in guns with inconsistent locking, which a worn bolt could definitely lead to.
On a purely theoretical line of thinking, if we take out weather (let's assume we're at an indoor range), and assuming we're using the same ammo, if it's only the barrel that affects the accuracy, it would seem odd to me that it seems so much harder to make a super accurate self-loader than a bolt action. Like, if we took a barrel from an Arctic Warfare in .308 Winchester, and put it on an AR-15 (let's even cut out the gas system so it's just a funky manually operated system), would they be equally accurate?
I'm not claiming to be an expert, all I know is that we tried the same rifle with multiple bolts, with the same shooter on the same day, and got repeatable results. It wasn't my gun, so I didn't go with the guy to the armory, but after he came back he said that they changed the bolt and his groupings got more consistent.
For anyone interested, the M76 in the video is in the Nov 15-16, 2022 auction, lot #2181. Estimate $3K-$5K sale price.
Good to know, that price hurts though
I bought an M76S (wood buttstock) in 1981 with two mags and a bayonet for $325 bucks. Great shooter. Sold it a year later for $450.
$3000 today…
Had one in 93/94(m76;7,62x39,military version with the tube and folding stock) during my military service with the Arctic Rangers in Finland. I got the folding stock because I was a dog handler. Loved the rifle. Accurate, easy to keep clean and service also easy to carry with full equiptement , cross country skis and a dog. We used the dog in guard duty, mine searches or just in front of the troops for enemy detection. Thanks for the walk in the memory lane.
Aah "my" old service gun for year! Loved it every second since it was given to me!
With the exception of not collapsing buttstock and fully-automatic.
Ps. Those guns are rugged! We were doing a 100km skiing trip that took 20 hours. At one point my friend got really upset going uphills and downhills in woods with old maps. He hit his gun to a frozen wood and got stuck to it from butt to the wood but no damage to the gun.
I was fortunate enough to have RK95TP for my service. I'm dissapointed I don't remember what sort of folding mechanism it had but it did work well.
It was very accurate, given that I serviced 1990-91. I didnt have "elite" badge in marksmanship test, because there were 3 different tests were you basically need to do 98%, I did one with only 92%,but that wasnt due the rifle. Very good testament of their durability, and how much emphasis were put to keep the rifle in good condition.
I have a M76W, wooden stock and milled receiver in 7.62*39mm, one of the batch that was supposed to be sent to US market, has "Valmet, Inc Elmsford New York" stamped right side of receiver. My uncle managed to buy it out the shipment in somewhere -84 and it stayed here in Finland
So good to learn something new about firearms. Thanks to Ian and the Forgotten Weapons team!
there is no team
@@BigDickNick23 well There is his wife, who, atleast on paper, is employed as a staff member at Forgotten weapons. He's told his beginning story which involved his wife helping him financially to get the channel run, and if successful, He'd have to employ her.
@@BigDickNick23 "The Forgotten Weapons team is a small group of self-described gun nuts. We are passionate about firearm design, manufacture, and history. We travel the world studying rare firearms, and we would like to share our passion with anyone else who shares it."
That's how they describe themselves. I really don't believe they would be using words like "we" and a "team", if it was just a single man production. Ian often has someone else handling the camera, especially when he is at a shooting range and i wouldn't be surprised if there's a camera operator behind the camera during these static shot videos as well.
Oh yeah! I started with the RK62 (#322479) and ended up with this beauty (military version).
I also remember the serial number of my beloved RK62 in the army, but I use it as my password, so I won't reveal it. :)
621747
I forgot my serial number already. 😂 But it's 26 years ago.
One of those permanently remembered numbers (#139559)
I have forgotten my serialnumbers that i had in 1/95. But i didn’t get to shoot them. Because there was somekinda limit how many cartridges there was for every fighter. So we shot mostly .22lr or Suomi-kp on the range because ammo was unlimited and we could shoot like 200+ shots per fighter when we went to the range.
Both serviceweapons were rk 62. First i got somewhat improved version with Nightsights and later when i changed my unit i got one of the very first kind. The later never left the gunrack exept on thursdays when it was cleaned and oiled 🤭
Ian is always such a pleasure to listen to. His immense talent for making firearms mechanics and history easy to understand turns even the most obscure guns from "irrelevant" to "fascinating". I have no interest in historical guns... except when Ian explains them.
That dual-function rear sight is very clever! 👏👏👏
Just snagged an m76 about a month ago and kept getting asked what it was, finally I have a forgotten weapons video to send out!!!!
One of the best parts about working until 6 in the morning is being one of the first to watch Ian's uploads. Better than Folgers!
🎶’the best part of waking up, is Ian in your …….’🎶
Maybe the jingle should never be sung!
Daddy of the Galil and Grandad of the R4🤩🤩
I was recently assigned one of the stamped receiver RK62's at a refresher exercise. Rumour had it that they were brand new, having lain in storage for decades. Everything was a bit stiff (a lot stiffer than on those milled receiver RK's I had used before), so it may have been true. Great gun to shoot, nevertheless.
The Valmet AK rifles are fantastic - the build quality is amazing.
Why are you an anonymous coward?
When I was a conscript, I had a privilege to be issued with RK95. Having also been in a couple of reserve drills, I had a real pleasure encountering the original RK62s, made during the latter half of 1960s, which was quite something: everything about the rifles made in the 60s was unquestionably durable and rugged, as Ian point out at the very beginning of the video. The 60s-made ones were also so well maintained by the armory quartermasters and other experts, that one actually had to leer closely for scratches or other indicators of previous usage in the grip or the handguard.
This video brings back some good memories...
That convertable sight is pretty slick.
It was also pretty accurate in 'night sight' mode. We ran live fire exercise some cold winter night with these sights and tracers. Personally I preferred the diopter for shooting on range but for close combat I'd definitely switch to notch.
I had a prototype neon orange grip and transparent clear handguards for this rifle. Amazing fit and finish, but spare parts and mags are extremely rare.
Not in Finland. ;)
I have an orange grip in my safe as well. No M76 to put it on though...
One of these with a folding polymer stock and you have the best looking AK of all time. That it's a Finnish project of obsessing over details and quality is just an extra bonus. As a former G3 "operator" I think the option of having both aperture and notched is a splendid idea.
I wish you'd do a video about the Valmet AK in .308. I had a friend who had one about 30 years ago and it was a great rifle. It had two receiver covers,,,,one with rear sight and one with scope mount rail. The sights were tritium nightsights. He had several 10 rd mags and 4 20rd mags and a Nikon 3x9 scope on the spare receiver cover. I wanted it but he wouldn't sell. A few years later he needed money and traded the entire package for 500 bucks and a Mak90! What an idiot...and I was pissed he didn't come to me first.
Ended a lot if friendships, these things of steel and wood.
Tritium has a half-life of 12.4 years. If these were given tritium sights in 1976, that is almost 4 half-lives. That would mean one / sixteenth of the Tritium remaining . Most of it decays in to Helium.
Here’s something you may, or may not know. Back when the M-76 type rifles were being used by the FDF, they bought a large amount of Norinco 5.56 ammo for practice range ammo because it was cheap. Turns out that this ammo had corrosive primers and it was not widely known. So after and FDF reserve unit went out shooting it all day, and turned in their weapons to be racked at the end of a cold damp day out in the wood there, that if they weren’t cleaned REALLY well, especially the gas tube, not chromed, they would rust solid in a short period of time. Had to be broken open with a rubber mallet.
U
I've owned several samples of Valmet m76 & a couple m82 years past. Found them to be ultra reliable & better then just gunfight accurate. Wish I had kept a sample. Congruent to your story, the one sample in 7.62x39 was the very last one to find a home after well over a year on inventory. That would have been the one to keep 🤔 Oh but then I do digress.
This is the second rifle that I ever fired in my life. My dad took me out to plink with my .22, and once I got the hang of it, he graduated me to this one, lol... I inherited it when he passed. It's surreal to own a rifle that's cool enough to be in a Forgotten Weapons video. Mine is in this exact configuration with the exception of the magazine, unfortunately. Amazing video, and I even learned a few new things about one of my family heirlooms. Thank you for doing what you do!
My friend has a semi-auto with same butt-stock here in Finland. He uses it for reserve soldiers shooting. It is semi-auto aswell.
In my service time we used only the "night sights" during combat training.
Yeah, those aperture sights are for range shooting only. We actually used those night sights during night (summer, when there's always some light), with some tracers!
@@Njazmo Same with our unit. They are much better at combat. Sirad from mid 2000's :)
I have a M76W that I bought in June of 1986 for $628 which was expensive at the time. I still have it and have put a Galili style folding stock on it, however it is totally reverseable and i still have the wooden stock. The rifle is in pristine condition and spends most of its time in the safe. I have the 2 original magazines for it a 15 rd and a 30 rd. I have also modified some Bulgarian Circle 10 5.56 AK mags to bring my total up to 5. I love this rifle and will never sell it.
there is a good chance if it has its own feed ramp that galil mages will work, but if it has just a standard AK style breech they will hang up on the bottom of the breechface
@@ripvanwinkle2002 When I had my M76P back in the early 2000's there was a gentleman who was converting East German "Weiger(sp)" 30rnd mags to work in the Valmets. I think those mags are pretty hard to come by now though, as well
I'm stoked you are posting so frequently lately! Thanks Ian. 👍
uh, what? he's been posting 5-6 times a week for years now.
I did my military service in the FDF in 2006. My RK-62 was made in 1988 and it was one of the newer ones anyone had. Some even had the original style ribbed handguard and pistol grip. And all our guns worked just fine except for one which broke its firing pin on the range (it was about -30 Celsius that day).
That is the one failure I have had with my semi-auto Valmet M62 also. Finding a spare firing pin was a real pain in the ass!
That's not too bad, we had one saw that broke 4 firing pins in 2 hours.
I was in the FDF 1987-88, and my service weapon was very much the same as this, but of course 7,62x39 full auto and with a non-folding but otherwise identical stock, and with the milled receiver. I shot with it in Lapland in -25C during a training camp, and with sufficient clothing and face covered there was no problems (apart for occasional frozen fingertips). In case someone wonders how the metal tube buttstock is in winter conditions. Very accurate too, I shot 3 "valio" during recruit training. A valio was shooting above a certain score on a specific distance, and there was 3 different tests from both prone and standing positions and different ranges (35 years later my memory is a bit hazy on the details).
That answered my question, thank you. I was going to ask if they were issued with an insulated cover for the stock tube but at extreme temperatures a mask makes more sense.
I maxed the "valios" (each gave one day of leave) in 1980-81 and the army still owes me one day that I never got time to use. :)
@@RonOhio They have thin plastic cover over metal stock tube. Rifle in this video has that too. It's not really for insulation but more to prevent direct skin contact to metal and causing skin to stick on it.
One of my favorite rifles after seeing "The Survivors" w Robin Williams in 1983
It's worth noting that the civilian rifle in domestic parlance is "ReserviläisKivääri [Reservist Rifle]" (as opposed to the military designation RynnäkköKivääri [Assault Rifle]), both being shortened as RK. Which is why they don't remove the other military features from the rifle aside from the full-auto mode. This is because it is expected that especially rear-echelon (older than 30 - 35 - 40+ years, depending on rank, branch and assignment) reservists will fight with their own gear, or they will have to use Chinese and East-German AKM's. Which are actually not that bad, but these were acquired only in the latter half of the eighties, and the East-German stuff in the nineties. When this rifle was first introduced in 1971, there was no gear for these men other than Mosin-Nagants, well of course Finnish Mosins, but still. This has been the side of things even before the Winter War. Back then reservists in Suojeluskunta (Civil Guard) dedicated a lot of resources and money to upgrading their own rifles. Where in fact SAKO's original name comes from "Suojeluskuntain Ase- ja Konepaja Oy" or Civil Guard Weapons and Machining LTD.
Naturally while in the reserve it is expected they will train with their own gear, so dedicated reservists will acquire such a rifle. The majorit don't necessarily voluntarily uphold their service applicability, but this is due to there being a mandatory conscription, which many find an injustice later in life and as it is also gender discriminating. And personally this is why I disagree with the practice.
The Norwegians do it better, with a draft of the entire population when one reaches adulthood, non-gender segregated, from which only the motivated are chosen. It's been determined that Finland would in fact, with this have a much larger group from which to draft people than is actually necessary, as women are interested but don't apply for their voluntary service for various reasons, economic ones being the most common... And as modern warfare requires highly trained troops, the current practice is also against the interests of the state and FDF itself. But, politicians and boomers oppose gender equality here. But, that is outside your channel's review so I will end the rant here.
Touching on the subject of conscription. Whilst I do agree with you about the downsides of on male conscription I think the issue with the both genders is greater, at least for couple of generations.
The issue of choosing most motivated could lead to lack of personnel in the service and thus in the reserve, which would of course have to be fixed with set amount of conscripts. At that point not all are those motivated and it creates differend kind of "discrimination". How could we in that case pick fairly the ones that have to serve? That could create bad cycle of getting out of service by cheating and leaving those who didn't "cheat" to serve. Not fair in my opinion.
Of course that also has the issue that if we give that kind of possibility of "out", it could lead to same kind of mess Russian conscription has. Service for everyone would be the only "fair" way but FDF don't have the resources to DOUBLE professionals needed to train and lead double amount of conscripts and personnel + equipment of course. And this would also cripple Finnish economy with entire(or the general 70% that end up serving) age class doing military (+ civilian) service and not working and educating themselves.
That is why I at least think the current system is the only one that works right now. Of course it has to develop to be better and maybe one day it will be fair to all. As I pointed out as one of my points you can't think of it just as "gender discrimination", there could be other unequality issues not related to gender if it would be mandatory for both genders.
@@teemup9247 You seem a bit confused, when the entire population is drafted there is over twice, nearly triple the amount of motivated people vs. how many the FDF needs to train every year available. Our national defense spirit is such, that your first argument is moot. Also, the forced conscription is what leads to the kind of chaos, especially in modern warfare, of what is seen with Russians on the Ukranian front.
In your second argument you basically argue against your first argument, which is a bit weird. There is no need to double the number of professional career soldiers in the FDF with a universal draft. The number of professional soldiers, non-commissioned and commissioned reservist officers is allotted the same way. It is just that the number of women serving will multiply by a significant factor.
Our military has only one constitutionally mandated purpose which national defense, our constitution _explicitly_ prohibits our military from engaging in a war of aggression. So, it serves only to protect our society and way of life. If the people's will to defend their own country lowers to such a degree that there are not enough voluntary draftees, then the society is rotten to such a point that there will be sabotage, crime and out right revolt in the lines if you forcefully arm someone.
And when you discriminate in who you make legally duty bound to take up arms for this purpose you will also sully this spirit of defense. People are handing in their military pass ports and resigning from the reserve by the thousands as a result of Russian's attacking Ukraine and this aggression becoming more likely to escalate towards us, so it really serves no purpose to train someone who then is unwilling to fight once they realize the state has committed a moral wrong against them.
People who are forced into service with the threat of criminal sanctions will have extremely poor morale, commit war crimes out of discontent, and usually will not fight at the end of the day. This can be seen with the Russians in Ukraine.
Aperture sights are better for more accurate shooting, but the open sights are better for fast shooting. It was mouth to mouth information for us conscripts (now reservists) to tell the next batch to flip their RK62's rearsight to the nightsight-position and roughly adjust it, that a single piece of cardboard from 20rd cartridgebox fits between the sight and the topcover. Then the open nightsight could be used as a traditional Kalashnikov rearsight and during live closecombat-shooting excerise it was way more faster to shoot down targets than trying to line up your aperture and frontpost.
One dude transformed accidentally a RK 62 (the real thing with cheese grater front stock, FDF version) into a machine pistol by putting it leaning against a tractor rear tire and of course the tractor driver didn't notice the RK and reversed over it and the tubular buttstock detached from the rifle. I dond't remember what happened after that, maybe that dude got some reprimand or punishment.
"the real thing with cheese grater front stock, FDF version" Feels weird to me calling that "the real thing", when you still see RK62s with the old hardware, the new hardware shown here (had this one myself), and with mix and match hardware (old grip, new handguard/new grip, old handguard), all with milled receivers and proper RK62 markings, being used by conscripts... At most I'd call it "original configuration", hehe.
And yeah, I heard that story too. And now I'm reminded of the "golf swing" method of charging the rifle... Jeez there were some stupid sods in there. :D
I owned a M76 years ago beautifully rugged rifle , but it had the tendency to fire three round bursts when you didn’t expect it. I got scared and sold it. I wish I had it back now.
What a beautiful rifle you covered
I had a nice Galil Golani that a “converted” into a Valmet lookalike. It scratched the itch without that $3500 price tag.
Another way cool video of the beloved RK. Kiitos!
Thank you , Ian .
🐺
Valmets and Galils are my favorite AK type rilfes
Just wanted to point out that the magazine shown in this video is not a factory Valmet magazine but is, in fact, a Zastava ZPAP85 magazine.
Valmet 5.56mm magazines are very hard to source and so many of these rifles are sold with magazines from different 5.56mm AK designs that have been "converted" to work in the Valmet. Some more successfully, and safely, than others.
A factory Valmet 5.56mm magazine will have either 2 or 4 very distinctive bumps on the top sides of the magazine depending on if it was imported with the model M71 rifle (2 bumps) or the M76 rifle (4 bumps). True factory Valmet 5.56mm magazines sell in the 350-450 price range on auction sites online and there are many fraudulent sellers who will attempt to sell non factory mags to the unsuspecting.
Other than that... a very nice video Ian.
I remember seeing these at my local gun shop when they first came in displayed next to the Valmet shotguns. At the time was not sure what it was exactly.
I read Simo Häyhä liked open sights because they're easier to get snow out of. I'm partial to open sights because that's what I grew up with.
Iron sights, as opposed to optics
@@JanoTuotanto open irons
Had one as a conscript in the 80's.
One thing to point out about the folding stocks, the military version actually folds to the right.
I was wondering about that too.
I had one of those at one time. I loved it!
Robin Williams' character in "The Survivors" had this. Awesome
I had a Valmet M82 bullpup. Bought it in 1987.
It sure would be nice if somebody would start making those again.
Ian, you forgot the M76 was later offered in .308, made using the same milled receiver as their civilian M88 Hunter model. Has It's own proprietary polymer stock.
I shot mine last weekend.
Milled are made by Sako.
@dimapez (Old)Valmet was large metallurgy company producing many things to different sectors, from vehicles to paper mill machines. Their gun manufacturing division merged with Sako in 80's, Valmet owned half of the Sako and Nokia other half. Later Nokia sold shares to Valmet and just after a year Sako was sold to Beretta.
"I shot mine last weekend". Why, that's terrible! What did the poor thing do to deserve getting shot. I hope at least you gave it a decent burial. 😁
I’ve seen the insides of the 7.62RK62/76 enough times to remember. 😁
Until a year ago, I didn't knew that Valmet made firearms, only tractors.. seems like the build quality is as good with the firearms as SISU engines.
Whenever I see a Valmet my brain involuntarily says "VARIOUS VALMETS"
Have always loved the Valmet/Sako RK series of rifles. Had a plastic stocked M76 in the early 2000's, but ended up selling due to needing the money. Almost unobtainium now- especially the folding stock M76, so have "settled" for a Galil clone... I have always been curious however, how the stamped M76 receivers were stamped/formed with that distinctive RK slant on the front compared to the standard AKM receiver. Ian- maybe you could go over that sometime. Also, would love to see a video on the prototype RK "Krinkov" model with the quirky side rotating butt stock. Love the channel Ian- have learned so much!!!
Thanks again Ian
Very good job I almost bought one of those for a couple hundred dollars when they were coming into our country in the early 1980’s but getting magazines was a problem.
In 2006 I was looking at one of these used in a shop. It was like $400 bucks or best offer. Nobody wanted the .556 one. Sat in there for a long time.I remember it because I pinched the mess out of myself on the folding stock locking mechanism. Picked up a couple Chinese SKS's for $200 bucks instead. Now I'm kicking myself for not getting this when I had the chance. Would of been a decent investment piece. Still have the SKS's put about 20k+ rounds threw them. When you could buy surplus crates of .762 for like $60 bucks.
I'm a simple man, I see a Finnish rifle, I like the video.
I had RK 62 as my service weapon.
New gun Jesus right before work !!! I win
We all win
Right before bed, i win lol
For me it's right after work
Night sights a pretty good idea during winter in Finland. Stays dark a good part of the day that far north.
Don't we know it.
I had one of these back in '85 ( before YT, the advent of Google gun gurus and weapons experts via gaming). This is not a shot at you Ian. Keep up the awesome videos..
It had the folding stock, tritium night sights and had the barrel cut back to 11.5 with a xm177 fh silver soldered on.
It was an awesome weapon. Performed flawlessly even doing the " crest test ".
It was a bear to clean after that and only did it the one time.
If you went through a 30 rd mag fast enough the last 2 sometimes 3 rounds would cook off. It was definitely awesome
To be fair, video games have caused millions of young people to become interested in firearms while being dismissive of them has done nothing to further the cause.
That rifle super awesome, wish to have it one day
you should do a video on the pros and cons of different sights and optics used throughout the gun world
Great content as always! Going through chemo now, so this is my happy place and helps me deal. Demo Ranch, Brandon Herrera, Kentucky Ballistics, Garand Thumb, Forgotten Weapons and Taofledermaus are my go-to channels. Thank you for putting out such entertaining and informative vids all these years. I just wish Nick would upload or guest on one of the channels more often. God bless you all
I wonder if any of those are still in service. I don't recall seeing any during my service in 2016. Plenty of those old milled 1960's guns we're still around though. The old grip is actually really nice and slim until your fingers hit the gas tube. No Idea why they thought leaving the gas tube bare in the new M1- M3 versions was a good idea.
FDF quickly store all RK76s because the receiver isn't strong enough.
You could spot a 1 or 2 of the stamped ones still in early 1990´s
The rifle here is M76, which is a semi-auto rifle for civilians. I don't think the Finnish military ever used this weapon, which is NOT an assault rifle, even if it looks like one.
@@cosmo9208 Not the civilian version, but the military version.. I served in the FDF back in 1993
Th weapons made in the 60s did not have night rights. They were later renamed as RK62PT.
I really liked my RK62 in the army service. I had that modern pistol grip but the older 'cheesegrinder' front stock and ofcourse fixed back stock. I tried my army friends rifle with, in this video's front stock, and i did not like handling of the gun at all. I also got to use the RK95, but maybe the only feature i would pick from that rifle is the folding stock... and that is big maybe. Anyway, as a tanker my beloved gun were the one and only FN pistol, and the one i used, were actually a very good pistol
I also had the model with cheese grater hand guard, but the pistol grip was the bike handle type 👍
From someone who teaches technology in a community college I can produly tell you that you've been more important for my students technological knowledge than primary school.
Damn, never new there was a bullpup version too. Must watch that video next
Misha is also a wealth of information on the Valmet as well as most imports 👍
Ah the memories from my own service (rk76 is still used a lot in service still) medic running this in the forests at night in late autumn next to the sea. Was very much an experience
There was a movie in the 1980s (I don't remember the name of the movie) that wasn't very good but had a scene where Robin Williams was showing his girl, his new rifle, this Valmet. He was so excited describing/showing the rifle. It was a really good scene and there were not a lot of movies that featured the Kalashnikov family of weapons.
Ya'll Take Care and be safe, John
As a Finnish-American I appreciate you giving attention to this tiny country's fierce military history and even present-day competitions. Thanks.
There is also a very interesting RK "AKSU" which essentially is a AKS-74U copy but in 7.62x39. Only two of these RK "AKSU" were made during a lunch break " according to my sergenant major. Biggest problem of the AKSU was huge recoil and flash since they either couldn't or have time to figure out the muzzle device. Sadly it's really hard to find any pictures from it from the internet but I luckily got to see it since my military training branch is gunsmith.
The RK62 That I had in the Army had those sights
It never failed when i served. Very accurate.
The construction is very similar to a electrical junction box, im surprised it’s not galvanized.
it has some neat ideas
Tuon stanag-lippaan kanssa ollaan jo aika lähellä galilin ulkonäköä. Härskin näköinen kun on tottunut 7.62:sen kaareviin banaanilippaisiin.
The Valmets look very pleasing to look at compared to most AK derivatives which are with wooden furniture.
I'd like to see how this Valmet compares to other 5.56mm AKs on the range.
Valmet has pretty good tolerances, so unless the gun's been shot to pieces they tend to be on the better side for AK accuracy. I know my RK-62 (made in -82 IIRC) was pretty much stock tolerance in -05 and shot straight enough to get some medals for shooting.
I think the South African vektor R4/5 would be a great comparison, they look quite similar as well, personally I prefer the R5 over the Valmet just for the style of stock.
@@ginger0208 Makes sense that they look similar as R4/5 is based on Galil and Galil is largely based Finnish RK62.
@@zhipx8289 Someone else pointed that out to me on another comment, I had no idea previously that the galil was based on the RK, it does very much make sense now!
Hollywood used Valmet rifles in place of AK rifles before they were imported in the early to mid 1980s.
Still interested to see if Finland and Sweden actually do go looking for new rifles together
Hope you get to see or more information on the new Sako M23 DMRs and sniper rifles that are coming to service, since you talked about possible new service rifle in the future, as those two seem to a strong hint at at least a possibility of whats coming. Based on what was written in the contract for those guns.
Suomi perkele! 😎🇫🇮
I was sort of expecting you to mention the angle of the stock, but you didn't! This gun is an aiming experience! most guns have a stock which is perfectly aligned with the barrel, and there's no angle, so aiming down the sights on this one, with prior rifle experience, one will kind of find it difficult to get adjusted to it, maybe one might have a tendency to aim the rifle a little bit downwards, but then! After one gets adjusted to it.. It's actually a very good rifle to make marksman shots, for one thing, in a standing position, when holding the stock against one's shoulder to aim, the sights will be closer to one's line of sight, a little bit higher up than most rifles, and one will not need to lean/sink one's head as much, for a proper aiming position.
Back in the early 90's I had a friend had one I never got the chance to shoot it, sweet rifle, I wish you would do something on the 22 ilarco,22 Winchester auto and 22 Remington auto, they seem to be true unicorns
A nice and welcome surprise
She was my favourite character in Jormungand
I save a lot of your videos as workout videos so probably won't see this one for a while. I've said this before, I'm not mechanically minded but your videos are well-made and accessible. They are always interesting but my favourites are the ones with a story behind it like the. Green Meanie, Pancor Jackhammer and the PTRD. I recently watched an older one on the thumb trigger. Different from many of your other videos but still interesting and engaging.
Actually, that method of royalty payment is quite clever...no transfer of money between entities means minimal opportunity for 'sticky fingers' (eg - corruption).
Besides, who doesn't love a free rifle from time to time. 😉
Only gun I've ever fired, RK62 military issue. Easy to use, reasonably accurate, even at medium long range. Useless in full auto fire, would lock up without warming it up.
Also Valmet M82s are pretty epic.
The stamping didn't reduce the cost of the rifle? I'm... perplexed. Stamped vs milled has mainly been a difference in cost, from my understanding. Why was it not the case here?
Robin Williams' rifle he used in "The Survivors."
My all time favorite ak
Well second under the an94
I had a folder, and a fixed stock in the '80's.
I could cry that I didn't keep them both. 😭
I think I got them for about $365 each?
Bought my wife an new series Mini 14 a few years ago for $725...
Remember the movie "Survivors" staring Robin Williams. "Whats that ? ..... looks like an assault rifle to me!"
SUOMI MAINITTU!
TORILLE PERKELE!
Also that stock is fugly AF but it works.