M39 Front Sight

[CaptainCandy]

Hello Everyone,
I'm in need of a couple M39 front sights. I have been told that there are different size sights available. My rifle is currently shooting about 16" high at 100m.

If anyone has some for sale let me know. Also if anyone knows of a vendor that might be carrying them let me know as well.

Thanks,
Chris

[EMDII]

Have you fired the rifle w/ the bayonet extended? The M-N is intended to be regulated w/ the bayonet extended.

Tapco has M-N parts, although hand-picking a size may be difficult.

[sesh]

I've got the same problem as Captain Candy, need a taller front sight. My M39 groups well but shoots way high at 100m. I haven't had any luck with the usual MN parts suppliers including Tapco.

Extend the bayonet on an M39? Need some more coffee this morning? ;)

[EMDII]

Aah, correct Grasshoppers! M-44 got bayonet!

[law4fun]

Have you by chance had the rifle apart and possibly lost the shim that may have been placed under the barrel? You know the Finn's shimmed barrels to achieve greater accuracy....
If all else fails, send an email to:
vic@gunboards.net and tell him what you need and he may be able to help. He is the guru, as it were, of Finn Rifles in the US of A.
HTH
Jim

[CaptainCandy]

Nope all the lovely little shimms are still in place. After doing the research and talking to people on different forums the only cure for my problem is a taller front sight blade.

Thanks
Chris

[Finski]

Hi we have big gunshow here in Finland(at least by our standart)in coupple of weeks, anyway I´m going to ship some stuff to fellow boardmember after the show, so coupple frontsights in package wouldn´t be a problem (if I can find those first that is).
Finski :rolleyes:

Btw how heawy bullets are you using, Tim02 just informed me that there are at least 3 different blade sizes, for D166(200gr bullet at 715m/s)load?
If using lighter bullets its normal to have point of impact somewhat higher.

[ February 04, 2002: Message edited by: Finski ]

[LarryR]

You can gain about 6-8 inches at 100 yards by lowering the rear sight. Just put some shims between the sight blade and the ladder. Building up the front with JB Weld will also work and is more durable than you might think.

[Finski]

Digged into the subject bit more deeply, appearantly M39 has plenty of different frontsight heights.
Take look at offending frontsight(with a magnifying glass), it has small numbers stamped to (on top of blade) it, like 6,5 which means its height in millimeters.

Tallest so far that I have found(and have in my posession) is 7,5mm tall, however I´m told that there are even 9mm tall ones.

I payed $3 per frontsight, so it might be most cost effective to take one spare blade and weld some extra stuff on it and file it to correct height and then coldblue it.

If you want orginal, can look up them also?
Any takers?
Finski

[tim02]

Finski, you are one heck of a guy to weld, grind and stamp parts - how can you make them look vintage?

Just joking...

I think those blades were for armory zeroing of sights. Not all recruits first time on range carried them!!

Or maybe Lieutenant there has a bag full of them...

Tried to look from my books height range...
no luck yet.

eheheh

tim

[TrooperDan]

Hey CaptainCandy;

What ammo are you using? Your M39 is likely regulated for a heavy bullet, about 200 grains. Also, the top of your front sight should have a height stamped right on top of the blade. The number there should be repeated on the top of the barrel, right behind the front sight.. unless you have one of those dammed IO guns 'cause they love to stamp their name right over the sight height marking!
The top of the sight is marked to prevent recruits from filing on the sight blade to zero their rifle.. that was only an armorers responsibility. If your blade isn't marked, it may have been filed but hopefully the barrel will still show the correct height.

Dan in NC

[CaptainCandy]

Thanks for the information TrooperDan. I'm going to pull it out of the safe as soon as I'm done writing this message.
Chris

[JukkaR]

Originally posted by Finski:
<STRONG>Tallest so far that I have found(and have in my posession) is 7,5mm tall, however I´m told that there are even 9mm tall ones.
</STRONG>

My m39 has about 8.3mm front blade and it shoots OK factory ammo with 180grs D46 bullet. I had to change the original zero-in blade to taller one. Most propably it had originally been zeroed with 200grs D166 bullet. I zeroed it for the SA (Finnish Army) targets so that POA is at the bottom of the white center (about 4" below the POI). IIRC the original blade was about 6.8-7 millimeters. That could be the proper choice if aiming about 10" below POI. The SA target would then be sighted somewhere at the bottom of the black area.

I bought several spare blades from Tyrvään Tykki (you know the army surplus store of Vammala Asevarikko, AV3). There were hundreds of the shorter ones while the taller ones were harder to find. As you mentioned, one can weld the blade a bit taller and file it down to desired height. Guess why I bought several blades... ;)

[archy]

I don't suppose Finnish made stocks would still be available, particularly for the earlier M28-30? I've rebuilt one damaged riflebut had to replace a good Finn stock with the usual tenoned joint beneath the barrel with a worked over Russian Nagant stock, servicable but far from ideal.

If such replacements can be had, I'd be interested.

BTW, I understand the numbers stamped on top of the rifle's sights were placed in that location to make it clear if the soldier had tried to file his own sights to attempt to change the zero setting of his rifle.

[JukkaR]

The Vammala surplus store sells among other parts unused m39 stocks. I once bought a spare stock for my m39 for about $15 (wooden parts). Haven't seen there stocks for the older models.

Finnish Army rebuilt older rifles to m39's. There was not much left of the original after re-barreling, re-sighting and re-stocking. Don't know what happened to the old used stocks and pre-m39 model spare stoks.

[LarryR]

Archy, last year Interordnance had lots of new M39 stocks, and one of the other parts suppliers (GunParts, maybe) had either M28 or M28/30 stocks. Your 28/30 should fit in any of those. You might check at Tuco's for more info.
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