Surplus Saturday: Finnish Valmet M76W

By Dan Zimmerman

When my Marine Corps brother Andy called me up to tell me that I could have free reign of his Class 3 gun shop (and bar-b-que), Defcon-1 Armory and Chow Hall, to write about any of the military surplus firearms he has, I jumped at the opportunity. After all, if history isn’t kept alive, it disappears forever. When he told me that he received a Finnish AK variant called the Valmet M76W, of course my response was: what the heck is that? . . .

First, some history

Unfortunately, Finland found themselves positioned on the wrong team during WWII when they aligned themselves with Nazi Germany. Because of this, they were unable to manufacture weapons until the late 1950s. The Finnish company Valmet began production of its first AK variant rifle, the M60, sometime between 1958-1960. This rifle was only available with a tubular stock, and one cartridge size: 7.62X39.

The M76 Rifle

Several years and revisions later, Valmet began production of the M76. There were a few variations, to include the “W” model denoting the wood stock, and several others with folding tubular, fixed plastic and other stocks available in a few different cartridge …read more

Source:: Truth About Guns