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The 'Valmet M82' (not to be confused with the American Barrett M82 .50BMG sniper rifle) is a bullpup assault rifle with a Valmet M76 internal design created by Finnish company Valmet.

Contents

History

Technical Data

Features

External links

History

The M82 was introduced in Finland in 1978 and discontinued production in 1986.
Only ~ 2,000 M82 were manufactured, mostly as semi-automatic version in 5.56 mm NATO caliber for ODIN International ltd. in Alexandria, Virginia. Few samples were issued to the Finnish Army paratroopers, but rifle was found unsuitable as service weapon. One issue that cropped up during its short service life was, that the rear sight of an uncased rifle had a tendency to hit the lower face, nose, and cheekbones of the paratrooper during landing. Rifle is also ill-balanced, nearly all the weight is in the rear of the rifle and urethanestock is very prone to chipping and breaking.

Technical Data

It is chambered for 5.56 mm NATO caliber as model 255 470 and for 7.62 x 39 mm caliber as model 255 490. It has a steel frame, which is conventional AK-47/AKM design, constructed inside urethane stock [1]. Trigger of the weapon is polymer to prevent heat of the barrel conducting to it, as the trigger is mounted to the barrel of the gun.

Features

The M82 feature dioptical iron sights, a mechanical version of a reflex sight, in which the shooter's right eye would be focused on the front sight while the left eye was focused on rear sight, positioned off the rifle's receiver. The two sights would overlap at certain ranges, providing excellent accuracy at a fixed range. However, due to the fixed nature of the offset sights, the weapon's accuracy at variable ranges suffered.

External links

★ Modern Firearms

★ Gunwriters on the Web includes discussion on the merits and faults of the dioptical iron sights of the Valmet M82