Valmet m/81

[Ari_H]

Some 55 years back the Finnish gun company Valmet was planning to start making air pistols. They had already produced an air rifle, the humble Airis springer which was moderately successful domestically and some amount was even exported. The pistol however was about to be a modern competition grade SSP. The first version was m/72, of which total number of 15 of were made. The construction resembles an another SSP of the time, Walther LP3. Air cylinder is located in the butt and pressure is produced by the upstroke the the underlever. It also cocks the firing mechanism, the bolt just pushes the pellet into the breech and seals it.

Changes were then made to the design, for example the air duct from the cylinder to the breech was made more straight to improve air flow. A batch of parts were manufactured but for some reason the parts pile sat under the desk of one of the constructors for a full decade. Then a the batch was assembled as complete pistols which got the model designation m/81. Here's one of them, which I was able to buy from the retired constructor who did the final assembly work.





As far as he can remember not more than a dozen of these were finished as complete pistols, which were then distributed among the workers of the factory department. The construction had already became dated so planning commercial production was not any more feasible.

Quality wise my piece is kind of a mixed bag. The trigger and metalwork are superb but the woodwork does not quite match. The pistol shoots but it is quite low power and the power varies from shot to shot. It may be that the air release valve is sticking because of the 30+ years' hiatus. I am NOT going to try to fix and maybe mangle the thing, it may stay what it is, a rarity and a minuscule grace note of the short lived production of Finnish air guns.

[Garvin]

Fantastic! Thank you so much for posting this. I'll put it in my gallery with the Airis.

[ptdunk]

I’ve never heard of these, thank you for sharing.

Very interesting, I like the slender lines and the ball weight.


Cheers,
Matt

[Ari_H]

The ball is not a weight, it's a plastic end piece of the cocking lever.

The barrel and breech seem to be just a length of an Airis air rifle barrel. The diameter and the front sight blade are exactly similar.

[Re01312]

Valmet produced the highest quality military rifles, I fired a semi-auto version imported to the USA. So I am not surprised to see their efforts turned toward airguns. I wish, they had an increased production run of Valmet air pistol.

Randy

[ptdunk]

The ball is not a weight, it's a plastic end piece of the cocking lever.

The barrel and breech seem to be just a length of an Airis air rifle barrel. The diameter and the front sight blade are exactly similar.

That makes sense.
Much longer cocking arm than the Walther LP2 then, must be a lot easier to compress.
Definitely an improvement.

Cheers,
Matt

[Garvin]

I don't suppose you have any pics of the Valmet m/72 do you please Ari?

[Ari_H]

Cocking effort is still quite high. May be because the piston supposedly has no specific seal, it's just a close fitting piece of plastic. That's what the man who assembled these told when we discussed about the possible causes of varying power. So lots of friction between the piston and the cylinder.

Here's the m/72, never seen one alive.





Scanned from
Timo Hyytinen: Arma Fennica Suomalaiset aseet Finnish Firearms, ISBN 951-99681-6-4. Page 266.

[Garvin]

Excellent. Many thanks.

[Garvin]

It seems a strange decision to make the cocking 'knob' on the m72 so pointed and sharp. I suppose it was aesthetic - made it look futuristic or something (ie. rocket-like at that space/missile-obsessed time?)

[Ari_H]

I don't think the shape of the m/72 cocking knob has anything to do with space age. Maybe it is just meant to allow gripping with whole hand.

IMHO back in the day, aesthetics was not one of the strong elements of Finnish gun design, maybe because domestic market valued functionality over fancy looks. Mentality was that a tool does not need to be pretty to do its work well, especially if one would have to pay extra for the prettiness. This lead to lost profits at markets where values were different. For example it's been said about the Airis air rifle that considering its good mechanical quality it might have had much better success abroad if it had not looked so plain and cheap.

[Garvin]

That makes sense. I've always thought of the Finns as a very pragmatic people. I think it comes from having a very long frontier with a potential invader.

[ogilkes]

What a magnificent looking oddball pistol!