Suomi M31: Finland’s Famous Submachine Gun

For some great firing footage and an assessment of the m/31 in practical terms, check out today’s video on InRangeTV: Cool Forgotten Weapons merch! Designed by Finland’s most notable arms inventor, Aimo Lahti, the m/31 Suomi submachine gun is an iconic weapon of the Winter War and the Continuation War. It is a first-generation submachine gun with a heavy milled receiver and very well-fitted parts - enough so that a series of vent holes were put in the end of the receiver tube to prevent air compression during the firing cycle. The gun is overall quite heavy ( / ) and has a high rate of fire (~900 rounds/minute). It originally used 50-round quad-stack magazines and 71-round drum magazines, which allowed a shooter to exploit the high rate of fire without constantly having to change magazines. The quad-stack magazines were eventually found to be insufficiently reli