Many M39s that have been imported to the US have stocks which are in new
condition and new M39 stocks are available in the US and Finland. Subsequently M39s
with extensive repairs such as this one are seldom encountered. It has been
suggested by a collector with Finnish military experience that this rifle may have been
used to fire blanks during training maneuvers, a role typically relegated to M91s, and
that the repairs were done at a lower level facility rather than being sent back for a
full refurbishment and replacement stock. The rifle itself is a 1942 VKT with
matching bolt and approximately 20% bluing remaining. Hold the mouse cursor over the
pictures below to highlight the splices, plugs and repaired splits. The first
picture shows the early rounded fingergroove stock splice which is original to the stock
and typical of M39s, albeit with variations in the pattern.
The bottom of the fore end has a long thin patch.
The right side of the forearm has a plug which was probably done when the
stock was produced.
The next two pictures show where the entire butt split from the rest of
the stock beginning at the rear of the trigger guard. It was repaired with a dowel
passing vertically through the wrist. Three plugs and the toe splice, all most
likely from original production, are also shown.
The heel of the butt which was left from the primary split cracked at the
front of the comb. A dowel was used to reattach it to the rest of the butt and is
visible at the far right of the picture.
The original toe splice has an inlay over it on the left side of the butt.
The left side of the primary split beginning at the rear of the trigger
guard runs out at the tang of the buttplate.
On the right side the primary split runs out slightly lower near the curve
of the buttplate. There is also a plug in the stock on the right side and the dowel
holding the heel on can be seen at the lower left.
These are laminated reinforcements that run vertically the height of the
butt and only the lower edge can be seen when the buttplate is in place. These
reinforcements are not original to wartime stock production and would have been done
later. It doesn't seem likely that a stock with this many repairs would have been
reinforced instead of replaced so they were likely done before the extensive damage.
The factory toe splice is also visible here.
