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Centerfire System's Finnish Suomi M31???

150K views 389 replies 87 participants last post by  zee10103 
#1 ·
These are due to hit the market this week (http://www.centerfiresystems.com/). Anyone getting one? Has anyone had an opportunity to preview the semi-automatic version of this classic WWII smg? If so, how did it function? What about accuracy?

Inquiring minds want to know as I am seriously considering buying one.

Tim
 
#270 ·
observe

It is not a SBR,had TNW weld a replacement compensator on it so tube would not stick out.They reparkerized it when finished.Numrich/GunParts had the replacement comps listed on their website a while back. It was a relatively easy job,lathe access and MIG welder you are good to go.
 
#272 ·
I have both the Suomi and the PPSH-41 and given having only one of the two would clearly go with the PPSH. The Suomi is inordinately heavy, unbalanced, still doesn't work with the drum magazines, shoots a less powerful more expensive round and I still wouldn't trust it's function in a gopher fight. PPSH all the way.
 
#273 ·
Hi,new guy here and I found you on account of this thread,got myself one of these Suomi's:












Mine's in the 800 number range,came with a sling and one stick mag,no drum.

Upon my first shoot with it I had a jam,the same as the rest of you, and thought nothing of it,after a few I decided to look into what was up and maybe fix it-why I felt this was because I noticed the bolt felt "sticky" so I commenced to playing with the gun all-night-long (normal for me with a new friend :D)

After a few hundred times yanking the bolt open and closed I surmised the thing was hanging up on account of the bolt,if I eased it forward it would just stop about half way,sometimes it would stop if I yanked the bolt all the way back and let go~not good! :eek:

I scratched my head and started to look online at pics of the Suomi in it's original full-auto guise,and I noted the bolt was silver,not greyish-black~hmmmmmmm :confused:

A trip to brpguns.com and a peek at the bolts there confirmed it:the original finish was silver,not grey soooooo-they parked it! damn! if it's too thick it can hang up the bolt,right?

I grabbed my dremel,a polishing wheel and some polishing paste and went at it.
I didn't polish off all the finish just enough that the bolt felt smooth,it's working fine now and I'll continue to test it,if it hangs up anymore I'm just going to get some reg polish paste and polish it silver again!

So try the bolt if it jams and see if it sticks any,if it does try polishing it and see what happens,for me that's working so far.
 
#277 ·
I need to get ammo on the 4th before I shoot anymore,going to just polish the bolt so it's sliver again,but I did notice something today-going to have to see if it means anything when I get shells:
I got four new mags and I loaded them up and I decided several looked a bit nicer then what came with it so I stuck one in the gun,then loaded it.

Now when I use the mag that came with the gun the shell pops up a good bit...but the new mag doesn't,it stays almost level;I haven't had time to try all my mags yet as I've been on the bolt,but I want to try them and see if it's just a random thing or if that was part of what was causing some of the jams.

However getting the bolt cleaned off has made operating the poor thing much easier and it does feed better then when I first got it.

I'll post pics of the bolt tomorrow,should have it cleaned off by then.
 
#279 ·
Well I dunno if these pics show what I've been up to so much,I got most of the gunk off the bolt and I also gave the inside of the receiver tube a slight scrub.
Overall I can draw the bolt back and it won't stick anymore,not like when I first got it and even drawing the bolt all the way back would sometime result in it sticking when I let it go.
I may get another bolt and try it,but I doubt it'll give any different result,I gave all major contact areas a good clean off and it's as smooth as you can hope for.









I'm very happy with this little blaster and have a ball shooting it,as soon as I get ammo I'm going to ring it out more;my one complaint is the damn strap that came with it it's too frickin' narrow and cuts the hell out of you when you carry it so I put a 1 1/4 cotton web carry strap in place of it and it's now easy enough to tote around.

When warmer weather comes around I'll be using this to tag vermin as a kind of overgrown .22 :D
 
#281 ·
i got mine in the 1200 serial number range 1st time out stick mags worked great i have 3 drums all 3 jamed!! grrr there was no rithym to it, then 2nd time out they wouldnt feed at all, and them my trigger spring broke called tnw and they are wanting me to send it back no biggie, i put more tension on the drums but havent been able to try them . anyone have any thoughts on the drum issues because i think its just the luck of the draw on them since they are 60+ years old!??
 
#282 ·
Well I got a case of 9MM yesterday,got out this morn and had some fun-fired 150+ rounds and I'd say I'm satisfied with operation over all had a few jams I traced to mags (I bought some about a week ago and the one that came with the gun and one of the new ones looked pretty beat up-they gave some hiccups) the rest worked as they should.

One thing to note besides check mags and polish the bolt:watch your ammo! I tried some Wolf I had and it's always seemed a bit "weak" compared to other stuff,well the Suomi didn't like it so much and I noticed it didn't seem to have the punch that the Fed and Independence ammo had so I got a few hang ups with it.
 
#284 ·
Took her out in sub zero temps today and she shoot a lot better in the cold. Put about 200 rounds through it without a hitch, until I put in a sloppy drum, then it crimped a casing and and had a blown out primer. I would runt steel or brass cased ammo in these, aluminum Blazer rounds seem too soft and fragile in this beast.
 
#286 ·
Just picked up a Suomi on Friday took it out today and it functioned fine with stick mags. Tried a drum and it jammed up until the last 6 rds then it worked. So I released the spring tension to a lower point, will try again. But my big problem was rifle is hitting 12 to 14 in to the right and cannot move front sight. Even if I could I do not think it will correct the problem any suggestions?
 
#287 ·
I picked mine up today, 1100 range serial. Put around 64 rounds through it, using a stick and 2 drums. My range only allows 8 rounds max in a mag, though. Stick functioned fine except when my buddy was shooting with it resting on the mag. Drums had a couple misfeeds but otherwise worked fine. I had to put the rear sight at the 2 setting to get the elevation zeroed at 25 and 50 yds. It shoots about 2 inches to the right at 50 yds though. At 100 yds the 2 setting on the sight was too low, and 3 setting too high, so I'll have to work on that some. Maybe try 2 and aim a bit higher. The 3 setting seemed good for 200 yds: I hit the 200 yd steel gong 3 out of 8 rounds :). Overall this is a fun gun and a nice addition to my Finn collection of 2 M39's, a M27, and M28.
 
#289 ·
J&G is having a sale with these going for $400! No drum, one stick mag. They are currently backordered, but the price is low enough to make me want to take the plunge. Have the issues been resolved yet? I really want to be able to use the high cap drum magazines.

I just read 8 pages of posts to get here and to summarize, TNW recalled the first batch of guns for a modification to the fire control group. Last winter, folks were reporting that the guns functioned OK with stick mags, but were jamming horribly with drums. One school of thought from a poster was that the guns don't cycle fast enough as closed bolt semi weapons to reliably feed, anther idea is that the bolts were parked and imperfect parkerizing was causing a critical amount of friction. A third theory is that the guns are inherently finicky and only work reliably with their serial number-matched magazine. Please tell me a solution was found!!!
 
#291 ·
Dr Dave,

I have one on back-order now. We will see how long the back order takes. I'm curious to see how all of the previous owners and posters are doing with their weapons. I wanted one for a long time and 399.95 was too good to pass up. I don't have any drum mags for it yet and I'm wondering if I'm going to purchase them in quantity or not.

DB

DB
 
#293 ·
I got one early and it worked pretty well but the trigger was spongy and weird feeling. Drums worked pretty good but the stick mags jammed with some regularity. I sent mine back for the trigger and buffer upgrade and it helped the trigger pull quite a bit. The only problem was now the stick mags fed flawlessly but it constantly choked on drums! I called John and he sent me a shorter buffer sleeve and that totally eliminated the jamming. Mine works perfectly now.
 
#295 ·
I finally gave in and bought one. Just picked it up this week. Serial number 13xx. Bolt has been parkerized and I'll leave it that way if it shoots fine. Cycled a few dummy rounds with stick and drum and the ammo seems to feed fine, but I know shooting it may have different results. Both mags have a very loose fit. It has the later features like the locking screw near the trigger guard. I'll report back when I have a chance to get to the range.
 
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