[ Unique Lahti L-35 Target Pistol ]
Hi guys, thanks for tuning in to another video on ForgottenWeapons.com.
I'm Ian McCollum, and I am here today at the Sako factory
in Riihimäki, Finland, where it is actually this year
the 100th anniversary of the factory's existence.
And they were generous enough to open up
their reference collection to let me do some filming
of some really neat guns that they've got.
Like this one, this is one of only a small handful
of very extravagant Lahti L-35 pistols ever made.
This was set up for specifically field shooting, and it's unclear exactly what that involved.
But it is a pistol with an extra-long barrel, extra sight radius,
and its own bipod. Let's take a closer look at it.
Alright, so here's the whole thing laid out along with a standard production L-35 pistol.
Although since we're visiting the Sako factory,
we'll not just use any L-35, we'll use serial number 8.
But you can see obviously it's the same action.
The barrel has been very significantly extended,
so this is approximately an 11.5 inch barrel, that's 290 or 295mm long.
All of the L-35s had stock attachment lugs back here.
Now only a small number of original stocks were made,
and they were kind of a C96 Mauser type of holster stock.
However, these field pistols had their own unique stock built, including a bipod.
So let's see, let's start with, interestingly, this extended disassembly lug.
The original disassembly lever on the Lahti is over here on the left side.
That has been moved,
and replaced with this cross-bolted, extra-large lever.
Because this pistol actually came with its original standard length slide
as well as this special field-shooting slide.
I should also point out this is serial number 052, so it is also an extremely early L-35.
You can see it still has the loaded chamber indicator there on the top of the slide.
A massive new rear sight has been added that extends the sight radius several inches backward,
and uses a set of interchangeable aperture sights for particularly good precision shooting.
Although you can actually rotate that around, and use a notch sight
instead should you prefer.
But I think aperture is definitely the way to go on this, so I'll put it back there.
Elevation is adjustable through this spring-loaded lever (lock it into place there).
Push that in and you can lift the whole sight up
and, in theory, off if you want to remove it completely.
Now because this extended ... competition rear sight makes it very difficult to access
the original grasping grooves on the slide,
an extra cocking hook has been added, so you can pull this to cycle the gun manually.
The original safety is still there.
The front is a large circular hood with a crosshair in the centre.
And it's worth pointing out that
the size of this is such that when you line it up with the rear aperture,
the rear aperture and this hood appear to be the exact same size to the shooter's eye.
So proper shooting is done by exactly centring this in the rear aperture,
and the sizes fit to do that very nicely. It's not just made this huge for no good reason.
And there is also a pivoting sling swivel that has been added to the barrel there,
along with a sling swivel on the stock itself.
I think perhaps the most unusual element of this whole thing
is the fact that it has a bipod on it.
We have two bipod feet here and this one is fixed, this one pivots out.
Unfortunately, I can't show you the bipod because of this leather strap that's holding it in place.
I can open it up to free this side, and we'll do that in a moment,
but in order to get the bipod loose, I have to take it out from under this.
And this ... leather is old and hardened enough at this point
that I'm afraid that if I do that I'll break it.
So I'm not going to open that all the way up.
This is a curious bipod to me, I'm not entirely sure
if it is intended to be used vertically,
or folded all the way forward like this and pressed into a log or anything else.
Of course it could very well be that ... it can be used either way,
you can push this into the ground vertically, or into a tree in the forest if you prefer.
The stock is of course not a standard Lahti stock,
it was specifically made for this sort of target pistol.
And if we very delicately ... open ... (there we go) ... that,
we can open the entire side of the stock where
you have a whole bunch of shooting supplies stored.
So if you are going to use the open notch sights,
you would probably want a different front sight hood.
So this has the same mounting holes, you can unscrew
that big crosshair front sight hood and mount this one.
And you can see that this hole is cut large enough to hold the large one.
We have a variety of tools here, a replacement rear sight notch,
cleaning rod, an additional ... rear aperture sight.
I expect this is a slightly different size aperture.
And of course cleaning material.
So, everything you need for a days shooting down there in the stock of the gun.
Screwdriver, there you go, that's for changing out the sights.
(And a place to secure a spare magazine.)
With that leather strap removed you can see how the bipod opens up here, like so.
These would have originally folded level. But again these are made of leather,
and they're quite delicate today, so I'm not going to mess with them.
The only piece of identifying information we have on ... who owned this specific pistol
is this little placard on the side of the stock.
Which has presumably the owner's name, Reino Kalari,
and what is presumably the village where he lived.
But he was probably, almost certainly, someone who was working at the factory,
or otherwise perhaps somehow involved in the development of the pistol. ...
Very few of these were made, so they wouldn't have gone to just anybody.
There is also this attachment on the side of the rear sight
for something that was made out of rubber.
It's not clear to me what that originally was, but it has long since broken off.
Unfortunately there's just not that much information available on these.
We know a handful of them were made, probably not more than 5.
And probably all custom built for their owners.
So we, I suppose, do know the owner's name but not anything more about him.
Definitely a very cool look at pistol shooting in the 1930s.
.. This is surprisingly reminiscent of things we still have today,
IPSC-style raceguns with extra hooks on the back
to access the slide despite having an optic mounted, for example.
Some things just really don't ever change.
Anyway, hopefully you guys enjoyed this look at a very unusual custom pistol.
Thanks for watching.