The M82 was introduced in Finland in 1978 and discontinued production in 1986. Only around 2,000 were manufactured, mostly as semi-automatic versions in 5.56 mm NATO caliber for ODINInternational Ltd. of Alexandria, Virginia. A few samples were issued to Finnish Army paratroopers, but the rifle was found to be unsuitable as a service weapon. One issue that cropped up during its short service life was that the rear sight of an uncased rifle had a tendency to hit the lower face, nose and cheekbones of the paratrooper during landing. The rifle was also poorly balanced, as nearly all the weight was in the rear.
Technical Data
It is chambered for 5.56×45mm NATO caliber as model 255 470 and for 7.62×39mm caliber as model 255 490. It has a Valmet RK 62 76 receiver, which is made from stamped and riveted sheet metal, constructed inside urethane stock. The trigger of the weapon is polymer to prevent heat of the barrel conducting to it, as the trigger is mounted to the barrel of the gun.
Features
The M82 features an unusual sight arrangement. The front and rear sights, similar to a Bren light machine gun or some other belt fed machineguns, are offset to the left. The sights are aligned normally with the right eye, but are offset from the barrel about 1.25 inches. This results in the rifles windage being accurate for the zeroed range only. Shots taken at closer ranges to zero will hit to the right of the target and shots taken at longer ranges will hit to the left of the target. With the sight offset from the barrel by approximately 1.25", if the rifles windage were zeroed at 50 meters, at 100 meters' distance the windage error would be about 1.25 inches and at 200 meters' distance the windage error would be 3.75 inches. This results in a margin of error making shots over 300 meters difficult. Since the fixed sights do not allow for any elevation adjustment, it is clear that this weapon is meant for combat accuracy at short/urban ranges only and not meant to be a precision sniping tool. The offset sight arrangement and right side ejection mean that this weapon is very difficult to use for left-handed users. Modern bullpups have eliminated this drawback by using centrally-aligned optics and either forward, downward or rearward ejection to allow ambidextrous use in combat situations.
