VALMET M82:

The Valmet M82 is a bullpup assault rifle with a Valmet M76 internal design crea
ted by
Finnish company Valmet.
HISTORY:
The M82 was introduced in Finland in 1978 and discontinued production in 1986.
Only ~ 2,000 M82 were manufactured, mostly as semi-automatic version in
5.56 mm NATO caliber for ODIN International ltd. in Alexandria, Virginia.
Few samples were issued to the Finnish Army paratroopers, but the rifle was
found unsuitable as 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
ill-balanced, as nearly all the weight was in the rear of the rifle and its ure
thane
stock was very prone to chipping and breaking.
TECHNICAL DATA:
It is chambered for 5.56x45mm NATO caliber as model 255 470 and for 7.62x39mm ca
liber
as model 255 490. It has a Valmet M76 receiver, which is made from stamped and
riveted
sheet metal, constructed inside urethane stock.[1] Trigger of the weapon is po
lymer to
prevent heat of the barrel conducting to it, as the trigger is mounted to the b
arrel of
the gun.
FEATURES:
The M82 features an unusual sight arrangement. The front and rear sights, simila
r to
a Bren Machinegun or some other belt fed machineguns, are offset to the left. Th
e 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. Sh
ots 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 mete
rs
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 sh
ots over
300 meters difficult. Since the fixed sights do not allow for any elevation adj
ustment,
it is clear that this weapon is meant for combat accuracy (6" at 100 meters) 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 ve
ry
difficult to be used by left handers and not possible to use left handed in an u
rban or
close combat situation. Modern (call them Generation 2) bullpups have eliminated
this
drawback by using centrally-aligned optics and either forward, downward or rearw
ard
ejection to allow ambidextrous use in combat situations.