Lahti L-35

History

Aimo Lahti lent his design talents to a new Finnish semi-automatic pistol named "Lahti L-35" in his honor. While initially only appearing as a clone of the German Luger, the L-35 borrowed the look of the famous weapon and combined it with a Bergman-esque internal mechanism to produce World War II (1939-1945).

The weapon is known for its high build quality and quality, as well as its reliability in the field.

Design work began in 1929 and the gun was adopted by the Finnish Army as the official pistol in 1935 - hence its name - replacing the upcoming Pistol m/23 series. The production of the pistol was overseen by Valtion Kivaarithdas in Finland and Husqvarna Vapenfabriks Aktiebolag in Sweden over its lifetime, resulting in approximately 98,700 pistols being manufactured.

The L-35 is equipped with the world-popular 9x19mm Parabellum, a pistol cartridge of German origin that is still in use today (2015). The gun weighs 2.75 pounds when loaded, has an overall length of 9.3 inches, and has a 4.6-inch barrel. Like the Luger, the L-35 has a distinctly swept-back pistol grip and an integral ring trigger area.

The receiver is usually boxy in appearance, running only halfway to the muzzle, with the barrel exposed for the remainder of the length in typical Ruger fashion. A rear notch and front post form the sight combination.

The grip houses a spring-loaded, detachable 8-round magazine, and the action of the weapon is recoil-operated using a locking breech assembly. The muzzle velocity is 1,100 feet per second.

This weapon played an important role throughout World War II (1939-1945) and was first used against the invasion of the Soviet Union in the "Winter War" (1939-1940). It served extensively against the Soviet Union in the ensuing "Continuous War" (1941-1944), and contributed to the Finnish cause in the "Lapland War" (1944-1945) against Germany in the latter part of World War II as a reliable The weapon, its internal design is especially good at resisting dirt buildup.

This quality performs well in temperate, mountainous and arctic conditions. In addition, a bolt "accelerator" can be installed to increase the rate of fire, although this is mainly for reliability in cold weather operations.

If the L-35 had any downside, it was its complex disassembly process, which ultimately required an experienced gunsmith to fully disassemble it. It's also very heavy in the hand when loaded.

Otherwise, they were well-made pistols for their time and were often overlooked in the Luger-style line of pistols that appeared in the 1930s and 1940s.

Husqvarna in Switzerland produced the Lahti L-35 as "Pistole m/40" from 1940 to 1946. The Finnish L-35 was selected by the Swedish army after importing the original option - the German Walther P38 semi. Automatic - Abandoned with Germany's official entry into World War II.

Specification

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