Talvisota, the Winter War [or War of the White Death as the Russians called it] was mostly fought on the Finnish side by Finnish Suojeluskunta Civil Guard reservists equipped with the older M28-30 rifle, also a Mosin-Nagant reworked by Finland's armourers.
Both are excellent weapons, but the M28-30 gained fame between the first and second world wars as the equipment of Finnish marksmen in the international ski and riflery *patrol rifle* competition that became the Olympic Biathlon Event.
One such competitor was one Simo Häyhä, who not only competed with his M28-30, but took his target rifle to war, managing some 515 enemy casualties before he was himself hit by a Red sniper, injuring him seriously enough to take him out of the fighting. If his personally counted score is considered, the number rises to 542 if unconfirmed deaths are included, plus, besides his sniper kills, Häyhä was also credited with over two hundred kills with a Suomi KP/-31 submachine gun, thus bringing his credited kills to at least 705. Remarkably, all of Häyhä's kills were accomplished in fewer than 100 days with a very limited amount of daylight per day. In general, he prefered the open metallic sights of his M28-30 to the telescopic sighted Soviet rifles with which he experimented to at least some extent.
