I don't want to start an argumant because I am not knowledgable by any means. I found a website that 7.62x54.net that has an ID guide. I could not find my exact markings but it led me to belive that it is a Finnish M39.
Length 46 1/2
rear sight flat
Front sight 1" back
Markings has the SAKO


and SA and 1944


any ideas

From one of your pics I could see it looked to have an octogonal or hexogonal receiver. My dad has a beauty of a Russian rifle that was refubished at a Finish arsenal and it has one of those non-round receivers.
I am anything but an authority on these weapons but I'd sure find out with some assurance what I had before I did any drilling or hacking on it.

Thanks for the input, and that is what I am trying to do (find out).

Ypurs is definately a Sako. Nice rifle

The Finns picked up a lot of mosin nageants off the battlefield and rebuilt them, by 1944, the war was over for them as far as fighting goes.

Definately shoot it before deciding that its shot out, use .308" bullets. The Finns paid a lot of attention to details in building their rifles and took very good care of them, it should be an excellent shoo
I would defeinately reccommend against bending the bolt or drillign the receiver, the rifl eyou have is worth well over $300 in original form and worht far less if molested.

You can buy scout mounts thta repalce the rear sight leaf from B-Square or even better do a search for 'Darrels scout mounts' and use a LER scope with the mount.

I would expect that with a wartime Russian rifle, but Finnish rebuilds are in an entirely different class when it coes to workmanship and accuracy. The Fins still use rifles built on mosin nagant receivers for sniping.

As a matter of interest, the Russians had two main arsenals that made rifles during WWII. One was the Tula Arsenal, and the other was called "Izjhvest", as closely as I can come to transliterating the sound using the Roman, rather than the Cyrillic alphabet. (The Roman alphabet doesn't have a symbol for the equivalent sound of the Russian sound-it's like the "g" sound in the last syllable of the word "garage". At least one of these, Tula,was established under Czar Peter the Great in 1715 or so, and has been making Russian service small arms for nearly 300 years.The other one was established about 1805 or so. NEITHER OF THESE, the main Russian small-arms factories, IS BEHIND THE URALS, AND NONE WERE EVER STAFFED BY GULAG PRISONERS!

The M91 Mosin-Nagant was designed by a Russian Army captain (Mosin), and the well-known at that time Belgian gun designer Nagant. Although this rifle is a little "strange" in design (look at the overly complicated magazine arrangement!!), if made with quality materials and workmanship, it is a good equivalent to all the other service rifles in use by the world's armies in that era, at the early introduction of smokeless powder.In fact, it is a lot better than some of its' contemporaries, such as the Mannlicher Carcano junk in Italy and the Lebel of France. Most of us are spoiled by having the M98 mauser and its near copy, the M1903 Springfield, to compare to the M/N! Of course, the M/N's made during the stresses of wartime are pretty sad examples of a firearm, especially the WWII versions....... IF you can find a M/N made by New England Westinghouse, Remington or Winchester back during WWI, you'd really have something!

Another fact is that the M/N cannot be easily (if at all) converted to use any other cartridge case, so it doesn't get much gunsmithing! That makes it less interesting to guys like us!

http://www.answers.com/topic/tula-arsenal

http://www.nrapublications.org/archives/russiabonus.asp

Your rifle is a Finish one made by Sako as indicated by the "S" for the Finish Army as indicated by the boxed "SA". The hexagon receiver is more desirable than the round. The M39 are said to be more accurate than the Russian M44's and M38's. I would shoot it with out the scope and see how it does. If you still desire the scope then put one on that does not alter the rifle and the rifle can be returned to original condition. This rifle is going up in value for sure and you don't want to ruin it.

I agree, and you can purchase a bolt body section that has a turned-down bolt handle, take the bolt apart and replace the body section with the one that has the altered handle, and save the original bolt body. Then, later on, you can restore the bolt to original condition and the whole rifle will then be original.

Winchester never made any form of Mosin Nagant. They did produce the M1985 in 7.62x54R caliber. That may be where the confusion comes from.

Yes. You are correct. I stand corrected!