Valmet M82

The Finnish company Valmet, previously known as Valtion Metallitehtaat, manufactures a variety of products related to both warfare and civilian life. The military-oriented repertoire revolves mainly around firearms and airplanes, while products for the domestic and commercial markets include airplanes, automobiles, locomotives and domestic products. In 1987, Valmet and Sako merged into a single corporate entity and a new company called Sako-Valmet was formed.

The Valmet M82, of which only 2000 units were manufactured, is an assault rifle modeled on the 'bullpup' design. This design locates the firearm's magazine behind the trigger, thereby increasing the barrel length in context with the firearm's overall length. The advantage of the bullpup design in assault rifles is that is permits the weapon a level of power and range that would normally be associated only with much longer models. It also makes the assault rifle far more wieldy and lighter in weight, thereby enhancing its portability. Some of the first rifles to be presented in this format were France's Steyr AUG and FAMAS, sometime in the late 70s.

The steel-framed Valmet M82 was launched on the market in 1978, but Valmet discontinued its production eight years later. As a modern combat weapon, it was a something of an innovation despite some inherent design flaws, incorporating the most outstanding operational features of the AK 47 and its derivatives. The only order of any significant magnitude placed for it was by ODIN International Ltd. in Alexandria, Virginia. During its short production life, it was manufactured in two versions of which many units are still in use or in gun enthusiasts' collections. The Model 255 470 chambers 5.56 x 45 mm ammunition and the Model 255 490 chambers 7.62 x 39 mm.

The Valmet M82 features a urethane stock, the urethane providing a rigid plastic building insulation that creates a high quality thermal envelope for vapor control and air infiltration sealing and adds strength to the entire weapon. Since the trigger is attached to the barrel, it is crafted from polymer in order to prevent overheating during the assault rifle's actual use. A mechanical adaptation of the modern reflex sights used in this assault rifle, called a dioptical sight, provides good accuracy at fixed ranges but is not equal to the demands of adjusted ranges. The design behind these optics is a valid one, but it sacrifices the best features of the reflex sight for the sake of economy. This may have been another factor that finally led to the Valmet M82 being discontinued.

In many other respects, it was an ideal combat weapon. It weighed only 3.3 kilograms and had a very manageable overall length of 710 mm. The barrel length, thanks to the bullpup design, was an advantageous 415 mm. It has an impressive rate of fire of 750 rounds per minute, sourcing its ammunition from detachable box magazines that accommodate either 15 or 30 rounds, depending on the model. The effective range is approximately 402 meters. Apart from these aspects, the Valmet M82 also incorporates the gas-actuated system of operation that adds value to assault rifles all over the globe. With this operation system, some of the pressurized gas generated by the firing of a cartridge is used to eject the spent case and insert a new cartridge, is a useful feature that reduces the maintenance needed to keep this assault rifle operational on the field.
Some of the reasons why the Valmet M82 failed to capture the Finnish and international armament markets are - it was not balanced enough to be of much use under combat conditions, and the iron dioptic sights were found unsuitable because the lacked accuracy and also tended to cause facial lacerations to shooters while in use. In fact, the Valmet M82 seems to be yet another weapon that proves the point many experts have made so far - that the basic action used in Kalashnikov models cannot and should not be adapted for use in bullpup assault rifles.