The Swedish Suomi M-37/39 Submachine Gun
Sweden
•
7m 2s
When the Swedish military decided that 1937 seemed like a pretty good time to be getting some new submachine guns, they arranged to purchase a version of the m/31 Suomi from their Finnish neighbors - which they called the M-37. Since the standard Swedish military pistol (the Husqvarna m/07) was chambered for the 9x20mm Browning Long cartridge, they got a version of the Suomi chambered for that round. It used a rearward-sloping (to prevent rimlock) quad-stack magazine that held 56 rounds.
Shortly after this purchase, however, Sweden bought a number of other foreign-made guns, including Walther HP pistols and German submachine guns in 9mm Parabellum. This was a more powerful and more modern cartridge than the 9x20, and so the followup licensing of Suomis reverted to 9mm Parabellum as well, with the designation M-37/39. While the basic mechanism of these is identical to the Finnish Suomi, they differ in some details, including barrel length, charging handle contour, and stock profile.
Up Next in Sweden
-
InterArms G33/50: Not a Real Carbine
Among the many Swedish Mauser carbines imported into the United States is an interesting batch of guns marked "InterArms G33/50". What are these actually?
They are rifles imported by InterArms, of course, and they began life as proper Swedish m/94 and m/94-14 carbines. Upon import, though, the...
-
Swedish Mauser Carbines - m/94 and m/...
When Sweden decided to replace its Remington Rolling Block rifles with a more modern repeating rifle design, they tested models from Mauser, Mannlicher, Lee, and Krag. The Mauser 1893 was chosen as the winner of the competition, with a few modifications (most notably a change to allow the safety ...
-
1938 Swedish Army Trials Luger
Sweden tested the Luger in 1904, along with all the major semiauto pistols available at the time. The Luger was found to be the most accurate gun in the trials, but expensive and not as reliable in cold weather as the Browning 1903 - which was formally adopted as the m/1907 a few years later and ...
