Some of Häyhä's figures are from a Finnish Army document, counted from the beginning of the war, 30 November 1939:
22 December 1939: 138 sniper kills in 22 days[21]
26 January 1940: 199 sniper kills (61 in 35 days)[22]
17 February 1940: 219 sniper kills (20 in 22 days)[7]
7 March 1940 (one day after he was wounded): total of 259 sniper kills (40 in 18 days)[7]
Häyhä never discussed it publicly, but his own private memoir, discovered in 2017, states a number. He begins by stating that "this is his sin list", and estimates the total number he shot to be around 500.

[–] Successful_Try543@feddit.org 21 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Also keep in mind how much (or better how few) daylight there was during that time in the Finnish winter.
Additionally, these are only the numbers of those who he killed as a sniper, not counting those who he killed using his submachine gun, which is estimated to be roughly the same number on top.

For those interested into the story, the Sabaton history video is worth watching.

And also their song White Death is neat.

[–] cabron_offsets@lemmy.world 16 points 5 months ago

Fuck Russia.

[–] solsangraal@lemmy.zip 14 points 5 months ago (1 children)

if you like snipers, see also carlos hathcock https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos_Hathcock

the movie trope of a sniper's shot going through another sniper's scope into his eye--hathcock did that

[–] P00ptart@lemmy.world 10 points 5 months ago (1 children)

He was also the grandfather of the .50 sniper rifle, because he mounted a sniper scope onto an M2 .50 machine gun.

His biography is insane, the stuff he managed to live through is unreal.

[–] GeeDubHayduke@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 5 months ago

Is he the one that sighted in on a boulder to get everything zeroed, only to have a VC spotter setup on his boulder..?

[–] horse_battery_staple@lemmy.world 11 points 5 months ago

Unbothered. Moisturized. Happy. In My Lane. Focused. Flourishing.

[–] sunzu2@thebrainbin.org 10 points 5 months ago

He removed a lot of Russian trash from finnish lands.. Peak Chad

[–] kalpol@lemmy.world 8 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

8mm Mauser Model 98, an old one. Those things make an earth-shattering kaboom. The Germans supplied most of the Finnish equipment in the Winter War.

[–] JenTheWyvern@lemm.ee 6 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Nah that's an M96 (or M38) Swedish Mauser. The front sight is wrong, and it has the Swedish Bayonet. Still loud as hell, and 6.5 Swede is still no joke in terms of accuracy and stopping power today.

[–] Successful_Try543@feddit.org 8 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (2 children)

Obviously, he is just posing for the photo with a different gun than his own.

According to his Wikipedia article:

He used a Finnish-produced M/28-30 rifle (a variant of Mosin–Nagant)

M28-30

Finnish 7.62 mm rifle M/28-30 with M/28-30 bayonet.

Wiki commons (link doesn't work using some clients, but with a browser it does)

[–] JenTheWyvern@lemm.ee 4 points 5 months ago

The M28/30 was indeed his main rifle, but he had a Swede too. There's a picture of him after he retired where they're all in a rack behind him in his house.

[–] tisktisk@piefed.social 6 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I know he's often credited as the deadliest dude ever, but what specifically is our corroborating proof that the numbers are even remotely accurate? Not trying to downlplay, just curious

[–] GeeDubHayduke@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 5 months ago (1 children)

The Fat Electrician just did a video. Seems legit.

[–] tisktisk@piefed.social 3 points 5 months ago

Decent watch. Saddest new knowledge to me was that he lost his original farm he was fighting for in the first place.

[–] Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Wouldn't it be easier to aim without the bayonet?

[–] PugJesus@lemmy.world 10 points 5 months ago

Yes, but he's posing for a cool picture