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.
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.
the movie trope of a sniper's shot going through another sniper's scope into his eye--hathcock did that
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.
Is he the one that sighted in on a boulder to get everything zeroed, only to have a VC spotter setup on his boulder..?
Unbothered. Moisturized. Happy. In My Lane. Focused. Flourishing.
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.
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.
Obviously, he is just posing for the photo with a different gun than his own.
He used a Finnish-produced M/28-30 rifle (a variant of Mosin–Nagant)
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)
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
Jesus!
From his Wiki page
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.