In 96+% very sharp condition, we have an extremely rare January 1940 production Finnish Military Contract FN High Power Pistol. This pistol was from the 2nd delivery and would have seen combat in both the Winter War and the Continuation War. These pistols are extremely rare; only 2400 of these pistols made it to Finland and about half of those were lost in the war, leaving only around 1200 examples that survived and just a small number of those remain in top collector grade condition! This pistol is not import marked and it’s all matching and the bore is excellent as well.
The pistol has the “N6” Finnish inspectors marking on the front web of the right side of the trigger guard. There were Finnish inspectors at the FN Factory overseeing production of their contract. There are so few of these pistols because the contract was suspended due to the critical need of the Belgian Army, who faced an impending Nazi invaision. Please note that this example also has the special wide front sight that the Finns installed on these pistols when the shoulder stocks were discarded for regular holster carry.
These pistols were initially issued with a shoulder stock but in many cases based upon the preference of the user this stock was discarded and they were just issued in holsters that were removed from the stocks. You will note the round Worn spot on the left grip this is commonly seen on Finnish High Powers Due to pressure wear from carry in the shoulder stock holster. This should not be considered a defect, As it is an artifact of being in the holster.
This is certainly one of the rarest and most sought out High Power Pistols by collectors, there are just a few in the states and most of them are import marked and almost all of the known examples are just completely trashed from hard use. This is an extremely fine example of a pistol that the Finns found to be very effective and highly regarded in action.
If you collect FN Pistols this is ABSOLUTELY ONE ON THE TOUGHEST VARIANTS TO LOCATE IN DECENT NON-IMPORT CONDITION.
Scotty’s Collector Insight….Finland was only able to get a scant 2400 of these highly prized pistols and then FN had to concentrate on arming the Belgium Army due to the outbreak of WWII. They saw considerable combat against the Soviets and were extremely prized. A non import marked survivor in this condition is a real prize.
