r/canadaguns • u/Ok-Community-3922 • May 27 '26

Feets / Collection / My build Since We’re Posting Valmets

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Stamped receiver M78. In typical Finnish fashion this thing chucks brass 20+ yards.

Side note I’m currently experimenting with 7.62 Galatz magazines. Wondering if the magazine geometry on Zastava M77 magazines might also work?

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u/Relevant_Diver_3228 May 27 '26

So why are these not banned as ak variants i don't think that they should be i just want to know why they are safe

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u/Ok-Community-3922 May 27 '26

Officially they are exempted in law by name. Multiple theories exist however no one theory has been independently confirmed.

(1) Some government MP possessed a Valmet M78 and Valmet Hunter at the time the SOR prescribing AKs as prohibited was dropped. This theory hearkens from the fact that both the Hunter and M78 were included in the original SOR but were later removed and exempted. This would lead me to believe that someone on the inside lobbied the government to do so.

(2) the Feds purchased a large quantity of these firearms for Native communities IOT support treaty hunting rights in the 1970s and 1980s. Similar to where we presently stand with the SKS, it would’ve been an unnecessary infringement detrimental to political capital with no reasonable prospect of compliance from Northern communities to arbitrarily prohibit them.

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u/Relevant_Diver_3228 May 27 '26

thank you for this detailed response from what i can find online they did get givent to indigenous people but were then banned with other aks in 1994 but then in 1998 the hunter and m78 were taken off of the ban list