Pretty good!: The Russians are the one to check in with on sniping as they took it up to the highest level in terms of productivity. Approximately 12000 confirmed kills during WWII of which the
top 20 snipers accounted for 7500!, as with air or Uboat aces, the
top aces do most of the tallying! The top sniper of the war was Finnish Lt. Simo Häyhä with 542 confirmed kills in the Winter War, likely with a captured Soviet weapon. Additionally in the same winter battle of Koläa, the Finn, nicknamed 'White Death', used a Suomi kP/31 sub-machine gun and accounted for
another 200 kills bringing his total to 742 in
100 day period; He died in 2002 at the ripe age of 97! Vasily Zaytsef of
Enemy at the Gate fame was well down the list with a commendable 242. One of several proficient and highly decorated women snipers, Ludmilla Paulichenko, accounted for 309 confirmed kills with 36 of those being enemy snipers! The 1891/30 upgraded WWI Mosin was the weapon of choice with a extended bolt to avoid the simple rock solid sight mount for either the 3.5x power PU and later PE/Pem 4.0x power scope, both modeled on the superior Zeiss German scope and utilizing the German
three bar reticule optic. This weapon remained in use until replaced by the Druganov in 1963, was used in Viet Nam and is still used/seen in the African conflicts today 100+ years later!!.
