Valmet 412

Out of production

Specifications

Maker: Valmet
Type: Combination gun
Action: Break action
Era: Modern (1946–1999)
Produced: 1980–1990
Magazine: None
Swedish class: 1

Chambered in

12 gauge
.30-06 Springfield
9.3×74R

Stock

Wood

What it is worth

Value unknown

No published price was found for this model. Rather than estimate one from a comparable gun, the compendium leaves it blank.

Chapter 01

Overview

Valmet developed the 412 to replace its 312, mostly for production reasons, and the new gun sold hard from the start — at its peak 5,000 a year, owning the mid-price market for nearly its whole run. In 1980 it won an American gun-of-the-year award, the first ever given outside the United States.

Chapter 02

How it works

An over-and-under built as a system: the receiver was strengthened and given an extra lock-up so it could carry rifle barrels, and tolerances were held tight enough that fitting a new barrel set needed little more than a headspace check. A hammer-retainer patented in 1983 holds the firing pin forward against the primer, which cured the pierced shotgun primers the thinner rifle pins had caused.

Chapter 03

Variants

Thirty-six barrel sets were made: 12- and 20-bore shotgun pairs, 600 mm double-rifle barrels from .243 to 9.3×74R, and combination barrels pairing a 12/70 with anything from 5.6×52R to 9.3×74R. The 412 S TN was fully nickelled, about 300 aluminium-framed 400Ls were finished, and after Valmet the gun lived on as the Tikka 412S, Tikka 512 and FinnClassic 512.

Chapter 04

In the field

One action takes a shotgun pair for birds, a double rifle, or a combination set such as 12-bore over .30-06 or 9.3×74R — one gun for a season that moves from grouse to driven game. The 12-bore is one of the three gauges Sweden allows for all shotgun hunting.

Sources

Written from: Valmet 412 — Wikipedia (fi), Klassifikation av jaktvapen i Sverige — Wikipedia (sv) — read 2026-10-29

Cross-reference