SIMO HÄYHÄ:THE WORLDS DEADLIEST SNIPER:THE WHITE DEATH

Simo Häyhä is considered to be the greatest sniper of all time reported to be have taken 505 kills. All of his sniper kills would be achieved during the winter war of 1939-40. Simo was born in a village in Finland near the russian border. In his village he would farm and take up hobbies of hunting,shooting and show skiing. At age 17,he joined the CIVIL GUARD and established himself as a excellent marksman in target shooting competitions and demonstrated excellent skiing abilities. During this time he was familiarized with the Finnish Mosin Nagant 28-30 and the suomi submachine gun. Constant practice enables Simo to hit the target 16 times per minute at around 500 feet or 150 metres away. This was incredible considering the Mosin is a Bolt Action Rifle and holds 5 rounds stripper clips.

In 1939,The Soviets Union invaded Finland which would become as known as "The Winter War" or the Russo-Finnish war. The Finns were outnumbered but know the land well and used guerrilla style tactics to take on the Red Army. Simo saw a baptism of fire on the Kola battlefield where at one point there were 4,000 Soviets against only himself and 31 other Finns. On December 21st 1939 Simo achieved his highest daily count of 25 kills. Simo would go out dressed in winter snow camouflage and take a day's worth of supplies crawl to his position and sit in the snow for hours in temperatures as low as -40 Degrees Celsius or -40 degrees fahrenheit. He would also camouflage his position by packing snow in front of him to prevent the muzzle blast wafting up the snow and puts snow in his mouth to control the vapour of his breath from giving away his position. The rifle he used throughout the war was the same Finnish Civil Guard variant of the Mosin Nagant Rifle that he was trained with during his time in the Civil Guard Known as the M28-30. 

This rifle featured front sights known as the "The Spitz" because they resemble the Spitz Dog. Simo preferred to use Iron sights instead of a scope which were obtained from a captured Soviet version of the rifle.This is because the scope can give away his position reflecting the Sun's Glare or Cloud up in the cold environment. He would Zero his sights in the common combat distance of 150 Meters. One combat engagement came after Simo was assigned to take out a Soviet Sniper who had killed 3 platoon Leaders he found a position and waited for several hours as the sun was setting he noticed its rays reflecting off the sniper scope in the distance the enemy sniper started to stand up to go back and Simo pulled the trigger taking out him in ONE SHOT. The soviets took the thread of Simo seriously and deployed counter snipers and artillery strikes to try to take him out. He even gained a Nickname "The White death". Simo was wounded in the last week of the war when a soviet infantryman shot him with a explosive bullet. The bullet hit the Simo's face but he was evacuated in time before the finns were overrun. He was decorated with numerous awards and promoted from corporal straight to the 2nd Lieutenant. Later, In the winter war On February 17th 1940 Simo was also awarded with a specially made honorary rifle Model 28 from Swedish Businessman (idk the exact name).

Finnish WWII weapons: top, Suomi K31 submachine gun (200 kills by Simo) bottom, Mosin Nagant 28-30 (500+ kills by Simo).

By the end of the winter war Simo was credited with 505 confirmed sniper kills Of soviet soldiers which he achieved within 100 days in the time of the year where the daylight hours are low. This make him as the recorder holder for the highest number of confirmed sniper kills he has also reported 200 kills with his suomi KP31 machine gun. 
Some of Simo Häyhä's figures are from a Finnish Army document (counted from beginning of the war, 30/11/1939)
22 December 1939-138 sniper kills
26 January 1940-199 sniper kills
17 February 1940-219 sniper kills
7 March 1940 (when Simo Häyhä was seriously wounded): total of 259 sniper kills

However, on 6th March 1940, when the Soviets were randomly directing artillery fire at the area where they thought Simo Häyhä was camping, they managed to get a lucky shot with an explosive round, which hit Häyhä in the jaw. When the bullet hit Simo it tore into his left jaw bone and knocked down some of his teeth which he needed several surgeries to fix. The impact of the hit knocked Häyhä unconscious, and he fell into a coma for eleven days, waking up on the day the war ended. He went on to live until the age of 96 (17 December 1905 – 1 April 2002).

Left:Simo Hayha after being hit by a variety of explosive bullet(recovered)

Common practice today is for teams of military marksman who have qualified through special scout/sniper schools to work together in two to three man teams, with a spotter, a trigger puller, and sometimes a third shooter for security. These modern teams have dedicated sniper weapon systems made from the finest and most high tech components, high power optics, passive night vision and match ammunition. Hayha, a product of 1939 military thinking, operated alone, used a standard bolt-action Finnish-made Sako Mosin-Nagant Model 28-30 rifle with iron sights, and standard issue ball ammunition some of which dated back to the Tsarist times. The 28-30 was a Finn redesign of the old school WWI Russian Mosin 91, made shorter and with better sights. He had been offered a Swedish Mauser with optics but turned it down, preferring the Mosin he had trained with.
Today, every modern military has specialized schools, selection processes, and training for snipers that includes the heavy use of field craft and camouflage. They are all, in their own way, a hat tip to the little Finn named Simo.