stancrist said:

Interesting. A sniper rifle with a 16-inch barrel. Why so short?

it's a DMR. 16" is enough for 600-800 meters, and rifle is compact enough for typical Finnish landscape and proposed mode of operations (urban or woods; no chance of effective fighting in open)

There are two versions one as semiautomatic sniper rifle and one as DMR rifle no mention if they are the same rifle just different optic . DMRs these days seem to be gravitating to 16in

Semi-automatic Sniper Rifle 23 is equipped with a high-quality optical sight that together with precision ammunition enables snipers to achieve effects in different targets up to a distance of 800 metres.

Designated Marksman Rifle 23 is more simplified in its weapon-mounted equipment, and designed for use by jaeger and infantry sections designated marksmen. This weapon increases the sections range up to 600 metres. 

There are 7.62 NATO PKMs now, probably use one of those.

762 has a very poor shape

A follow on look today from TFB:

https://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2022/01/31/potd-sako-m23-7-62mm-with-steiner-m7xi-2-9-20x50/

https://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2021/05/04/sweden-finland-service-rifle-together/

I feel like it's deja vu all over again.  

gatnerd said:

A first glimpse of SAKO's AR10 design, the M23:

That's not actually true. 7.62 NATO is a damn decent cartridge so long as you're not idiots who insist on using the wrong rifling twist rate and the dumpy ass original m80 fmj round which was supposed to be nothing but a training round.

Once you deal with these two issues 7.62 NATO is actually a great round.

As an example, vintage m61 AP bullets are still incredibly dangerous to even people wearing modern body armor.

Granted there's a few things you could do to make an improved 7.62 NATO, all of which are likely to be readily accomplished by going to a neckless TV revised 7.62 loading. 

Beyond that though even with as somewhat suboptimal as the current 7.62 NATO is there's no doubt that m80a1 projectiles make it plenty damn good even as it already is.