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»Simo "Simuna" Häyhä, 1905 – 2002, was a Finnish military sniper in the Second World War during the 1939–1940 Winter War against the Soviet Union.

He used a Finnish-produced M/28-30, a variant of the Mosin–Nagant rifle, and a Suomi KP/-31 submachine gun. Häyhä is believed to have killed over 500 men during the Winter War, the highest number of sniper kills in any major war.

Häyhä preferred iron sights over telescopic sights, as they enable a sniper to present a smaller target for the enemy (a sniper must raise his head a few centimetres higher when using a telescopic sight), can be relied on even in extreme cold, unlike telescopic sights which tend to cloud up in cold weather, and are easier to conceal; sunlight can reflect off a telescopic sight's lenses and reveal the sniper's position.

Häyhä estimated in his private war-time diary that he shot around 500. Häyhä's diary, which covers his experiences in the Winter War from 30 November 1939 to 13 March 1940, was accidentally found by those who had studied Häyhä's war history; it had been hidden for decades.«

(Above text from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simo_H%C3%A4yh%C3%A4 )