60-year-old Matti Rajala is a familiar figure at the Lapua cartridge factory, as he has been working with the company since 1981. Matti is an EDM machinist in the factory’s tooling department, and his years of experience is a unique asset to the company. Matti can also be called a product expert, because
he has used the Lapua Naturalis hunting bullets since the very launch of the product in 2002. An avid hunter, he boasts quite the collection of fired mushroomed Naturalis bullets.
“I’ve grown up around hunting, and I’ve been hunting ever since I got my hunting license at age 15. During the season I go hunting on a weekly basis, whenever I can really. I hunt mostly moose, but I also go bird hunting with my Finnish Spitz Pate. For me, Naturalis is simply the best hunting bullet. No lead residues and weight loss is minimal. I’ve shot approx. 40 moose with Naturalis, the largest of which was a 13-pointer.”
A lifetime of hunting means a fair amount of good memories, too. “It was my second season with a hunting party. I was waiting at my spot when a large moose, an 11-pointer, appeared right in front of me. It stopped at a distance of about 30 yards away, its flank straight towards me. I took aim and shot it slightly behind the shoulder. Nothing happened. The moose just stood there in the exact same spot. I thought to myself, Ok, I’m not going to shoot it twice – if I can’t hit a moose at this distance, I might as well let it walk off! Then suddenly the moose began to sway, and eventually fell dead to the ground right where it stood. And down it stayed!”
