There are a few things that the Finns did with their Buffalos that improved their performance. They removed the tail hook and the floatation device, making the plane better balanced and lighter, and used the spare weight to add seat armour for the pilot as well as en excellent license-produced reflective (reflector) sight of German origin.

The Finns also armed their Buffalos with 3x12,7mm HMGs (Later often 4x12,7mm HMGs), rather than the original armament of 1x12,7mm HMG and 3x7,62mm MGs (or 2x12,7mm HMGs and 2x7,62mm MGs). It is also possible that the Finns re-equipped their Buffalos with captured Soviet 12,7mm HMGs, which had a much higher rate of fire than the original US .50 M2.

However, the main advantage of the plane in Finnish hands was not the technical improvements, but rather how it was used.

The Finnish Buffalos were used by LeLv 24, which consisted of the best veterans from the Winter War, themselves the absolute best recruits the Finns could muster. Jorma Sarvanto goes through the Finnish pre-war fighter pilot training in his book "Stridsflygare under Karelens himmel" ("War pilot under the Karelian sky"). Since the Finnish air force was very small and had a lack of machines to fly, they could be extremely selective in its recruiting. Only the best of the best were allowed to start training to become fighter pilots, and training was extremely rigorous, including very hard sharpshooter tests that were required to pass.

The Finns were also very early pioneers in air tactics, being the original adaptors of the rotten-schwarm or fighting pair-finger four fighter tactics as early as 1932, which the Germans developed over Spain 1937-38 and the British copied during and after the Battle of France 1940.

The Finnish homegrown version of "boom-n-zoom" tactics also proved very effective. Lacking the engine power for proper "boom-n-zoom" tactics, the Finns would climb to gain altitude, spot enemy plane formations and dive through them, using their high skills at shooting to down or destroy a single plane each and then dive through the enemy formation. As the enemy fighters pursued them, they would dive down to tree-top level and fly at that height to lose their pursuers, who were more catious about diving that low and quickly lost sight of the Finnish planes at that level against the background and their need to make sure they did not crash into the trees. The Finnish fighters would then climb to a great altitude to repeat the manouvre against another enemy formation.

The bottom line is that while the Finns did add some technical improvements, such as pilot armour, heavier armament and an excellent reflective (reflector) sight, the main advantage the Finnish Buffalo had over its counterparts fighting in the Pacific was that it was flown by extremely well-trained and skilled veterans of the Winter War, using innovative and modern tactics in a target-rich environment.