It wouldn't be exaggerated if you would have called it "one of only a few in the whole world", a Gevär m/1940 like this one, in original condition, is extremely rare! I can't wait to see the next photos and I'm curious which inspector mark is on the siderail. The most m/40 got inspected by Gustaf Björkenstam and Sten Stenmo.
@Warrior1354
It's not a blank adapter, like CanadianAR already said, it's a muzzlebrake. These rifles got chambered in 8x62, for the powerful Swedish round m/32. The Swedish army put it into service as Pansarvärnsgevär m/40, the free translation is tank-defense-rifle or anti-tank rifle and the muzzlebrake should compensate the heavy recoil a bit.
But for the service as anti-tank rifle the m/32 round was still not powerful enough, it was hard to pierce the armor of modern amored vehicles with the round and Sweden took the m/1940 rifles, in the beginning of the 50's, out of service. Sweden sold the rifles to Israel where they got rebarreled and on the new barrel you find the "7,62" mark, in this case it means the 7,62x51 nato round. (The Wehrmacht K98k which was captured 1945 in Norway, got rebarreled in large numbers and they also got the "7,62" mark, but in this case it's for the 30/06 round). After some years of service in Israel, they sold them to South America where they served in the military again. The hardly used Gevär m/1940 came in the 80/90's on the international marked, today you find them as mixmasters in America and Europe.
You hardly recognize them, just the Swedish inspectors marks on the siderail and the serial number range is a clear sign where they come from. You have to keep you eyes open when you find a Israeli Mauser with these codes:
"147 1940" J.P. Sauer & Sohn, Suhl
"243 1940" Mauser Werke A.G., Berlin-Borsigwalde
"337 1940" Gustloff Werke, Weimar
Just a few survived in original condition and I hope this exemplar get featured in Volume II, with the story of the m/1940 rifles.
Greetings,
Stephan
