You will not find a rarer Mauser Variant, there are 3 known to exist in North America and only 2 of those are matching; there are 10 mostly original examples mostly in Sweden but only about half of those are still matching. This will be your only chance to ever own this rifle………it is a Unicorn.
In excellent all matching condition we have the very well known but never actually seen Swedish K98k Mauser rifle, the Legendary Gevär m/1940; which more accurately is a J.P. Sauer 147 Code 1940 dated K98k pulled right out of a German depot and sold and sent to Sweden as part of a 5,000 rifle sale. The rifle has the Swedish inspection stamp “G.B.” (Captain Gustaf Björkenstam) on the left side of the receiver. When in Swedish service, the rifle was modified to accept and fire the powerful at the time Swedish 8×63 machine gun cartridge and was deployed as a Pansarvärnsgevär m/40 light anti-tank rifle. In order to tame the recoil a muzzle brake was installed and the rear sight was changed out to accommodate the more powerful round. It is indeed the distinctive muzzle break which will identify this rifle upon first glance. The charger guide on top of the receiver was also enlarged to accept the larger round. That muzzle brake is also serial numbered to the rifle. Rapid advances to Armor during WW2 rendered this rifle largely obsolete by 1941, but it stayed in Service in the Swedish Army until sometime in the early 1950’s when they were obsoleted out and almost all of them were sold to Israel, where they were rebuilt as .308 caliber rifles. For this reason original condition rifles are almost non-existent.
Let me give you some perspective on how rare this rifle is……….there are 19 known to exist, (now 20) 6 are in Museums in Sweden, about half of the remaining number have been sporterized leaving maybe 5 or 6 that remain which are still intact and matching. This rifle is the third one known to exist in North America and only the 2nd completely matching example. It is also the only time that one has been offered for acquisition to the collecting community at large. Rarity does not always go hand in hand with desirability in firearms collecting but in this instance it certainly does and only a very exclusive group of very advanced Mauser Rifle Collectors will have this missing and very important link for their collection. This is a textbook example and more can be read about these rifles in in Chapter 15 of Karabiner 98k vol. IIb by Karem and Steves, the absolute definitive reference on the subject.
