SOLD ULTRA RARE 1940 SMITH & WESSON LIGHT RIFLE MARK I….MINT CONDITION…..NEARLY UNIQUE

Most folks have seen pictures of this rifle but they are very scarce, there are less then 150 of this model known to exist in the entire world.  This example is complete and in pristine condition, exactly as it was sold out of Smith & Wesson in 1975.  In 1939 the British asked S&W to provide them with a light carbine type of firearm in 9mm caliber.  What came out of that request nearly bankrupted S&W and the arm that was developed the 1940 Light Rifle was completely irrelevant and utterly useless.  It weighs a ton, is built like a Swiss Watch out of machined solid steel but it’s such a flawed design that it would fail after only 1,000 high velocity rounds were run through it.  It was just the wrong answer to the right question.  The right answer was called the Sten Gun.  All but 5 of the 1,000 delivered to the British were destroyed immediately after the war, and a few hundred remained at S&W until 1975 when a distributor got a waiver from the ATF due to the 9 inch barrel and they were sold as curiosities back in 1975.  At that time there were 137 Mark I models and 80 slightly more durable Mark II models.  They are all that exist and they are all in collections and very rarely come up for sale.  They are avidly sought after by Smith Collectors and advanced WW2 collectors and as such this is a prime example.  It is complete even down to the warning plaque that was placed on the rifle when it was sold in 1975.