Lol I got almost the same!, same year, same factory, serial 2587.
great shooter.
Gratz on yours
Back in 67, these things came into the country by the crate full. Truck loads of them.
It wasn't unusual for a couple of hundred crates to all be from the same storage depot and sold out as a lot. Rifles, of the same year, manufacturer and serial number range, weren't uncommon.
Every once in a while, you will stumble across an old shipping crate (minus rifles) and it will still have shipment papers inside. Usually all of the serials are sequential on the documentation.
Sadly, that is no longer the case. Nice rifle. Decent condition as well.
Just the fact that it is complete and serials matching is getting to be unique these days.
I can still remember a fellow coming into Lever's warehouse wanting to buy a couple of dozen receivers. He wanted a discount because of quantity and he wanted Alan to pull all of the barrels/stocks etc and just leave him the the barreled actions, complete with trigger guards, mag wells, screws and trigger assemblies.
They all had to be unissued and matching numbers.
Allan made a deal with him and sold him 24 units just as ordered, for $15/unit.
They were all sequentially serialed and all matching. I still have one of those barrels. I'm saving it for a special rifle. I used the other one to rechamber into an 8x63 Breda. I had foolish visions of creating a Swedish M40 clone. These were issued to machine gun squads to utilize the same 8x63 Breda cartridge that was offered for sale by Marstar a few years back.
With those heavy 200 grain bullets, they kick like mules. No wonder the Swedes put muzzle brakes on them to recuce felt recoil.
Anyway OP, very nice score on your part. Did you have to pay a premium for it??
It's also unique in that it has a solid, rather than laminated stock. By 1942 laminated was getting to be the norm. Not always but I see more with laminated than solid wood stocks.
