Well I received the gun featured in my above post on sept 09 2021.
The pictures above show the gun's condition as purchased.
The 'SA' officially class this gun as a M08 as it is in 9mm ... the M23 being the original 7,65 pist/23.(m/23) but this point is still highly debatable. The earliest M23's were also issued in 9mm but are much rarer. The Auction house listed the gun as 'LUGER , MODEL: P-08 M23 , CALIBER: 9MM LUGER'.
Upon arrival at my home the first thing I noticed was it was covered in a thin cosmoline type coating ... good for rust prevention and overall condition but an unacceptable sticky, waxy tactile feel.
As I always completely dismantle my guns to discover it's exact condition and thoroughly check for broken parts and cracks etc I set about cleaning this stuff off and re-lubed the gun at the same time.
The only part I was unable to dismantle was the safety of all things. The pin holding the safety lever in seemed to be deliberately crowned on both ends making the pin behave like a rivet ... it was not going to budge no matter what I did. No biggie I thought and decided to leave it alone as the only way I was going to be able to remove the pin was drilling it out ... it wasn't worth the effort at this time so I let it be.
To my surprise and joy the gun was matching for the most part with only the firing pin mismatched by 3 numbers and type ... it is an imperial Erfurt firing pin and not a DWM commercial pin.
The grips too did not match the frame # but did match each other ... again only out by a few numbers.
The fact that the gun does not have matching numbers is too be expected and considered normal for the Finnish SA guns as explained above in the OP.
The breech block has the expected hole drilled in the block as well as described in the OP. Literature on this alteration reveals it was done because the 9mm ammo used by the SA was developed for machine guns and was therefore a very 'hot' load. This also explains why so many of these guns were 'shot out' and re-barreled in Finland by the Tikkakoski works.
Attachment 84064
The gun cleaned up beautifully and I am very pleased to own it.
