I believe the original rubber recoil pad has been replaced. It has been repaired I have fired it about 20-30 times and the crack appears stable. There is a small, hairline crack in the stock at the tang on the right side (circled by red on photo). There are a few minor “nicks” on the bottom of the butt stock. The barrel and magazine cover are blued and the receiver seems to have the original parkerized finish. The bore is bright and shiny with strong rifling. As can be seen by the photos this rifle is in excellent condition. I need not state the history and characteristics of the 1941 Johnson, as they are well known to sophisticated collectors. The one offered here is the Custom Sporter chambered for the. Winfield Arms Corporation offered three levels of sporterized Johnsons. Among these was the now highly sought 1941 Johnson automatic. Many WW II surplus military rifles were converted for sporting use in the 1950s and ‘60s. These rifles were never officially on the US Army books, but they were used on Bougainville and a few other small islands.Ī fellow on has written an excellent detailed explanation of the whole development and use of the Johnson.1941 Johnson Custom Sporter by Winfield Arms Someone noticed that thousands of M1941 Johnson rifles (which could also have their barrel quickly and easily removed for compact storage) were effectively sitting abandoned on the docks, and the Para Marines liberated more than a few of them. The Paramarines were being issues Reising folding-stock submachine guns in addition to the Johnson LMGs, and they found the Reisings less than desirable. The Johnson LMG met these requirements extremely well, and was adopted for the purpose. The Paramarines needed an LMG which could be broken down for jumping, light enough for a single man to effectively carry, and quick to reassemble upon landing. Only a few of the 30,000 manufactured rifles were delivered before the Japanese overran the Dutch islands, rendering the rest of the shipment moot.Īt this point, Johnson was also working to interest the newly-formed Marine Paratroop battalions in a light machine gun version of his rifle. This is where the M1941 designation came from – it was the Dutch model name. However, Johnson was able to make sales of the rifle to the Dutch government, which was in urgent need of arms for the East Indies colonies. Johnson thought bayonets were mostly useless, but the Army used the issue as a rationale to dismiss the Johnson from consideration. On the other hand, it was not well suited to using a bayonet, since the extra weight on the barrel was liable to cause reliability problems (since the recoil action has to be balanced for a specific reciprocating mass). It could also be topped up without interfering with the rifle’s action, unlike the M1. It used a fixed 10-round rotary magazine, which could be fed by 5-round standard stripper clips or loose individual cartridges. The Johnson had some interesting features – primarily its magazine design. Johnson M1941 rifle with bayonet and scabbard If it wasn’t a significant improvement over the Garand, Ordnance didn’t see the use in siphoning off resources to produce a second rifle. When the Johnson rifle was tested formally alongside the M1, the two were found to be pretty much evenly matched – which led the Army to dismiss the Johnson. The rifle he designed was a short-recoil system with a multi-lug rotating bolt (which was the direct ancestor of the AR bolt design). His thought was that if problems arose with the M1 in combat, production of his rifle could provide a continuing supply of arms while problems with the M1 were worked out. Melvin Johnson was a gun designer who felt that the M1 Garand rifle had several significant flaws – so he developed his own semiauto.
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