Johnson Forum

[jmoore]

Hi Guys. New member here. I have a full military Johnson that I've owned for 15 years and I absolutely love it. It's dead on accurate and one of the biggest things I like about it is that of all the 30:06 I have shot, it has the least recoil. I can shoot it all day without a recoil pad on my shoulder and not be sore. At my age, that is nice.

Interested in hearing from any other Johnson nuts out there.

I must say I was surprised at how well mine groups, but "accurate" it's not- It requires a 400m setting to be an at 100. Too bad there's not more activity on the forum concerning these rifles, but I'm afraid there's just not enough to go around, and prices are stupid high.

[Harlan (Deceased)]

You guys live in a pretty exclusive neighborhood for certain jmoore.

I'd like to read more about them here on the forum too, just out of interest, but there are so few around there doesn't seem to be many postings on any forum.

The one thing I am curious about is I seem to read that many that are not original GI-
Were Johnsons sporterized more often than other rifles from this era?

Thanks,
~ Harlan

[jmoore]

Let me reread the details, but I believe the company involved, Winfield Arms, was associated w/ Johnson directly. They did the work to keep his hand in the business, whilst he was developing new products, including the 5.7 Spitfire- possibly the first "modern" PDW, of which the 6mm Knight's Armament is a real descendant.

[BarryinIN]

From cafdfw:
"The one thing I am curious about is I seem to read that many that are not original GI-
Were Johnsons sporterized more often than other rifles from this era?"

That's a good question. It sure can seem that way, and here is why I think so.

Winfield Arms bought a bunch of Johnsons belonging to the Dutch and brought them to Canada. Then they sold them in the USA, either after sporterizing them (to varying degrees) or just selling them as they came.

They advertised three basic versions- a military model, a mildly sporterized model, and a deluxe sporter, but it looks like they mixed "features" until there was some overlap.
This is just a guess, but I would think that a rifle's condition determined what changes were made. Like if the stock was chewed up, it got a sporter stock. Or a rotten barrel would get replaced.
In other words- enough was changed to get it sold.

I have no way of knowing for sure, but I am guessing most of the Johnson rifles we see now were once sold by Winfield Arms (even if they weren't modified).
Depending on where you look or who you ask, Winfield could have obtained around half the Johnsons ever made. If that's the case, or anywhere close, it is very possible they handled the majority of the Johnsons remaining today. Instead of passing through several importers or distributors like most ex-military rifles, Winfield might have seen most of them and were therefore able to do their deed.

So yes, I do think the percentage of sporterized guns is a little high with Johnsons, and that's why.
But there is something else to consider.
Something that makes them stand out is the fact they are semiauto and it was unusual to sporterize a semiauto then. You don't see many Garands, SVT40s, or FN49s with sporter stocks and hooded ramp front sights. I suppose you could say that is because Winfield Arms didn't sell Garands, SVT 40s, and FN49s .
But this fact does make the sporterized Johnsons stand out, and maybe seem more common.

[Harlan (Deceased)]

Thanks for the feedback guys! I had never heard of the Winfield connection.

What a shame they chose the Johnson to mess with! Though it's sad there were so many 1903's etc, sporterized, there were many, many 1000's of them surplussed and lots of them escaped this fate.

The Johnson was unique and fairly exclusive from the beginning.

[TANKER]

I just traded for this 1941 Johnson. It's not the typical rotary magazine variety. This one has a vertical magazine which makes it a "V" type Johnson as opposed to a "R" (rotary magazine). The conversion was done so well that I don't believe it is a "Bubba-done-it" rifle. Bubba in not that caliber of gunsmith. I know that Marlin made Johnsons for the commercial market and Taft-Peirce did too. But I can't seem to find out if they actually sold any. Somewhere I read that only 20 rifles were made in the vertical magazine configuration. There was a lot of research and development going on at the Cranston Arms factory, Marlin, and Taft-Peirce. This rifle may be one of the prototypes that was made, or a "proof-of-concept" model. I'd like to think that it's rare and not a Bubba made rifle. Every thing about the construction of this rifle seems to be "factory" quality, but not meant for the commercial market yet. The stock is made of three pieces of wood that are joined with a "dovetail/lap joint" type of woodworking that would have only been done by a professional woodworker or factory. Here are some pictures.

[BarryinIN]

Beats me what happened. But it is interesting.