There still seem to be some folks around from the cult of St. Melvin. A year or so ago, I commented that, while the Johnson was ingenious and had some good points, it simply was nowhere near the rifle the
M1 was as a battle rifle, and it did not deserve to be adopted. Boy, did I get flamed. I was called names, John Garand was called names, the M1 was trashed, etc.
Much of the criticism came from Marines: Johnson was a Marine (reservist), and any rifle invented by a Marine had to be perfect, and how dare I criticize....
I said then, and will repeat, that I get the impression that Johnson worked the basic mechanism out pretty well on the bench, then someone told him at 9am that they needed a complete rifle by that afternoon. The rest of the rifle, stock and all, has the look of an afterthought.
Jim