The M1 in the American Rifleman

[RCS]

There were some powerful elected officials and well known gun writers of the day that were looking forward for the M1 Garand to have a bad performance during the National Matches and testing.
Then they could promote their beloved Johnson rifle as the first choice to adopt instead of the M1 Garand rifle.

I have fired a few Johnson 1941 rifles and I can relate to the violent ejection pattern of these rifles, something was wrong with the timing and design. They also made a point that the Johnson
barrel could be removed in the field - like it was really important for the infantry soldier to be able to change out his rifle barrel in combat ? The Johnson bayonet ! not worth talking about it.

Then there was talk how the Johnson 1941 light machine gun could replace the BAR. It was obvious that Johnson could not adopt a magazine like the 20rd BAR (or FG 42) and used the awkward
single cartrdige feed on his design.

I did know a collector who owned Johnson serial number R13 and even years ago it was valued at 10K