The M1 in the American Rifleman

[eb in oregon]

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

The ability to change out the barrel on a 1941 JSAR during battle was never considered. However the ability made breaking the rifle down for parachutists and being able to clean the bore from the breech without further disassembly was considered an advantage by some.

---------- Post added at 07:19 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:11 AM ----------

The one I've got is a four digit no alpha prefix, but got the Winfield treatment. Ejection is indeed brisk.

People sometimes forget that brass (in military thinking) is considered disposable and it's condition after firing is completely irrelevant. The object it to get it out and where it goes and how it looks doesn't matter in combat. My JSAR also tosses brass like an Olympic shot put thrower with no sense of direction and dents it a bit but it is perfectly reloadable. Granted a small dent here and there, but I'm not relying on it for survival.