Tom shows us a rare WW2 Johnson Model 1941 and compares that to the well-known M1 Garand and M1 Carbine... Used and issued mostly to the USMC, this rifle had a short shelf-life, with a unique design and interesting mechanics, the clunky magazine design was the a huge factor in the demise of this rifle.

 

WWII Johnson 1941 Rifle Compared to M1 Garand and M1 Carbine

 

Johnson (1941 Rifle) Jokes

Johnson (1941 Rifle) Jokes

Hey, guys. Welcome to another Walk-in Wednesday. Actually, today, this gun we're going to talk about, the Johnson rifle did not walk in, I actually went in, picked it up yesterday, drove about an hour away, picked it up from a local collection. I've been trying to get my hands on a Johnson. OK. Let me pause for a minute and just say we are more mature and more professional than most junior hires because we're not going to do any Johnson jokes today. At least I'm going to try not to do any Johnson jokes.

But this really is a Johnson rifle. It's in semi-automatic and they actually did make some an automatic. These are very sought after by collectors, which is why I went to pick this one up. I saw it was for sale. I just had to go get my hands on this, Johnson. OK, as I promised, we're not going to do any cheap, immature jokes, but this Johnston right foot.

 

WWII Johnson 1941 Rifle Detail

WWII Johnson 1941 Rifle Detail

All right. As I promise, I'm not going to do any cheap amateur or junior high jokes, but this is the Johnson rifle actually developed by Melvin Johnson. Late 30s, early, early 40s. Here's one of the reasons many of you have never heard of this rifle. It's because he developed this right at the time when the army had already started testing the M-1 Garand. The M1 Garand actually took over production, and once they got all ramped up and ready to produce the M1, then the Johnson rifle was just kind of set aside.

 

Some WII Johnson 1941 Rifle Interesting Tidbits

Some WII Johnson 1941 Rifle Interesting Tidbits

There are a couple of interesting pieces of information about the Johnson rifle. First of all, it's probably a little bit of an improvement over the Garand. It's a twelve round rotary clip. It's a new and revolutionary design at the time. By the way, this is called the nineteen, the model nineteen forty-one because it was made in nineteen forty-one, has a rotary clip and uses a stripper clip. You get twelve rounds in there. If you know the M1 Garand it only holds eight rounds. So, it's an improvement in that way. But also, let's say you you're in you know, you're in a street fight and you do two rounds and then you start to stop for a while and go someplace else. You can actually recharge it, fully recharge. In other words, add two more rounds where the grand, I didn't realize this, but you have to shoot the whole clip before you can put it in another clip. So, you have to do all eight and then you can do eight more these. You can halfway through, you can go ahead and reload it. So, there are some advantages there.

Also, it has an interesting unique feature. It has a recoil in the barrel. You can see the recoil that helps with the kick. Although people who have shot this, I never have, there are some videos on YouTube showing people shooting these. They tell me this thing kicks like a mule, uses a 30-odd six-round bat-suit is the M1 Garand and people tell me that shoots like a mule too. This is the bayonet that just hooks on the top. It's small but very effective. One of the reasons it's so small it helps with the balance and even wants the front end to be too heavy and this is the original sheet. So, this all came together as a grouping.

 

Comparison: 1941 Johnson vs. M1 Garand

Comparison 1941 Johnson vs M1 Garand

Now let's do some comparisons. OK. Here's a comparison of the 1941 Johnson rifle and the M1 Garand about 1941 as well. They started making these in nineteen thirty-seven. So, Mr. Melvin Johnson was a little bit late. He was about two years late. Like I said, they had already tested this and was ready to go to production and they didn't want to stop that process and adopt this. So, they only made 30,000 of the Johnson rifles there actually. He didn't get a military contract. He was very disappointed. His side of the story is there's a lot of politics involved. And he got pushed aside. Springfield Armory came out with this and they made almost six million of these and only thirty thousand of these. Now, these are very popular with collectors because of the low numbers. But also, when they made the 30,000, it was for a Dutch contract. The Dutch West Indies was what Japan was in the area and they were afraid they're going to be under attack. So, they ordered 30,000 of these. Only a few went to the West Indies and then it was taken over by the Japanese so they never completed the contract. Therefore, where did these go?

Most of the 30,000, actually, about 20,000 went to the U.S. Marines and Marine paratroopers. So, you can see why this would be a desirable weapon for collectors, because of low production, but also where they went. As a matter of fact, there is a Congressional Medal of Honor recipient. I have his picture here. His name is Robert Dunlap. He was a lieutenant at the time. Later became a captain. But he earned the Congressional Medal of Honor at Iwo Jima 1945. And there is a statue of him holding the Johnson rifle in there in their town. He actually was allowed to take his rifle home. They said he hung it on the wall. And now it's in a museum in his hometown. The serial number was A 0 0 0 9. So that Johnson rifle was used by a Medal of Honor winner. The Garand we've talked about, that's one more rifle was used by the United States forces.

 

M1 Carbine Description

M1 Carbine Description

I said one more rifle, but actually, there were several of course, there was the 1903 Springfield and also some submachine guns. But the major, major rifles, this one, of course, everybody knows or everybody who collects knows about the M1 carving. Again, millions of them made, this truly was an improvement over them both. One of the reasons being that Johnson rifles about 10 pounds. The Garand is about 10 pounds. The Carbine is around 6 pounds. So, a big difference versus this. If I were Trudgen all over Europe or the islands 20 miles a day, I'd much rather be carrying this. Also, this has a magazine clip that holds 15 rounds, half the weight of the Garand, double the firing capacity, very, very easy to use. And the Carbine being very popular with collectors as well.

 

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