The Johnson M1941 rifle has a very interesting history. CAPT Melvin Johnson, USMCR developed his 10-shot recoil operated rifle as a competitor to the M1 designed by John C. Garand of Springfield Armory.
As happens to many things in life, Johnson's rifle came on the scene just as the Army had finalized its decision to go with the M1. To its credit, the Johnson had some admirable features: (1) a quick-change barrel that allowed the rifle to be broken down into a small package for airborne operations, (2) a 10-round rotary magazine that could be topped-off at any time using the standard 5-round M1903 Springfield stripper clip, (3) no gas system to clean due to recoil operation.
On the negative side, the Johnson had numerous shortcomings: (1) the rifle was held together by two proprietary pins. Unlike the later G3 rifle, there was no place to put these pins when the rifle was broken-down for cleaning. The loss of the rear pin enabled the rifle to self disassemble; the front pin held the front end of the magazine to the rifle.
Other problems: (2) the rear sights on the Johnson were not as robust as those on the M1, (3) the Johnson was far more difficult to make than the Garand and had many more parts, (4) the rifle could be put out of action by a heavy blow to the barrel jacket near the end -- the recoiling barrel could not move freely, (4) a heavy blow could cause the rotary magazine to malfunction (it would have had to been VERY hard IMHO), (5) the design of the safety was not as good as the M1.
Johnson also designed and built the M1941 Light Machine Gun; a development of the M1941 rifle. The M1941 was much lighter than the M1918A2 Browning Automatic Rifle, although the 20-round single stack magazine that projected out the left side did tend to unbalance the gun. The quick-change barrel of the Johnson M1941 (and later M1944) was a great improvement over the BAR. The Johnson used a straight-line stock and pistol-type grip that helped control it in automatic fire. The selector on the LMG was large and easily manipulated.
Johnsons were issued to USMC specialist units: (1) the Para-Marines (paratroopers) and (2) Marine Raider units. In general, these specialist units liked them. By 1943, the Marines replaced the Johnsons with the M1 rifle and the BAR as they became available in large numbers and to standardize equipment with the U.S. Army.
The M1941 LMG was also issued in numbers to the U.S.-Canadian First Special Service Force of commandos who distinguished themselves in the Aleutian Islands campaign, Italian campaign, and invasion of Southern France.
Many of the Johnsons used by the Marines came from a production batch of rifles origninally intended for the Dutch East Indies government. Deliveries were underway to the Dutch government, in what would later become Indonesia, when Pearl Harbor was attacked on 7 December 1941. The Japanese rapidly advanced through Southeast Asia, including the Malay Penninsula and Dutch East Indies.
The Johnsons that were delivered to the Dutch were kept on the racks during the war and reissued to returning Dutch forces after the Japanese 1945 defeat. In the early 1950's, a California-based company called Winfield Arms bought up all the Johnsons they could find. These rifles were "sporterized" and sold to sportsment and shooters in the United States. Some of the things to go were the original Johnson butt stocks -- replaced by a Monte Carlo stock with a rubber butt pad -- the bayonet lug, and the rifle receiver was drilled and tapped for optical sights. Winfield arms also offered the Johnson with different caliber barrels in .30-06 Springfield, .270 Winchester, and .243 Winchester among others.
Compared to the 4-1/2 million M1 Garand rifles built for World War 2, the total production numbers of Johnsons was extremely small. However, the Johnson has developed a sort of cult following in recent years.
The problem for those wanting a stock Johnson is complicated due to the small production numbers of Johnsons made and the large number of Johnsons butchered by Winfield Arms in their "sporter" conversions.
I have owned two Johnsons and I have sold both of them in favor of the M1 Garand. The biggest factor in my decision to sell them was (1) the spare part problem -- notably the special retaining pin problem -- and (2) the general handling of the rifle as compared to the M1 -- I did not like it. Both of these Johnsons required a lot of work to restore them to shooters because they were guns that had been butchered by Winfield Arms.
One came with an ersatz replacement special pin that would shoot loose in five to ten shots. I nearly had this rifle disassemble itself! It took me a long time to find that special pin to fix the problem.
Another part that was hard to find was the bolt stop that held to bolt to the rear on the last shot. This part is held in place by the front special pin and was one of the items thrown away by Winfield Arms. They felt the shooter wanted his bolt to close on the last shot, rather than stay open for reloading.
I had to have Martin Fajen gun stocks (now part of E.C. Bishop) make up two standard butt stocks to replace the rediculous Monte Carlo stocks that were on these rifles.
One of the sight apertures on my Johnson was broken and it took me quite a while to find a sight assembly to replace it. Ditto for the bayonet lug for the barrels (fortunately they had not been shortened).
The one thing that completely destroyed the collector's value of both rifles was the numbers of drilled and tapped holes in the top of the receivers for optical sight mounts. I swear that whoever did it must have been on drugs because there seemed to be two dozen of them in random places. The fix for this was to fill them in with small screws and hold them in with red Loctite, making certain that the ends did not interfere with the movement of the bolt and carrier.
Bottomline: Unless you have deep pockets and are willing to do the extra work to fix up the average Johnson that you might find, I would strongly recommend you buy an M1 Garand. You can buy the rifle, spare parts, extra clips and a lot of ammo for the cost of the average Johnson M1941 rifle. You will also not have to contend with the problems created by the defunct Winfield Arms.
