JohnSch

Thank you! I have purchased the book and hope its information is mostly accurate. I knew you would be the ultimate source for this information. You had before mentioned there was a difference in twist rate among the "Spitfire" type rifles out there and that made a very real difference on the bullets performance. I don't remember what the book said was the twist rate your father chose to go with so I'll have to read up that again. But didn't your Dad do a lot of theory and testing to determine the proper bore design for a proper length and twist rate to give it the ability to travel strait and then do extraordinary damage by destabilizing, tumbling around inside its target after impact and delivering it's energy internally instead of just passing through. Isn't that one of the issues with the current military .223 rifles in use by our guy's, the high twist rate. The bullet spins so fast that it will stay stable on impact and pass right through without delivering it's energy efficiently unless it hits a large bone or metal object being worn first? Anyway, I'm glad the rifle is most likely in it's original config and I can just add on a new stock, preferably a sport stock with cheek rest and a scope (NO DRILLING) for my new varmint toy and have it be in an original configuration and barrel twist to show people who I might be with, what to look for and which manufacture to go with when they watch the target object come apart instead of just having a little hole through it. :-). I LOVE your Fathers / Family's work and contributions and have tried to buy every Johnson I could afford for the last 5 years now and my 41 Johnson pile is getting there, but they are not all prime examples (some rough and some dark bores, some broken wood and some others being the Winfield Sporter style) but a few are very nice and I really enjoy them and they don't kick like a mule as does my Garand. Have a great day Thank you John

I currently have some of the spitfire configuration M1 carbines but only one is a MM Johnson and is stamped MM Johnson on the reciever. It is marked 223a on receiver and barrel but the rifle is a polished smooth metal and nicely blued with a front site that is very simular to the Winfield 41 Johnson sporter site, just smaller. Rear site is a peep site. The stock looked like a typical M1 carbine military but was broken at the wrist so I got the rifle for $200.00. Did Johnson ever sell there spitfire in a polished and blued configuration with sporter type sites? If so, will any replacement M1 stock do fine, I could find no markings on the broken one to make it unique. If these rifles did not come out of the Johnson Factory in this sporter config, anyone know who can return it to it's proper configuration and possibly 'tune" it for some target shooting. If they did come out this way, did they ever come out with a sporter stock with cheakrest etc... All my Non "Johnson" 5.7's are in military configurations and don't keep a very tight grouping, but they are still a lot of fun.

I know they made the 7mm and there are some out there, my questions are: 1) is it just a Barrel that you change out or are there parts of the rifle as well that are different? 2) Is it a standard 7mm or can it take a 7mm Magnum? 3) Anyone have one? 4) Joe, when you read this, what would it cost for you to make a 7mm Magnum barrel for my gun if it's possible to load with this ammo? And why? I've hunted with my 7mm Magnum before and it stops elk dead in there tracks. Not to say my 30.06 hasn't done the same, but I like to change things up. Currently even looking at some 300 Mags to try out on dear as well and would happily put a 300 mag barrel on my Johnson if it would feed it, but I know it won't. No one get upset, I keep my military's safe, locked up and oiled, its the sporters I take out hunting and shooting with. If they get roughed up, I don't care, one day I'll send them to Joe for conversion back to Military anyway. Joe, Still have not dug out my extra Magaizines to send you, but I have not forgotten. John

OK, I have about a dozen Bayo's with sheeth and thought they were all excellent, now after seeing your pictures, I look at mine and think there only fair at best. What a beautiful bayo you have.... OMG, never though I would here myself call a bayo beautifull.LOL!

I don't know if you can do this with the Johnson reciever, but I've worked in machine shops where we would wield the area up and then cnc it to shape. Is that possible? probably would not cost much, but you would have to have a pro do the work and another pro heat treat the reciever afterwords ( I think) to bring it back to a safe level of hardness equally over the entire reciever area. Just a guess.

One of my sporters was shooting in a simular manner, I did replace the stock with a Military from Joe and never had the problem agian. I purchased it with all hardware allready installed by Joe and all I did was a 2 step process of staining to match the exact color of my other miltary's and then bolted it on. Simple. My sporter stock was also not set up corectly and the tube was closer than the miltary one Joe sent. I don't know if that is your problem, but it was mine. John Schlegel

I have only ever seen 2 LMG kits in 4 years of looking for Johnson parts, is there just none out there or is there some guy sitting on 500 of them or??? I would sure like the opertunity to have one, however, where the heck would you get a reciever made for one, will the 41 JOhnson reciever work in a semi auto config? I'm hoping to get a DROR kit and see what can be done with it. Any Ideas? Thanks JS

If you buy the butt stock, buy all the metal parts with it, it makes it so nice to just oil and bolt on and then you have the spare metal from your other wood to sell, or save.

Do you have a picture or example of what you are looking for? I do very frequent Johnson and LMG searches, If I see a picture, I'll know exactly what to look for while I'm skimming my searches. Thanks John J.P.Schlegel@Verizon.Net