Ed Johnson

To all....I felt I should comment on this subject in order to clarify how I think most of us feel, and at the same time, avoid getting involved with any political issues. As we are starting to hear, there are some management changes at the National Rifle Association. My own hope is that this will not have a negative effect on the operations involving their American Rifleman magazine, or Mr. Mowbray's "Arms for the Man," or with the NRA educational Museum collections and Video programs. We have had very good relations with their staffs over the years and the quality of their technical research has always been top notch. My father also had excellent relationships with the NRA while he was alive, as noted in our book "Johnson Rifles and Machine Guns." May it always continue to be so..... Happy New Year to the Website Team and the members who use this website......from the Johnson Family....

To Johnson Website Users There will be an Auction on February 7, 2024 at the office of Bruneau & Co. Auctioneers, 64 4th Avenue, in Cranston, RI. Phone 401 533 9980. The Director is Mr. Joel Bohy at Joel@BruneauandCo.com The item will be a Model 1941 Johnson Semi-automatic Rifle with serial number S-10. It was initially advertised in "Man at Arms for the Gun Collector" on the inside front cover of the October 2023 issue. The S-10 was part of a small series of Tool-room Samples of the rifle prior to the full production on the product back in the 1940's. According to Mr. Bohy's information on provenance, this rifle initially became the property of a Mr. Harry Lindbnerg who was the owner of "The VIKING Bar" and restaurant, which was located very near the Johnson plant on the border of Cranston and Warwick, RI. during and after WWII. The business was destroyed in a fire later on, but the rifle survived and become the property of others who lived in the local area. Anyone interested in bidding on this rifle should contact Mr. Bohy or his staff to get on the bidders list. This is a good opportunity to obtain a rare piece of history which appears, per the photographs we saw, to be in very good condition. Ed Johnson

Appears to be a 20mm size bullet but not sure od the casing that would come with it. Looks like you might have a nice "man cave" up there in the boon docks.. You need 0068 to ward off the tourists......or to help make collections from tardy customers....:-)))

Most of our new Spitfires that I had assembled in RI had new cast receivers built by Plainfield. They themselves also sold 5.7s and their new barrels came from Wilson in CT, same as mine. They used surplus trigger housings and mechanisms. So did I. EB is correct. Our main difference was feed ramp (in the early models) and nicer custom stocks. Iver Johnson bought Plainfield, so there wouldn't be much change there. The most recent Mfr was AIA circa 2002 to 2003 or so, but I was told of quality issues. The barrels were not too bad. ej

Sell it as a replica, up front, so there are no lies about it, and then as you say, someone will pay for it.

Bruce commented on that price also. And # 0068 has that unusual path of being designated to USMC and then not going there, per our correspondence. I believe the star units might have been initially designated to other than USMC but were then re-designated, as you suggest. ej

Do we know the serial number of that JLMG? Do we have it in the book? ej

It was a good day for the Johnson's, too.... Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

I dropped an E-mail to these folks at Helix, not using my Johnson name, using my Middle name ("Rice"), inquiring about their familiarity with Johnson rifles. Wanted to see if they would respond to a "common man" ......and they did not. This was disappointing. It looked like they could provide "full service" based on their toolroom equipment....even bluing and parkerizing.. I would still LIKE to line up someone to gradually fill the shoes of Joe Scott....and he has suggested the same thing....owing to his health and vision issues. He was even willing to train the right person. So....I'm looking for suggestions....and welcome any thoughts. If any you want to write me in confidence, PM to me and/or use my E-mail, which some of you have. If not, try using edwardrjohnson610@gmail.com. Thanks. ej

Serial # 0776 is not showing in J R & M G book. It does look nice.,,,and expensive for some folks.

When Eric refers to 5.7mm products, that would only pertain to the MMJ 5.7mm Spitfire that was "produced" (primarily due to my handloading in the early stages) by Johnson Arms, Inc. of New Haven, CT during 1963 - 1967. It was not Johnson Automatics, which had closed down a little while after WWII. I do not know personally of Dad's "wildcat" cartridge production post-War period, but nothing would surprise me. We're talking about a guy who motorized a Gatling gun and the rest is history. And Eric's photo of his very clean workspace and his RCBS press looks very similar to my own (not so clean, but very active) in the basement of Dad's house in New Haven during the '60's.. The RCBS "H" frame was much sturdier than the other loading press manufacturers who mostly used a "C" frame. It put a full crimp on a .30 M1 Carbine case and necked it down with one pull for the 5.7mm size. We put thousands of cases through it. ej

Joe, sorry to hear your news. Our family withes you the best. Please keep us posted. ej

To all......this has been a long day.. We learned earlier today that my older brother, Melvin Maynard Johnson III, first son of the late M.M.Johnson Jr., had finally passed away just after his 88th birthday after a long illness. He had been living with his daughter, Shannon, near Philadelphia for several years following his retirement from the Boston Globe. My daughter Lacy and I will miss Mel very much, most especially his very sharp sense of humor and sense of life's absurdities. In these later years, he always got me laughing during our many phone calls. Mel was Harvard educated, like Dad, and was a well known feature writer at the Globe during his earlier years before helping to manage the entertainment sections of the paper. He interviewed interesting celebrities, including Victor Borge (who enjoyed talking with Mel very much) and jazz singer Mel Torme (who happened to be a big fan of the Johnson Rifle!). And, during an initial attempt to help publish the Johnson book back in the late 1970's and early 1980's, my brother also edited the material that was initially carried in two issues of American Rifleman back then based on material researched by Robert Lamoreaux and myself.. All of this effort was later modified for the "Johnson Rifles and Machine Gun" book authored by Bruce Canfield and published by Stuart Mowbray in 2002 and 2006. A sad day, indeed, to finally loose a brother and friend. Ed J

Thank you all very much for your condolences. My daughter and I will be attending Mel's services on Saturday 9/16/23 in PA with other members of the family. Ed J

As some of you are starting to notice, there is an article by Evan Brune in the American Rifleman concerning the Dardick pistol and related products. This article is basically accurate as to the particular product, but as a short article, it fails to engage on some of the major developments that came out later. Some of us, notably Steven Dardick (David's son) and myself (Maynard's son) still feel that the "Open Chamber" concept has great potential in military applications. If you combine the speed of a modern multi-barrel Gatling gun with the speed of a motorized Dardick open chamber system, you can imagine the volume of ammunition you can dump on a fast moving target, such as a missile or enemy aircraft. Steve and I both worked at the Dardick plant in Hamden during summers in the late 1950's while we were in college. At one point, I recall being assigned to making barrels on a Barnes deep-hole driller. It was an exciting time for both of us. The concept of the Dardick pistol was coming at a time when police departments were trying to upgrade to semi-auto pistols that could carry more ammunition than the standard police revolvers. There were some problems with semi-auto pistols jamming occasionally. The Dardick was intended to marry the reliability of a revolver with the magazine capacity of a semi-auto. I had an opportunity to shoot an early model 1500 (15 shot) .38 cal pistol. I recall at the time (these were still in development) that the double-action trigger pull required more pressure than a standard Colt or Smith & Wesson revolver, which affected my aim. Manually cocking the hammer also required effort, but the gun shot smoothly on single action. Essentially, the "Tround" application worked far better in a heavier military weapon, but capitol investment wasn't possible at Dardick at that point, so the plant had to shut down, sadly. There was later research involving the US Navy.and more development might occur in the future. And I could have easily done without the Rifleman article referring to the Dardick as "A Famous Firearms Flop." We don't see it that way.. not at all.... ej .

I will comment in the Dardick section. ej

Thanks, guys, for this info. I will follow up later on. Still trying to keep my ear to the ground on the 4 Johnson prototypes etc. that went out from Amoskeag... Ed J

Joe, I sent you an E-mail, so this is just to confirm that we (the Webteam) are all praying for your good health. ej

And it is definitely Dad's handwriting. Where did you pick this up?

Thanks for this entry, Phil. In your travels, do you know anyone at Cody? I might want to get an inventory of the guns they have. ej

It sounds like the cartridge is slightly "loose" in the chamber and the primer would be the easiest "give point" to be affected by the chamber pressure. If you do turn the barrel back one turn per EB's comments, the gas port assembly goes back the same distance, so I'm wondering if that might affect any timing of the unlocking. If not, you are already in a mess, so EB's suggestion is perhaps the easiest and least expensive way to proceed. Hopefully, the stock bedding would still be ok. And from what you describe, including the reduction to .223 having no effect on the problem, it suggests you don't have a major bore size issue, which is a relief. But you could try a reduced powder load to 10 gr from the 11.5 to see if that has any effect. ej

I am concerned with the most obvious problem....excess pressure. I would suggest that you do NOT fire the carbine again until this mystery is solved. EB has given you a starting suggestion of dropping from .224 to .223. Yes, that will help. He's on the right track if you don't have the necessary tools or a friendly local gunsmith. But, when you CAN, please try to: 1) Measure the inside barrel bore, and then 2) Measure the bullet. See where you are with that, when you can. Let us know the readings. Then we'll take it from there with you.

It is a B. No other explanation. It certainly isn't an A. Looks like someone was playing a game. But if it shoots well; and you didn't feel you overpaid, keep it as a shooter?

Thanks for info. If it is that accessible, I am less concerned.

And a close-up earlier than that. Is there any way we can save or preserve that footage? Perhaps on a disk if it is legal. I will cover any reasonable expense. Ed J