Markgrant69

What an amazing history Mr. Johnson. I truly appreciate you taking the time to reply in such detail. And thank you all for the input, I kinda figured this was a special little rifle and now that I know it I can’t possibly let it go. That said I’ll give a little background on how I acquired it. I’m one of the lucky guys who’s wife loves firearms as much as I do. As a matter of fact, she bought me an FN Scar 20s in .308 for Christmas a couple years ago. She was recently working at a pawnshop in Ft. Worth and a man brought in several firearms to sell as my wife says it, “his grandfather had left him the lot and the little snowflake didn’t want them in his house”. This particular rifle didn’t have a magazine and the bolt didn’t lock back (operator error) so she couldn’t purchase it. He asked what he was supposed to do with it. She remotely unlocked her truck and said you can leave it in my truck if you want. Well. He did and that’s how I inherited it. I went in on the day the hold was released and purchased all of the other firearms to add to our collection. A few rather old and unique rifles. Again, thank you all for your time and input. Mark G.

This is what I figured. Thank you for your genuine opinions. Another question or three. It’s said only 200 or so are actually produced but the serial number on this is 1146, does this fit the production model or is it possible I just have a complete fake? Now I wish I could find out who changed the barrel and try to recover the original. The more I learn the more interesting this little rifle gets. I’ve found brass and obviously components but not actual ammo for the spitfire, is it recently available from small qualified remanufactures or strictly make it yourself and are the reloading dies still available? Would it even be prudent to return this to original or just keep it shootable as is. By the way eb. I lived in central Oregon, Bend and Redmond back in the mid 80’s. That’s God’s county right there. Texas is home but my heart will always reside in Oregon.

I recently inherited a beautiful (at least to me) sporter model 30 carbine only to find out it wasn’t what I thought it was. What the heck is MMJ 5.7? Full disclosure it’s been re-barreled in 30 carbine. I’ve fully tore down, cleaned, inspected and test fired it and was going to put it up on Texas gun trader but don’t have any sense of what the value may or may not be. Anyhow I started researching this beautiful oddity and that research leads me here. This seems the Mecca of Johnson enthusiasts so I figured I’d offer it up here first. While I love a 30 carbine my dog has a mass that’s going to require surgery and these are the kind of things that I can part with to help her out. having issues attaching photos so I’ll figure out how to shrink them and provide in a second post if anyone wants to see more.