cvgresch

Sorry for the extremely late response. I do believe this is the main (possibly only) issue. I have started the tedious process of filing a little bit down and refitting in the hopes of getting it just right as I do not want to take too much material off. The only other thing I could imagine it being is if the body of magazine housing is slightly tweaked (twisted in a manner if that makes sense) that could possibly cause a failure to feed elegantly due to the slightly incorrect angle of mate-up to the upper. I only mention this as there is a very small amount of torque I can apply to the magazine housing and sometime ( definitely not always) it helps to get the round up and presented properly. Either way I will continue slowly whittling down on the bolt hold open. Thanks for the help! -cvgresch

So I definitely get rid of the rubbing from the gate to the rear of magazine housing (looks like gate was not cut fully enough). I had to do some careful bending of inside of the gate that the rounds ride on to present to the bolt. I think some more vending may be required but it definitely helped with requiring less effort to get the rounds up into the right place. Initially I would guess that the tack welded piece that is used to keep the inside of the gate at the right distance from the body of the gate is a little off and thus requiring a good amount of elbow grease to get into a better state. Any other recommendations on this process. I think this is the last remaining culprit. Next item to address if the bolt stripping a new round when presented. I think I just need to re-oil and test out the other springs. I expect this to work better as I saw some indication of this when I oiled last time. Thanks! -cvgresch

Picked up 2 buffer springs from GB. Both are of about the same length (11 7/8 inches). Doesn't seem that this is part of the problem but worth having extra parts. It does not appear that there are any uniformity issues in the magazine housing or spring that I can discern. The main items of concern I think I have identified is that there is some rubbing on the magazine gate and the inside of the magazine housing almost at its point of stop. (1st picture) The other question is if the follower/round is applying pressure on the gate in such a way that it prevents the gate from moving out of the way and letting the round up far enough. (2nd picture) Perhaps due to design? I don't believe this theory hold much water but still an observation as it may be a new reproduction and slightly off. I find that sometimes the round comes up short (3rd picture) and I've found that getting a small object (such as a knife) and prying the gate further to the end of it's travel - requires a small amount, maybe 1/16-1/8 inch - is enough to allow the round to "pop" into the right place. (4th picture) I presume I have a few options: shaving a little bit of material off the gate where it is rubbing the housing. Trying other components. And oiling even more of the magazine assembly (some oil already). Any other thoughts/suggestions? Thanks in advance! -cvgresch

Good news: oiled things up and action runs much smoother. Bad news: last round still needs some coercion in getting seated a little higher to get picked up. The buffer spring is about 1/8th inch short of the 12 inch target. I am looking around for replacements. But perhaps this is not quite as terrible given that the action cycles well with the right lubrication? Any recommendations on good places to find springs? I have not had too much luck thus far. -cvgresch

M48TANKER - thanks for the great info! I will say I did (after taking pictures) clean up the tube and buffer but I will revisit and oil up some more. I do certainly have suspicions on the spring just from the noises it makes and seemingly inconsistent pressure it provides (but that could be me). I will say overall things are not slick and oily so I will take some time to lubricate. I don't have a sonic cleaner, I do have a tumbler but I think maybe not harsh enough? Although I'm not opposed to using my own elbow grease. I'll make some measurements and lubrications and report back next week. Thanks again! -cvgresch

Largest issue I have at the moment is it seems like there is a carrying amount of adequate tension to push a round far/hard enough to seat it high enough for the bolt to catch it and push it into battery. This also sometimes causes the bolt to lock back on the last round. Also seems like there might not be enough power for the bolt to push a round forward into battery. Not sure if this is the mainspring or the re-parkerization (or both). Any ideas thoughts on these items? Thanks in advance! -cvgresch

Gunsmith said things checked out and looked almost brand new. Ran into a local fellow that inherited 2 JSARs from his grandfather. They both agreed and suggested I could always try and blank round to make sure things check out in the line of firing. Hoping to take it out this weekend and see how I fare. -cvgresch

Tanker - thank you! Turning the spring around worked perfectly! Also good call on miltech, I had not considered that before but certainly seems like a good possibility. ArtR - thank you for the SN lookup and insight. At first I was a bit worried with the SN's and comments but it is good to have some reassuring thoughts and that at the end of the day it is still quite a piece of history and hopefully I will learn from my gunsmith that she checks out and will be good to enjoy from time to time. Thanks all! -cvgresch

ARHthe1st, sorry to be off topic, but do you have any luck finding 7.5 French ammo? I was interested in a MAS 44 or 49 but the realization that it was quite difficult to find ammo and even reloading supplies deterred me.

Hello All! I am excited to be here as I have recently acquired a 1941 Johnson Rifle. I reside in Virginia and was able to pick one up off Gunbroker from a store in Arizona. I won't speculate as to how good the price was (or wasn't) but I'm happy to have finally acquired a rifle and piece of history that I have been interested in for some time. I've included a plethora of pictures (hopefully no one is offended by the amount I took) for folks to peruse as they tend to be more descriptive than my typing skills. A little bit of background that may or may not be evident from the pictures: Receiver: 3679 Barrel: 3679 Bolt: 3679 Firing Pin: A9836 Locking Cam: 3679 Magazine: 7018 Other than having a surface-level understanding of the rifle's history from reading Bruce Canfield's book and various online articles/forums the following is my initial assessment of the rifle for what it is worth, but I would love to have others educate me and chime in as desired. I believe the barrel may be a conversion of some kind ('03 Springfield perhaps?) as it has a JA marking (not J.A.) and does not have the 30-06 marking below it. I did not get a picture of the barrel band centering lug but it does have the 30-06 marking on the top 12 o'clock position and 41 at the 6 o'clock position. I was not able to locate a Dutch dagger marking but there are a number of other numbers and markings on the barrels as seen in the pictures. The buttstock and forend are in very good condition - I would speculate are well fitting reproductions or at the very least sanded down. The number of matching parts is surprising, not sure if this is pure happenstance as I have read is possible but seems highly irregular given the number of them. I cannot say too much of the fire control group, other than it is in very good condition, as I did not fully take it apart when disassembling. However, I did not see any serial numbers on components from my cursory look. The mainspring assembly was quite dirty but cleaned up well (including the tube) although the spring still likes to make some noise under slower manual cycling. The buttstock only had the 1 cutout for the buffer tube, I was under the impression it should have 2 additional ones for cleaning tools, or is this a fallacy? The heat shield does not appear to have any numbers from what I could see. The magazine is a little bit of a tough nut for me to crack. It easily accepts 8 rounds, but the last 2 are very difficult to get in. On my first attempt I did not bother but on a second I pushed a little harder than I liked and it went in with a metallic pop and the spring went stiff and the rounds just jingled around inside. Dreading the worst I took her apart again and discovered that after pushing the feed lip in again to extract a few of the remaining rounds the ramp sprang back around. Upon investigation it appears that the ramp is hindered on the last bit of its rotation by the leaf spring that provides tension on the feed lip. I have tried to capture this in pictures. Obviously this must be a defect of some kind or I am not proficient in proper loading technique or strength - the latter is most likely. Perhaps this spring has been installed backwards/upside down? I have not tinkered as I figured it best to consult some more knowledgeable folks first. I also discovered that the front locking pin (forward of the magazine) was not present, luckily a quick search on Numrich proved fruitful and I also picked up an extra extractor and ejector just in case since I have heard those are the most wearable components. Lastly, the Cranston Arms logo on the rear of the receiver is missing or (in the right - very obscure - light) it is extremely faint. What can be seen is the Dutch proof star stamp that is also rather light compared to other photos I have seen, which makes me think that the exterior metal was sanded and/or re-parkerized. To that note it does appear that almost ALL of the parts have been parkerized in one fashion or another. At the very least I intend to take this to my local gunsmith to confirm it is safe for my 30-06 Garand rounds (I suspect so from my initial looks) and hopefully get a good historic shooter out of this beautiful rifle. Please let me know thoughts/knowledge and potential origins of the rifle from the factory. I'll be happy to provide more details and pictures if needed. Thank you all in advance! -cvgresch