1941 on GB great price

[sinker4 0]

6 hours left

http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.aspx?Item=183917938

[M48TANKER 0]

I followed the auction closely and as I expected the real bidding came at the last hour. The rifle sold for $3951.00 .......worth the money I believe. It appeared to be close to "original" to me? One flaw was the front magazine "take-down" pin being repaired, but that's a very small thing. The buttstock has a couple of small chips on the left side, but what the heck...it's just "patina" to me. It looked almost as good as the $8025.00 rifle that sold last week. That's a big price difference. Someone did "Pay for the Story". Actually they paid for the bragging rights as to who owned it before. I suppose the past owner being well known for the "AutoMag" pistol, and a collector, is worth $4000.00 extra....just not to me! Both buyers got nice firearms I believe.

[Gman 0]

Well, M48Tanker, that was my second Johnson. I just couldn't help myself because it did look OK in the pix. However, it doesn't look as good close up. Apparently it was stored in a very damp location. In addition to light rust on the surface, the main spring was rusted into the tube and the butt plate is very rusty. I finally got the spring out and I'm working to restore the rifle to it's former glory.

I've written an email to Mr. Scott to see if he has a replacement spring, magazine pin, and bolt catch assembly. Yes, someone had allowed the bolt catch to fall out and disappear! I haven't heard from him yet, so if anyone has a bolt catch, or extra pin, just name your price.

Now for the good news. The bore has excellent rifling and the barrel fits more snugly than my other one. The bolt looks like it has seen little use and the locking lugs are nice and square with very little wear. Can't wait to get it back into firing condition and see how she shoots.

By the way, great pictures. Your new wood looks purty.

Gary

[M48TANKER 0]

Well, M48Tanker, that was my second Johnson. I just couldn't help myself because it did look OK in the pix. However, it doesn't look as good close up. Apparently it was stored in a very damp location. In addition to light rust on the surface, the main spring was rusted into the tube and the butt plate is very rusty. I finally got the spring out and I'm working to restore the rifle to it's former glory.

I've written an email to Mr. Scott to see if he has a replacement spring, magazine pin, and bolt catch assembly. Yes, someone had allowed the bolt catch to fall out and disappear! I haven't heard from him yet, so if anyone has a bolt catch, or extra pin, just name your price.

Now for the good news. The bore has excellent rifling and the barrel fits more snugly than my other one. The bolt looks like it has seen little use and the locking lugs are nice and square with very little wear. Can't wait to get it back into firing condition and see how she shoots.

By the way, great pictures. Your new wood looks purty.

Gary

Hey Gary, I believe that Mr.Scott does have all the parts you need. I think you definitely got your money's worth. Some "0000" stell wool soaked with Ballistol or BreakFree and rubbed very lightly on the rust spots can usually make them better. Don't rub too hard and keep the steel wool wet with lubricant. The buttplate will clean up the same way or maybe use a brass bristle brush with the lubricant to get in all the "lines". Congratulations on your purchase. Many mainsprings have to be replaced anyway, so that's kind of par for the course. Mr. Scott sells new 12 inch long mainsprings for $20.00 I think. I bought a couple from him and probably need two more soon. Use a shotgun bore brush to clean the mainspring tube and it will be fine. "M48TANKER"

[ArtR 0]

Keep in mind, the "bolt open catch" was not originally designed for the gun, and was only added later, so possibly was not originally shipped with the rifle.

ArtR

[Gman 0]

ArtR, That's interesting. I did not remember reading that the bolt catch was a later development. Thanks. This rifle's trigger group has the grooves for one and the bolt catch from my other rifle fits perfectly. By the way, this is an A series rifle.

M48Tanker, I appreciate the info. I was already thinking about using some quad 0 but hadn't considered a lubricant. Regarding rust removal, I wonder if anyone has had any experience with naval jelly and if it would cause any harm. Looking at Wiki, it might be a good way to go.

Gary

[butch 0]

Naval jelly will remove parkerizing or bluing as they are essentially forms of rust.

[Gman 0]

Thanks, Butch. NO naval jelly it is.

[M48TANKER 0]

M48Tanker, I appreciate the info. I was already thinking about using some quad 0 but hadn't considered a lubricant. Regarding rust removal, I wonder if anyone has had any experience with naval jelly and if it would cause any harm. Looking at Wiki, it might be a good way to go.

Gary

[ryche_me 0]

Hey I use a brass toothbrush with lots of 3in1 oil to take off surface rust. Just dont push to hard. STAY AWAY from Navel jelly!!!!!!! It will make your metal nice bright clean and shiny with no blue left at all. (i speak form experience) Good Luck with your new toy Ryche

[Joseph Scott 0]

Be sure to clean and polish inside the recoil tube, a rough insides will effect the operation and it may not cycle properly. There is quite a bit of upward pressure of the follower inside the tube and roughness is not good. Also clean the little vent hole in the follower if you have rust. It goes across the follower and vents air out from the spring area.

I am of the opinion that the bolt catches were removed by the importer when they cleaned up the guns. Each was hand fitted to the individual gun and I believe when they reassembled the guns, if it worked they left it in, if it didn't work in that gun, it went in a parts box. I have quite a few originals which came from Cal., and they all have different front fingers. I think they were the removed ones.

[Gman 0]

Thanks, Mr. Scott. I've been through the recoil tube about six times with a shotgun brush attached to my drill. Got most of the crud out - just see a little roughness in a couple of spots that need work. I'm using WD40 to clean/lube/flush as that's all we used on my M-14 when I was in the USMC. By the way, I mailed you a check today for the parts we discussed.

Thanks to everyone for their advice. I'm using both the brass brush technique and the lubricated 0000 steel wool and the steel is cleaning up nicely - even changed the reciever from black to the greeninsh park that I thought was gone. The yellow numbers on the rear sight even re-appeared. The butt plate might be a lost cause as the rust is thick here. I've gone over it numerous times with only a small improvement.

Gary

[webmaster 0]

Keep in mind, the "bolt open catch" was not originally designed for the gun, and was only added later, so possibly was not originally shipped with the rifle.

ArtR

Where did you read this Art? I believe the accepted text states that MMJ did not design the JSAR initially to have a bolt hold open device (bolt catch) but due to contractual demands from clients (i.e. Chile and NPC) the feature was added.

All 1941 JSAR's will have the sear frame machined to accept the bolt catch and all original literature I have indicated this as a pre-requisite to acceptance. If post-war dealers decided to remove this function for hunters aor re-sale that does not negate it's original purpose or intend function.

[Gman 0]

Here's an update on the rifle if anyone is interested. I'll try posting some pix. This was an estate sale and the father had apparently stored this Johnson in his (damp) basement for 20 years rather than with the rest of his collection. From the pix posted on GB it didn't look too bad and if you stood 3 feet away, it looked OK. However, under bright light and up close it was quite a different story. The bottom line - do not store your guns in a basement. After scrubbing with quad 0 steel wool and wearing out a brass brush there was a lot of improvement but some rust was still visible. Due to all of the pits on the metal, I named her Ugly Betty.

The good news is that the old gal doesn't seem to have seen much use. The bolt face still shows machine marks nearly all the way around and when I took the bolt out, inserted it into the barrel locking bushing and rotated it 20 degrees by hand, the bolt nearly locked up tight. So that made me eager to shoot her.

Well, I got the parts I needed from Mr. Scott, put her back together, and took her to the range last week. Turns out that Ugly Betty is quite a shooter. So she is a beauty on the inside. After getting the barrel hot, I could see oil coming out of the pits left by the rust and as you can see in the 2nd picture the rust was beaten down but not out. My research led me to Brownell's Oxpho-Blue. I coated the barrel with that a couple of times and you can see the results in the last picture. This stuff is great. It eats the rust and coats the area with a phosphate based coating.

[Gonzo 0]

Wow you got her looking awesome! Great job Gman! The first picture looked like a nightmare.

[Gman 0]

Thanks, Gonzo. But that was not the worst of it. Although I couldn't see it at the time, the buffer tube assembly was rusted and would not compress due to rust. My first thought during disassembly of the rifle was that the main spring buffer tube screw was going to be a booger to get out since my other one took two days of effort using penetrating oil. As it turned out, the screw threads contained the only grease in the entire rifle. The screw came out so easily that I almost fell out of my chair.

Here's what it looked like along with the spring:

[Gman 0]

Now for the final chapter. I got Ugly Betty back together and took her to the range a couple of weeks ago. As I wanted to just check her out, I started on one of our short distance ranges - only 70 yards. Loaded and shot one at a time to she if she would cycle properly, then two or three at a time. It took about five rounds for her to clear her throat (had one short cycle with an FTF). After that, she performed flawlessly. I tried different brands of ammo and found that she is partial to the Greek HXP from the CMP. As I shot, the groups got smaller and the last five rounds surprised me. Especially coming from a nearly 70 year old rifle with iron sights using 37 year old ammunition and my old eyes. The 70 yard target is attached.

I was at the range again last week but didn't have time to put a bunch of targets out so I decided to plink at the steel target we have set at 400 yards (I think it's about 36" square). So I set the sight to 400 meters to see how high it would shoot. The first shot - clang. I couldn't believe it so I shot 12 more - got 11 out of 12 hits. When I have more time, I'll set some paper out to see what kind of groups I can get at 400 yards.

She may be pitted and ugly, but the old gal is a sweet shooter with a trigger pull smooth as butter.

[ryche_me 0]

Hey So you started with a labor of love and look what ya got? This is a great story and i think the reason we all do it.

Thanks for the show and tell Ryche