John Brown

What to do?

12 posts in this topic

I have a 1941 Johnson Rifle serial number 9812 that was brought back from Kwajalein island February 1944 along with other Marine gear. Can anyone give me any information on the serial number? It has been field modified,shaved sights bayonet lug removed.Should I try to replace these parts? Yes i have documentation on provenance.

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Here are the original #s and data on 9812:

Received from Cranston Arms: 3/18/42

Stock #2

Bbl.#2026A

Hammer block #8650

Hammer #8115

Bolt #0018

Locking cam #7690

Firing pin #A7451

Extractor #8665

Magazine #A2335

Transferred to NPC 3/20/11

If the rifle is as it came back from the Pacific, don't change anything.

Let us know if anything matches.

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Here are the original #s and data on 9812:

Received from Cranston Arms: 3/18/42

Stock #2

Bbl.#2026A

Hammer block #8650

Hammer #8115

Bolt #0018

Locking cam #7690

Firing pin #A7451

Extractor #8665

Magazine #A2335

Transferred to NPC 3/20/11

If the rifle is as it came back from the Pacific, don't change anything.

Let us know if anything matches.

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I am not comfortable,at this time, disassembling this weapon.What I do have is barrel # 45-06, bolt #9321.As usual everybody in the field playing with their weapons.This makes things interesting.Do any of my parts come from the known serial numbered rifles shipped to the USMC.Has anyone done research for parts? Does not seem like it would be to hard to do with the known ledgers. Thanks for the useful information,as usual one answer always leads to more questions.

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Of the 800 or so JSARs transferred to the USMC, there are serial # records of less than 50. The rest of these records were lost or destroyed. The USMC rifles were interspersed throughout the 3 (no, A and B prefix) serial # ranges. Our government procured most of the JSARs from the Dutch. There are much better records of 1941 LMGs transferred. All is outlined in "The Book" (Johnson Rifles and Machine Guns by Canfield, et. al).

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Yes I believe I understand what you are saying.What I was referring to were numbers 3401 5700 5743 7137 7246 7786 8031 8126 8204 8319 8475 8507 8587 8785 8917 9084 9117 9146 9281 9299 9313 9424 9486-0988 7788 8192 9186

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What exactly are you asking the operators of this website to perform for you?

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Not asking for any information.Just stating that in the field parts are often exchanged or replaced.With the known serial numbers and the known parts numbers lists it would be interesting to see if any of these parts have appeared in any ones rifle.

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I might be stepping out on a limb here, but I think it would be fair to say that no one on this site has taken the ledgers and copied data into any type of database that might be used for research or cross reference. To say the least, that might be a very time consuming, yet under utilized endeavor.

Having once done a ton of data entry in my time, I cannot say that I would embark on that without some known benefit or return.

ArtR

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Yes I agree that the cost verses reward might not play out.Though I believe their are only 27 JSAR that appear in the Johnson Company records of receipt and transfer to the U.S.Marine Corp.If the data on these JSARs were published I would not think that I would be the only one breaking down their rifle to see if any parts matched these. If they could only talk. Some times they can.

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Mr. Brown,

Since the serial numbers you mention are all non-prefix to the USMC, it probably makes more sense to do an individual parts number check at such time when someone states that they actually possess one of those rifles. In addition, using your own rifle as an example, it apparently was not originally designated for the USMC but instead to the NPC. Yet, it came back from the Pacific, presumably from actual use by the USMC, as it came back with "other Marine gear." Who knows? There might have been a receiver switch after the NPC designation. As we know, the weapons were designed for parts interchangeability, so there could also have been field switches. It would indeed be time-consuming to pursue what you suggest, so I would agree with Art R. on that point and would not recommend such an extensive project at this time...nor would I wish to finance it.

However, I also agree with Brian A. in that if you decide to break down your own weapon at some point in the future, let us know if any other parts match up with the initial list. Thus far, neither the barrel or bolt match, which suggests to me that there is a very good chance nothing else will match. But if that is the way the rifle came back from the Pacific, as Brian says, don't change anything. You indicate that you already have provenance, which will assist in the rifle's collector value.

Thank you for your interest in our site.

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Thanks to all of you for the information. I was not aware of the significances of these rifles till a few months ago when I found where they had been stashed over the years.This JSAR and a 1943 M1 Garand still wraped in the original Visking.

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