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Yuccacapt343

Johnson Article

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Just received my July edition of American Rifleman magazine. Their military service rifle article is on the 1941 Johnson!

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Have not seen that issue yet. Who wrote the article?

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Have not received my issue yet either....looking forward to seeing it.

 

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It was written by Bruce Canfield so most of the info is probably already in his book but it is still good to see articles on this great rifle.

Wayne

 

 

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Thank you. I was already aware that something was in the works but wasn't sure when. Thank you for the info. ej

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This is such a coincidence and great news as I dug up my April and May 1984 issues of The American Rifleman today.It took hours then I log in here to find out the July issue of The American rifleman has an article on my favorite rifle. I think I'll get a lottery ticket in the morning. These issues had a two part article titled "Melvin Johnson and his Rifle" written by Robert L. Lamoreaux and Melvin M. Johnson III. I must say that in rereading those past issues it is my opinion that The American Rifleman's quality of articles and writting has gone downhill over the years.

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To all....regarding the July issue of American Rifleman and Bruce Canfield's article.....He and I just E-mailed back & forth tonight. His article focused primarily on the '41 JSAR as issued and used by the USMC. Some of the material is from our 2002 book, yes, but some is also new material NOT in our book that Bruce found more recently while researching material for another project. Therefore, the recent magazine article makes a nice compliment to our book.

As for the the April & May 1984 issues of AR mentioned above, those are definitely worth keeping, especially if you have our 2002 (or 2006 2nd edition) Johnson Book. Before Bruce Canfield and Stuart Mowbray (publisher) got involved and took the project "over the finish line," researcher Bob Lamoreaux and my older brother Melvin M. Johnson, III (who had written for the Boston Globe) worked on a manuscript, 2 chapters of which AR published. But we had trouble locating a decent publisher, so things sat still for a while until I connected with Bruce and three of us (Bruce, Bob and myself) finished the job with my brother and the remaining Johnson family cheering us on.

Many of the older website team members, notably Jim Pullen, Walt Liss, Joe Scott, Peter DeRose and Clyde Cremer were helpful and supportive as well, along with a great many others in the research efforts.

As they say....it takes a Village sometimes.....   ej

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Ed:

I finally got my issue, and have now read it. Regarding new material in the article, any hint as what paragraphs this applies to? My poor mind is awash with info and details, and I am having a hard time filtering for new data.

ArtR

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I just finished reading this article and enjoyed it. I have several of Canfields books including "Johnson's Rifles and Machine Guns". The American Rifleman article says 21,988 is the total production number. I had thought it was more based on other articles and  I think, Canfield's book. Is this (21,988) the total number produced?

 

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I have seen rifles with serial numbers in the B-88xx range. This might indicate numbers in 28,000 range.  Guess we might never know unless we find the missing logs books. 

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Joe, possibly, as the highest number that the forum has been asked about was B8959, but if the no prefix logs are any indication, there is not any rhyme or reason to the assembly sequence. Plus we all know that not all the SN's in the no prefix range were actually assembled...if we are to believe the logs.

Is current speculation that the A and B logs are just lost, or were they possibly destroyed in "the flood"?

Boy, if someone found them, I wonder what they might be worth!!!

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Clyde Cremer and I are both sure they were so damaged in the flood that were unusable and thrown out.

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If I remember correctly, I spoke to Ed about the A and B prefix logs about a year ago. I believe he told me they where destroyed in a flood. Maybe Ed could refresh my memory??

Wayne

1 minute ago, Yuccacapt343 said:

If I remember correctly, I spoke to Ed about the A and B prefix logs about a year ago. I believe he told me they where destroyed in a flood. Maybe Ed could refresh my memory??

Wayne

Disregard this post. I didn't see Ed's response. Sorry bout that! 🙄

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No problem. I am just as frustrated as the rest of you. I wish this were not the case.

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