New member with my first JSAR

[pmangelos 0]

Thank you guys for allowing me to join the forum. I’ve been in the milsurp world for many years but just had an opportunity to get my first Johnson. I’d like any comments on it that you’d like to share as to overall condition and originality. I don’t believe it has been restored back from being sporterized but hopefully you all can confirm or deny my thoughts. I picked up the Johnson book from Bruce last week and just finished reading it. Mr Johnson was a very fascinating man with a great story. Thanks in advance for your help.

Sincerely,

Paul

[Blueheeler 0]

Looks pretty original, my rifle is only 15 digits off from yours.

[Bruce Canfield 0]

Looks like a nice rifle.

[camstuff 0]

Pretty nice, looks original to me.  Nice find!  Have fun at the range with it. 

[WHIG 0]

Good honest wear and nice patina aging to the parts. Hopefully it functions well and the bore is clean. Use proper ammo with military primers if you are planning to shoot it.

[ArtR 0]

Welcome to the site. I agree. Looks complete, with nice honest wear, wood and metal all in quite decent shape, and what screw heads that I could see are not buggered with! A definite nice find. Enjoy for sure. Let us know how it functions at the range. And as WHIG says, use proper ammo. Never hot loaded  commercial hunting rounds

[pmangelos 0]

I’ve shot it a bit, I’m feeding it Garand ammo (HXP and some modern M2 equivalent). It runs fine if I load five at a time but if I load 10 into the magazine it has trouble feeding the first couple of rounds. It ejects well, just has trouble lifting the new round up. I did give it a thorough cleaning and lube before shooting but something is still a bit amiss. Also, the bore is far from great, I imagine corrosive ammo is to blame for that. 

[WHIG 0]

But you're able to enjoy shooting it some. Sometimes the magazine springs get weak or bent a little and need tweaking or replacing. It's a pain to disassemble the rifle and magazine but many of us have done it without too many problems. Might be a fun project. Not necessary from what you said but just a thought.

[M48TANKER 0]

Pmangelos,

That is a great looking rifle. It looks just right for it's age. Personally, I don't get too upset if a rifle's bore is showing a bit of wear!  I love disassembling and reassembling my firearms. You get to know them very well and the process becomes second nature. The magazine problem should not be hard to solve. If there is not some binding or rubbing issue then a better spring should fix it. A new magazine coil spring should not be hard to find. Keep us posted.

Congratulations,

M48TANKER

[pmangelos 0]

Thank you all for the comments, I will look into replacing the magazine spring as I don't see any other issues inside the magazine, regardless it is a really nice piece of American history.

[M48TANKER 0]

Found this at "Numrich":

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 15, 2022 by M48TANKER
found cheaper at Numrich

[camstuff 0]

Magazine spring showed up on eBay this morning. 
 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/134368714156?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=RJ68qz58Qt2&sssrc=2349624&ssuid=kUwiwZIgQja&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=EMAIL

[maconners 0]

To a collector that original finish adds alot  to the value. 

[Tatereater 0]

She’s a pretty rifle. Have you tried anything other than M2 ball in it? Was wondering if it has the same problem the Garand has wit modern 30-06 loads.

[ArtR 0]

1 hour ago, Tatereater said:

She’s a pretty rifle. Have you tried anything other than M2 ball in it? Was wondering if it has the same problem the Garand has wit modern 30-06 loads.

While eb in oregon and I both posted a CMP warning regarding ammunition used in WWI and WWII era rifles.,  it bears repeating.

Use of modern, commercial ammunition other than M1 Ball or M2 Ball, or equivalents, in JSAR's and other WWI-WWII era rifles should only be done after examining the cartridge loading data. If you cannot confirm that the ammunition is not loaded above certain pressure limits or is not loaded with projectiles greater than 172-174grains, DO NOT USE IT.

 

Edit to add: See pages 58-59 in the Bruce Canfield Book, "Johnson Rifles and Machine Guns", where it states the JSAR was developed to use either M1 Ball or M2 Ball.

 

[Tatereater 0]

Thank you very much. I have been only running M2, but supplies are getting harder and harder to find for reasonable prices. May start seriously look into reloads.

[ArtR 0]

27 minutes ago, Tatereater said:

May start seriously look into reloads.

If you have not already tried or ever done reloading, I can attest, once you start, you may be hard pressed to go back to commercial loads, other than maybe to get some new brass. Brass itself is a very high percentage cost of each round fired. Next is the projectile, and then powder and primers. While semi-autos are harder on brass, you can often get 3-4 reloads from a case, before you might see signs that you need to discard the brass. With bolt actions, you can get several more reloads. I am a bit anal, in that I only shoot brass from one rifle. That is, if I fire a round in a certain rifle, the brass is saved and reloaded specifically for that rifle, as the brass has been fire formed for that chamber. I have gotten sometimes 7-8 reloads for one of my 1903's, as I can neck resize only. Today, reloading is also somewhat expensive, but it is also very rewarding. There is something about firing 'my loads'. There are many very good introductory books out there on reloading, but mine was a LYMAN book, which I started with back in 1983, and I still have it and refer to it to this very day. It covers all aspects of reloading, from equipment needs and nice to haves, case preparation, (cleaning, depriming/sizing, inspection, priming, loading), powders, primers, to labeling and reloading log books, and much, much more. Maybe someone you know does reloading and could help you get started. Be advised. Reloading is not a 'group sport'. It is something that demands your complete attention at all times. Your life may depend upon it. The old adage, "When in doubt, throw it out" applies, or in my case, "Tear it down and redo". That is what bullet pullers are for.  Have fun.

[Tatereater 0]

Thank you sir. I am going to get that book you mentioned.

[WHIG 0]

If you reload for the Johnson rifle, it is best to use military brass, NATO brass which has different wall thickness. It also requires a different powder load, specified in reloading manuals for military brass, because of the smaller internal case volume. You also have to use CCI #34 military hard primers to prevent slam fires. I had that happen twice with shooting reloads I made with regular large rifle primers. Too soft. I shoot those one at a time, now and use reloads with CCI military primers when I want to load up the magazine. Make sure you check out these two points if reloading for your JSAR!

[Dutch2 0]

I have the Lyman reloading manual as well, but last year I also bought the latest Hornady and lo and behold, it even has a few pages for reloading for the M!-Garand